Given that “Friday Night Lights” star Kyle Chandler played one of TV’s best-loved father figures, a high school football coach who leads with compassion and old-school discipline, you would think that the Emmy winner would raise a daughter sensible enough to resist some of the negative associations of the nepo baby label as she follows his career path into Hollywood.
But according to Variety, Chandler’s 29-year-old actress daughter Sydney exhibited some difficult, inconsistent and entitled nepo baby behavior recently when it came time to be featured on the publication’s cover — a high-profile opportunity that many up-and-coming young stars would kill for.
In the recent issue of Variety, the industry bible explained that Sydney Chandler was offered its cover to promote her breakout role in the new upcoming FX sci-fi series, “Alien: Earth.” The publication then opened up about why she, the talented female star of this hotly anticipated female-centered show, didn’t end up on the cover with her male co-star, Timothy Olyphant, and the show’s creator, Noah Hawley.
According to Variety, Chandler repeatedly canceled on the magazine cover shoot because she didn’t want to participate in one of the editorial customs for being on a cover. It involves a video interview with the other cover stars, which Variety said is standard at other publications. At Variety, the cover stars also participate in a light-hearted and “innocuous” game called “How Well Do They Know Each Other?” They are asked questions about one another to gauge what they do or don’t know about one another’s lives, careers or accomplishments. Variety said that “everyone from Ariana Grande to Ryan Reynolds to Daniel Craig” has played the game in the past.
Chandler’s reps initially told Variety that she didn’t feel comfortable playing the game with “two older men”; Olyphant is 57, and Hawley is 58. But Chandler agreed to play the game after the magazine offered to send sample questions.
But her reply was to send her own ideas for questions that she would agree to answer. Variety said it didn’t want to provide the cover stars with pre-screened questions and hers — “How many ‘Alien’ films are there?” — didn’t seem that interesting, So, Chandler said she wouldn’t participate in the game. But on the morning of the shoot, and after some convincing from her agent, she agreed to participate in the game after all.
But once it came time to meet for the interview and photos, Chandler changed her mind again and didn’t show up, according to Variety.
In a follow-up interview for a story about missing the cover, Chandler told Variety that she’s new to the press and is “a private person” who felt the need to draw a boundary around her private life. She said: “It’s a bit out of my comfort zone. I was more than happy to talk about anything and everything about the show; that’s what I’m here to promote.”
Variety expressed surprise that Chandler didn’t understand some of PR requirements that stars must fulfill in order to promote their work and themselves. After all, her father is a veteran TV and film actor; he also helped her make her audition tape for “Alien: Earth.” Then again, Variety conceded that Kyle Chandler and his wife raised their daughter outside of Hollywood — in Austin, not in Los Angeles.
Hawley, the show’s veteran TV creator who also made five seasons of “Fargo” for FX, expressed disappointment that Chandler stayed away from the shoot and wasn’t on the magazine’s cover.
“The show is built around Sydney’s character, and the work she did as a professional was tremendous,” he told Variety. “I’m disappointed that my female-centric show, based on a female-facing franchise, does not have my lead actress on the cover. It felt awkward to be there with Tim without her.”
Still, Hawley told Variety it wasn’t his place to talk to Chandler about her decision to stay away from the photo shoot. “I don’t have to showrun the publicity,” he said.
