Bryce Dallas Howard Offers Advice on How to Make it in Hollywood and Promptly Gets Dragged for Her Tone Deaf, Nepo Baby BS

Emma McIntyre. Getty Images.

You know who I kind of like? Bryce Dallas Howard. She was in that chilling Black Mirror episode warning us about our near future of Chinese Communist Party-like Social Credit scores. She outran every make and model of dinosaurs while wearing high heels in all the Jurassic World films. And she's directed some of the better episodes of the Disney Star Wars series. So yeah, she's having a nice career for herself. 

You know who I love? Ron Howard, her dad. In an industry that chews up and devours the lives of young actors and actresses, he went from being a household name as a 5-year-old on The Andy Griffith Show to American Graffiti as a teenager to playing a Milwaukee high schooler in his late 30s on Happy Days to narrating Arrested Development as a senior citizen. All while becoming one of Hollywood's most popular, commercially viable directors of all time. A critically acclaimed filmmaker with broad appeal with a mass audience. Which makes him one of the most successful figures in the history of TV and movies.

Which is why Howard the Younger maybe should've have given it a little thought before she decided to press "SHARE" on this bit of admittedly well-intentioned wisdom:

The key part:

There was a stark reality that I had simply not been prepared for: what it actually takes to “make it” in the entertainment industry. …

While school gave us an amazing foundation, we finished our formal training and still felt stuck because we were told our only option was to wait for someone else to hire us. (Sound familiar?)

So after months of trial and error, I knew I needed to create a strategy for myself; one based on what my grandparents taught me: to make a consistent living in the entertainment industry you must become a multi-hyphenate (actor/director/writer/producer) and create work for yourself AND your peers. 

Like I said, well-intentioned. I mean, who trying to break into the entertainment industry couldn't use this sort of practical, useful, real world career advice from someone who has most definitely "made it." Here she is, encouraging aspiring artists to take charge of their own careers. To not sit idly by hoping to catch a break. To go out there, blaze their own trail and make their dream happen. There's nothing wrong with that.

Antd yet … 

Somewhere in between all that talk about creating strategies, multi-hyphenating and lessons her grandparents taught her, Bryce Dallas Howard seemed to miss one small detail. As well as skip a generation. And with there being a lot of talk in the entertainment business lately about Nepo Babies, those omissions were lost on pretty much no one. The sarcasm was strong in these ones. 

Here's just a random sample of comments:

• One of your first credits on IMDB is from 1995, Apollo 13. long before you graduated acting school. How’d you book that? Did you have an agent?
• Fire your publicist. This is tone dead beyond believe #nepobaby
• Any advice for people who's fathers ARENT famous directors?
• How to make it in Hollywood:
  1. Be born into privilege
  2. Nepotism
• Pretty sure it's bc she's Ron Howard's daughter
• This is a parody post, right? #nepotism
• You forgot the part where your dad is a very famous Hollywood director and producer. Why do nepobabies love to deny their privilege and act like it didn’t play a huge -if not the biggest- part in their careers?
• Where is the best the best place to make connections?
• This level of delusion is aspirational tbh
• Smh honey delete this
• What it actually takes to make it: have your dad be writer/producer/director Ron Howard.

I could go on, because there's thousands where these came from. And these literally appear in just the first couple of dozen comments. Along with this one, which is verified and not a parody account:

To be clear, I have no problem with nepotism. Some of my favorite actors, directors, musicians, athletes and coaches were the children who followed in their parents' footsteps. And I'd have been happy to have my own sons follow in mine if they weren't much more serious and accomplished people with no interest in spending all day obsessing over Tom Brady's personal life. And if my dad was a legendary director instead of a guy who did electrical engineer for the phone company, I'd have only been too happy to take that foot in the door and into my own superstardom. So we can't in good conscience criticize anyone who took advantage of the same break we all would if it was available to us. No one said life was fair. 

But holy cow, sister. I know you grew up in an insulated world of wealth and privilege. But have you no self awareness whatsoever? How did you think this was going to go over with the 4 million people who follow you? Who can put all the slashes between their job titles they want, but still aren't going to get to work on the set of an all time classic like Apollo 13 when they're in high school? Writing this gobbledygook without adding a disclaimer about your father is just asking for the reaction you got. It's leaning your head into a fastball. And the internet hit you square in the temple at 104 mph.

Again, use every advantage you have at your disposal to make it in this world. That's what we all owe it to ourselves to do. It's just that every time I think I like one of these Hollywood types, they remind us just how vapid, self-possessed and out of touch they are. 

Dallas, we have a problem.