Barack Obama Has Some Thoughts About Malia’s Decision to Not ‘Leverage’ His A-List Status
Barack and Michelle Obama’s daughter Malia, 26, is growing up — and trying to distance herself from her famous parents at the same time. The former president, who is also dad to 23-year-old Sasha, opened up about Malia publicly dropping her parent’s last name for her directorial debut of The Heart. Bark just shared his thoughts on the way she’s choosing not to “leverage” his A-list status for her own fame, and he brings up a good point.
“Her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals and she didn’t use ‘Obama’ as a director on the credits,” Barack said on an episode of the Pivot podcast, per Page Six. “I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are.’” I mean…he’s not wrong! Still, she wanted to at least try to do something without the bold “Obama” name immediately obvious.
Malia, who went by her first and middle name Malia Ann in the film credits, hoped that she could avoid the association with the Obamas when audiences watched. “And she’s all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association,’” Barack continued. “I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that.”
Unlike other nepo babies who try to ride off their parents’ coattails, Malia and Sasha are trying to step out on their own. And just like pretty much every other kid we know, they don’t want anyone else to help. “The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,” Barack said. “I mean they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it.” Sounds like my toddler!
In a previous interview with GQ, Malia’s mentor Donald Glover opened up about the reason she dropped the last name. “The first thing we did was talk about the fact that she will only get to do this once. You’re Obama’s daughter. So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around,” he recalled telling her. So it sounds like she probably took that advice to heart.
Recently, Malia and Sasha stepped out to attend Billie Eilish’s Halloween party on Oct. 26, where they both wore Y2K-inspired Western wear. In photos obtained by Page Six, the women looked gorgeous in a denim skirt, white tank top, thigh-high leather boots, and a faux snake around her neck for Malia. Sasha had on a blue top, striped mini shorts, brown leather boots, and a black trench coat.
She will always be famous after growing up in the White House, but we appreciate the fact that Malia is making an effort to do things on her own. And we can tell Barack is one proud dad.
Before you go, check out Barack & Michelle Obama’s best parenting quotes.