Barack Obama weighs in on ‘stubborn’ daughter Malia dropping his last name

Former U.S. president Barack Obama has remarked on his daughter Malia’s decision not to use her last name professionally on her filmmaking debut.

The 26-year-old was a staff writer on the Emmy-nominated Prime streaming show Swarm last year, and recently became a director with an 18-minute short film titled The Heart. It premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and has played other festivals since, winning the Young Spirit Award at the Deauville Film Festival in France, and the Best Live Action Short prize at the Chicago International Film Festival.

However, the film’s credits list her not as Malia Obama but Malia Ann, substituting her middle name for her last name.

The topic came up on a recent episode of The Pivot, a podcast on current events hosted by NFL stars Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder. Barack Obama was the guest on the episode, released on YouTube this week.

Obama was asked about the challenges of allowing the daughters of a U.S. president to make their own way in the world.

“The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,” he said about Malia and her 23-year-old sister Sasha. “I mean they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it.”

He went on: “Malia, she’s making movies. So she made her first movie. And you know, I’ll be a dad, I’ll brag a little bit … her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals. And she didn’t use Obama as director on the credits, it said Malia Ann.”

Laughing, he continued: “I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are.’ And she’s all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.’ So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that.”

According to the Independent, some critics at Sundance labelled Malia a “nepo baby,” short for nepotism baby, referring to people whose parents’ success in similar careers or other endeavours has helped them succeed. Some noted that having access to Donald Glover as a producer is not something most first-time filmmakers can easily achieve. (In her defence, he also worked on Swarm.)

The Daily Beast headlined its review “Nepo Baby of the Week: Is Malia Obama’s Film Debut Any Good?” It said of the film: “It’s subtle, it’s somewhat strange, and its visuals are warm and lo-fi,” concluding: “The Heart is not a bad film … it’s about what you’d expect from a young filmmaker.”

The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan described The Heart as “well-shot” and “a promising debut, adding: “You wouldn’t even suspect it came from a former first daughter, though in-the-know types might wonder if the ‘Steven and Kate’ thanked in the closing credits are Spielberg and Capshaw, a husband and wife who can ensure a well-connected debut.”

On the podcast, Obama told his hosts that he had made a deal with the White House press pool when he was president. “I said, ‘You can follow me around. You can talk about me. You do whatever you need to do. Leave my children alone because they have the right to grow up. They didn’t choose this. Let them grow up.’ And to the credit of the press, they did leave them alone.”

He added: “Now, as they’ve gotten older, there’s been some paparazzi stuff going on, and it drives them nuts. Their attitude is, ‘We’re not looking for all that.’ So they’re grounded.”

Asked if he missed anonymity since being president, he replied: “The thing I miss is just walking around and nobody knowing who you are. Like, you don’t realize what a benefit that is until you try it and suddenly you’ve got 100 people asking you for selfies and all that.” But he added: “That’s a high-class problem to have.”

Obama joked that he’s thought about trying a disguise — “put some dreadlocks on, get a beard, a moustache” — but he’s never done it. Plus, he said his voice would give him away, or his ears. “I got to put on a hoodie or a cap or something. Because folks  say, ‘Man, I’ve seen those ears before.’”