Sydney Sweeney - 'Christy' [LIVE]

0:00This episode of Awards Chatter is brought to you by AMC and AMC Plus, presenting The Audacity, the all-new drama from Emmy Award winner Jonathan Glatzer. Set inside the bubble of Silicon Valley, the series features a powerhouse cast led by Billy Magnuson, Sarah Goldberg, and Zach Galifianakis. Praised as irresistible by The Wall Street Journal, the darkly comedic drama looks at what happens when the architect shaping tomorrow can barely manage their lives today. For your Emmy consideration in all categories. Episodes available to screen at amcfyc.com.

0:42Good evening, everyone. I'm Scott Feinberg, the Hollywood Reporter's executive editor of awards coverage and the host of its Awards Chatter podcast, as well as a trustee professor here at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, from which I will say for our listeners, this episode is being recorded in front of an audience of several hundred film students and other students from the university. We're very happy to have you. This evening, we are fortunate enough to be joined by one of the top young stars in Hollywood. She's a gifted actress who has received widespread critical acclaim for her work, including performances on the TV series Euphoria and the White Lotus, both of which brought her Emmy nominations and in the 2023 film reality for which she received a Critics Choice Award nomination.

1:28She has also anchored fan favorites like the 2023 rom-com film Anyone But You, which grossed$220 million worldwide. And now at the age of 28, she is garnering all sorts of acclaim and also awards buzz for one of her most impressive performances yet. As Christy Martin, a young woman from West Virginia who became a trailblazer in the world of boxing in the 1990s while facing increasingly horrific abuse of all sorts from her coach-turned-husband. This is in David Machad's film, Christy, which the audience here has just seen. Tonight, we'll get into all of the above and more, and so without further ado, would you please join me in welcoming Sidney Sweeney.

2:22Thank you, guys. Welcome, and thank you for making the trip up. Of course. You guys, this is really far. What are you doing out here? Well, to begin with, just to set the scene a little bit, can you share where you were born and raised and what your folks did for a living? So I was born in Spokane, Washington. Wait, really? Wait, what? No way! So most of my family went to G-Prep and then also Gonzaga. Nice. Yeah. So I was born and raised up there. Most of my family live in Idaho on a lake that's a little north of Coeur d 'Alene. And I lived there until I was about 13. And then I came down here to LA.

3:11My mom was a defense attorney, but she stopped working when I was a little kid and my dad was a pharmaceutical rep so I could be wrong but I think at least one of the first times that The idea of show business of some sort or another came into the picture did something like come to town It's a really small Independent zombie movie Came to town and I found out about it. I think it was 10 years old and I had been telling my parents I wanted to be an actor, but of course they thought it was like wanting to be a princess. It was very fairytale-like, not based in reality at all. And when I found out about this movie, I was like, okay, how can I get my parents to understand how much I actually want to do this?

4:01Like, how do my parents communicate? And I always would see my mom helping my dad put PowerPoint presentations together. so I put together a powerpoint presentation at 10 years old good job to convince my parents to let me audition for this movie and and try out acting and then they of course were like oh shit she's very serious and they let me audition and then I got it I got my arm tore off in the movie I've never read the script or seen the movie Please don't go and find it But it started everything And so talk about then the circumstances This is obviously post-PowerPoint, post-zombie movie But not just you, but obviously your family also Then pick up their lives and move to LA What were the conversations like around that?

4:59And what did you find when you got there? so in the beginning my mom and I would road trip down from Spokane to LA for pilot season and we would stay here for a few months and then go back home and then after doing that for most of middle school my parents one we couldn't afford going back and forth and keeping that up so my dad and my little brother then came down to California as well and it was very different

5:30Sydney Sweeney:a very crazy way of life. I pulled out of school, homeschooled for a little bit, jumped around different schools, and kind of just tried to navigate a world that none of us had any clue what it was. And let's talk about those early years because you were getting work. Maybe it wasn't immediately like life-changing work, but guest spot on Criminal Minds, recurring part on Heroes on NBC, some single episodes of like 90210, Grey's Anatomy, The Middle, stuff like that, but yet you've said you kind of like felt like you were failing. I mean, most people aren't getting much of anything. It seems like you were working, so why did you feel like you were failing?

