The world can’t stop talking about nepo babies. With the likes of Hailey Bieber, Lily-Rose Depp, Jack Quaid and Gracie Abrams constantly in the news cycle, it’s hard not to wonder about the benefit of having extremely famous parents (like Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid) can do for your career.
British star Bessie Carter is slowly building a name for herself, with credits in Bridgerton, I Hate Suzie, and as the titular role in Outrageous. She also happens to be a nepo baby, as her parents are Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton. While Bessie has seemingly used her parents’ connections in the past — all three actors were in a BBC series Cranford together — she’s quite protective of owning her career and forging a path for herself.
With Outrageous, which is coming to BritBox in Australia, Bessie plays Nancy Mitford. It’s based on a real story of the Mitford sisters, who were infamous for breaking aristocratic rules. Set in 1930, the show takes us into British high society, with delicious scandals, betrayals, love and heartache. The actor tells Chattr she landed this role on her own, not through her famous parents.
“I’m gonna take all of the credit, because [my mum] did not help me get the part, but she did help me learn my lines, which, if that counts, then it counts,” Bessie recalls. “I was staying at my parents’ house [while doing a show and] I got the audition through… so I was like, ‘Mum, will you help me?’ And she helped me learn my lines.
“I sort of thought, I might get this one. She was like, ‘Yeah, you could. It sounds like you’… and then I went off to the audition, and then got it. I got the job.”
When we delicately ask Bessie about the nepotism discourse, she admits it’s not something she had really thought about, as she considered her parents’ work as actors simply a job, rather than a glamorous Hollywood-esque life. “I’m trying to work out how best to answer these questions, because obviously, being asked them a fair amount at the moment, and it’s something that I’ve never really consciously thought about,” she explains.
“I grew up with my parents being quite job actors. They’d be in work and out of work, and you know, it was a very normal career. And then obviously, with Vera Drake… and then Harry Potter [and] Downton Abbey, I suppose the attention on them grew a bit. [But for me], nothing really changed.”
However, Bessie concedes that seeing her parents be so successful in their chosen field meant she wasn’t afraid to give it a go. Having the confidence to chase after her dreams and knowing you have a safety blanket is something many people don’t necessarily have. With others chasing financial security or trying to escape unstable environments, it’s definitely a luxury.
“I suppose I grew up knowing that it could be a job that was viable. So I suppose that maybe gave me a confidence that I could do it, and it was just the thing that I loved the most,” Bessie says. “When I got into Guildhall, which was my drama school, that felt very good, because that was a drama school that was mine, like my mum had gone to RADA, my Dad had done a very alternative route, so it felt like the beginning of my own path.”
As with most nepo babies, Bessie wants to separate herself from her famous parents, yet she is currently starring in a play alongside her mother called Mrs Warren’s Profession. “I suppose there is something in me that you know, is keen to be seen as an actor in my own right,” she says. “I do feel like, I think I wouldn’t have been able to do the play that I’m doing with my mum right now if I felt in any way that people would think, ‘Oh god, okay. I wonder how she got that then’.
“I’m prepared to take that risk, because I believe in my own career, and I back myself. So I sort of don’t mind if people [judge because] they [my parents] are just very normal. It just sort of didn’t feel odd or weird [for me to start acting… it was just kind of like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna do this.’ And they were thrilled.”
We can’t wait to see Bessie smash her role in Outrageous, and see what she does next. She’s definitely a talent to watch, regardless of who her parents are.
Outrageous premieres on BritBox in Australia on July 26.
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