As Sydney Sweeney continues to make a name for herself as part of the next wave of A-list actors in Hollywood (however unglamorous and “un-A-list” it’s become even in the years since the early 2000s), one might think she would be “obsequious” toward the industry in response. However, in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Sweeney proves that she’s not about to lick the industry’s asshole just because she’s becoming a big deal within it (complete with securing a higher pay grade after the success of Anyone But You). Especially after veteran movie producer Carol Baum made the following viral comment about Sweeney earlier this year: “Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?”
The backlash against Baum was almost immediate, with Sweeney’s own team replying with, “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.” Thus, harsh words from both sides that all ultimately speak to Sweeney’s assessment of “the biz” in Vanity Fair’s 2025 Hollywood Issue (on which Sweeney’s Euphoria co-star, Zendaya, graces the cover, along with Sweeney’s Anyone But You co-star, Glen Powell, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel and Zoe Saldana). This evaluation spurred by being asked by her interviewer, “This spring, your team fought back when a producer called your looks and talent into question. Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence have discussed the tendency to knock women performers down when they’re at their professional peak. Why do you think that is?”
Sweeney was only too ready to respond, as though she had been given plenty of time in her already storied career experience to reflect on it. So it is that she stated, “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.” This first part of her answer was clearly a dig at Baum, whose own name will now be forever tied to Sweeney’s despite all the good work she’s done, producing an array of critically and commercially successful movies ranging from Dead Ringers to Father of the Bride. And yet, Baum clearly hails from an era that ingrained women with the notion/propensity to tear down other women—particularly “hot” actresses having their “moment.” All as a means of “self-preservation,” of trying to “elevate” themselves in the process.
Of course, in the “modern” era, there have been occasional examples in the entertainment business of women displaying signs of solidarity—like when Chappell Roan went on a tirade about creepy fans earlier this year and a number of other female pop stars reached out to her to offer their support and commiseration. Even so, those instances are few and far between compared to the undercutting (or often outright) competitive streak between women vying for positions of power and prominence.
Thus, Sweeney continued, “This entire industry, all people say is ‘women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening. All of it is fake and a front for all the other shit that they say behind everyone’s back.” Damn, talk about feeling like Cady Heron in Mean Girls (in which Sweeney’s lookalike, Amanda Seyfried also starred). For it’s as though she’s effectively saying, “In girl world, all the fighting had to be sneaky.” But the thing is, Sweeney doesn’t want to have to be sneaky about anything—wants only to focus on the work and the art at hand. As for her take on why so many women in Hollywood are “like this,” Sweeney offers, “I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it. 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. 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?”
A lot of what Sweeney addresses also speaks to a core motif on Charli XCX’s Brat, particularly on “Girl, so confusing,” which its inspiration, Lorde, later joined in on for a remix version to contribute her own thoughts on uncontrollable jealousy among women. In both iterations of the song, however, Charli has to admit, “Yeah, I don’t know if you like me/Sometimes I think you might hate me/Sometimes I think I might hate you/Maybe you just wanna be me.” Such is the confusing nature of being not just a woman in general, but a woman in the spotlight. And it’s something that Megan Thee Stallion, too, comments on in her documentary Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words.
Funnily enough, the documentary was filmed long before her very public feud with former “mentor”/“friend” Nicki Minaj (eventually resulting in the Barbz doxxing the location of Holly Pete’s [Megan Thee Stallion’s mom] grave). One that proved exactly what Thee Stallion says in the doc, which is: “In every industry, women are pitted against one another but especially in hip hop, where it seems as if the male-dominated ecosystem can handle only one female rapper at a time.” Ironically, Thee Stallion would further mention, “Countless times, people have tried to pit me against Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, two incredible entertainers and strong women. I’m not ‘the new’ anyone; we are all unique in our own ways.” Of course, we all know that the rivalry between Nicki and Megan turned out to be true (and the one between Nicki and Cardi, for that matter).
Even so, what Thee Stallion wanted to get across was a shade of the same thing as Sweeney: why is it still the case that, in order to be considered “ahead” as a woman in the entertainment industry, there has to be a sense that another woman must be torn down in the process? That, simply put, there isn’t enough room for everyone—least of all at the top. Add the word “Black” in front of “woman” and the phenomenon applies tenfold. Which is also what makes it so heartbreaking to revisit the op-ed piece Megan Thee Stallion wrote for The New York Times in 2020 in the wake of the backlash she received for saying the truth: that Tory Lanez shot her. Among other issues Black women face, Megan also remarked upon the election that year by writing, “…my hope is that Kamala Harris’ candidacy for vice president will usher in an era where Black women in 2020 are no longer ‘making history’ for achieving things that should have been accomplished decades ago.” In light of Harris losing the presidency to Donald Trump in 2024, that sentiment is rendered all the more gut-wrenching. To boot, it appears only to prove that perhaps politics is the toughest “industry” of all when it comes to women elevating other women. Especially since there doesn’t even seem to be room for even just one at the top at all.
With the not so much reemergence as open reembracing of misogyny in American society as a result of the ’24 election, it also looks as though what Sweeney and Thee Stallion are rightly pointing out about how women in positions of power treat one another isn’t going to fade away anytime soon. In fact, it could very well be the case that this competitiveness among women might become more fortified in a climate stoked (literally) by Trump and his chauvinistic cronies. Even if, now more than ever, it is the time for women to band together and practice the solidarity they preach (just don’t as Courtney Love to do that shit).