6:14Well, I mean, most of those characters, it was like one line. It was a featured background. I kind of was doing anything that I possibly could be doing because I didn't want my parents to give up on me so I would be doing short films student films terrible indies Heroes it was supposed to be a recurring role and then I think I was like 14 And then they changed the power and gave it to a girl that like took her shirt off and So then I just came in and sat there for an episode so it was definitely you had to add stuff to your resume. I didn't know anyone. I didn't have any connections so I was just doing anything that I could to have a resume built, gain connections, and make sure that my parents didn't give up on me.

7:03Were you being very hard on yourself as well? I mean it sounds like that was the good part is we know there's a happy ending to this but as we can go back and you think about that time was it were you able to actually kind of enjoy what you were doing or was it just overwhelming stress? I mean I was I was enjoying being a kid but there was a lot going on in my life at that time too so growing up in a small town when you come to LA like most of you probably know prices in LA are crazy not anything like where I came from and so my dad lost his job my family filed for bankruptcy when I was 16 they filed for divorce and I felt like a lot of it was my fault because I had brought them to the city, uplifted their entire lives, and I blamed myself for a long time.

7:57And I thought that when I turned 18, I'd get my Coogan account and if I get my Coogan account, then I can buy back my parents' house and I'll bring everybody back together. And I turned 18 and I had like a couple hundred dollars. so I put a lot of pressure on myself of needing to succeed and achieve all these things so I could put different things back together now people might imagine that your high school experience was like Cassie's or somebody uh not so much right no I was a nerd I went to a smaller school uh The one thing that I always thank my parents for is education was number one for them.

8:40So they would go backwards in making sure that I was sent to a good school. And I appreciate them, but I also then put a lot of pressure on myself as well. But I was valedictorian. I took, like, every AP class possible. Thank you, guys. Thank you. I got a full ride to college. I loved school. so that I was more of the kid that I never went to a high school party before. My first high school party was euphoria. And that was wild. So I was definitely very, like, education-based, school-based, and I would be the person that my friends would call to pick them up when they were drunk. So when things finally in your mind really started to, I guess, turn a corner, would it be fair to say that's with sharp objects yeah so I I filmed sharp objects and everything sucks at the same time okay so these should we just say sharp objects was an HBO limited series from 2018 you're playing a patient at a mental health facility and then you're saying the film was you said just before just after that at the same time oh at the same time yeah so I would do like some days I do three days on everything sucks and then fly on the weekends and go do sharp objects and come back to Oregon to film everything sucks and did it in the moment did you realize like even though that's a grueling schedule like this is this is gonna go somewhere like this is you know start the start of traction I don't know if I looked at it as oh my god this is the start of something yeah I was just really happy to finally be doing projects that excited me and made me feel like everything that I had worked for was finally paying off.

10:32Yeah. I know a couple of years ago when you previously were nice enough to do the podcast, you talked about the roots of producing, which you now do, do trace back to Sharp Objects. What happened there that made you think beyond being an actress about other stuff? well it was a mixture between working on sharp objects and handmaid's tale and i'd i saw how

10:56Sydney Sweeney:involved elizabeth moss was in the entire production and it was like eye-opening i was like oh i can actually be in front of the camera and behind the camera because i was always fascinated with the business side of this industry and all the different departments and and the puzzle pieces that went into putting projects together. And when I saw that she was producing it, she was involved in the scripts, in the writer's room, she wanted to direct. I was like, oh my gosh, this is so inspiring. And it kind of sparked that idea from a younger age. And we'll just say on Handmaid's Tale, you were on season two playing this teenage handmaid who gets into an arranged marriage with Max Minghella's character and I guess just the an example of how kind of things sometimes work like you had no time to get ready for that one right that's and this is a big show it's coming off winning the best drama Emmy for season one you're in season two and you have like a week to get your act together uh yeah I wrapped everything sucks and then I think like three weeks later I went and did Handmaid's Tale and then once I wrapped Handmaid's Tale I think two months later I filmed the pilot for Euphoria.

