Sydney Sweeney spoke out about the early days of her career during her appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The actress, 28, sat down with host Stephen Colbert during the Thursday, November 6, episode of his CBS late night show and shared how she convinced her parents to let her pursue her acting dreams as a child.
“They thought it was like being a princess, they didn’t think it was real,” Sweeney said of her dream career path.
Sweeney added that she pulled out all the stops at a young age to try to convince her family to pursue her ambitions.
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“I put together a five-year business plan presentation when I was 10 years old,” Sweeney recalled, adding that the PowerPoint presentation detailed,”Why they should let me audition and the steps that we would take to become an actor.”
Despite her efforts, Sweeney admitted it took a while to win them over, acknowledging, “It was a hard sell and took a few years.”
Earlier in the interview, Sweeney shared an insight to her close-knit family dynamic, revealing that her grandmother is her neighbor.
“So my family have been living on this lake for five generations. So my grandma was born and raised in this house. And then she had my mom in the house and I grew up in the house,” the actress said.
Sweeney explained that several of the houses next to each other were owned by her relatives.
“The properties have all been next to each other, with all the siblings. Her parents (my great-grandparents) were her neighbors. And when I was born, they passed away and they sold the property to another couple,” she continued. “So growing up we would run across the backyard to my other cousins, and three years ago I walked up and knocked on the door and said, ‘I want to buy back my great-grandmother’s house.’”
In recent weeks, Sweeney has been on her press tour for her boxing biopic, Christy, which will be in theaters on Friday, November 7. While promoting the film, she broke her silence on the backlash her American Eagle jeans campaign received earlier this year.
“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans,” she told GQ in an interview published on Tuesday, November 4. “All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.”
While Sweeney noted that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s support of the campaign was “surreal,” she mostly ignored the public discourse about the controversy.
“I kind of just put my phone away. I was filming every day,” she explained. “I’m filming Euphoria, so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.”
She added, “When I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
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Critics of Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign — which launched in July — called out the ad’s language, accusing her and the brand of promoting eugenics and insinuating that her genes are superior.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” she said in the ad. “My jeans are blue.”
Despite the aftermath of the campaign, Sweeney emphasized to GQ, “Because I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”
Sweeney wasn’t worried that the controversy would impact her future acting projects either.
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“I think that if somebody is closed off because of something they read online to a powerful story like Christy, then I hope that something else can open their eyes to being open to art and being open to learning,” she said. “And I’m not going to be affected by that.”
Sweeney’s personal life has made just as many headlines as her career as of late, with her budding relationship with Scooter Braun causing quite a stir since the couple were first linked in June. (Sweeney notably split from fiancé Jonathan Davino in March after seven years together.)
“Things are getting serious and it’s very real,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this week. “Neither of them expected it to turn into something serious at first and are surprised by how genuine the connection has become.”
While both Sweeney and Braun, 44, have packed schedules, they’ve been “making time” for each other.
“Scooter is extremely supportive and that is one of the reasons why she is so drawn to him,” the insider added. “He’s deeply interested in her career and life, and [he] often offers valuable perspective and guidance that she really appreciates.”
