Sofia Coppola’s teenage daughter has gone viral after posting a video about being grounded at home because she tried to charter a helicopter using her father’s credit card.
Romy Mars, the 16-year-old daughter of Oscar-winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola and Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars, went viral on social media this week after one of her TikTok videos was reposted to Twitter. In the clip, which has since been viewed more than 1 million times, Romy is seen talking about nepotism as she cooks in her parents’ kitchen.
“Make vodka sauce pasta with me because I’m grounded because I tried to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland on my dad’s credit card because I wanted to have dinner with my camp friend,” the teenager began the video.
Romy started her cooking video by warning her followers that she didn’t know the difference between a garlic and an onion, and mistakenly chopped up a shallot instead. As she prepped the vodka sauce, Romy told the camera that she decided to post her cooking video on TikTok “since I’m already grounded because my parents’ biggest rule is I’m not allowed to have any public social media accounts.”
“Here’s why,” she said, while picking up her father’s Grammy award. “They don’t want me to be a nepotism kid but TikTok is not gonna make me famous, so it doesn’t really matter.”
Romy then introduced her babysitter’s boyfriend, Ari, whom she referred to as her “replacement parents” because “my parents are never home”.
Although the 16-year-old’s TikTok video has since been deleted from her account, Twitter user Savannah (@savbrads) reposted the clip to Twitter on 21 March, where it quickly received thousands of amused reactions from users.
“this tiktok of sofia coppola’s daughter… this means so much to me,” Savannah captioned the tweet.
Despite much criticism that “nepotism babies” – children of famous or successful parents – have received within the last year, many of the Twitter replies applauded Romy’s candid and normal video, even if most teenager’s don’t charter helicopters on their father’s credit card.
“This is all we want from nepo babies honestly,” said one Twitter user. “Other nepo babies plz take notes”.
“Chartering a helicopter from NY to MD for dinner w/ your camp friend is a rad way to get grounded,” said someone else.
“If more nepotism babies were chaotic and open like this I would forgive almost anything,” tweeted one person, while another user said: “I’m so sorry, she is hilarious.”
Some people were even impressed by Romy’s video editing skills, proving that the director gene truly does pass down from generation to generation.
“A perfect short film, we have a third generation of Coppola directors,” said one newfound fan.
“This is cinema… she’ll be the greatest Coppola,” joked someone else.
Sofia Coppola – the director of critically acclaimed films such as Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette – shares daughters Romy Mars, 16, and Cosima Mars, 12, with husband Thomas Mars (real name Thomas Pablo Croquet).
The Oscar winner and the indie pop singer first met in 1999 when the Phoenix frontman contributed to the soundtrack of her second film, The Virgin Suicides. Coppola, who’s the daughter of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, was married to fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze at the time. After her divorce from Jonze in 1999, she went on to marry Mars during an Italian wedding ceremony in August 2011.
The 51-year-old director has previously spoken about the importance of her family maintaining a “low public profile” away from the spotlight.
“I don’t want them ever to be jaded,” she told The Guardian in 2017. “I never saw the point of taking little kids to movie premieres and stuff. I just want them to have a childhood.”
