Sydney Sweeney is firing back at a veteran Hollywood producer who recently made disparaging comments about her skillset and appearance.
This article originally appeared on E! Online.
Women’s empowerment in Hollywood isn’t as immaculate as it may seem, according to Sydney Sweeney.
The "Euphoria" actress called out the “fake" female empowerment trend she's witnessed during her time in the movie business, expressing that in her experience, many women don’t necessarily practice what they preach behind closed doors.
"It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down," Sweeney told Vanity Fair in its Hollywood Issue published Nov. 13, "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."
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"This entire industry, all people say is 'Women empowering other women,'" she continued. "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."
The 27-year-old went on to share her theory behind why this has been the case for her.
"I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it," Sweeney explained. "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."
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"There’s one woman who can get the man," the "Anyone But You" star went on. "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.'"
Sweeney added that she's "still trying to figure it out" when it comes to how things operate in Hollywood, saying, "I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?"
The Fifty-Fifty Films production company founder's honest words were in response to a question about Sweeney's decision earlier this year to respond to viral comments that "Father of the Bride" producer Carol Baum made about her.
After saying that she found Sweeney's movie "Anyone But You" "unwatchable," she told an audience at an April screening of one of her own movies that she thinks the actress is "not pretty" and "she can't act."
Soon after, Sweeney’s team responded to the producer’s words.
"How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman," her rep said in a statement to E! News at the time. "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 statement concluded, "To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum's character."
Sweeney had previously reflected on dealing with the scrutiny that comes with being 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."
