Sydney Sweeney has indicated that she finds praise for her performance in White Lotus frustrating, because her roles in other projects are just as worthy of praise. Sweeney was one of several breakout stars in the drama series Euphoria, where she played Cassie Howard and was catapulted into global recognition.
Sweeney also had a recurring role in dystopian thriller series The Handmaids Tale where she played Eden Spencer, and contributed a supporting performance to Quentin Tarantino’s most recent movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Sweeney is perhaps best known, though, for her leading role in the black comedy series The White Lotus, in which she she starred Olivia Mossbacher and was nominated for an Emmy award for her performance.
She gets a lot of comedy moments in the anthology series, which she pulls off perfectly alongside the rest of the cast, but also gets the chance to flex her emotional range with moments of jealousy, anger, and sadness too. So it’s no surprise that Sweeney gets plenty of compliments for her role in The White Lotus.
However, if you ever meet Sweeney and want to praise her role in the TV series, think again. Speaking to Cosmopolitan, Sweeney shared that she finds compliments for The White Lotus difficult to process, saying that she believes her performance on Euphoria was dismissed and not taken seriously because of her nude scenes.
She said “The White Lotus has been a completely different kind of turning point. I don’t think as many people took me seriously in Euphoria because I took my shirt off. With The White Lotus, all of a sudden, all these people came out of the woodwork like, ‘You’re the most amazing…’ and I’m like, but I went through the craziest emotional roller coaster in Euphoria. So, thanks?”
Her comments make it clear that Sweeney believes attention was drawn away from her role in Euphoria due to her nude scenes in the show, in comparison to The White Lotus where she doesn’t have any such scenes. This points towards larger problems within Hollywood, about what kind of roles are respected and deemed worthy of praise, and which aren’t.
Sweeney will return to screens with Euphoria season 3, and is also in the upcoming superhero movie Madame Web in an unconfirmed role.