Sydney Sweeney calls out ‘fake’ female solidarity in Hollywood

Sydney Sweeney says the idea of women supporting women in Hollywood is purely performative. 

The Anyone But You actress shut down the belief that solidarity exists between women in the entertainment industry during a recent Vanity Fair interview. 

“This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening,” she said. “All of it is fake and a front for all the other s— that they say behind everyone’s back.” 

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The issue came up as part of a larger conversation about how Hollywood treats its rising female stars, especially after Sweeney herself was publicly criticized by top producer Carol Baum at a Dead Ringers screening in April. At the event, the Daily Mail reported that Baum, an adjunct professor at USC, not only called Sweeney “not pretty,” but also said that she “can’t act” and that her and Glen Powell’s rom-com Anyone But You was “unwatchable.” 

Speaking to Vanity Fair about the incident, Sweeney said, “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.” 

The actress — who produced and starred in the horror film Immaculate earlier this year — noted that there are “many studies and different opinions” on what causes this type of behavior.

“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. There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything,” she said. “So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, Let’s all lift each other up.” 

Sweeney acknowledged that she’s still trying to figure out the best way to navigate this type of conduct moving forward, too. “I’m just trying my best over here,” she added. “Why am I getting attacked?”

A representative for Sweeney previously spoke out against Baum’s comments in April, telling Entertainment Weekly in a statement, “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.”

They continued, “If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”