Sydney Sweeney isn’t taking criticism to heart. ICYMI, producer Carol Baum insulted Sweeney’s looks and acting abilities during a screening event at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York, on April 11. The Anyone But You actor’s rep responded to Baum’s comments on April 17, giving a firm statement to Variety — and Sweeney’s team had a few choice words for Baum.
“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” Sweeney’s rep told Variety. “If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
Baum’s original comments about Sweeney were harsh. During a conversation with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin, Baum slammed Sweeney (for no apparent reason?). “There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney,” she said, per The Daily Mail.
Apparently, Baum — who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Father of the Bride — had recently watched Sweeney and Glen Powell’s rom-com Anyone but You, which she called “unwatchable.” Baum said, “I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her.”
Afterward, Baum — a professor at the University of Southern California — asked her students about Sweeney’s appeal. “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer,” she added. “But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’”
Baum explained her POV, “That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”
Per TMZ, Baum now regrets the criticism. According to the outlet, she said that she wishes she never spoke about Sweeney and that it was out of character for her.
