Jameela Jamil Says “Nobody Needs To Hear” Kim Kardashian’s Work Ethic Advice

The Good Place actor and frequent Kardashian critic Jameela Jamil is speaking out against a member of the ultra-famous family once again. In a new Variety cover story released March 9, entrepreneur and reported billionaire Kim Kardashian offered some tips for women looking to start their own companies. “I have the best advice for women in business,” she told the publication. “Get your f*cking ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” Shortly after the interview was published, Jamil took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the Skims founder’s directions.

“She came up from the mean streets of Beverly Hills with very successful parents/step parents,” Jamil tweeted, “but in a *much* smaller mansion. A TRUE GRIND. An inspiration. A photoshop icon.”

In a follow-up post, the actor explained her comments and criticized Kardashian for giving advice from a wealthy pedestal. “I think if you grew up in Beverly Hills with super successful parents in what was simply a smaller mansion... nobody needs to hear your thoughts on success/work ethic,” continued Jamil. “This same 24 hours in the day sh*t is a nightmare. 99.9% of the world grew up with a VERY different 24 hours.”

Jamil also noted how having help and money impacts how much people are able to get done in a day when she replied to a tweet from someone who said “If only I had work ethic...” She sarcastically added, “Why were you busy cleaning your room when your maids could clearly have done that?”

While “girlboss” culture has long promoted the idea that everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, therefore it’s up to you how successful you are, Jamil’s comments arrive on the heels of a similar statement from PrettyLittleThing creative director and former Love Island star Molly Mae. In an interview on the Diary of a CEO podcast in January 2022, Mae said, “Beyoncé has the same 24 hours in the day that we do, and I just think, like, you’re given one life, and it’s up to you what you do with it. You can literally go in any direction.”

The creative director’s team said she was merely speaking about her own experience, but Mae’s choice of words prompted immediate backlash from fans who called her “tone deaf” for assuming minimum-wage workers have the same access and privilege as her. After a YouTube video following Mae’s self-described “overwhelming” workload as she prepares a PrettyLittleThing event was posted on March 6, fans recalled her “24 hours” comment and speculated the video was uploaded in response. “It’s cringey to see that this is how she’s acting after the 24h comment,” wrote one viewer, per The Sun. “I feel like this is her trying to show us how ‘hard’ she works.”

This is nowhere near the first time Jamil’s called out the Kardashians for disagreeing with the messages they promote, specifically on social media. She’s criticized Kim for advertising Flat Tummy Co.’s appetite suppressant lollipops and wearing shape-altering corsets, as well as Khloé for selling meal replacement shakes. “You are selling us something that doesn’t make us feel good,” Jamil said on the Ways to Change the World podcast in 2018. “You’re selling us self-consciousness. The same poison that made you clearly develop some sort of body dysmorphic or facial dysmorphic, you are now pouring back into the world.”

Elsewhere in the Variety interview, Kim opened up about the longtime criticism that her family is merely “famous for being famous.”

“Who gives a f*ck?” Kardashian exclaimed. “We focus on the positive. We work our asses off. If that’s what you think, then sorry. We just don’t have the energy for that. We don’t have to sing or dance or act; we get to live our lives — and hey, we made it. I don’t know what to tell you.”