Some of you claim that Sydney Sweeney is a charisma vacuum, but I kind of like her? She gives good interviews, she plays the game, she’s cute and sexy and she’s worked hard for everything she has. She’s not a nepo-baby, she’s a hustler (positive). Sydney is currently promoting the horror film Immaculate, where she plays a young nun who joins an Italian convent and sh-t gets wacky and probably sacreligious too. Sydney is the executive producer on Immaculate, just as she produced Anyone But You, the surprise sleeper rom-com hit. Shifting into producing while still just taking regular old acting gigs is such a smart play for her. She recently chatted with Variety about all of this and more:

Producing & acting in ‘Immaculate’: “There’s videos and pictures of me standing in video village, helping set up other shots, holding the script and switching some things around, all drenched in blood. I felt like a kid at a playground — endless imagination, and I felt so in control. Mike [Mohan], I’ve worked with him three times, and it’s just a dream, because he values my opinion and lets me take such charge.”

Doing a film about pregnancy/parthenogenesis in a moment when reproductive rights are being curtailed: “So the script has been around for 10 years — I auditioned for it when I was 16. And it was a very different draft. I called the writer, Andrew Lobel, and got the clean, original draft, then reworked it to fit who I am today, keeping a lot of the same themes and storylines. And one of the biggest ones that carried over was something innately in the project that, sadly, is still a topic of discussion today. What’s so cool is that there are so many different themes and points of conversation for people to draw their own conclusions or assumptions. That’s what I love — when a film doesn’t try to drive one message into an audience’s mind and tell them, This is what you need to believe. I love when a film has a variation of ideas and concepts and allows people to conclude their own opinion.”

She always want to do a straight horror film: “Being in the horror genre is fun, because in that genre, there’s no limitations or boundaries. I always find it so funny when people pick apart a horror film’s rules, or its storytelling. I’m like, It’s a horror film. You’re just having fun. It’s not a movie for the Oscars; you know that going into it. We want to create something good, but it’s fun having characters that can go to such extreme, absurd places, and people don’t question it.”

It’s important to her that her films get theatrical releases: “I love the entire experience of going to a theater. I love getting your popcorn and your candy, having your group of friends. And I also like that you have to put away your phone. You have to actually live in the moment and live in that world. We are all subjected to watching stuff on our computers or our TV, and we can do multiple things at the same time without really immersing ourselves into this world, letting the outside world shut off. That’s what I love about storytelling is being able to create a new world. Being able to bring people into a theater is to let them shut off the outside world for 90 minutes. It’s fun. It’s exciting. Get off the couch.

The box office success of Anyone But You: “I get chills just talking about it. We are all so beyond grateful and ecstatic that it has been loved to the degree that it has been loved. Seeing people shut off the outside world and feel all the emotions we wanted them to feel while we were making it, then leave the theater singing and dancing and wanting to fall in love — that is what the movie theatergoing experience is supposed to ignite inside you.

Whether a man with her CV would get more recognition: “There’s way more actresses in the pool in this industry than there are actors, so you have a higher rate of competition. But as a male, it’s much easier to do one movie that does really well, and then you can get offered any film that you want. And me, I’m still getting “Can she act?” accusations. Go watch “Reality,” “White Lotus,” “Euphoria,” “Sharp Objects,” “Handmaid’s Tale” — but, OK, I’ll keep trying to prove myself, and hope that one day I can get cast with an amazing director and have a film that people recognize.

Being an actress-for-hire on Madame Web: “I want to be as involved in the process for any project moving forward that I possibly can. I love being in the room to be able to problem-solve, and come up with ideas. It’s so important to have multiple people at the table instead of just one — everybody who can be collaborative and truly help build a project. It takes everybody. On “Madame Web,” it was so hard not being able to be as involved as I love being. And I felt very free with “Anyone But You” and “Immaculate” being able to have that.

[From Variety]

I like that she’s putting her work front and center – Variety tried to get her to talk about her body and how (basically) her boobs are going viral every week, and she just kind of shimmied out of the conversation, saying that people don’t see her as real and that she’s still doesn’t know how to feel about it. But again, it’s about the work for her, and it’s so cool that this young woman (she’s only 26) is already executive producing hit movies and she’s so involved with the business side. She’s also right about her CV – a man would be handed a superhero franchise with half of her CV.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.