12:10Wow, wow, wow. Okay, so we're certainly going to get deep into that topic, but I want to first talk about something that came out the same year, but I think earlier, which is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for Quentin Tarantino, which it's kind of unbelievable how many top young actors and actresses emerged. Maybe it wasn't their first thing but it was an early thing we had a couple of them here as previous guests so these guys have heard from austin butler and mikey madison there was also margaret qualley and there was you as snake a member of the manson family how big a deal was it even just to i would imagine like get in

12:52Sydney Sweeney:the room and read for quentin tarantino i remember after so he had like a callback session where we all came and we workshopped with him and he sat down with us and and just talked for hours and I remember getting out of there and calling my mom and my team being like I don't care if I didn't get that because that experience right there was enough for me like being able to sit there for hours have lunch with QT and and talk about characters and and workshop different scenes and the actors that I was in the room with, like that was, it was amazing. So I guess you're, chronologically, had you already, by that point when you were doing that, had you already heard about Euphoria?

13:37Sydney Sweeney:So I filmed the pilot of Euphoria in June. Yep. And then over the summer I filmed Big Time Adolescence. Okay. And then we started production for season one of Euphoria, I think like the second week of October, and I started filming Once Upon a Time at the same time as that like the end of September so I was filming all at the same time that you don't you don't take it take it slow for this amazing okay so Cassie let's talk about the first time you see so it's a pilot script initially that you're seeing this is Sam Levinson did you know specifically which character you were being asked to you know you were being thought of or you were wanting to pursuit like what what did you know when you first read the script so I at first I couldn't get an audition I couldn't get in the room and they were having a hard time finding the character and so my mom and I put me on tape and we sent it in and I booked off the tape wow I had no idea what the script was I had no idea what the character was I didn't know anything I just I just knew it was like sides that were very universal wasn't any specific scene no specific character it was just universal sides and I booked it and I got on a call with Sam and then I met him and he walked me through Cassie I got to read a couple of the episodes but it was only I think the first two or four episodes I can't remember how many exactly I read to begin with but Cassie wasn't really that prevalent so I didn't really know where she went and what was going to happen and Sam and I started talking about her character, and I just knew, I was like, this is going to be life-changing, and I think that I hold a lot of, like, love and care for her, so I was like, I'm in.

15:29I'll do it. Yeah. Thanks, guys. So that was the pilot. How quickly, do you remember how quickly you found out? I mean, I can't imagine there was too much doubt that it was getting ordered. It was pretty quick. I think we filmed it in June and then we knew by the end of July, beginning of August. Yeah. Had you ever been around so many other, I guess with Handmaids maybe, like just actresses around your age who were all like, you know, at the top of their, you know, at the top of the game. I mean, it's you, Zendaya, Hunter Schaefer, Maude Apatow, Alexa Demme, Barbie Ferreira, Storm Reid, on and on and on.

16:10I guess a had you been around but also like is that did you guys like have time to even just get to know each other a little bit and uh yeah we kind of were just thrown into it it was the first

16:23Sydney Sweeney:time that I did a project with people my age and I was super excited and we all bonded pretty quickly and Maude has become like my sister she is my best friend I love her to death and And we all have a really special bond because we've all kind of grown up together now. But that first season, none of us had any idea what was going to happen with the show. And we kind of were just super excited to be able to do a show that was so out of the box and creative and crazy, playing these characters that you would not normally see. And we were all just over the moon having a really good time. Were you still, sometimes the rollout, it's just different how, like I'm trying to remember would you have still been shooting some of season one at the time it early episodes started airing or were you done with the entire first season uh when it started going out we were done okay so do you remember what it was like the reaction the first time the show went on HBO I don't know if I remember everyone's reaction I just remember there was like a group of people trying to ban the show because there were like x amount of dicks in it and we thought that was really funny but I don't really remember but I guess for your even just on your day-to-day life like you had never been so central to a project that was so well received and popular right like that as this quickly became were you finding you know you go to the supermarket and things are a little different than they used to be?

