Sofia Coppola has reacted to her 16-year-old daughter, Romy, going viral on TikTok — despite not being allowed on social media.
“We were raised to be so private, and social media is so the opposite of how I grew up. So it was the best way for her to be rebellious,” Coppola said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday, August 23. “I got lots of compliments on her filmmaking. And comedy. She’s funny. But people discussing my parenting publicly is not what I would’ve hoped for.”
In March, Romy — who is the eldest daughter of Coppola and musician Thomas Mars — posted a TikTok of her cooking dinner while she was grounded. (The couple, who tied the knot in 2011, are also the parents of daughter Cosima, 13.)
“Make a vodka sauce pasta with me because I’m grounded,” Romy said in the now-deleted clip. “I tried to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland on my dad’s credit card because I wanted to visit a camp friend.”
Romy went on to explain that she decided to make a video — despite her parents’ wishes she would stay off social media — because she was already in trouble.
“My parents’ biggest rule is, like, I’m not allowed to have any public social media accounts. Here’s why,” Romy said before showing off her dad’s Grammy award, which he earned with his band Phoenix. “They don’t want me to be a nepotism kid, but TikTok is not gonna make me famous so it doesn’t really matter.”
Romy’s family doesn’t begin with her famous parents. Her grandfather is legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, who helmed The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and others, earning five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d’Or and more accolades throughout his career.
In the clip, Romy also shared a glimpse of her babysitter’s boyfriend and a dog, referring to the duo were her “replacement parents” and claimed that her actual parents “ are never home”
While Romy initially thought her video wouldn’t be a big deal, the clip took social media by storm and made several headlines. And despite Sofia not wanting her daughter online, the director recently joined Instagram herself. She made her first post in October 2022 to share that she was working on her latest project, a biopic about Priscilla Presley based on her memoir, Elvis and Me.
“Back to work!” she penned at the time. “Excited to be telling Priscilla’s story.”
