Sydney Sweeney Calls Industry Talk of Women Empowering Each Other 'Fake'

Sydney Sweeney says it’s “disheartening” to see women in the film and TV industries angling to take each other down.

As you’ll recall, Sweeney herself was the target of some seemingly out-of-nowhere (and widely criticized) disparaging remarks from Hollywood producer Carol Baum earlier this year, with a rep of the Euphoria and Anyone But You star quickly calling out the remarks as “shameful.” In a recent conversation with Savannah Walsh for Vanity Fair, Sweeney herself addressed this from a broader point of view while also highlighting the fairness prevalent in certain sectors of the industry at large.

“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, soon set to be seen as former pro boxer Christy Martin in a transformative role for director David Michôd, told the publication. “This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening.”

From there, the Fifty-Fifty Films production company founder shared observations on that aforementioned fakeness, assessing it as “a front.” She also theorized on what’s driving such behavior, zooming out even more to highlight the “generational” issues at play.

“All of it is fake and a front for all the other shit that they say behind everyone’s back,” she told Walsh. “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.”

As for Sweeney, she's “still trying to figure it out.”

Work on the untitled Martin biopic, details of which remain relatively scarce, required months of training for Sweeney, whose Fifty-Fifty is also co-producing the project. The real-life Martin was stabbed and shot in 2010 by her then-husband, who was later sentenced to 25 years behind bars for the attempted murder. According to Sweeney, Martin’s story stands as “a testament to resilience” and is one that she’s “honored” to be taking on.

In March, the Sweeney-led and Sweeney-produced horror film Immaculate had its premiere at SXSW in Austin, later becoming a hit by earning over $28 million at the box office against a reported budget of less than $10 million.