Sydney Sweeney is calling out Hollywood over its “women empowering other women” movement, claiming the whole idea is an illusion.
The “Anyone But You” star, 27, spoke about the power dynamic among women in the entertainment industry during an interview with Vanity Fair for the magazine’s 2025 Hollywood Issue.
“It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down,” she told the outlet in an interview published Wednesday.
“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.”
“This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening,” Sweeney added. “All of it is fake and a front for all the other s – – t that they say behind everyone’s back.”
The “Euphoria” star went on to share her thoughts on why some women might tear each other down in private while pretending to embrace the virtues of women’s empowerment in public.“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.”
Sweeney also said that she’s “still trying to figure it out” herself, explaining, “I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?”
Women’s empowerment in the entertainment industry — or lack thereof — came up during the Vanity Fair interview in reference to the controversy that blew up earlier this year after a veteran Hollywood producer publicly criticized Sweeney’s acting abilities and her physical appearance.
“There’s an actress who everybody loves now – Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney,” producer Carol Baum said at an April screening of her 1988 film, “Dead Ringers,” according to Daily Mail.
The filmmaker, whose credits include “Father of the Bride” and “Shining Through,” told the audience that she watched Sweeney’s 2023 hit romantic comedy “Anyone But You” on a plane because she “wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her.” Baum called the film “unwatchable.”
“She’s not pretty, she can’t act,” Baum said of Sweeney.
An adjunct professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, she also recalled asking students in one of her classes to “explain” Sweeney’s appeal.
“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,” she continued.
Soon after Baum’s remarks went viral, a rep for Sweeney blasted the producer’s comments as “shameful.”
“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” the rep told The Post. “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 received heaps of backlash online and later said she regretted her remarks, telling TMZ that publicly trashing an actor usually isn’t her MO.
