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Don’t pigeonhole Sydney Sweeney — and don’t judge her by her cover. The former is a lesson she taught casting directors in Hollywood, the latter she learned from her recent role as former intelligence specialist Reality Winner.
In 2017, Winner was arrested by FBI officers who showed up at her home to investigate her role in the improper handling of classified information. Sweeney Portrays Whistleblower in New HBO Movie; The film’s dialogue is pulled directly from the transcript of Winner’s tense conversation with the FBI on the day of her arrest.
“After meeting and getting to know Reality, she really speaks her mind,” Sweeney says of playing Winner. “So everything she said in the transcript was feeling and thinking. I could just find all the different layers underneath. I really enjoyed it.”
First, writer-director Tina Satter introduced Sweeney to Winner, and the two began texting and eventually video chatting. “We zoomed for a couple of hours. She was kind enough to just let me ask a few life questions and get to know her, her relationships and family, and her experiences of being interrogated by the FBI,” says Sweeney. “She has a great sense of humor! When I met her and re-read the script, I was like, ‘Oh, I see the humor here.'”
Sydney Sweeney as reality winner Screen Grab
Sweeney was thrilled that the film “humanized an experience that’s been so politicized” and didn’t choose sides. “It was an exciting new experience for me,” she says. “We’re really just showing a moment in a woman’s life. It really is exactly what is happening, literally.”
It also gave the actor – best known for his roles as mad Cassie Howard on Euphoria and spoiled teenager Olivia Mossbacher on The White Lotus – a chance to do something completely new. At 25, she’s lucky enough to finally be selective and focus on projects that challenge her and are different from anything she’s done before. She says, “I shocked people with the choices I make with my characters.”
But it wasn’t always easy.
“There are always people who see me as Cassie or Olivia. They send me scripts that are just like that. It’s the things I have to fight for and usually want that are different, like “reality”. I had to audition for it. I had to tape myself like everyone else and send in my audition,” she explains. “It was the same with ‘White Lotus’.” They didn’t think I was the right person for ‘White Lotus’ because I did ‘Euphoria’. So I taped myself, auditioned for White Lotus like everyone else and got a call back like everyone else. I could be offered roles that are similar to the ones I’ve played, but the ones that are different, the ones that surprise people that I play are the ones I usually have to fight for.”
“Euphoria” HBO
She will next be seen opposite Glen Powell in Will Gluck’s Anyone But You. This is Sweeney’s debut romantic comedy.
“Honestly, it was so much fun. We laughed every day and the cast and crew were just a bunch of really great people and we all hit it off. It felt like a summer camp. It was a great breather from everything else I’ve been doing,” she says. “It was the first time I did something like this. So I definitely enjoyed it. And maybe I’m looking for more.”
She will also return for the third season of Euphoria. Although more than a year has passed since the end of the second season, she still hasn’t seen any scripts for the upcoming season. While the delay could be extended due to the writers’ strike, creator Sam Levinson has also been working on his next show, The Idol.
“I just hope that I can continue to challenge myself as an actress and take her to crazy places because she’s such a crazy, dramatically enhanced character and fun to play,” she says of Cassie. “Whatever Sam wants to do with her, I have complete faith in Sam’s vision. I’m excited.”
“Reality” premieres May 29 at 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET on HBO and is available to stream on Max.