Princess to Pauper? Multi-Millionaire Nicola Peltz-Beckham Is Criticized for Portraying Poverty on Film
Unless you’ve experienced poverty, it’s nearly impossible to understand how poor people live, think, and act. After casting herself as a poverty-stricken teenager, people acknowledged that Nicola Peltz-Beckham’s circumstances couldn’t be further away from the role she chose to portray.
Nicola is the daughter of Nelson Peltz, a man worth $2.7 billion. The socialite herself is estimated to be worth around $50 million. Despite her rich father, most of her wealth comes from her modeling and acting career.
Recently, she cast herself as a drug-addicted, struggling teenager who needs to work as a stripper. It was a personal choice that many found distasteful. The Beckham’s daughter-in-law was heavily criticized for using her influence to get her pet project, Lola, made. Twenty-nine-year-old Nicola directed and wrote the film while playing the titular role.
In the movie, Nicole plays a 19-year-old pregnant woman struggling to make ends meet. The trailer for the new movie debuted last week and was not well-received by viewers. Describing the story, Nicola said, “Despite a life of hardship, abuse, and generational trauma, Lola is a fighter—driven by unconditional love and a refusal to submit to the unsatisfactory future that has been forced upon her.”
She concluded, “It’s a heartfelt story that we hope everyone can relate to and hopefully feel inspired by in some way.”
Someone commented on Instagram, “I wish rich people like yourself would stay away from trying to tell stories like this… You have no idea what this character’s reality is like.”
Another wrote, “I find it offensive to the working-class women who are truly living this reality that have to see a billionaire indulge themselves into a dream acting role.”
One user claimed that Nicola’s new project was funded by privilege while another used sarcasm to lambast the actress, saying, “OMG! A billionaire is cosplaying a poor girl.”
Users on Twitter, now X, also expressed their displeasure and called the new movie “poverty porn ” while referring to it as “an escalating series of the worst cliches imaginable.”
Negative comments also surfaced on YouTube. One viewer harshly commented, “What does someone like Nicola, the daughter of a billionaire, privileged since birth, know about a life like that?”
Nicola has several movies under her name. She had small parts in successful films like The Last Airbender and Transformers. She also ventured into scriptwriting.
Lola is her directorial debut. Nicola enlisted Quincy Jones for the film. Quincy is a 28-time Grammy-winning producer who was the force behind “Thriller,” Michael Jackson’s world globally phenomenal album. Coincidentally, Quincy’s daughter, Kenya Kinski Jones, is dating Nicola’s older brother Will. Because of this, many speculate that Nicola used her influence to onboard big Hollywood names for her production.
The movie reportedly took almost six years to make and will be released on February 9.
On her Instagram account, Nicola referred to it as “a heartfelt story of generational trauma, perseverance, and unconditional love.” She went on to say, “ I have such respect and gratitude for the incredible cast and crew with whom I had the pleasure of sharing this journey. It takes a village, and I love our village.”
