Originally appeared on E! Online
Sydney Sweeney is holding her head up high.
The "Euphoria" star is clapping back after "Father of the Bride" producer Carol Baum said during a recent event that she doesn't understand the hype around Sweeney as she is "not pretty" and "she can't act."
"How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman," a rep for Sweeney said in a statement to E! News April 17. "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."
The rep added, "To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum's character."
Baum — a producer on films like "Fly Away Home" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" — took aim at Sweeney during a conversation with the audience after an April 11 screening of her 1988 film "Dead Ringers."
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"There's an actress who everybody loves now, Sydney Sweeney," Baum said during the event, according to the Daily Mail. "I don't get Sydney Sweeney."
The producer, who also teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, explained that she watched Sweeney's 2023 romcom "Anyone But You" on a plane because she, "wanted to know who [Sydney] is and why everybody's talking about her," but that she found the movie "unwatchable."
She explained that she had even opened up the discussion in her USC producing class, asking her students, "Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?''
E! News has reached out to Baum for comment but has not heard back yet.
After the event, New York Times film critic Janet Maslin, who moderated the post-screening conversation with Baum, attempted to clarify the intention of the producer's comments amid the backlash. Agreeing that "Anyone But You" "IS unwatchable," she explained on X, formerly Twitter, April 16. "We brought up Anyone But You because it's been the rare smash hit rom-com at a time when they aren't working. Not because we wanted to take cheap shots at anyone."
However, many including a producer on Sweeney's new film "Immaculate," chimed in with a whole lot of praise for the "White Lotus" alum.
"I'll enlighten Ms. Baum that two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney is not only one of the most talented actresses I've worked with," Teddy Schwarzman wrote on X April 17, "but also incredibly smart, kind and humble."
He continued, "I'm not sure why someone who claims to still be a producer would make such terribly ugly comments."
As for Sweeney, the 26-year-old has previously reflected on dealing with scrutiny that comes with life in the public eye.
"I kind of just have to take [it] day by day and just keep being myself," she said on Today in March, "of course it's not natural. I'm just trying to figure out how to deal with all of it."
