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Spare a thought for Sydney Sweeney! Yes, she is young, beautiful, rich and talented, but she has also been getting it from all sides this week. Her passion project has bombed at the box office; she is still paying for a jeans advertisement she did four months ago, and being called on to address charges of having joked about eugenics; and fellow members of the Hollywood elite are breaking ranks to express their disdain (in one case, with a vomiting emoji). And, as she found out this week, she can’t even enjoy a kiss with her controversial new boyfriend without being snapped by the callous paparazzi!
Here’s what you need to know when Sweeney’s name next crops up – which, if current trends continue, will be soon.
1. She’s dating Taylor Swift’s arch-nemesis
Since September, Sweeney has been romantically linked with Scooter Braun, the music mogul best known for allegedly holding Taylor Swift’s song catalogue hostage. The pairing has generated discussion online for its apparent randomness and 16-year age gap, but they haven’t shied away from attention, either, being photographed together on several long and outdoors-y dates. The happy couple were recently papped sharing an intimate yet also highly visible moment, kissing on a rock in Central Park – suggesting they are at least not averse to publicity. Sweeney may be comfortable writing herself off the guest list for Swift’s wedding, but her affiliation with Swift’s arch-villain hasn’t helped with her increasingly embattled public image.
2. Bezos wants her for Bond
Braun is not the only pop-culture “bad guy” Sweeney is cosy with. The couple reportedly connected at Jeff Bezos’s Venice wedding to Lauren Sánchez in June. Sweeney’s attendance at the lavish event initially raised eyebrows, given her lack of public connection to the Amazon founder, but was later explained as a money move, with Sweeney attached to a forthcoming blockbuster from Amazon MGM Studios. A source told Page Six that Sweeney “is not friends with either” Bezos or Sánchez, but “came to pay respects to the ‘boss’, just like in the old days of Hollywood”. Sweeney is also reported to be launching a lingerie line, backed by the private equity firm Coatue – where Scooter Braun’s friend Ben Schwerin, formerly of Snapchat, is a general partner – and $1bn in investment from Bezos and his bride. Bezos is now allegedly pushing for Sweeney to be made the next Bond girl.
3. She’s been dealt a KO blow at the box office
Sweeney’s starring role in Christy, David Michôd’s biopic about the trailblazing boxer Christy Martin, has been widely interpreted as a bid to cement her as a serious actor, proving her chops with a physical transformation and gruelling training regimen. The film has received mixed reviews and, last week, bombed at the US box office, opening to just $1.3m. Sweeney, who made her name as an actor on the HBO teen drama Euphoria, has taken the blow in her stride, declaring on Instagram that she remained proud of the picture. “Why? Because we don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact. And Christy has been the most impactful project of my life.”
4. She ‘did a jean ad’
Sweeney’s art, however, is increasingly at risk of being overshadowed by her controversies. In July, an ad for the denim company American Eagle, showing Sweeney decked out in denim with the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” sparked instant controversy, seen by some as catering to the “male gaze” and subtly promoting whiteness. Since then, when asked about the ad on red carpets, Sweeney has barely been able to conceal her exasperation. Last week, she finally addressed the controversy – sort of.
“I did a jean ad,” she, witheringly, told GQ. “I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.” Offered the chance to respond to criticism that “white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority”, Sweeney demurred: “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.” Her flippant, eye-rolling – not to mention, much belated – response to the controversy hasn’t won her fans.
5. She’s been adopted by the right
Of course, it’s not just about the “jean ad”. In August, Sweeney was shown to have registered as a Republican voter, not long after recent family photos were published showing guests wearing Maga-style caps. Sweeney also registered in tax-friendly Florida, shortly after purchasing a $13.5m mansion. At the time, she dismissed the reporting of the images as “an absurd political statement” and asked the public to “stop making assumptions”. She has not commented on her politics, but the publicly accessible documents have for many been proof enough. Regardless of Sweeney’s relationship to the Republican party, they have been eager to align with her. Texas senator Ted Cruz declared criticism of the jean ad evidence that “the crazy left has come out against beautiful women”. And President Trump was also quick to lend his endorsement (“the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there … Go get ‘em, Sydney!”).
6. She’s not the most popular woman in Hollywood
This week, White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood, musician SZA and actor Christina Ricci reportedly liked an Instagram video criticising Sweeney’s dismissive response to the American Eagle saga. (Wood also posted a vomiting emoji elsewhere.) Orange Is the New Black actor Ruby Rose (who lost out on the Christy role) also laid into Sweeney on Instagram Threads, writing: “You’re a cretin and you ruined the film. Period. Christy deserved better.” Rose’s objection was to an apparent Republican playing a gay woman: “None of ‘the people’ want to see someone who hates them, parading around pretending to be us.”
7. She’s also regular fodder for the discourse machine
Between her sex-symbol status and her place in the culture wars, Sweeney is a recurring trending topic on X, variously lusted over and reviled. Last December, candid photos of the actor sparked what X generously described as “debates over beauty standards” that waged for several days. (Think Andrew Tate acolytes calling Sweeney “mid” and a “catfish”.) This week, a screenshot of her implacable response to the GQ interviewer has been taken up by right-wingers as a meme-ish expression of ideological superiority.
The unseemly discourse is not just limited to online. After Sweeney played a Hooters waitress on SNL last year, the Spectator declared: “Yay! Boobs are back!” While, last month, conservative commentator Megyn Kelly railed against Sweeney’s sheer red-carpet gown: “I object.” In 2021, Sweeney tearfully addressed social-media trolling; more recently she has tried to rise above it, laughing off photographers’ demands to “show us those boobs” at the 2022 Met Gala. “It’s this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over,” she told Variety last year.
8. She’s not above selling out …
Sweeney has established herself as a businesswoman, producing many of her recent films. She’s not been shy about chasing brand deals, promoting flip phones, face creams, ice-cream and “super soft slippers”. “If I just acted, I wouldn’t be able to afford my life in LA … They don’t pay actors like they used to,” Sweeney explained in 2022. Earlier this year, Sweeney partnered with a “men’s personal company” to produce a limited edition soap, marketed as containing a “touch” of her own bath water. “Why? Because y’all wouldn’t stop asking,” said the company, Dr Squatch, giving the soap’s scent as “morning wood”.
9. … but now she could do with a win
Sweeney has re-cast box-office misfires as stepping stones to success. As her co-stars strained to apologise for their part in 2024’s disastrous Madame Web, Sweeney explained it as one of her “strategic business decisions”, enabling her “to build a relationship with Sony” that later led to Anyone But You. The charming 2023 romcom was a surprise hit, buoyed up by Sweeney’s on-screen chemistry (and rumoured romance) with her co-star Glen Powell. That same year, Sweeney delivered a powerful performance in Reality, playing an NSA whistleblower word-for-word from the interrogation transcript. But this year all four of Sweeney’s tentpole projects – Ron Howard’s historical thriller Eden, the cowboy crime-drama Americana, the straight-to-streaming Echo Valley, and now Oscar bait Christy – have fallen flat at the box office. Sweeney’s still standing, but if she is to get off the ropes, she’ll need a win soon.
