Actress Sydney Sweeney slams ‘fake’ female empowerment in Hollywood

CNN
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Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney has criticized what she calls “fake” statements about women’s empowerment in the entertainment industry.

Sweeney made the comments in an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday, in response to widely reported comments from Hollywood producer Carol Baum earlier this year, who said Sweeney is “not beautiful” and “can’t act.”

At the time, Sweeney’s team released a statement calling the comments “embarrassing.”

Now the actress and producer has recused herself, linking the disparaging comments to what she believes is a wider problem in the industry.

“It’s very disheartening to see women putting down other women, especially when women who are successful in other areas of their industry see young talent working very hard – hoping to make their dreams come true – and then trying to get any work to bash and discredit. what they did,” Sweeney said.

“All the people say is this whole industry is ‘women empowering other women.’ None of it happens. It’s all fake and a cover for all the other things they say behind everyone’s back.”

“I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it,” she continued.

“I’ve read that we’ve grown up all our lives – and it’s a generational problem – with the idea that only one woman can be at the top. There is one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything,” Sweeney said.

“So then everyone else feels like they have to fight each other or put that one woman down instead of saying, ‘Let’s all lift each other up.’ I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m just doing my best here. Why am I being attacked?”

Sweeney, whose roles in “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” earned her two Emmy nominations, is currently working on a biopic about famed boxer Christy Martin, and shared an update on the project on Instagram in October.

In the post, Sweeney wrote that she is “immersed in training to bring an incredible woman’s story to life.”

She shared two photos of herself on set, wearing a red muscle T-shirt that showed off the physical results of her workout, along with a ’90s-style curly hairdo.

In the caption, Sweeney described Martin — who is widely regarded as the most successful female boxer and a pioneer in the inclusion of women in the sport — as a “true champion who has fought battles both inside and outside the ring.”