Barack Obama responds after daughter changed her name
.jpg "Barack Obama poses in an Instagram photo with his wife, Michelle Obama, and daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.")
Former President Barack Obama was a little befuddled when he learned that his 26-year-old daughter, Malia Obama, didn’t use her family’s last name in the credits of her debut film.
“I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are,’” Barack Obama said on an Oct. 29 episode of “The Pivot Podcast,” hosted by former NFL stars Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder.
But according to her father, Malia Obama didn’t want her last name to take away from the film.
“And she was like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association,’” Barack Obama added.
Instead of her last name, she used just her first and middle names, Malia Ann, in the credits.
And if you ask Barack Obama, his 23-year-old daughter, Sasha Obama, would do the same thing.
On the podcast, he revealed that both of his daughters “go out of their way to not try to leverage” the family name to their advantage.
In fact, he wishes they would let him and his wife of 32 years, former first lady Michelle Obama, help out more.
“The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,” he said, adding that his two daughters are “very sensitive about this stuff.”
A graduate of Harvard University, Malia Obama is making a name for herself as a model, writer and director.
She debuted her first film, “The Heart,” at the Sundance Festival in January with assistance from multi-Emmy Award winner Donald Glover, according to Today.
The film was roughly 18-minutes long and stars singer-actor Tunde Adebimpe and actress LaTonya Borsay.
According to The Independent, it tells the story of a grieving man who receives an unusual request from his mother in her will.
In a “meet the artist” video introducing the film, Malia Obama said it’s about “lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret.”
“The Heart” received mixed reviews from critics earlier this year. While some praised the former first daughter for the film’s visuals, others branded her a “nepo baby.”
“Calling yourself ‘Malia Ann’ is not going to avert any Nepo Baby criticisms, Miss Former First Daughter,” said one critic, according to The Independent.
A “nepo baby” is a “person who gains success or opportunities through familial connections,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Despite the mixed reviews, Malia Obama has received a heaping of praise from Glover, who has been a mentor to her.
In a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair, Glover described Malia Obama as an “amazingly talented person” and admired how focused and hard-working she was.
“I feel like she’s just somebody who’s gonna have really good things coming soon,” he said at the time. “Her writing style is great.”
The praise continued in an interview with GQ last year, when he shared some of the advice he gave her ahead of debuting her first film.
“The first thing we did was talk about the fact that she will only get to do this once,” he said. “You’re Obama’s daughter. So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2024 at 12:18 PM.
