Sydney Sweeneyis arguably one of the most high-profile actresses of her generation thanks to her TV roles inWhite LotusandEuphoriaand her feature film work in the romantic comedyAnyone But Youand the recent horror release,Immaculate. Her star continues to rise with more roles in development and she has even made her mark as a producer, but it’s another prominent producer who recently critiqued the actress in a pretty harsh way by saying she “can’t act” and is “not pretty.”
During a chat with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin, viaThe New York Post, after a screening of the 1988 filmDead Ringersfrom David Cronenberg, producerCarol Baum held nothing back when discussing Sweeney. Baum, known for producing films such as theFather of the Brideseries andBuffy The Vampire Slayer, made comments about the actress when she was questioning everyone’s fascination with the up-and-coming actress.
“There’s an actress who everybody loves now, Sydney Sweeney.I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie [Anyone But You] because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie, sorry to people who love this movie - [this] romantic comedy where they hate each other. I said to my class, ‘“Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?'”
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In addition to being a producer, Baum teaches a producing class at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, which is where she presented the question to her students regarding Sweeney. After she asked, Baum said,“Nobody had an answer"about the actress’ popularity, but the producer was presented with a question asking that, if she could get a movie made by putting Sweeney in it, would she do it?
‘“Well that’s a really good question…that’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made, and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”
Watch our interview with Sydney Sweeney below:
Sydney Sweeney Fires Back at Carol Baum’s Comments
Baum’s opinion of Sweeney quickly sparked some backlash online, particularly because it was a woman tearing down another woman. It wasn’t long after thatSweeney, through her representative, defended herself in a very graceful yet pointed way.
“How sad that a woman in that position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
Likely feeling the heat, Baum backtracked on her comments and admitted to"already expressing regret over the whole thing"and"wishes she never would’ve made her original comments.“Maslin, who was a part of the screening of Dead Ringers with Baum, also took to herX pageto assert thatAnyone But You"IS unwatchable,“and when responding to another tweet, said, “We brought up Anyone But You because it’s been the rare smash hit rom-com at a time when they aren’t working. Not because we wanted to take cheap shots at anyone.”
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In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, actress Sydney Sweeney emphasizes that she has absolutely no control over what people say.
To Sweeney’s credit, she has been no slouch in the acting department. She is a two-time Emmy nominee for her work onEuphoriaand season one ofWhite Lotus, and she earned universal acclaim for her performance as Reality Winner in the HBO film,Reality. She recently received several great reviews forher performance in Neon’sImmaculate. For whatever reason, people seem to just lose their minds when Sweeney is brought up.
