We hate to break it to you, but Jack Henry Robbins, 36, does not have the names of his famous parents — Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon — tattooed on his forearms. He also didn’t ink The New York Times logo across his chest after it featured him in a splashy story this fall. Nor did he legally change his name to “Jack Susan Sarandon Robbins.”
But what Jack does share with his “nepo baby” alter ego is commitment.
TODAY.com chats with Jack after a diaper-bundling volunteer session for a special cause: helping the National Diaper Bank Network make sure that babies who need diapers receive them.
Jack, a writer and director whose accomplishments include directing 80 episodes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, was hit hard by a December 2022 issue of New York Magazine that centered around “nepo babies,” the children of famous parents who are assumed to succeed based on nepotism and connections rather than talent.
“I remember feeling very insecure and very upset that no matter what I was going to be, I’d always have this label,” he explains. “It also coincided with — funnily enough — a row of career failures for me. I couldn’t get stuff made. I couldn’t advance, even though I believed in myself and I thought I was making great stuff.”
“One day it just kind of hit me … what if I went directly, straight into my insecurity and used myself as a tool and made my life a comedic bit,” he says. “I could become the world’s worst nepo baby and confirm everyone’s absurd beliefs of what I thought everyone thought I was, but worse, and funnier.”
Rather than pitching and waiting and hoping, Jack took charge of his idea and filmed “A Day in the Life of a Nepo Baby“ and posted it on his Instagram account in November 2023. The reel features Jack meditating in front of a framed poster of his mother, wearing a “Bull Durham” hat around New York City, selling show to Netflix or HBO on the reg and getting into a fight with his mom “about money or my inheritance.” And of course he drains “as much talent from my mom’s soul as I can.”
Based on the success of that video, Jack created more content that places his nepo baby character front and center, like making a movie with Steven Spielberg’s daughter Sasha and receiving a talking to from Ewan McGregor’s daughter, Clara, about how he’s making the other nepo babies look bad.
“It was a great way to actually heal my insecurities,” Jack says. “All of a sudden, now I feel confident again that I’m making people happy, making people laugh.”
Though Jack had been approached by brands and organizations who wanted to harness the reach of his nepo baby character, he never said yes … until now.
“I was approached by the National Diaper Bank Network to basically flip this nepo baby thing on its head and raise awareness for a cause that is great,” Jack explains. Though he never wanted to be on camera himself, he is now the leading voice in the organization’s “Nepo Babies For Babies“ campaign.
According to the organization’s 2023 national study, roughly half of U.S. families with young children can’t afford enough diapers to keep their children clean and dry, and one in four parents miss work or school because they can’t afford the diapers required to leave their baby in childcare (which often requires a full day’s supply of diapers at drop off).
“People still think my career has been just handed to me. That makes people angry,” Jack says in a hilarious public service announcement spoofing his nepo baby status. “Here is a positive idea: Let’s take all this nepo baby anger, and instead, let’s get angry for real babies and their very real baby problems.”
At the end of the video, he highlights the fact that some parents have to decide between buying groceries and buying diapers. By amplifying the mission and the needs of the National Diaper Bank Network, Jack hopes to end this “public health crisis.”
Of his non-nepo-baby co-star, Jack says, “She was so cute. And she was crying a lot. But it wasn’t my fault.”
On a more serious note, Jack continues, “I’ve said no to a lot of stuff, and I thought this was really worth doing, because if I can help raise awareness for something that’s super important, I’m down. I look forward to any situation where I can use my comedic instincts or my character to do good things.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
