Sydney Sweeney Hadn’t Seen ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Until After She Auditioned
Sydney Sweeney is a star thanks to her performances in Euphoria, the first season of The White Lotus, and her status as a social media brand ambassador. She earned Emmy nominations for both acting roles, but she was also a part of the cast on another celebrated TV show.
Sweeney played Eden Spencer in season two of The Handmaid’s Tale, playing a child bride attempting to find her place in the misogynist dystopia of Gilead rule. The show made big waves when it debuted in 2017, but Sweeney had no idea what the show was about when she auditioned for the part.
Sydney Sweeney binged on the show after her audition
We’ve all had to pull an all-nighter or two in the name of school or work, but you rarely hear about an actor bingeing on a show they’re already trying to get hired for. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sweeney admitted that she hadn’t watched a single episode of The Handmaid’s Tale before she got the audition.
She decided to watch the pilot to prepare and quickly became entranced with the world. “I ended up watching the entire season that night. Because I couldn’t stop,” Sweeney recalled. “And then I ran out of my room, went to my mom’s room, and was like ‘You have to watch this show, and we watched it all over again.” She then read the Margaret Atwood novel after she earned a callback.
It’s surprising to hear given the cultural phenomenon that was the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale, but it makes more sense once you consider where Sweeney was in her career. She was still a very young actor with little financial stability. Getting a role and a paycheck was more important than having a real connection to the material she was reading.
Sweeney played a 15-year-old bride in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Eden enters the narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale as a true believer in the authoritarian status quo. As a 15-year-old in this world, it’s the only reality she’s ever known. But that context doesn’t make the sight of her being married off to Commander Nick Blaine (Max Minghella) in a group wedding any less unnerving.
Eden opens her eyes to the cruelty of the situation in time, but not soon enough to avoid becoming another casualty of a society that views freedom for women as a threat.
Thankfully, Sweeney’s experience on set was much less traumatic than her character’s storyline. She built a rapport with the writer’s room of the show and her ideas about Eden influenced how they wrote about her. During the wedding scene, she could barely see Minghella because of the white veil that was part of her costume. The two spent their off-time during production listening to Taylor Swift and becoming good friends.
“It is completely different when you’re actually in the scene. It’s good to have something to take you out,” she said. “And the crew are all nice and fun, so you never get stuck in it.”
Sydney Sweeney has a history of bit-part roles in more significant projects
This wasn’t the first time Sweeney played a small role in a notable production.
Her first TV role was on the NBC show Heroes, and she also made one-off appearances on other basic cable shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, and Pretty Little Liars. The same year Sweeney joined The Handmaid’s Tale cast, she appeared on HBO’s Sharp Objects as Alice in two episodes.
Sweeney’s movie career is not as vaunted as her TV work, but she still has some notable credits. She was part of the cast for the 2018 cult classic Under the Silver Lake and had a supporting role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Her next role will be much more prominent. Sweeney is one of the stars in Marvel’s Madame Web, currently slated for February 2024.
