Do we like Margaret Qualley?
Our score: 7 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up and she has backed others publicly, but the record on charity and wider causes is thin.
Margaret Qualley is Andie MacDowell's daughter, which means the 'nepo baby' tag follows her around like a bad smell. She has spent the years since making it irrelevant: a film debut in Palo Alto in 2013, then Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and The Substance, which turned her into a proper name.
She has been upfront about the cost of starting young. She told Vanity Fair she felt that if she was fully herself, “women would hate me and men would hurt me”. It's a candid thing to say, and it sits oddly with the gloss of a magazine cover.
On the harm test, there's nothing to chew on. No anti-LGBTQ+ comments, no conspiracy-theory slide and no dodgy culture-war grifting turned up. She has played a lesbian private detective opposite Aubrey Plaza in Honey Don't!, the second of Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke's queer B-movie trilogy after Drive-Away Dolls. Her recent co-stars, such as Glen Powell and Jacob Elordi, are mainstream picks, with no sign of a pattern of harmful company.
The standout moment on the nice side came in 2021, when FKA twigs went public with her accusations against Shia LaBeouf. Qualley told Harper's Bazaar she believed twigs, and said it was important that twigs knew it. Backing a woman publicly when it's awkward counts for plenty.
The latest news is personal. Her split from Jack Antonoff was confirmed in July 2026, and her representative said reports of infidelity were not true. Meanwhile her professional life is humming: Love of Your Life, directed by Rachel Morrison, premiered at TIFF in September, and TheWrap praised her performance as the film's anchor.
The honest gap: we found no big charity record or campaign she's fronted, and no court cases or credible scandals. So this is a solid pass built on good words, good roles and one clear act of solidarity, rather than a long list of good deeds. We'd happily keep watching her films.