This week, the internet was reminded of Martin Scorsese’s irreplaceable value to cinema and the world at-large. No, his latest feature Killers of the Flower Moon has not been released in theaters yet. (Although I did see the latest trailer before Oppenheimer this weekend, and, wow, am I excited.) Nor was it the Oscar winner’s birthday—he’s a Scorpio king—which always attracts a million-and-one posts about Goodfellas on Twitter.
It turns out there was no special occasion at all, except that the acclaimed filmmaker’s youngest daughter, Francesca Scorsese, randomly made a fan cam of her illustrious dad on TikTok, seemingly for no other reason than that she really loves her dad. And you know what? So do we!
@francescascorsese He’s a certified silly goose. 🥹🤍#CapCut #fyp #trailer #martinscorsese #scorsese #bestdad #bestdadever #sillygoose ♬ Candy (edit) - Robbie Williams
On Thursday, the 23-year-old, who’s an actress in addition to being good at social media, posted a montage of goofy moments she’s captured of her father to TikTok with the caption, “he’s a certified silly goose.” Predictably, Film Twitter, where Scorsese reigns supreme, was deeply amused to see the sweet, childlike side of the director whose filmography, besides Hugo, is anything but. I personally found it endearing that this 80-year-old director, who stereotypically should be opposed to camera phones and social media, is okay with his Gen-Z daughter waving her iPhone in his face.
But Scorsese is neither a stranger to nor an enemy of social media. (I have a theory that he’s the reason Francis Ford Coppola got an Instagram account.) For a while now, Scorsese’s been very active on Instagram, a platform he genuinely seems to enjoy and doesn’t use solely for promotional reasons. He’s also appeared on his daughter’s TikTok before as a willing participant. Last November, a video of him and Francesca doing the “I have a flea in my hand” trend went viral.
Hopefully, we won’t have to wait another eight months to get another Francesca/Marty TikTok collab. Regardless, it seems like Francesca has joined the ranks of nepo babies who seem pleasant and funny but also serve a purpose beyond their own careers by supplying the internet with additional content of their famous relatives. (Paul Mescal’s sister, Nell Mescal, provides the same vital function, and we are oh-so-grateful.)
This woman has also hit the nepo-baby sweet spot of being descended from someone who is universally respected while maintaining a rather humble career of her own—at least at the moment. In addition to several cameos in her father’s films, she co-starred in Luca Guadagnino’s HBO miniseries We Are Who Are, which was well received but didn’t have any awards thrown at it. She also had a cameo in Guadagnino’s 2022 film Bones and All that was ultimately omitted from the film. Following the film’s release, she made a very funny Instagram story confirming that her character, Harmony, was left on the cutting room floor. Aside from that, she made a short film about a girl and her estranged dad that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival this year.
This isn’t to call the youngest Scorsese a flop, by any means. (I haven’t seen a single project of hers, however, so she could be a godawful actress or director for all I know.) It’s more that she hasn't been overexposed, which is great for a younger nepo baby coming up in the social-media era. An example of this would be Allison Williams, who's been forever immortalized as Marnie on Girls. However, as far as her movie career goes, Williams just co-stars in weird-ass projects every few years without drawing that much attention to herself.
Anyway, congrats to Francesca for living the ideal nepo-baby existence: having an indisputably talented and globally idolized parent and being a clown on the internet. Also, she got to hang out with Timotheé Chalamet while her dad directed him in a commercial. The American dream!
Check out our past Nepo Babies of the Week.
