She’s Electric
With
Sydney Sweeney
If the title of ‘breakout star of 2021’ is up for grabs, SYDNEY SWEENEY is a sure-fire contender – particularly after her deliciously sardonic performance in HBO’s summer hit The White Lotus. Here, she talks to MEGAN LOGUE about what it was like to play one of the most treacherous teenagers on TV, taking down trolls and Euphoria, season two
“There were a good two months where I was so annoyed by [Cassie] and the choices she was making,” says Sydney Sweeney, talking about the much-anticipated second season of Euphoria, and, more specifically, what’s in store for her character. She plays Cassie Howard, the teenage bombshell whose popularity is undercut by a strong sense of melancholy, in the hit HBO show. “She battles herself [this season]. She makes a lot of decisions with her heart and not her brain… She destroys a lot of relationships,” continues Sweeney, who is talking to me surrounded by towers of cardboard boxes in the Los Angeles apartment that she’s currently packing up. Filming is just about to wrap on season two, with the new episodes arriving on screens in January 2022.
As the plot is veiled in secrecy, any tidbit is sure to stoke the fervor of Euphoria fans worldwide. But even if you are one of the few who hasn’t watched Euphoria, Sweeney’s face will likely be familiar. At just 24 years old, the actor has already clocked up almost 50 screen credits, including Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, Sharp Objects, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Voyeurs and, most recently, The White Lotus – which became one of the most talked-about shows of this year.
“There are so many different VERSIONS of me. There are the characters I play, then the SYDNEY that walks the red carpets and does interviews, and then there’s the REAL me”
Set on an idyllic Hawaiian island, The White Lotus is a deliciously dark comedy that chronicles the relationships and secrets between the titular hotel’s wealthy guests and its staff. Sweeney’s character, Olivia Mossbacher, is a privileged, pretentious college student with a mean streak that ran so deep, Sweeney admits, that at times, series creator Mark White questioned whether they’d taken her too far. Sweeney’s perennial answer? “No. That’s just teenagers these days”. And, while she might go to great lengths to stress that she, Sydney, bears no resemblance to Olivia, she enthuses about how fun it was to inhabit such a deplorable character. “I love the dry, sardonic tone to her – I hadn’t really played [that] before.” Changing gears with each project is something of a signature move for Sweeney. “I want people to be constantly taken aback by the characters I play and the choices that I make,” she says.
The White Lotus had that elusive alchemy that makes a show a runaway success – from a phenomenal ensemble cast (which included Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton and Alexandra Daddario) to a melding of can’t-look-away plotlines. Given that it taped during the peak of the pandemic, requiring the cast and crew to isolate together while filming in an abandoned Four Seasons resort in Maui, I wonder if the sense of claustrophobia and tension that builds throughout the series had any basis in real life. “It was like a tropical version of The Shining,” laughs Sweeney. “I’d find Jennifer Coolidge just [lost], wandering the identical hallways of the hotel.”
As an actor, Sweeney is not only preternaturally talented, she also puts in the hard work. She creates ‘worlds’ for each of her characters, building out their lives in granular detail from the moment they were born to when we encounter them onscreen – until they become like real people to her, whose lives she can truly step into. Sweeney is adamant that, for her, this sense of disassociation is a form of self-preservation. She acknowledges that as an actor at work today, in front of the camera isn’t the only place where you need to play a role. “There are so many different versions of me,” says Sweeney. “There are the characters I play, then the Sydney that walks the red carpets and does interviews, and then there’s the real me. There are all these different separations I maintain [because] I don’t want to lose who I am at my core.”
This lesson in integrity was hard-won by Sweeney, who, in May this year, made a tearful plea on Instagram Live, asking her followers to understand the affect their words can have on people, after she discovered that her name was trending on Twitter as online trolls took swipes at her appearance. When I commend Sweeney on her valiant attempt to humanize the conversation and encourage people to rethink toxic yet depressingly prosaic behaviors, she is incredulous. “There was nothing brave about it. It was a very low point,” she recalls. “[People] see the glitz and the glamour and think that’s what your life is 24/7.”
