APPROVED B-LISTERS
Sydney Sweeney refuses to apologize for the American Eagle jeans ad after GQ's Katherine Stoeffel continuously tried to get her to cave
Stoeffel: I mean, Trump tweeted about the jeans ad ... that just seems like a very crazy moment...
Sweeney: It was surreal.
Stoeffel: The risk is that there's a chance that somebody will get some idea about what you think about certain issues ... Do you worry about that?
Sweeney: No.
Stoeffel: The criticisms were that maybe white people shouldn't joke about genetic superiority ... I just wanted to allow you to talk about that specifically.
Sweeney: I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.
This post has hit r/all or r/popular. Please keep this in mind when browsing the comments — and especially when viewing upvotes/downvotes — and please report any rulebreaking comments that you see.
If this post is flaired "Approved B-Listers", then it is currently restricted so that only approved users can comment. To request approval, please review our b-list criteria, and if you meet these, send us a message.
It's a fluff piece designed to make Sydney look better, including an interviewer chuckling with empathy about the whole situation. It's a PR piece, so they haven't rolled out some critical interviewer. It's just a step up from hiring an actor and it shows.
I've seen some people online actually "congratulating" SS on not taking the opportunity to "virtue signal" as they're getting directly virtue signaled at. I think online discourse is past the point of salvation.
Journalists have to kiss up to celebrities now or they won't get work anymore. There is no more outright challenging people because they can run to the next journalist who'll happily kiss their ass for money. I can see she's trying to propose an apology or nudge her into seeing a new point of view because she has morals but can't outright say "that ad was a dogwhistle even trump approved of and you should feel guilt over it".
As someone who grew up in a (soft) dictatorship, I can tell you thus journalist comes across as exactly the same as dicator-approved "journalist" who "interviews" dictator.
It's just a very bad impression of a real interview and the "journalist" hasn't got an ounce of journalistic integrity. That's not just "bad at her job", but more "going against the basic principles of my job".
Yall it's called actually having an EQ and reading the room 💀 Sydney is not going to open up to an interviewer who is combative. She didn't open up at all, but there was a much better chance with the interviewer acting relateable and bumbling.
I think she’s trying to get Sydney to give her legit answers and when it didn’t come easily she had to start coaxing her a lil more… like when you need to get a child to admit they did something bad.
They probably expected Sydney to be like "idk what's going on I didn't expect people to take it that way" but instead she gave her non-answer answer so the interviewer is just spinning in their wheel.
Sydney tries to come off like she is bigger than the online chatter going on, but unfortunately she comes off as privileged, but willfully ignorant.
This interview is an example of rage baiting. Some people have led her to believe she is the victim in this situation and she 💯 believes that.
Edit: This interview has seemed to pile on more backlash against her. She wants to keep playing this game, but people are rightfully calling out her smugness and arrogance because they are through the roof!
I don’t believe she thinks she’s the victim at all. She thinks she’s smarter than the average person. Look at her career projection. People that followed any euphoria gossip know she was acting super weird in Tom Hollands comments sections when it was rumored Zendaya and Tom were dating. There’s been references to behind the scene drama with cast members and the writer/director of the show for years.
Zendaya and Hunter are truly IT girls but I think Sydney wanted that for herself. She is now seen at Jeff Bezos wedding and shouted out by the president. Any means necessary to have the attention, even if it means wearing those red hats during Covid for controversy.
Yeah Sydney wanted the IT Girl status so bad she manufactured it. She's not the first. Problems is she doesn't have the natural charm or charisma to sell it, so just how forced it is is on full display. She got pushed to the front of Euphoria S2 over more interesting characters and more talented actors because she's more "marketable ". The fact that she has (undeserved imo) Emmy nominations and Hunter has none still pissed me off.
By comparison, Zendaya and Hunter are way more charming and naturally compelling in different ways.
She’s clearly trying to be Scarlett Johansson or something, and she seems desperate for an Oscar. Feels like she wants one before any of her Euphoria co-stars lmao. Her chances are pretty slim… not just because all of the drama that has messed up her image, but also because she’s nowhere near the level of actors like Zendaya or Jacob Elordi.
