Sydney Sweeney Was Told She Didn’t Have the ‘Right Look’ for TV
If you’ve been keeping up with some of the buzziest TV shows, then you’ve definitely seen Sydney Sweeney’s face a time or 20. The actor has had an incredible few years and stacked her resume with fantastic projects. Thus far, Sweeney has been in The Handmaid’s Tale, Sharp Objects, Euphoria, The White Lotus, and more. But the 24-year-old isn’t limiting herself to the small screen. This summer, she’ll begin filming her first Marvel movie alongside Dakota Johnson. The pair was cast in Sony’s upcoming film, Madame Web.
Sydney Sweeney’s parents sacrificed a lot for her success
Sweeney may seem like an overnight celebrity, but it took plenty of work and sacrifice before she found her footing in Hollywood. The Everything Sucks! star originally hails from Spokane, Washington, and had no connections whatsoever to Hollywood. But despite that, her parents moved out to Los Angeles in pursuit of her dream. However, navigating a new city and a foreign industry took a toll on her family.
“The first few years in LA were actually really hard on my family,” Sweeney explained to SBJCT Journal. “It’s way more expensive than where we are from, and that was difficult, and there’s about a million other girls that had the same dream who were always prettier or better than me… I wasn’t super confident as a preteen/teen so I’d feel defeated quite often.”
A casting director told the ‘Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’ star that she’d never be on a TV show
One thing that was a blow to Sweeney’s confidence was the constant rejection she faced. In a separate interview with GQ UK, the producer shared that a casting director once hurled a nasty criticism at her. “A casting director told me once that I will never be on a TV show,” Sweeney revealed. According to the Nocturne star, the casting director told her she didn’t have the “right look” to succeed as an actor. However, Sweeney certainly got her comeuppance. “Now, I’m on some of the biggest TV shows in the world,” she declared.
Sweeney is happy she didn’t find her success at a younger age
Sweeney’s success has been hard-won, but she’s actually glad things have worked out the way that they have. While speaking with SBJCT, she admits that she’s happy she didn’t hit her acting stride earlier in her life. She got candid about how the frequent rejection was damaging to her self-esteem. Now, she’s much more confident in the skin she’s in.
“I think I’m glad that I didn’t hit my success as a teen or child because I wouldn’t have been ready or as confident in myself as I am today,” Sweeney explained. “I was in front of more casting cameras than actual cameras growing up, and as much as I loved it and learned so much from that, it tears you down as a teen girl. You get told ‘no’ so many times, and then add on top just being a teen girl in itself and discovering who you are is its own thing.”
