Actor Sydney Sweeney has responded to a Hollywood producer’s remarks calling her “not pretty” and someone who “can’t act”.
Veteran producer Carol Baum had made disparaging remarks about Sweeney, the breakout star of Euphoria and White Lotus, at an event where she had also slammed the actor’s hit rom-com Anyone But You.
“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. 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. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum’s character,” Sweeney’s representatives said in a statement to Variety.
Baum, known for films such as Dead Ringers, Father of the Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, made the controversial comments about Sweeney during a discussion with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in Pleasantville, New York.
“There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie (‘Anyone but You’) because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie, sorry to people who love this romantic comedy where they hate each other.” Baum, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, said she discussed Sweeney’s popularity with her class as well.
“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. But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’ … That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.” The producer, according to TMZ, has expressed regret over her comments.