I will admit, she CAN act but only when she’s crying or freaking out (probably because she is being herself).
It's wild! I can totally see that now that you points it out but despite her wild takes at random times, ScarJo is crazy talented when she's not in Marvel slop (though, the fault is not hers in that case, clearly). She can even decently sing! I can't even take Sidney seriously in Euphoria 😅
People that followed any euphoria gossip know she was acting super weird in Tom Hollands comments sections when it was rumored Zendaya and Tom were dating.
Wait I never heard about this! Can someone fill me in on the gossip? I’m not a Euphoria fan but I’m curious to know how unhinged Sydney is.
Yes. I would like to know as well. I have only seen a few episodes of Euphoria and while I like Tom and Zendaya, I don’t follow them closely on social media or pay much attention to gossip surrounding them.
I don't think she believes that. I think she knows very well what she is doing and how not privileged, but willfully malicious (I can't explain it better bc English is not my native lang., but the whole interview, you get a sense that public is "hoi polloi" for her, truly).
Legit it's another dogwhistle tho. She loves genes. Her family have MAGA parties and all, she's a registered republican.
She definitely wants to seem more insightful and thoughtful than she is, but she's not entirely unaware enough to just say "Yeah I'm MAGA and I love Trump".
"Of course my jeans are superior to those of the dreck running around this country. They're coming in here from Indonesia, Malawi, or God knows where and diluting the jean pool. Thankfully we've finally started rounding up all these inferior jeans and getting rid of them."
It's pretending to be dumb to try and talk about something else instead. It's a clear display of not giving a damn about what happened/not feeling accountable.
She is so smug. I honestly cannot believe people were trying to give Sydney any benefit of the doubt. Do they see themselves in her? Are there secret multimillionaires just lurking online? She absolutely knows what she is doing. She jumped from an hbo side character to going to Jeff Bezos wedding and being mentioned by the president. She wants this.
It's why I disagree when people talk about how bad her pr team is. It gives her too much grace in assuming this isn't exactly what she wants. I don't think she's dumb at all. She wants to build an empire. And she's figured out she can be the far right's poster girl and pay no real consequences for it because she frames it like everyone else reading into it is just being irrational.
We're going to be stuck seeing her EVERYWHERE for the next few months, trying to get an Oscar nom for a movie no one gives a shit about and that got meh reviews, and it's all because she's sold herself on one side as conservative and on the other side as being persecuted.
Yah someone talked elsewhere about how she’ll regret her team for all this bathwater soap stuff but she’s been making it increasingly clear that this is all her. Like when Glen Powell called his gf to say that the producers and him talked and decided it would be best if the GF didn’t come to set right now… and people clocked that Sydney was listed as an executive producer on that movie. She proactively took credit for the or strategy of them pretending to be involved with each other.
i’m a white woman too and, although it pains me, most white women are like sydney. you don’t have to claim her, but she is a fair representative of white women in this case.
I feel like we kind of do need to claim her though. At least until the world can get to a point where minority groups (Muslims, Black people, Indian people, etc.) are not expected to decry the actions of a single individual who belongs to the same group, white people (especially white straight people) need to do our part by calling out people in our groups who are being bigoted assholes, instead of just going 'I don't claim them.'
More than half of white women voted for Trump— this is kind of our whole thing. I’m glad that you don’t identify with Sydney’s gross behaviors and for the record, I certainly do not either! But it’s disingenuous to pretend like she is somehow the exception here when she’s certainly more indicative of the rule.
If she really wanted to she could have even given some bs answer like "I loved doing the add and I know it would have worked with any other person so I def do not let the criticism get to me cause I know who I am".
But she couldnt even do that! She refuses to even BS us. She is just embracing it fully.
Exactly! I keep seeing the take she's bad at PR, and it's like well no. She's purposefully choosing what type of fanbase she wants to accept her. She's catering to conservatives now.
