Patrick Schwarzenegger is firmly rejecting the “nepo baby” label, describing hustling to make it as an actor despite being raised by world-renowned movie star and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The younger Schwarzenegger, 31, started acting professionally on a consistent basis in 2012 and currently stars as Saxon Ratliff, the entitled and athletic son of a wealthy patriarch (Jason Isaacs), in the third season of HBO’s popular comedy-drama anthology series “The White Lotus.”

He told The Sunday Times last week that “there are people who’ll say I only got this role because of who my dad is.”

“They’re not seeing that I’ve had ten years of acting classes, put on [high] school plays every week, worked on my characters for hours on end or the hundreds of rejected auditions I’ve been on,” the actor said of his social media critics.

“Of course, it’s frustrating and you can get boxed in and you think at that moment, I wish I didn’t have my last name,” he continued. “But that’s a small moment. I would never trade my life with anyone. I’m very fortunate to have the life and family that I have.”

Schwarzenegger expressed appreciation for his parents “and the lessons and values they’ve instilled” in him. His mother, Maria Shriver, is a niece of late former President John F. Kennedy.

The “nepo baby” discourse surrounding privileged celebrity children has prompted a variety of reactions over the years. Some, like Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s son, actor Jack Quaid, have had no problem accepting the label — while others have been a bit more defensive.

Meanwhile, while social media users were willing to acknowledge that the younger Schwarzenegger may have worked hard to land his latest role, they weren’t swayed by suggestions that he is a self-made man.

“It’s the opportunities you get not the role itself bud,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter, with another commenting: “The part he left out is not having to work during his 10 years of acting classes. All the difference in the world. Nothing wrong with that, btw.”