Dakota Johnson Says the Nepo Baby Debate Is ‘Lame,’ ‘Incredibly Annoying and Boring’

While appearing on Wednesday’s episode of TODAY, the actress — who is the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith — shared why she decided to poke fun at the nepo baby label in a Saturday Night Live sketch on the January 27 episode, which she hosted.

“When that first started, I found it to be incredibly annoying and boring,” Dakota, 34, said, adding that she believes the topic is “lame.”

“So the opportunity to make fun of it, I jumped at,” she added to host Hoda Kotb.

The Madam Web actress mocked the nepo baby label in a hilarious SNL sketch with Please Don’t Destroy, which consists of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy. Herlihy and Higgins are both celebrity spawn as well. Herlihy is the son of screenwriter and comedian, Tim Herlihy, while Higgins’ dad is Steve Higgins, a comedian and producer, who appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

In the sketch, Dakota and the two comedians made a “nepo truce.” The trio — who wore matching rings — put fists together, closed their eyes, and said, “A foot in the door, and so much more.”

Watch the funny bit in the clip, below.

Meanwhile, also during her appearance on TODAY, Dakota revealed she was financially “cut off” from her famous father as a teenager.

“He cut me off,” she recalled of her dad. “It was difficult, but I figured it out. … He said, ‘If you go to college, you still get an allowance.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to be an actress.’ So he was like, ‘Alright, well you’re on your own.’ I was cut off.”

While the Fifty Shades of Grey star said she “did some little modeling jobs” to help pay her rent as she auditioned for roles, she admitted that she “definitely like had moments where I couldn’t afford groceries and things like that and needed to ask my mom to help me.”

“She was the nice one,” she added with a laugh.

Back in 2021, Don Johnson revealed that he cut off his daughter after she said she wasn’t going to college.

“We have a rule in the family that, you know, if you stay in school, you get to stay on the payroll. So, you go to college, you get to stay on the payroll,” the actor said during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

“Toward the end of high school, I went to [Dakota] and I said, ‘So, do you want to go visit some colleges?’ Or something like that,” he recalled. “And she was like, ‘Oh, no. I’m not going to college.'”

“I went, ‘OK, you know what that means? You won’t be on the payroll anymore,'” Don continued, adding that he asked Dakota how she was “going to manage.”

The father of five said his daughter told him: “Don’t you worry about it.”

Although Don pressed for more info, Dakota didn’t share any details at the time. However, three weeks later, she was cast in David Fincher’s award-winning film, The Social Network.

“And the rest is, shall we say, cinema history,” Don said.

“She doesn’t really call me for advice,” he added of Dakota. “She calls me to say, ‘Gosh, I would see you, but I’ve got three pictures that I’m shooting at the same time.'”

In addition to Dakota, Don is also father to Jesse, 41, from his relationship with Patti D’Arbanville and shares three children with wife Kelley Phleger: Grace, 24, Jasper, 21, and Deacon, 17.