Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to come up with their favorite answer to a movie-related prompt tied to a recent release. This week, with the release of The Watchers, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, we’re discussing some of our favorite nepo baby debuts, both in front of and behind the camera! Let us know your favorites @SiftPop!
I might be the only person who saw the first trailer for The Boys and said, “HEY! THAT’S MARVEL FROM The Hunger Games!” In the exactly three minutes of screen time that Jack Quaid has in the post-apocalyptic murder games, he is menacing, conniving, and scary in a way that stands out. Per minute, he is far more intimidating than his peers like Alexander Ludwig and Isabelle Fuhrman. I knew this young actor’s name was Jack Quaid, yet I had not put two and two together that he was Dennis Quaid’s kid. To be honest, his role as Marvel is probably the only time Jack has really channelled his dad’s energy. Ever since then, he’s made a name for himself with his everyman goofball and lovable loser aura. Furthermore, I look forward to seeing Jack in a project far more than Dennis. Maybe it’s because I find the senior Quaid’s acting style to be a little too classically-toxic-nuclear-family-dad to appeal to me. While it may be a while before Jack can catch up to his dad’s filmography, he’s already passed him in terms of talent and likability. (Samuel Nichols)
Does being a literal baby during your debut get you extra points in determining the greatest nepo baby debut of all time? In Sofia Coppola’s case it might, as she was just a baby when she debuted in her father’s iconic mob epic, The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola needed a baby for the climactic baptism scene at the end of the film and luckily, he already had one lying around at home to use. Sofia has gone on to be much maligned for her performance in The Godfather Part III, but she is perfect as a baby in this legendary cinematic scene, the moment where Michael Corleone finally solidifies his transformation from dutiful and resourceful young man to a lying, dangerous, and cold mafioso. What an impactful scene to be in for your first ever performance! The crosscutting is legendary, as Michael is asked to renounce Satan, and all his men are taking out the key enemies to the Corleone family. This is a performance that would go unnoticed by most, but it launched a 50-year career for Sofia Coppola, and that is quite impressive. (Shane Conto)
The ultimate kidventure film — The Goonies. Man, I know nostalgia is a wicked drug, but this movie holds up. It’s an entertaining, hilarious, and wild romp that serves as wish fulfillment for anyone who ever dreamed of going on a treasure hunt for lost pirate booty… which is literally everyone. Booby traps, clues and riddles, evil bad guys chasing you down, and a pirate ship full of gold, rubies, and pearls; this has it all. Including some dope water slides. Oh yeah, it was also the film debut of both Sean Astin and Josh Brolin! That’s right, The Goonies is a double nepo baby special! Sean is the son of Patty Duke and John Astin, both of whom began their careers in the ‘50s. Josh is the son of James Brolin, a Hollywood icon in his own right who has been acting since the ‘60s. That’s right, this staple of the ‘80s gave us the debuts of both Samwise Gamgee and Thanos. So be sure to go back and enjoy this classic adventure for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure and one of the greatest kid’s films of all time. (Heath Lynch)
Before his directorial debut with one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time, A Muppet Christmas Carol, Brian Henson got his big screen start as a featured muppet player in The Great Muppet Caper. While he may have been bounced around during filming to create and play a variety of background characters, it was the beginning of a career in puppeteering that would span decades. Brian had to fill the large shadow of his father, the legendary creature creator Jim Henson. Luckily for us, the Jim Henson Creature Shop evolved into a family business, keeping Brian busy with everything from Fraggles, Sesame Street, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to his role as director of now three Muppet feature films and countless TV specials. (Patrice Downing)
Janet Leigh’s face takes up most of the frame of what is perhaps the most iconic horror movie moment of all time, as she screams just before being stabbed in the shower in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. So it’s really only fitting that her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, stars in another one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, Halloween. Jamie Lee (who, as Ariana DeBose so eloquently put it, is all of us) gives a performance that’s worthy of her all-time scream queen status, and when she won her Oscar just two years ago, it was more for being a nepo baby who has more than earned her status of Hollywood than for her performance as an IRS inspector.(Robert Bouffard)
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself direct a nostalgic film set in the decade of your adolescence, or so it seems for most of the great directors of our time. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, aside from being an exquisitely warm recreation of the 1970s, contains two of the most delightful leading performances you will ever see from Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Being the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman, a legitimate contender for the greatest actor of all time, adds an expected amount of eyes to your performance, but Cooper’s role as 15-year-old entrepreneur Gary Valentine is enough to solidify him as a genuine talent in his own right. Like all great nostalgia look-back films, Licorice Pizza contains the perfect blend of humor and heart, with subtle but distinct hints of sadness and regret. For any other director, Licorice Pizza would be their masterpiece. For Anderson, it remains one of many, including — one hopes — some yet to come. (Foster Harlfinger)
The son of film producer Jack Schwartzman and actress Talia Shire and the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, Jason Schwartzman is just about as “nepo baby” as it gets. However, whatever you may think of the privilege that his pedigree has afforded him, it’s hard to deny that Jason Schwartzman is an incredibly talented actor who has turned in some great performances in his career, all starting back in 1998. Unlike many other nepo babies, Schwartzman wasn’t just handed a small, nameless role in a relative’s production to get his cinematic feet wet, but instead jumped over the kiddie pool and into the deep end with a starring role in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. This was only Anderson’s second feature, so he was hardly the household name that he is today, but you can certainly see him experimenting and developing what would become his signature style and sense of quirk. A lot of this charm relies on Schwartzman’s performance as Max Fischer, an eccentric, middle class student at a wealthy private school in Texas competing with rich industrialist Herman Blume (Bill Murray) for the affection of Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), a teacher at the school. With the hindsight of knowing what his career would become, this may not necessarily seem like anything special, but it’s honestly insane that, at only 18 years old, Schwartzman was able to go toe-to-toe with Murray in a film that would arguably go on to define what their careers have become since it’s release. (Jake Hjort)
If you ask people what they remember about the Walt Disney animated film Tarzan from 1999, they’re probably immediately go to the fantastic Phil Collins soundtrack. What they might not realize, however, is that he wasn’t the only Collins involved in the making of the film. Before she was Emily in Paris and her breakout role in The Blind Side, Lily Collins (no, not Lily James, the other one) was cast in a voice role of Baby Ape in the film her father was making the music for. The role itself may not exactly be memorable, but it’s a fun familial connection, particularly since the Oscar-winning song at the heart of the film, “You’ll Be In My Heart,” was written as a lullaby for her. Since that time, she’s shown she’s got the talent to hang around the industry (To the Bone is criminally underseen), but her start is certainly a benefit of the familial connection. (Jake Bourgeois)