Sydney Sweeney isn’t mincing words when it comes to calling out what she sees as the faux feminism of Hollywood.
The actress and producer told Vanity Fair that the publicized movement of “women empowering other women” is all “fake.” Her comments arrive after veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum questioned Sweeney’s appeal as a star earlier this year; Baum said Sweeney was “not pretty” and “can’t act.”
A representative for Sweeney told Variety at the time that it was “sad that a woman [Baum] in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.” The statement continued, “If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
Now, Sweeney is sharing just how much of a fallacy she thinks feminism in the filmmaking industry really is.
“It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down, especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard — hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have — and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they’ve done,” Sweeney said. “This entire industry, all people say is, ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it is happening. All of it is fake and a front for all the other shit that they say behind everyone’s back.”
She added, “I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it. I’ve read that our entire lives, we were raised — and it’s a generational problem — to believe only one woman can be at the top. There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything. So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, Let’s all lift each other up. I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?”
Sweeney also shared that her viral “SNL” monologue that mocked her pinup appeal was part of her political statement about this topic.
“I actually had to push for a lot of it,” she said. “Some people were a little nervous about it, but in real life, I’d like to say I’m a funny person. And sometimes I wish that I could address more [things with] my ‘Syd’ self, but I find that with social media there’s such a lapse in how things are communicated. It’s hard to get things across in the way that you intend to — they can be misconstrued. So being able to do it onstage in very Syd fashion, I loved it. I felt like I was taking the power back.”
Sweeney further said that she thinks actresses are labeled as a “bitch” if they do not engage in certain press tours. The “Euphoria” star explained how the “Anyone but You” marketing strategy alongside co-star Glen Powell was an example of that.
“Once [the film] did become a success, a lot of the interviews were just questions about [the marketing], so I don’t know if we necessarily were planning on ever talking about the strategy behind any of it,” she said. “We just had very specific questions and when you say no to a question, people think that you’re a bitch, so…”
The delay filming “Euphoria” Season 3 actually led to Sweeney producing, developing, and starring in the viral rom-com, which is what led to Baum’s comments in the first place.
“There were definitely a few projects that I had to pass on because I was supposed to be going back to ‘Euphoria.’ But because I am producing now, I was able to say, ‘You know what? I don’t think this is happening. I’m going to put some of my own projects on the slate,’” Sweeney said. “That’s how ‘Anyone but You‘ happened. ‘Euphoria’ was supposed to start filming, and I had another film that I was supposed to do, but we couldn’t get cleared and after a few weeks, I realized, this is not happening. So I put in full gear to make ‘Anyone but You.’”
“Euphoria” Season 3 will now go into production in January 2025 and consist of eight episodes.
