Rashida Jones on ‘Poisonous’ Fame, Quincy Jones’s Advice, and More for INSTYLE Magazine

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In a new interview for INSTYLE, Rashida Jones opens up about her complex relationship with fame–how her parents protected her from it growing up and the narrative around celebrity kids. The actress and producer also discusses her new Apple TV+ thriller SUNNY (out today), the complexities of female friendships, and more.

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On calling fame ‘poisonous’ despite growing up with famous parents: “I had parents who were in the public eye, but they were extremely protective of us. [Fame] wasn’t that much a part of my reality.” Jones calls fame “pretty poisonous for the most part.” The idea of seeing someone and knowing they’re watching you “is not my favorite thing in the world because I wasn’t used to it.”

On the ‘nepo baby’ phenomenon and her dad Quincy Jones gave her practical pause before pursuing Hollywood: “People like the story of a legacy family and it’s fun to write about and it’s fun to think about you know, the ‘mini me’ and the person who looks like their mom or their dad. And then there’s the resentment there too. But I think about it as, historically, people go into the family business more than they don’t,” Jones says of the narrative around (and fascination with) celebrity sons and daughters. “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,’” Jones recalls. “And he was right, you know.”

On the projects she chooses: “I am never one to make things based on what people want,” she says of her no-holding-back resume. “If they like it, great; if it doesn’t match their sensibility, I’m okay with that too.” (She does note a pattern, though, in the projects she chooses: “Universal themes that are kind of tackled in an original way is probably the metric.”)

On the importance of friendships in her life: “In my own life, my female friendships are incredibly anchoring for me,” Jones says. “They orient my life in every single way … I was talking about this with a girlfriend the other day: We’re adults now and we can work out all of this stuff with each other. And even if we come into conflict, or we have issues, we can deal with it head-on because we love each other and it’s safe and we know that we’re going to care for each other’s feelings.”

[Photo Credit: Alex Harper/InStyle Magazine]

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