18:04Or what was, how were you processing being a better known person? I'm trying to remember. I think that I definitely started realizing it because I would see at different fashion shows

18:19Sydney Sweeney:or events, they would have like Euphoria themed music or the color scheme was purple. And I was like, oh wow, like Euphoria has been really influential. I'd see makeup on models that were representing different things that Donnie would do. So I saw the influence that it had. It wasn't honestly until my brother that following semester, he went to Gonzaga for his first year, and he calls me, and he goes, I just walked into my dorm, and there's a poster of you above my roommate's bed. And I was like, oh, no, I'm sorry, Trent, I'm sorry. And then he, a few weeks later, goes, well they just had a euphoria party and i'm like oh man let me know if i need to show up that's crazy um so you have no idea i guess what do you what did how did you understand what sam was wanting to do with this show there i think zendaya said that quote i have this idea that all the characters are just different facets of his personality, close quote.

19:31And then another thing which, you know, it kind of makes you think of the quote, I think it's Oscar Wilde, like everything is about sex except sex. Sex is about power. And I wonder if you, how you think, if at all that applied to this show. I definitely agree with Z, where I've always believed that we are all different veins of Sam.

19:55Sydney Sweeney:I think as the season's gone on, we've definitely, our characters have developed into their own very unique and distinct characters. But we all started from a core of who Sam was and different experiences that he's had and dealt with. And having a creator who is that close with the material. And, I mean, you guys, he writes, directs, edits. He does everything on that show. and so there's a lot of love and and care that goes into it all and the crew respect it as well they know that they're making something that means a lot to people and it's beautiful so yeah we are we are veins of Sam and I think that he does show sex in very different forms um Cassie's learning a lot about herself she learns a lot about love sometimes in the very wrong ways and she's she's a teenager she's in her 20s that's what happens now it's been interesting like a couple weeks ago we had jacob on the podcast he's also out and about this season with uh frankenstein and one of the things that came up was that you know you guys have actually had quite i mean people know this but just to underscore it like quite long gaps between season one and season two and now season two and I guess season three has just gotten done yeah I wrapped last week you wrapped last week yeah how have you and and he's saying that it's almost like it's a whole new ball game with season three and to some degree that was the case with season two that you're catching people at such different in this case now I guess really like adulthood how has that affected your job and what you're what you're doing on the show?

21:43Has that been fun? Has that been daunting? Is it just, you know, is it like playing a new character? No, Cassie is just as crazy as she usually is.

21:53Sydney Sweeney:It's really interesting because a lot of my peers, they're on shows that do film back to back and they don't have a lot of time in between. And I have been fortunate to have long gaps of time in between seasons. So I'm able to pursue other passions and find other projects that I want to work on. It's always like coming home because I've grown up with this crew. I've grown up with this cast. So I always feel like in between the seasons, it's like a race. I'm like, okay, how much can I get done? What can I do? What can I make? And then once I get on set, I'm going to be home and I get to relax and I get to be in one place because it takes a long time.

22:28Sydney Sweeney:I think this season was like 170 something day shoot for eight episodes. So you're pretty locked in. Yeah, it's home. And this season, you get to see our characters. what happens when they enter adulthood. That's very questionable. Well, what's also, I think, was helpful in people understanding, you know, maybe the first thing they really saw you in extensively was Euphoria, but then I think it was season two that was out at basically around the same time as The White Lotus, right? And you couldn't have more of a contrast. and yeah I guess I just wonder was that a situation like some of these others you've talked about where you're literally having to go back and forth or was the timing what was the timing in relation to each other the timing actually worked out perfectly because we filmed White Lotus during lockdown so I filmed that in the fall and then started euphoria in the spring I think uh so we were in Hawaii from September yeah September to November and then I started Euphoria I think that January and then they basically rolled out at the same time over the summer of 2021 and again like people seeing you in both and then Emmy nominations for both that must have been kind of gratifying I don't know if people have really seen you be funny in comedic parts right before White Lotus.

