Sydney Sweeney, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is one of the top young stars in Hollywood. At just 25, she’s seemingly everywhere — indeed, over the past year, she received two Emmy nominations, best supporting actress in a drama series for Euphoria and best supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or TV movie for The White Lotus; she landed a spot on TIME magazine’s 100 Next list; and she is now garnering the best reviews of her career and, once again, Emmy buzz, for her portrayal of Reality Winner, a former NSA contractor who leaked government secrets, in Tina Satter’s Reality, which HBO released on Monday.
Over the course of this episode, Sweeney — a young woman described by Elle as “the TikTok demographic’s favorite bombshell” and “the queen of Gen Z characters, Hollywood’s newest It girl” — reflects on how, as a child, she convinced her parents to let her pursue an acting career, and the sacrifices her whole family made as a result, including living in a one-room motel room for nine months; how she landed the part of Cassie on Euphoria, and found that in much the same way Cassie is judged for her sexuality, she has been judged for playing Cassie; how she has juggled newfound fame’s cons (such as loss of privacy and panic attacks) and pros (including the validation of receiving Emmy noms on the same day for her portrayal of two polar-opposite characters); why she is so proud of Reality, the first film on which she was No. 1 on the call sheet and which was made in just 16 days on a shoestring budget; and much more.
