In recent months, a lot of people have demonstrated a total inability to be normal about Sydney Sweeney.
Sometimes people are being creeps towards the Euphoria actress. Other times, people try to turn her into a one-woman culture war.
Recently, film producer Carol Baum leveled a lot of criticism at the Anyone But You star — insulting her acting talent, her looks, and her popularity.
Now, Sydney is clapping back.
Producer Carol Baum is not a fan of Sydney Sweeney
The Jacob Burns Film Center held a screening of Carol Baum’s 1998 film, Dead Ringers. There, The Daily Mail reports, Baum griped about Sydney Sweeney after having watched Anyone But You on a plane trip.
“I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her,” Baum explained during the Q&A.
“I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this movie — (this) romantic comedy where they hate each other,” she complained.
Anyone But You stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. The rom com about bitter exes faking a relationship raked in $218.8 million in theaters. Notably, that makes it a rarity — a successful romantic comedy in a time when so few of them exist, and even fewer manage to “work” with audiences.
“I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me,’” Baum claimed. Notably, she is a professor at the University of Southern California.
Baum then went on to make some outlandish claims before posing a question: “She’s not pretty. She can’t act. Why is she so hot?”
A rep for the actress is firing back
“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” Sweeney’s rep expressed to USA Today on Wednesday, April 17.
“If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students,” the rep noted, “that’s shameful.”
Sydney Sweeney’s rep added: “To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
attends the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 10, 2024. (Photo Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
According to TMZ, Carol Baum has expressed regret over her criticism of the two-time Emmy nominee. That is understandable. Many people have said foolish things about celebrities — but most are anonymous enough that it doesn’t make the rounds on the internet.
And, specifically, a lot of people are extremely weird about Sydney Sweeney. Specifically. This case of what some have suggested might be internalized misogyny on Baum’s part is actually unusual.
A lot of the time, weirdo trolls who go after Sydney Sweeney are men who objectify her. Some want to shame her, while others try to mold her into some sort of “culture war symbol” against her will.
Please be more normal about Sydney Sweeney
In March, some consummate weirdos on Twitter claimed that the actor attending the GLAAD Awards was some sort of cultural win against “the woke.” Why? Seemingly because she is pretty and blonde and white and thus their visual ideal.
It is unsurprising that this particular type of person completely ignores who Sydney Sweeney is as a person. And while it’s awful that they treat the actress as a political prop, it’s a little funny that they think that “oh no, a pretty woman attended an awards show” is a victory.
That’s an interesting way of moving goalposts. Meanwhile, we’re curious how these same creeps felt if they watched her psychological horror film, Immaculate.