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‘Euphoria’ Star Maude Apatow Responds to ‘Sad’ Claims She’s a ‘Nepotism Baby’
Sharing her side. Maude Apatow hit back at the internet’s claims that she’s a “nepotism baby” because of parents’ Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann‘s successes.
“At first I was sad,” the Euphoria star, 24, told Net-a-Porter in an interview published on Monday, September 5, referring to the now-viral TikTok videos seemingly calling her out. Maude further explained that it’s “fine” people were judging her, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less.
“I try not to let it get to me because I obviously understand that I’m in such a lucky position. A lot of people [in a similar position] have proven themselves over the years, so I’ve got to keep going and make good work,” the actress explained. “It’s so early in my career, I don’t have much to show yet, but hopefully one day I’ll be really proud of the stuff I’ve done by myself.”
Maude went on to say that her dad — who is the mastermind behind movies like Knocked Up and The King of Staten Island — has shared some helpful advice with her over the years.
“My dad always told me acting is tough because you never know what’s going to come next,” she shared. “He always encouraged me to write. You can shoot a movie and really hope it will work, but you don’t know how they’re gonna edit it. To not have any control of that is scary sometimes, so I try to do other things.”
The Los Angeles native went to college and studied theater at Northwestern University before her career kicked off. However, she never finished school, which also prompted a barrage of backlash online.
“My mom made a joke that it was because it was too cold and all of these people tweeted, ‘You’re so privileged. That’s obnoxious.’ They didn’t know the situation. I would not leave a place because I was cold,” Maude told Vanity Fair in June 2019 about leaving Northwestern. “I took a break because I was having a really hard time there, and when I was planning on going back, I got cast in Euphoria. I wanted to make sure if I was leaving school to act that it was worth it, and Euphoria is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s intense and hard to watch, but I’m so lucky I got it, because shows like this don’t happen all the time.”
Fans of the HBO series know Maude as Lexi Howard, the quiet girl who wrote a play that had the whole school talking. Aside from reprising her role for the show’s upcoming third season, Maude has an animated series called Pantheon coming soon along with a “dark comedy” in development, which she’s set to write and star. While the budding actress tunes out the noise online, she does tell Net-a-Porter that she’s her own worst critic.
“I’m always hard on myself. Sometimes I get in my head and think, ‘Why would anyone want to hear what I have to say?’ Then I tell myself, it doesn’t matter, it’s just entertainment,” Maude said. “I try to clear my head of any of those thoughts. You can’t constantly judge yourself: it’s such a creativity killer.”
