A version of this story about Sydney Sweeney first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Drama issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Sydney Sweeney wants to be put through the wringer. She grew up admiring actors like Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, hoping she’d one day step into roles like theirs.
“I always loved how strong they were,” she said, adding that she was attracted to “anything that I watched that was just completely, vastly different from my life.”
At 24 years old, she’s now double Emmy nominated for two roles that arguably fit that bill, entering the HBO stratosphere as emotional high schooler Cassie Howard on “Euphoria,” which subsequently landed her the role of privileged socialite Olivia Mossbacher on “The White Lotus.”
Of the nine actors who are nominated for multiple Emmys this year, only Sweeney and Julia Garner received their noms for lead or supporting roles in two different programs.
Separating herself from her characters is something Sweeney’s talked about extensively, yet still comes under scrutiny for — especially when it involves nude scenes (a double standard that she’s argued doesn’t exist for men in Hollywood).
“I can easily separate myself from a character, and I understand that that might not be as easy for an audience,” she said. “But I hope that as I continue to give an audience more and more characters, they slowly start to realize that I am living and breathing the truth of somebody else’s life. It’s not Sydney Sweeney.”
Her performance in Season 2 of “Euphoria” earned her professional accolades and a higher level of exposure, thanks to scenes that have gone viral. She now finds herself living under a microscope as she tries to navigate this moment in her career. While she doesn’t have all the answers, Sweeney plans to forge ahead, doing her job as best she can while protecting her privacy.
“I was always raised to talk honestly with people, and I think it’s difficult because in this industry, our reality will definitely be different than most,” she said. “And so it is hard to speak on topics that might not be easily digestible. I’m learning that the more I give away, the more people want to take. It’s like this balance of trying to keep a healthy personal life but also wanting to share the most authentic version of myself with my audience.”
She’ll attend the 74th annual Primetime Emmy Awards on her 25th birthday. She admits that reflecting on how she made it to this moment in her career is “a wild thought.”
“I put myself probably on tape for 50 to 100 auditions and never even got a call,” she said. “That was the work, and I learned to fall in love with it. I’d get all creative. When I had to tape auditions, like if it was in the car, I would go to the car and I would eat a burger — anything that the characters do. I started filming as if I was doing a scene because I fell in love with auditioning.”
How does she feel now about those auditions that she never received a callback for?
“It’s hard. I’m still figuring out how to deal with that,” she admits. “No one wants to be rejected. But I am having to trust the process and know that things will happen when they’re supposed to.”
Read more from the Down to the Wire: Drama issue here.