24:04I'd like to think I'm actually really funny. Well, especially season three, guys, of Euphoria. Yeah. She's hilarious. She she makes people laugh. We were literally like the cameramen were crying behind the camera during some of these scenes. She's ridiculous. Something that deserves to be seen by more people. It's only two years old, but people can still go and catch up with it, is a movie called Reality, which was on HBO in 2023. And it's about Reality Winner, this woman who was confronted by law enforcement after leaking a classified document. And basically what this film does is use the exact transcripts, right, of her being interrogated about what she did.

24:53And you play her word for word really powerful and different this was the first film tina satter had ever directed and your first time leading a film which is a big responsibility i guess i wonder how that came about and how you felt having to carry something so this was right after i

25:15Sydney Sweeney:wrapped euphoria and my agent jen had sent me it and said i think this is really interesting and you should check it out. And I did. And it terrified me. Because the entire script, it's the actual transcript from the interrogation from the FBI agent. So it had to be verbatim, word for word. Every breath, every hiccup, like everything had to be exact. And it scared me. I was like, I don't know. And she was like, I think that you should really go after this. and Tina didn't think that I was right for it. So I put myself on tape like I usually do. And I got a call back and I did my call back with her.

25:59Sydney Sweeney:And you guys, this is like after season two of Euphoria. And then I booked it and it was a 16 day shoot. It was like, I think like a$900 ,000 budget. I would do like 16 pages a day of pure dialogue and it was terrifying. But it was honestly like the greatest learning experience at the same time and I loved it Was that one I'm trying to remember that you also Were involved with as a producer did that come later? No that came later. Okay. Yeah during that time I was putting together Immaculate okay, and that was the first and then After Immaculate you also were an executive producer on Anyone, but you and maybe just so people understand what that you know there are a lot of people that take producing credits who do varying degrees of work in this case you uh i understand you helped to get the project off the ground i put the whole thing together the whole thing right yeah i just didn't have a big enough name to get a producer credit so i got executive producer but i'd like to say i put the whole thing together i hired will glock i hired glenn powell i sold it to sony i did the whole thing that's amazing which is extra kind of impressive because it had been a while since a rom-com had actually worked right and people were writing off the whole genre and whatever what made you believe that that was somewhere to to go career-wise and and also that Glenn was the person to do it with I grew up loving rom-coms and I missed that experience I missed having a film like that that makes you feel good that makes you want to get up out of your seats and and just fall in love or have a good time or a shared experience like that and I also was like I want I want a man as my like I was just like when I like a really like like a hunk you know and so I was looking at lists I was like who's who's a hunk out there right now I was like oh Glenn So I got on a call with him and I pitched him the whole idea and he is a huge fan of rom-coms as well and he's super good and he's fun and we had a great time and good chemistry and He and I went on the ride together Now one of the things that was Very effective in terms of getting people to be aware of and care about that movie were all the various photos and activities and things that were going on in real life apparently quote unquote uh how much of that was also being smart and strategic about how do you get somebody to care and feel invested in people in a movie all of that from almost like a pr perspective right well so i'm also a camp counselor uh i grew up going to camp and thanks guys and i did like the cit program and I was like junior counselor and I when I went down to Australia I was like this is like camp this is so cool and so every weekend I'd put together an activity and I I rented a double decker bus and we went on a tour around Sydney I would get theater tickets and we'd all go see the theaters we would go bar hopping we would rent houses and have dinner parties together I just wanted to have something that brought us all together whenever we could.

