“I was always worried that I would only play the girl next door or the cute girlfriend,” Sydney Sweeney told a journalist in 2018. And while the actress is every bit as Miss Americana as Taylor Swift, she has succeeded in her quest. don’t be stigmatized.
Sweeney initially found success after landing supporting roles in several respected television shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects, alongside heavyweights such as Elisabeth Moss and Amy Adams. She also played the lead character Emaline in the 2018 Netflix teen comedy series Everything Sucks!, which meant more screen time and a chance to flex her acting muscles as a dramatic teen diva. It clearly struck a chord: Sweeney’s big hits in HBO’s Euphoria and White Lotus, which debuted within two years of each other, both involved playing a troubled, flawed Gen Z teenager.
Sydney Sweeney in the new Rolling Stones video
/ YouTubeIt’s important to note that all of the characters had some degree of “layers,” which unfortunately isn’t a requirement for female leads even in 2023. After becoming an HBO darling, Sweeney turned her attention to other areas: film, fashion and now, rather unexpectedly, a Rolling Stones music video.
The iconic English rock band are back with new track Angry as part of their upcoming album Hackney Diamonds, the band’s first studio album since 2005. In the video, Sweeney, 25, appears as a leather-clad man. a good-girl-gone-bad girl (the girl next door can’t answer the phone right now, she’s dead) who sings along to the music as she passes nostalgic billboards depicting iconic moments from the Stones’ past. It gives off an Alicia Silverstone meets Aerosmith vibe.
So how did this true American girl go from living in a rural lake house in Washington to screaming the Stones on Sunset Boulevard? Here’s a summary of her wild ride.
Natural bribe taker in a house without internet
Sydney Sweeney in 2017
/ Vivienne Killealy/Getty Images for ELLEBorn to a criminal defense lawyer mother and father, variously described as a hospitality professional and, in Swenny’s own words, a “medical worker”, you would think Sweeney would have a fairly average childhood. As it turns out, she grew up in a relatively rural area, was unplugged, had no internet at home, and was encouraged to make her own entertainment. “It’s a different way of life,” Sweeney said of her childhood in Spokane, a city in Washington on the Idaho border. “It’s very simple. Family is everything.”
Sweeney was on the school soccer team, the baseball team, the slalom ski team, the robotics team—pretty much every team available. She also tried her hand at wakeboarding, golf, softball, skiing and dirt biking, while also juggling membership in an academic club called Math Is Cool (yes, seriously). Sweeney, as you might expect, was the class valedictorian (for us Brits, that’s the student with the highest GPA), and her extracurricular habits continue to this day. She restores antique cars, studies mixed martial arts, and founded the production company Fifty-Fifty Films. Oh yeah, and she can sing. Sorry.
He grew up in a religious family.
Sweeney also said that she grew up in a religious family, although she does not appear to practice any faith herself. “I come from a religious family, but I’m open to all religions,” she said in 2018, discussing her role as a possessed woman in the horror film Along Came the Devil. In the same interview, she revealed that her father and great-grandmother are big horror fans and that she watched a lot of horror films with them while growing up.
Perhaps Sweeney is so crazy obsessed with Christmas because of her religious relatives. In an interview with GQ, the actress revealed that she desperately wants to make a Christmas movie and spends months before the big day looking at Christmas decorations online. “(It’s) a disease,” she joked.
Sydney Sweeney at the premiere of the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale in Hollywood
/ Emma McIntyre/Getty Images HuluSweeney’s conservative family background has made headlines several times since she became famous. First, when she revealed that she almost didn’t take part in Euphoria because she thought her family wouldn’t approve of the graphic nature of the show. “What’s crazy,” she said in the 2021 interview, “and this is going to sound really bad, is when I first heard about the audition, I was too nervous to go for it,” she continued. “I grew up in a smaller town, with my family that is a little more conservative, and I thought, ‘They’ll kill me if I do something like that.’
Then, when Sweeney was photographed at a family birthday party with Make America Great Again hats in the background, the Internet was ready to pay tribute to their once-favorite teen drama queen. “There were so many misinterpretations,” she said afterward of the response. “The people in the photos weren’t even my family. The people who brought the things that upset people were actually my mom’s friends from Los Angeles who have kids walking down the street in the Pride parade and they thought it would be fun to wear because they came in Idaho.”
Her five-year plan to become an actor
Sydney Sweeney attends the Netflix premiere of Everything Sucks! at AMC Loews 34th Street in New York
/ Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty ImagesOne day, amid wakeboarding, math and softball, Sweeney’s attention was drawn to an opportunity to play an extra in an independent film being filmed in Spokane. “I grew up in a town where there was no entertainment industry, so acting was a fairytale,” Sweeney said in 2019. “They were holding auditions, so I begged my parents to let me audition by putting together a five-year business plan presentation. My mom is a lawyer and my dad works in the medical field, so school has always been very important. I always knew how to communicate with them that way.”
