When regular people talk about a celebrity having \u201cliterally the worst week ever,\u201d it\u2019s never actually the worst week a person could ever have. What they mean is that a famous person is dealing with famous-people problems that regular people never deal with, combined with attention that civilians will never endure.<\/p>\n
That in mind: For a celebrity, Sydney Sweeney is having literally the worst week ever.<\/p>\n
Sweeney, the star of HBO\u2019s Euphoria and The White Lotus and the big screen rom-com Anyone But You, bombed at the box office; her new movie Christy, a middling biopic about boxer Christy Martin, barely made $1 million in its opening weekend. That\u2019s awful. For some perspective<\/a>, the 2020 re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas (a movie that was about as old as Sydney Sweeney at the time) made $1.3 million when Disney brought it back to theaters \u2014 about the same money that Sweeney\u2019s movie made.<\/p>\n Rubbing salt in the wound, on social media a journalist posted<\/a> a query they received from Sweeney and the movie\u2019s PR team, urging them to change the narrative of a box office bomb because the movie has a high \u201cpopcornmeter rating\u201d (an audience feature on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>).<\/p>\n Sweeney\u2019s box office bust coincided with an evasive GQ interview<\/a> about her infamous American Eagle jeans ad from earlier this year. The ad featured wordplay, smirking at the idea that Sweeney has good genes while also possessing good jeans. Sweeney\u2019s ad and the backlash<\/a> it spurred got so much attention that President Donald Trump weighed in<\/a>, praising the ad and Sweeney. Asked if she understood the optics of a white person with blonde hair and blue eyes implying genetic superiority, Sweeney gave a non-answer: \u201cI think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.\u201d<\/p>\n Celebrities and concerned members of the public have been calling out<\/a> Sweeney\u2019s interview for its lack of clarity and its implications, mainly that Sweeney seems to be winking and nodding at, if not cosigning, racist ideas and white supremacy.<\/p>\n On top of this, there are reports this week that Zendaya<\/a>, arguably the most famous celebrity in Sweeney\u2019s proximity, is refusing to do press with Sweeney to promote their show Euphoria because of Sweeney\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n Together, it\u2019s all being billed as the worst seven days in Sydney Sweeney\u2019s existence. But it\u2019s hard to really believe this is the worst week of Sydney Sweeney\u2019s life \u2014 mainly because we\u2019re still talking about her. It\u2019d be worse for Sweeney, or any famous person, to fade away into obscurity.<\/p>\n That\u2019s easier said than done, because Sydney Sweeney, and the team behind Sydney Sweeney, has put in so much work to make sure that never happens. It\u2019s perhaps her most valuable skill as an actress, maybe even more valuable than her acting.<\/p>\n For so many celebrities today, media attention is currency. For a lot of them, attention can be more valuable than a good TV show or a well-regarded indie movie. There are even actors and actresses<\/a> whose acting careers feel a bit like loss leaders, in the sense that their personal brands are more lucrative and successful than any acting project they could be in. Sweeney is no exception.<\/p>\n Sweeney herself told the Hollywood Reporter<\/a> in 2022 that to court a generation raised on the internet, she needed to think about exposure beyond TV and movies. \u201cIf I just acted, I wouldn\u2019t be able to afford my life in LA. I take deals because I have to.\u201d<\/p>\n Jessica Goodman, a novelist whose book is in the process of being adapted into an HBO<\/a> series starring Sweeney, told THR: \u201cWhen we met, it was immediately obvious to me that Sydney was very savvy, that she was very self-aware about the way she is viewed in the world and that she wanted to take charge of her own career.\u201d<\/p>\n Sweeney\u2019s ability to parlay public interest in Sydney Sweeney into interest in her projects has often worked out for her.<\/p>\n Back in 2023, during the production and promotion of Anyone But You, she and co-star Glen Powell created an are-they-or-aren\u2019t-they showmance<\/a> through social media, public appearances together, and photographs from the set. Both were dating other people at the time; Sweeney was engaged to her then-fianc\u00e9 Jonathan Davino. Neither would confirm if they were dating, an ambiguity that only threw gasoline on the fire and helped make the movie a box office success<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sydney Sweeney at Jeff Bezos\u2019s and Lauren Sanchez\u2019s wedding. | Luigi Iorio\/GC Images<\/p>\n In the context of Sweeney\u2019s business moves and how she manages her self-image, her American Eagle jeans ad certainly feels like another extracurricular aimed at keeping our attention. It doesn\u2019t seem to matter if that attention is scandalous, if not caustic. That ad followed a stunt this summer in which Sweeney collaborated with men\u2019s grooming brand Dr. Squatch to sell a bar of soap \u201cinfused<\/a>\u201d with Sweeney\u2019s bathwater. Sweeney\u2019s bathwater soap debuted to a chorus of horny awooga awoogas<\/a> among the various straight guy pockets <\/a>of the internet, along with eye-rolls<\/a> and various iterations of \u201cgross<\/a>\u201d elsewhere. Sweeney later blamed women for the backlash<\/a> to her selling her bathwater soap to men.<\/p>\n Given how much attention is paid to culture wars, it\u2019s not totally unexpected that Sweeney has now created an is-she-or-isn\u2019t-she narrative surrounding her politics. The parties she attends and whom she\u2019s photographed with all feel like Easter eggs. Sweeney has provided more than enough evidence (she is reportedly a registered Republican<\/a> and attended a MAGA-themed birthday party<\/a> for one of her relatives in 2023) about where she stands. Yet it\u2019s a testament to how Sweeney has gamed everyone\u2019s interest that every interview, including this past week\u2019s viral GQ one, aims to clarify Sweeney\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n That question mark keeps her relevant in a way that actors who are openly conservative<\/a> are not. Those actors and actresses (see: Zachary Levi<\/a>, Gina Carano<\/a>, etc.) polarize audiences and tend to be seen by studios as liabilities. (For example, Levi recently implied<\/a> that Broadway star Gavin Creel \u2014 who died in September at 48 from an aggressive form of cancer \u2014 died from the Covid-19 vaccine). By contrast, Sweeney\u2019s semi-plausible deniability keeps that window of opportunity cracked open.<\/p>\n Sydney Sweeney at the World Series rooting for the Dodgers. Or is she?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She\u2019d also be disproportionately less captivating, much less so than some of her peers, if she were a staunch Democrat. If Sweeney were a Democrat in an industry full of Democrats, her celebrity image wouldn\u2019t be as intriguing or as edgy as it is now. There would be no viral interviews and no public guessing game about whom and what she supports.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The most pertinent question about Sydney Sweeney isn\u2019t what her definitive politics are, or why she\u2019s selling bathwater, or how she\u2019s in movies that no one watches. Rather, it\u2019s why so many people care so much about Sydney Sweeney\u2019s politics, bathwater, or her success. They do, so all of it \u2014 even her worst week ever \u2014 feels like it\u2019s part of the design.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSydney Sweeney\u2019s celebrity persona is more fascinating than Sydney Sweeney\u2019s acting<\/h2>\n
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Everyone wants to know about Sydney Sweeney\u2019s politics<\/h2>\n
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