29:39Sydney Sweeney:And it then just meant something to people. It never intended to be a PR thing. It was more of just I was bringing everybody together. And then you guys just really enjoyed it. Okay, so that movie was obviously tremendously successful. in some ways sometimes I think people learn more from the things that are are hiccups and I think you've been candid about you know Madam Web for instance which was the next year a lot of people liked it but it was not not as successful by the certain I've seen worse yeah but are there things like what as somebody who is interested in the business is interested in producing all that side of things as well what are the lessons that you take from something like that so Madame Web was actually the first studio film and like you said reality was my first film that I was able to be the lead in and I knew that I needed to keep building my resume because I had to keep proving myself and I booked Madame Web while I was filming reality and I was like this is a great building block for myself and at the time I also had anyone but you that was putting together.

30:55Sydney Sweeney:I had a macula that I was putting together and I knew that I was going to probably try and sell one of them to a studio. And I was like, I need to have a studio behind me. And that's kind of how it all worked out. Yeah. Okay. And within the last year, you've had not only Christy, which we're coming up to talking about in a moment, but also worked with Ron Howard, Oscar winner on Eden and Echo Valley with Oscar winner, Julianne Moore. Or how, in terms of picking projects these days, when it's not something you're generating as a producer, what are the things that are most important to you? Is it the director, the co-star, something else?

31:37Like, what are your criteria?

31:39Sydney Sweeney:Usually it has to scare me. I have to be challenged in some way. I feel like if I'm not scared of it, then I'm not going to learn, and I'm not going to be pushing myself to try something new. and I try to find different characters that I get to explore different sides of either who I am or discover different people and it just has to be new and exciting. Which brings us to Christy. This is one that, yeah, we've just seen it here. Thanks, guys.

32:18This is one that you're not just an actress, not just, but also a producer. What was the beginning of this one for you? Like, how did it even cross the radar at first?

32:28Sydney Sweeney:So this was the first time that a script had come to me that already had a director attached. And I was on the plane, and my agent, Jen, told me I should read this, because I'd been circling another story about a fighter. I grew up kickboxing and grappling. And... Thanks, guys. And I really wanted to find something that I could kind of tap back into that side of myself. The script was floating around, and I read it. And I remember halfway through just Googling this woman, because I was like, there's no way. This is a true story. This is wild. And then I realized everything was true, and I could not believe that I didn't know who she was because she is such an inspiration.

33:16Sydney Sweeney:She honestly will change people's lives and I knew that I want to be a part of telling her story to a larger audience whether that was as a producer or as an actor. I just knew that her story was urgently needing to be told and so I got done. I told my agent I was like please get me on the call with David and I landed within like an hour or two I got on Zoom with him and I just started pleading and begging with him being like I will lose myself for this like there's no one else that can play Christy I will give 110 % every single day I will drop all my other projects like this is what I want to do and he was mad enough to believe me and can I just inject one thing yeah He said that he had been, see, again, sometimes a tiny project that doesn't get the attention of a euphoria or a white lotus or whatever can be a difference maker, right?

34:14He said that he had seen reality, and he believed in you because of that. Was that something he communicated to you? He did. He was like, well, I know you can act. I saw reality. I was like, oh, thanks. Something worked. he also you know was saying like in terms of the ages that christy is portrayed as in the film you're kind of right in right in the sweet spot for that you had this similar height i think of her you had some of this fighting grappling background which obviously was going to require a lot more work beyond that but you're not starting from zero maybe this is a good point to bring in like okay so you got the part and now is it like oh shit now I have to actually do this

34:59Sydney Sweeney:like what did that entail the prep so we hadn't brought in financing yet so we took it out and I had worked with Black Bear they financed Immaculate for me so I already had a pre-existing relationship with Teddy and the entire team and they came on and they bought Christie and then we took it and we sold like international territories so we knew kind of what our budget was going to be and we still had like steps that we needed to do to be able to lock everything in but we knew that we wanted to film in the fall and I think this it was like May June at this time we hadn't been cleared to have any soft prep money yet.