Sydney Sweeney stars as the emotionally troubled Cassie in the dark coming-of-age drama series Euphoria.
Since the second season of the series aired earlier this year, Sydney has discussed getting partially naked for her role, the sexism female actors who undress on screen face compared to men, and body confidence.
In a new interview with GQ, the Sharp Objects star recalled an experience involving a director who told her she didn't have the 'right look'.
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According to Sweeney, the unnamed director negatively predicted her future, too, saying that she would never be on a TV show. 'Now, I'm on some of the biggest TV shows in the world,' she told the same publication.
Sweeney, who also undressed for her 2021 romantic thriller film The Voyeurs (about a couple who become obsessed with their neighbours' sex life), went on to discuss another encounter involving a friend's mother who criticised her appearance.
The actor – who explained that her active lifestyle leads to her getting hurt, cut and bruised – recalled the woman telling her: 'She sat me up on the counter and told me that no boy will ever love me if I have marks on my body.
'I told her, "well, I guess I'm just gonna have to love myself".'
Sweeney, who previously said that her Euphoria character is 'more fuelled by love than by her peers', clearly doesn't shy away from celebrating her success and self-love.
Despite her confidence, the Screen Actors Guild-nominated star has revealed she's had to grapple with several unpleasant experiences relating to her looks.
In May 2021, Sweeney was trending on Twitter due to a viral tweet that mocked her appearance and referred to her as 'ugly'. At the time, after learning of the tweet, Sweeney shared an Instagram live to address the hurtful comments.
The tearful Handmaid's Tale star said: 'Apparently I am trending on Twitter right now for being ugly, and I would never actually do this, like ever, but I think that it's really important for people to see how words actually affect people.'
She continued: 'And I know everyone says you can't read things and you shouldn't read things but I'm a f*cking person.
'I’m just sitting here with my dog Tank watching HDTV wearing my Snuggie. I don't know. People need to be nicer on social media because it's really f*cked up.'
Following this, she was inundated with supportive messages from fans, including one who wrote: 'Y’all seem to love diminishing women for no reason...Sydney Sweeney is so unproblematic and gorgeous, she doesn’t deserve any of the nastiness y’all send her [sic].'
In her recent interview with Cosmopolitan US, Sweeney – who founded the production company Fifty-Fifty Films to address the double standard in Hollywood and stigma women face after undressing on screen – spoke at length about the repercussions of her shooting nude scenes.
She referred to her on-screen performance being overpowered by emphasis on her nudity.
Addressing her unease after watching her nude scenes in The Voyeurs for the first time, she said: 'I wondered if I'd done too much.'
