Sidney Sweeney inadvertently found herself in the news earlier this year after veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum said Sweeney “isn’t pretty” and “can’t act” — then slammed Sweeney’s hit comedy “Anybody But You” as… It is “unwatchable”. The actor’s representative responded to Baum at the time, criticizing the producer for daring to “attack another woman.” Now Sweeney herself has addressed the incident in a new interview with Vanity Fair.
“It’s very frustrating to see women tearing down other women, especially when women who are successful in other areas of their industry see young talent working hard — hoping to achieve whatever dreams they may have — and then try to undermine and discredit any business they’ve done,” Sweeney said. “This whole industry, as everyone says, is ‘women empowering other women.’ None of that happens. It’s all fake and a front for all the other bullshit they say behind everyone’s back.
“I mean there are a lot of different studies and opinions about the reasons behind this,” she continued. “I’ve read that all our lives, we’ve been brought up — and it’s a generational problem — to believe that 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 everyone else feels That they should fight each other or take that woman down instead of saying, “Let’s all lift each other up.” I’m just trying my best here. Why am I getting attacked?
Baum, a longtime Hollywood producer and executive behind films including “Dead Ringers,” “Father of the Bride” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” made the disparaging comments about Sweeney during a discussion in Pleasantville, New York, with film critic V. The New York Times. Janet Maslin.
“I don’t understand Sidney Sweeney,” Baum said during the conversation. “I said to my class: ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ And no one had an answer.”
Sweeney’s rep shared a statement with Variety shortly after Baum’s criticism went viral, saying: “How sad that a woman in a position to share her expertise and experience would choose to attack another woman instead. If this is what she’s learned over her decades in the industry And she feels it’s appropriate to teach her students, it’s a shame to unfairly belittle a productive colleague speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.
Head over to Vanity Fair’s website to read Sweeney’s latest interview in full.
