Sydney Sweeney Calls Hollywood Feminism ‘Fake’

On Tuesday, Vanity Fair unveiled its 2025 Hollywood Issue starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, and two of the three Challengers who, as we learned, still maintain a group chat. Also featured in the spread was Anyone But You co-stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney and boy, did Sweeney have a lot to say about Hollywood’s internalized misogyny and imitations of women’s empowerment.

“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 said.

While it’s not at all difficult to imagine the current pin-up of every heterosexual man having a tough time making girlfriends in perhaps the most competitive industry in the world, she’s speaking specifically about Carol Baum, the veteran producer who, in April, said the actress was “not pretty” and that she “can’t act.”

“I don’t get Sydney Sweeney,” Baum told Janet Maslin of the New York Times in April. “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.” Baum, I’ll note, was the producer behind Dead Ringers, Father of the Bride, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so her comments caused quite a stir.

“This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women,'” Sweeney went on. “None of it’s happening. All of it is fake and a front for all the other shit that they say behind everyone’s back.” Damn. Tell us more. Which 30-year-old is going to be making the most trouble on the set of Euphoria set when it returns in January?

Sweeney then went on a bit of Women’s Studies 101 tangent, theorizing that a scarcity mindset is the only compass with which women are socialized to navigate life.

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

Feminism, am I right?

• King Charles pulled up to the London premiere of Gladiator II. [Us Weekly]
• Speaking of, I’m giggling at Denzel Washington tripping over his words while meeting him. And smiling and kicking my feet at Pedro Pascal. [TMZ]
• Lady Gaga has signed on for season 3 of Wednesday. [Just Jared]
• Never thought I’d say this but…I need Andy and a camera back on Teddi Mellencamp. [Page Six]
• Anne Hathaway learned the hard way that there’s a benefit to nosebleed seats. [People]
• Whoopi Goldberg claimed a NYC baker refused her patronage for her political views. The baker has claimed otherwise. [Entertainment Weekly]