Sydney Sweeney Clarifies What Happened at Her Mother’s Birthday Party

Sydney Sweeney has nothing to hide about her family or her personal life. In a Variety Young Hollywood cover story, the Euphoria star opens up about the persistent rumors surrounding her family’s political leanings as well as her friendship with co-star Glenn Powell.  

Sweeney admits that sometimes she feels “beat up” by all the public scrutiny that comes along with fame, particularly as someone from a humble background who grew up on the Washington-Idaho border. “It’s hard to sit back and watch, and not be able to stand up for yourself,” she tells the trade. “I’ll see my uncle comment on things and I’m like, ‘You gotta stop,’ but it’s so hard, because I grew up in a small town, and they don’t get the business of it all. Just like Reality”—the HBO film in which she plays whistleblower Reality Winner—“it was all these tabloids and headlines, but no one knew the actual story.”

In the profile, Sweeney opens up about her family, who came under intense scrutiny thanks to photos from a 60th birthday party she threw for her mother. After Sweeney posted photos from the event on Instagram, users swarmed her account to condemnt attendees for wearing Blue Lives Matter garb and MAGA-styled red caps that read “Make Sixty Great Again.” In the immediate aftermath, Sweeney defended the party, tweeting that it was an “innocent celebration”  which unintentionally turned into “an absurd political statement.”  In the Variety profile, Sweeney provides further clarity.

“There were so many misinterpretations,” Sweeney says. “The people in the pictures weren’t even my family. The people who brought the things that people were upset about were actually my mom’s friends from L.A. who have kids that are walking outside in the Pride parade, and they thought it would be funny to wear because they were coming to Idaho.”

Sweeney also addresses the rumors surrounding her highly-anticipated romantic comedy Anyone But You, which she executive produced and stars in opposite Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell. A series of photos taken of the two of them on-and-off set sparked intense speculation that the two might be having an affair, which was further escalated when Powell ended his relationship with his long term girlfriend, Gigi Paris, who posted a cryptic instagram about their breakup. (For the record, Sweeney is still engaged to her fiancé and producing partner, Jonathan Davino.)

“It’s a rom-com,” said Sweeney regarding the speculation. “That’s what people want! Glen and I don’t really care. We have so much fun together, and we respect each other so much; he’s such a hard worker, and I’m a hard worker. We’re excited for the press tour, and I literally just left ADR with him. We talk all the time like, ‘That’s really funny.’”

“They want it,” Sweeney continues. “It’s fun to give it to ’em.”

Sweeney also went to bat for her Euphoria director Sam Levinson, whose latest HBO outing, The Idol, was a critical and commercial failure, and also sparked rumors of a toxic workplace. “You have me, you have Z [costar Zendaya], you have all of these very strongminded, independent women,” she says. “If we didn’t feel comfortable with something, or we saw something we didn’t like, we’d all speak up. It’s hard to see someone completely trashed by the public and the media when no one’s actually there. We are there, and clearly we’re still working on the show, and we’re still supportive.”

As for her the craft of acting, Sweeney prefers to keep her personal life out of it, choosing to create “character books” rather than draw from her own personal experience. “I wanted to make sure that none of my own memories, my own personal life, was in the character. I think that’s what makes me feel the most human, is being able to have stuff that’s personal to myself.”