But like all aspiring actors living outside the City of Angels, she faced a major geographic barrier: moving to Los Angeles or getting lucky in the industry. So, when Sweeney was 14, her parents agreed to move to Los Angeles (while keeping their home in Spokane) rather than fly back and forth hoping Sweeney would make it. Knowing what we know now, it seems like a safe choice. That wasn’t the case then.
Sydney Sweeney Attends Teen Vogue’s New Hollywood Celebration
/ Vivien Killealy/Getty Images for Teen Vogue“Looking back, (it) doesn’t make sense because if they couldn’t afford to travel back and forth, they wouldn’t be able to afford to live in Los Angeles,” Sweeney said of her parents. Finances were so tight that her parents lost their home in Spokane and the family had to temporarily move into a Holiday Inn in Burbank, California, which Sweeney compared to “a bad version of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.”
“My mom, my dad, my brother and I lived in a regular one-bedroom hotel room for nine months,” Sweeney told C Magazine. “I was 16—not the age where you want to live in a hotel, sharing sex with your mom.”
First Netflix, then HBO.
After a string of supporting roles in everything from Grey’s Anatomy to Pretty Little Liars, Sweeney finally landed a recurring role on The Handmaid’s Tale and then a starring role in Everything Sucks!, a Netflix teen comedy about the exploits of a high school AV club. . . During this time, she was noticed by HBO casting agents, who recruited her for a role in Sharp Objects, a television adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s debut novel. Sweeney split her time by working seven days a week filming Everything Sucks! on weekdays and sharp objects on weekends. The release of these two projects is what really got things moving for Sweeney, who soon after, in 2019, landed a role in the HBO series Euphoria, which ended up being her big break.
Sydney Sweeney as Cassie Howard in Euphoria
/ Eddie Chen, courtesy of HBODiscussing the naive, corrupt (and often naked) Cassie Howard, Sweeney told Variety: “She doesn’t know how to communicate without showing her body. It’s a form of communication for her, and she was never taught not to do that.”
After her nude scenes drew criticism, Sweeney rushed to the defense of controversial director Sam Levinson (also responsible for another controversial, hypersexual HBO show, Idol), saying, “There are moments (in Euphoria) when Cassie should have been shirtless, and I was telling Sam, “I don’t think that’s necessary here.” He said, “Okay, we don’t need that.” I never felt like Sam was forcing it on me or trying to insert a nude scene into the HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t force me.” But rather than allaying concerns about over-sexualization, Sweeney’s comments only fueled criticism of the director. Idol was canceled after one season, and Euphoria’s third season is currently on hold due to the writers’ strike.
Sydney Sweeney and Brittany O’Grady as Olivia and Paula in The White Lotus
/ HBOBy 2021, Sweeney had landed a key role in another HBO series, White Lotus, where she played the cunning and sharp-tongued teenager Olivia, for which she received further praise, as well as an Emmy nomination.
Cinema, men and Miu Miu
Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney
/ Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesFollowing her breakthrough, Sweeney moved from television to the silver screen, dividing her attention between indie projects and major franchises. The actress received widespread recognition for her role as whistleblower “Reality Winner,” the woman who helped expose Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, in the 2023 drama “Reality.” On a more mainstream note, Sweeney has also been cast in Madame Web as part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) franchise alongside Dakota Johnson and has signed on for the highly anticipated rom-com Anybody But You.
Sweeney’s participation in the rom-com alongside male love interest Glen Powell brought with it new interest in the actress’s love life after fans began speculating about a potential off-screen romance.
Sweeney with Jonathan Davino in 2018
/ Charlie Galley/Getty Images for InStyleHowever, hopeful fans are out of luck: Sweeney has been engaged since February 2022. She also expressed gratitude due to the distance between her partner, restaurant owner and businessman Jonathan Davino, and the entertainment industry. “I don’t date actors or musicians or anyone else in the entertainment industry because that way I can be a regular Sid and that’s the easiest thing,” she said last year.
“I have a great support system. I have people who will fight for me and allow me to be on a pedestal and shine without making me feel like, “Oh no, I’m shining too bright and I need to step back.”
It is unknown how she and Davino crossed paths, but Sweeney is said to have been dating the 38-year-old businessman since 2018, and the pair have made numerous public appearances together over the years.
Sydney Sweeney attended the Miu Miu Women’s Tales dinner in Venice
/ Getty Images for Miu MiuMost recently, they attended a dinner hosted by fashion brand Miu Miu at the Venice Film Festival, where Sweeney showed off looks all weekend. Since coming into the public eye, the actress has received widespread recognition for her fashion efforts, from bold bibs to stylish peek-a-boo bras. Sweeney became a Savage X Fenty lingerie ambassador in 2020 and a Miu Miu ambassador in 2022, and a Tory Burch ambassador soon after.
Of their collaboration, Tory Burch said in 2022: “Sydney is one of the most talented and relevant young actresses working today, but I am equally inspired by her curiosity and confidence. She is unapologetic and empowered in her approach to acting and business.”
Considering her insane amount of extracurricular activities, detailed five-year plan, and busy work schedule, we couldn’t agree more.