“To me, fame has never been the goal because fame at a certain level is kind of scary,” Emma said on iHeartPodcasts’ ‘Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi’
As the niece of big-screen powerhouse Julia Roberts, Emma Roberts has seen “up close” what gargantuan fame can look like — and it’s not her cup of tea.
The Scream Queens alum, 33, appeared on the latest episode of iHeartPodcasts’ Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, where she discussed how she “saw very up close what [fame] really looks like” in her Oscar-winner aunt, 56.
“It’s obviously fun and it’s great but there is a part of it that’s really scary,” she adds.
For Emma, “fame has never been the goal, because fame at a certain level is kind of scary … when you’ve seen fame like that up close and you see what that really does to people [and] their families.”
Emma, who is the daughter of Julia’s older brother Eric Roberts, has been open over the years about her relationship with her aunt — and how she never felt pressure to match Julia’s career.
“I never aspired to be [my aunt],” she told Tatler in the magazine’s March 2022 cover story. “I love her so much, I love her work, but I’m just doing my own thing.”
Emma was a Nickelodeon star with Unfabulous, and also appeared in family-friendly movies like Aquamarine (2006), Nancy Drew (2007) and Hotel for Dogs (2009). She was excited to take on darker roles when American Horror Story and Scream Queens creator Ryan Murphy gave her the chance.
“My favorite parts have been ones that people don’t expect — when Ryan Murphy cast me in American Horror Story, for example,” Emma told Tatler. “People saw me as this nice, teen girl and I couldn’t get older, edgier roles at the time.”
“[Ryan] gave me that opportunity, and I’d love to do that for others,” she added at the time.
During her podcast interview with Bruce Bozzi, Emma also touched on the “nepo baby” conversation, saying she believes “everybody loves the kind of overnight success story. And so if you’re kind of not the girl from the middle of nowhere that broke into Hollywood, there’s kind of an eye roll of like ‘Well, your dad was this.’ “
“And I always joke like, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby? Rosemary Clooney was an icon,’ ” she continued. “I feel like young girls get it harder with the nepo-baby thing. Like, I don’t really see people calling out sons of famous actors — not that they should be called out.”
Emma also said that nepo-baby critics “kind of only see your wins, because they only see when you’re on the poster of a movie — they don’t see all the rejection along the way.”
“That’s why I’m always very open about things I’ve auditioned for and haven’t gotten the part for,” she added.