Sydney Sweeney Makes Journals for Characters But Never for Herself
Sydney Sweeney has certainly received quite a bit of attention in the past few years. The actor has given standout performances on hit shows like The White Lotus and Euphoria and caught the attention of major publications like the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She’s also taken even more agency over her career by starting her own production company. Fifty-Fifty Films has already acquired quite a few projects and Sweeney is excited to bring more female-led stories to life. In fact, she has secured a home for her first project, The Players Table, at HBO Max.
It may seem that Sweeney has lucked into her success, but she’s assured fans that that’s not the case. The actor has been pursuing a career in entertainment for over a decade. It took a lot of diligence for her to achieve the level of success that she has now. But even now that she’s become more of a household name, The Washington native isn’t resting on her laurels. She’s not afraid to put in a ton of work in order to succeed.
Sydney Sweeney makes detailed journals for each of her characters
One way that Sweeney goes above and beyond is through her character development process. Instead of having a general idea of the person she’s playing, she painstakingly dreams up their entire lives. For each role she plays, she creates an interactive journal for her character. The books can easily span up to 100 pages and help her to truly embody the role. In an interview with Hunger, Sweeney explained her meticulous process.
“Yeah, so these books are basically like a journal diary map to all of my characters from the day they’re born until the first page of the script,” Sweeney shared. “I take everything I can from the script and then I build and fill in all the gaps about why she is the way she is today and what memories led her to hold herself the way that she holds herself or sit the way she sits. It’s just like this really cool, creative development process to build a person. Just like we are all people with different memories that create who we are today. I take the same approach to a character.”
‘The White Lotus’ actor has never been able to keep a journal or diary for herself
But while Sweeney loves making journals for her characters, she’s never been able to keep up with one for herself. “I would always try to make my own diaries and journals but I could never get into it which is weird,” she admitted. “I would always just imagine the characters when I was younger and then I started writing it down slowly and it progressed into what it is today. I’m very artsy and I love arts and crafts so I put my own love into each of these books.”
Sweeney also creates playlists for her characters
Sweeney also creates musical playlists for the characters that she plays. She does a lot of research digging through songs to figure out what tunes her character might jam out to. However, this makes it harder for the actor to make her own personal playlists. The Handmaid’s Tale alum admits that she won’t listen to the same music as her characters. Clearly, Sweeney takes the craft of acting very seriously. However, her tedious work seems to be paying off for her in a big way.
