What Did Michael Gandolfini Say About Being A 'Nepo Baby?

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While both Michael Gandolfini and Cooper Hoffman have proven they’re immensely talented actors in their own right, the fact that their fathers — James Gandolfini and Philip Seymour Hoffman — were considered two of the best actors of their era certainly aided their careers along the way.

During a recent podcast interview, however, Michael Gandolfini revealed the hilarious joke that the pair make about being “nepo babies” that shows they not only have a sense of humor about the label, but also the loss of their fathers. Gandolfini passed at the age of 51 years old in 2013, while Hoffman died in 2014 when he was 46 years old.

Actors Cooper Hoffman and Michael Gandolfini have a hilariously self-aware inside joke about being called “nepo babies”

“Me and Cooper Hoffman have this bit where we’re like, ‘Yeah, we gotta get rid of those nepo babies,'” Gandolfini said on The Downside with Gianmaro Soresi podcast. “And then whenever someone says, like, ‘Aren’t you guys though?’, it’s like, ‘If one of your parents is dead, it’s fine.”

Gandolfini, 26, is currently starring in the second season of the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, which has featured scenes that have gone viral for how much Michael resembles his father in them.

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His other projects in recent years include Beau is Afraid, Bob Marley: One Love, Warfare, and the Paramount+ series The Offer.

The 23-year-old Hoffman, on the other hand, has appeared starred in films such as Saturday Night and The Long Walk since making his acting debut in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 coming-of-age film Licorice Pizza. This year, Hoffman is set to appear in three more movies: I Want Your Sex, Artificial, and The Chaperones.

Similarly, when Saturday Night was released in 2024, Hoffman went viral for a scene in which he became a spitting-image of his Academy Award-winning father.