Sweeney is no stranger to people making lazy assumptions about her, and she has sometimes found fun in subverting those misconceptions. She delights in telling me a story about when she was a teenager and first got serious about MMA [mixed martial arts] – one of many sports at which she excels. “I was the only girl at this dojo, and I wanted to fuck with all the guys’ [minds]. So, I got all-pink everything – wraps, gloves, mouthguard, everything – because when you walk into the ring as a girl wearing pink, the guys are like ‘whatever’. But then, when you can kick their ass, it’s the greatest feeling ever.”
Tenacity is clearly a trait Sweeney has in abundance, but it’s also one that’s been tested. When we discuss how she first got into acting, Sweeney, who was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, confirms a story I’d read online about how, at the age of 12, she presented a five-year business plan to her parents to convince them to support her acting career. “I keep asking my mom to dig that out so I can see how my life now compares,” she says. Her parents acquiesced and it paid off – Sweeney is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand rising stars. But if that origin story sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. Sweeney is frank about the struggles her parents faced and the sacrifices they made. “I don’t come from a boatload of money. When we moved to LA, everything was so expensive that we ended up losing our house back home – and everything else we owned.”
“I don’t come from a boatload of MONEY. When we moved to LA, everything was so expensive that we ended up losing our HOUSE – and everything else we owned”
All of this makes Sweeney’s desire to acquire a greater sense of agency in an industry where one’s career is often dictated by the whims of other people all the more understandable. She recently enrolled in business school and launched her own production company, Fifty Fifty Films, which has just begun work on its first project – a television adaption of the YA novel They Wish They Were US, by Jessica Goodman. As a first outing is often something of a creative manifesto, what was it about this story that captivated Sweeney? “I just saw it all unfold so clearly in my head. The themes, the dynamics and the social issues that it explores all align so perfectly with the issues we’re struggling with today,” she says. Sweeney is set to executive produce and star in the show alongside her friend, musician Halsey [real name Ashley Nicolette Frangipane], which is something Sweeney is particularly excited about. “Ashley and I are such great friends – it’s going to be a lot of fun already having a comrade on set.”
While she’s relishing building a project from the ground up, right now Sweeney is laser-focused on finishing Euphoria. The show – created by writer and director Sam Levinson and also starring Zendaya and Hunter Schafer – is a raw, often shocking, and always-honest insight into the world of teenagers today, and it catapulted its young stars to stratospheric fame when it first aired in June 2019.
Sweeney is convinced that the show’s success boils down to the universal nature of its themes. “It’s not just teenagers that are going through these things. None of us ever really grow up.” In her opinion, Euphoria’s transcendence is rooted in the sensitivity with which it tackles tricky and often taboo subject matter. “When you take things seriously, they’re received in a serious manner,” she says. Last season alone, Cassie’s storyline touched upon topics ranging from slut-shaming to domestic dysfunction, addiction and pregnancy.
The show’s depiction of sex is undeniably graphic – whether or not it is gratuitous has been hotly contested in the media – and with intimacy coaching becoming standard practice across the industry in recent years, I wonder if this is a resource that has helped Sweeney navigate those scenes. She likens the choreography to dance because “it’s so technical”, and says that, from time to time, even she is taken aback by the final result. “Sometimes, I’ll watch a scene after it airs and go, ‘holy shit, I don’t even remember doing that – this looks way worse than it was!’”
“I want PEOPLE to be constantly taken ABACK by the characters I play and the CHOICES that I make”
The cast are close, she says, but she’s formed the strongest bond with her onscreen younger sister Lexie, played by Maude Apatow. When production wraps, the pair have big plans to kick off the festive season with a day out at Disneyland, but it’s not just her Euphoria family that Sweeney will be celebrating the holidays with. This year marks a milestone for the actor, as it will be the first time she’s hosting for her extended family, in the Los Angeles home she recently purchased.
“I’m just hoping my couch comes in time, so we aren’t all sitting on the floor for a week!” she laughs, joking that there’s a strong chance the family will be sitting down to Italian takeout on Christmas Day. Whatever’s on the menu, it sounds like it will be a memorable way to round off a career-defining year.
Season 2 of Euphoria is on HBO Max (in the US) from January 9; and on Now and Sky Atlantic (in the UK) from January 10
The Fashion Challenge with Sydney Sweeney
From the perfect date-night look to a New Year’s Eve dress for ringing in 2022 in style, watch as Sydney Sweeney puts her styling skills to the test with her fantasy outfits for some stylish occasions…
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