Sydney Sweeney was inescapable this year. With controversial brand deals, high-visibility appearances (including the Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez wedding) and major roles in four theatrically released movies — “The Housemaid” opens Dec. 19 — the American actor became the subject of fascination across conversations and headlines.
Sweeney has mastered the modern art of being famous — a celebrity whose commercial endorsements and political non-statements generate millions of dollars in buzz and engagement. However, this strategy of provocation and visibility over craft has created a fundamental rift: the public may be invested in the products she sells and the ideas she represents, but are they invested in her as a performer? This year proved that while Sweeney is an irresistible cultural object for debate, she has not yet convinced the public she is a bankable movie star, or a figure to be taken seriously in Hollywood.
Though 2025 began with steady news of forthcoming film projects, interestingly all adaptations of video games — “OutRun,” “Split Fiction” and “Gundam”— it wasn’t until June that she became a viral sensation. Sweeney released Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss, a limited-edition soap bar in collaboration with something called Dr. Squatch, that was advertised as being infused with water she had bathed in. All 5,000 units, at $8 (U.S.) a pop, sold out within seconds, and dozens entered the resale market for hundreds of dollars shortly after. Online, there was heated discussion about the image that Sweeney was cultivating through the sexualization and commodification of her body, and the fan base she was hoping to attract.
That was just a taste of what was to come. The following month, Sweeney exploded as a topic of political conversation when she debuted in an ad campaign for denim brand American Eagle. In one 30-second video, she zips up her jeans and, in a breathy voice, says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour.” As the camera tracks to her face, the blond, blue-eyed model directly addresses the viewer: “My jeans are blue.”
On social media, some users argued that the wordplay on “genes” and “jeans” supported white supremacist values currently inflaming the U.S., while some right-wingers responded by mocking liberals as being overly sensitive about a denim ad. The campaign eventually attracted the approval of President Donald Trump, who applauded Sweeney for being a registered Republican and called it the “hottest ad ever,” and Vice President JD Vance, who described the video as “a normal all-American beautiful girl doing a normal jeans ad.”
In November, when Sweeney was asked by a GQ writer to respond to Trump’s comments, she simply answered, “It was surreal.” When pushed further to explain her thoughts on the campaign’s perceived messaging during a troubling political climate, she said, “When I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.” The interview kicked up the dust once again, reigniting conversation around what her silence suggested, and how it positioned her politically and professionally, given that she’s set to return in the upcoming season of “Euphoria” alongside Zendaya and Hunter Schafer.
Since the controversy, three of Sweeney’s films have been theatrically released in the U.S. and Canada. In the crime thriller “Americana,” released in August, she plays Penny Jo, a stammering waitress and aspiring country singer who becomes implicated in the theft and sale of a valuable Lakota artifact. That same month, she starred in Ron Howard’s survival thriller, “Eden,” alongside Jude Law and Ana de Armas about disenchanted European settlers who attempt to start a new life in a remote part of the Galápagos Islands. More recently, her role as boxer Christy Martin in “Christy” attracted potential awards-season buzz, which dissipated as soon as the awards season began.
How did these films perform at the box office? It seems that clicks, impressions and even a shoutout from the president don’t necessarily translate to ticket sales. Each film underperformed. Though sold-out soaps and the rise of American Eagle’s stock price appear to promise financial success tied to Sweeney, aside from the box-office success of the 2023’s rom-com “Anyone but You,” her career in Hollywood hasn’t been able deliver the same bankability.
This is in part due to the way Sweeney has positioned herself, constantly inviting media attention and discourse without having attached herself to many substantial movies. Fans may be interested in her products and what they represent — sexuality, exclusivity, edginess, scandal — but it remains to be seen if they’re interested in spending two hours with her in theatres. Defenders of her denim collaboration were more invested in ridiculing those that took offence than supporting her as a performer, and buyers of the soap were more concerned with proximity to her body than her expressive capacities.
Early in her career, Sweeney appeared in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The White Lotus,” prestige films and shows with large casts that allowed her to associate with and, as a result, benefit from the accomplishments of her directors and costars. Today, in her pursuit of solo recognition, her strategy lies in establishing celebrity over a career of longevity and loyalty.
While Sweeney is undeniably intriguing as a cultural object for projecting our beliefs about politics and gender, she appears to lack the charm and appeal to be a movie star, and even her 26 million Instagram followers can’t help her.
