Sydney Sweeney Says Hollywood's ‘Women Empowerment’ Is ‘All Fake’

Emma McIntyre

Sydney Sweeney is calling out Hollywood's “women empowering other women" movement, claiming it's a public shtick to cover up for not-so-empowering conversations held in private in a new Vanity Fair interview as part of the magazine's coveted new Hollywood Issue.

When asked about Hollywood's pattern of trying to knock down women when they are at the top, instead of tapping into her own experience, Sweeney decided to address the whole industry at once. “It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down, especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard — hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have — and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they’ve done,” the Euphoria star said.

Sweeney added that while people in the industry love to claim “women empowering other women,” the reality is much different. “None of it’s happening,” she said. “All of it is fake and a front for all the other sh*t that they say behind everyone’s back.”

Sweeney continued by saying that there are “so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it,” offering her two cents. “I’ve read that our entire lives, we were raised — and it’s a generational problem — to believe only one woman can be at the top."

“There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything,” she continued. "So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, ‘Let’s all lift each other up.’ I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?”

Related: Sydney Sweeney Says We Can Thank Euphoria Delays for Anyone But You

Earlier this year, Sweeney made headlines after producer Carol Baum made some disparaging comments about her, including that she “can’t act" and that her hit film Anyone But You was “unwatchable" during a panel with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin.

Sweeney's team swiftly replied to Baum's comments with a statement, saying: “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. 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 reportedly expressed “regret” over her original comments to TMZ.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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