Sidney Sweeney says her path to fame hasn’t been a smooth one.
In an interview for Glamor magazine’s Women of the Year issue, the actor opened up about the challenges she faced trying to make it in show business as a child and how those obstacles became her only option to succeed. spoke.
Ms Sweeney said she was just 12 years old when she realized she had been bitten by the acting bug after spotting an audition notice for a local independent film.
Looking to get some screen time, the tween drafted a PowerPoint presentation with a five-year business plan and pitched her dream to her parents. Since then, the family regularly makes the 38-hour round trip between Spokane, Washington, and Los Angeles.
While Sweeney’s parents were very supportive, the actor said the same could not be said for his classmates at school.
Sydney Sweeney attends the premiere of ‘Eden’ at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival in September. The star opened up about her rocky road to fame in Glamor magazine’s Woman of the Year issue.
Rodin Eckenroth, via Getty Images
Sweeney told Grammer that other children followed her relentlessly and that she still felt embarrassed to be around the people she grew up with.
She remembers being constantly bombarded with questions, from innocuous and curious questions to poorly veiled insults.
The cruelest question tried to focus on her anxiety. The “Euphoria” star even remembers being told, “When is the time to stop tearing apart your family and wasting your money and get a real job and live a real life?”
According to Grammer, the bullying became so intense that police had to warn other children about their behavior.
In an interview with the magazine, Sweeney also spoke candidly about the undeniable impact her dreams had on her parents’ relationship.
Years after the family moved to Los Angeles to facilitate auditions for the then-high school student, her parents eventually divorced and filed for bankruptcy.
The White Lotus actor said the strain Sweeney’s career aspirations placed on her family left her depressed and forever determined.
“There was a moment where I didn’t want to go home. I felt like a failure and felt really sad,” she told Glamor magazine. “I knew there was no way I could actually fail, because in a very broad sense, my family lost everything.”
After struggling for about a decade to find her break, Sweeney’s career began to take off in her early 20s, landing roles in 2017’s The Handmaid’s Tale and 2018’s Sharp Objects.
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The following year, the critically acclaimed HBO drama “Euphoria” premiered, where her talents shined in the role of complicated high school student Kathy Howard.
Sweeney told Glamor magazine that although she has had to overcome years of tension both at home and in the outside world, she holds no grudges against those who once mocked her.
“I’ve never been one to hold a grudge,” she told Glamor magazine. “I don’t think hate changes people’s perceptions of the world. Hate doesn’t solve anything.”
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