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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Arwa Mahdawi

Maya Hawke is honest about her privilege. Why are other nepo babies so defensive?

Maya Hawke.
‘I’m comfortable with not deserving it’ … Maya Hawke. Photograph: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety/Getty Images

Congratulations to the actor Maya Hawke, who has just done something few of her peers seem capable of: acknowledge that one of the secrets of her success has been a little sprinkling of nepotism. The daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman has always seemed to “wear her privilege with a shrug”, as a recent Guardian profile put it, but in a new interview with the Times, the Stranger Things star was even more frank about “not deserving” the life she has.

“Deserves is a complicated word,” she said. “There are so many people who deserve to have this kind of life who don’t, but I think I’m comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway.” She added: “It’s OK to be made fun of when you’re in rarefied air. It’s a lucky place to be.”

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