Sydney Sweeney rips Hollywood’s ‘women empowering other women’ message

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Sydney Sweeney has slammed Hollywood’s “women empowering other women” message as “fake” and a “front.”

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After roles in White Lotus and Anyone But You, Sweeney became one of the hottest names in Hollywood. But the new ‘it girl’ found herself the subject of some very unkind remarks earlier this year when a veteran Hollywood producer declared she’s “not pretty” and “can’t act.”

Carol Baum, a film executive who worked on such films as Dead Ringers, Father of the Bride, Fly Away Home and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was speaking at an event alongside New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in April when she said: “There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney … I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer.”

As Baum’s comments made the rounds online, a representative for Sweeney, 27, a two-time Emmy nominee who also stars on HBO’s Euphoria, fired back at the Hollywood vet calling her remarks “sad.”

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Now Sweeney herself is addressing the headlines that followed Baum’s blunt assessment, saying in a new interview with Vanity Fair that the notion that Hollywood is supportive of women is phony.

“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 told the outlet as she reflected on Baum’s remarks.

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

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Sweeney also tried to offer her reasoning as to why personalities like Baum felt so comfortable trying to diminish another woman’s success.

“I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it,” Sweeney continued. “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. 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.’ I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?”

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During her lengthy criticism of Sweeney, Baum called the actress’ rom-com hit Anyone But You “unwatchable.”

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“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 … romantic comedy where they hate each other,” she said during her conversation with Maslin.

After she said none of her students could explain Sweeney’s success, Baum wondered aloud, “‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’ … 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.”

Sweeney’s representative shared a statement with Entertainment Weekly after Baum’s criticism went viral that read: “How sad that a woman in the 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 to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”

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