In a new interview with InStyle, Rashida Jones says her parents, Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton, protected her and her siblings from the glare of the spotlight when they were young. Though she enjoyed the safety and privilege of her parents’ position, fame “wasn’t that much a part of my reality,” Rashida says. That said, when it came time for a career, the legendary music producer apparently encouraged her to leverage that nepotism where she could. “My dad said to me, when I graduated from college: ‘You’re gonna go wait in line with 70,000 other people for a job? That doesn’t seem really that practical,’” Rashida shares. “And he was right, you know.”
Hey, any proud and protective dad would surely exploit his connections to help his kids live their dreams. As Rashida puts it, “Historically, people go into the family business more than they don’t.” But if your family business is run by Quincy freakin’ Jones, you can afford to dream bigger than most people do!
Rashida acknowledges that outsiders get both enjoyment and sometimes resentment out of a “legacy family” story. But in the past, she’s played the nepo baby party line, that old chestnut “nothing was ever handed to me.” In a 2011 NBC News interview, she said that the nepotism line has followed her through her career, joking, “I totally would have taken handouts. I didn’t get any. I wish! No I’m just kidding. Listen, I went to college, I had a great upbringing, I’m privileged, I wanted for nothing my entire life, but I definitely did not get career handouts. It took fifteen years to build a career which is what it should take.”
For InStyle, she says she didn’t truly become familiar with fame—which she calls “pretty poisonous”—until after The Office. “I wasn’t really in a place where people recognize me until I was in my 30s, which is a good thing, but it was also like a bit of a surprise,” Rashida explains. “By that point, you’re like, This is how I’m living my life. And then, all of a sudden, you’re walking in New York and you’re used to just walking on the streets, and then somebody’s watching you.”