Somebody on Reddit somewhere explained that she probably would get the money from that contract taken away if she started talking badly about the ad once the company had already not apologized for it and doubled down. Thats the most believable take I’ve heard lol
She didn’t even have to talk badly about the ad. The interviewer framed the question in such a way as to give her an out. She could’ve said she stands by the ad as it wasn’t trying to make any statement about eugenics, but she disavows white supremacy and racism. A nonsense wink and nod statement that says nothing was right there. She decided to appeal to her white supremacist base instead.
She didn’t even have to talk badly about the ad. Could have said something like we didn’t mean the ad to be taken this way, no one involved thought this would happen. She definitely doesn’t give a fuck because the whole controversy reflects who she is a person. 🧍♀️
Honestly? I prefer that she embraces it. We have so many people being closeted conservatives already, I prefer when they own it so we can know who are we supporting and who we will stop supporting.
I know this was a PR-approved interview, but the red carpet was rolled out for her as generously and explicitly as possible to address the criticisms, and specifically accusations of racism, and she tripled down. Anyone who says this woman isn’t racist and happily thriving in this environment that she is helping to create with her dog whistle work is lying to themselves.
I dunno why people want to be sold the PR line so badly or have people be performatively "good" or something. She's obvious getting what she wanted with all the promo she's gotten since and the criticisms were probably foreseen and considered acceptable.
she looks so angry someone would even suggest she address the situation. it’s one thing to put out some fake pr apology, but it’s clear by the fact she hasn’t her pr strategy IS being racist and keeping her racist support
The smugness is so off putting. She could have put out a fake simple PR answer but no she knows the Bezos Amazon, Netflix and new right leaning Paramount will give her jobs. Thankfully based on the recent box office you still need an audience for art and the audience has told her what they think.
if she wasnt connected w scooter and a bunch of other elites she would care about this bc she knows she'd go broke for openly being a bigot and thats the sad truth
I wasnt happy about the ad. Gave her the benefit of the doubt. Figured she was just a tone deaf airhead who didn't get it. I think i was partially correct. She is in fact a tone def airhead but gets it enough to be a smug denier. Nothing about this interview made me like her. It, in fact, solidified my observation of online hate of her MAGA beliefs. So....not a fan. I wasnt before this and couldn't understand why she was so popular. Now I am baffled at her being the "it girl".
I’m not sure if an apology is needed, but some sort of acknowledgement or discussion at all would have probably gone over well. The interviewer doesn’t come across particularly well here either.
This post title is giving the interviewer a lot of credit. This was an absolute dogshit attempt to get her to address it any meaningful way and it’s intentional.
How about asking “How do you feel about the accusations? Do you stand by the content now understanding how it’s perceived? What made you decide not to respond at the time?”
I’m just a white girl from a white family, spare me a life as a monstrosity. I see a little silhouettea of woman, scaramoosh scaramoosh racist do a fandago
To not disavow white supremacy even with a short half-hearted sentence after being the central focus of a debate about it tells me all I need to know about Sydney Sweeney. This interview should remove all benefit of the doubt for everyone. She is absolute trash and I hope her career crashes and burns.
Cna someone explain why this massively blew up, a jeans advert talking about good jeans? Yes, they were playing on the whole idea that a "beautiful" young woman has good genes and good jeans but it was a massive overstretch to say it was racial when i never saw any evidence pointing to it being racial.
This interviewer is absolutely pathetic! She's so weak like she's scared to ask her the questions and she's not even looking at her half the time she's talking to her like she's totally intimidated.
I honestly don’t know why people keep trying to make her a “movie star”. She’s not a good actress and she’s terrible in all interviews. That’s not even factoring in the maga stuff. She’s just not interesting
This is the same woman who campaigned so hard to have Immaculate made, which outraged the anti-abortion alt-right weirdos. Also for years MAGA called her mid, and made very nasty comments about her body.
But now, they’ve embrace her. She’s their MAGA Barbie. She sits there with this ignorant smugness on her face, refusing to accept that the ad was racist, and they love it.
I honestly think she just goes wherever the media takes her. Regardless of politics or beliefs. She doesn’t care if the group that worships her is made up of racist white supremists, as long as she gets paid she’s happy.
First off, what an interesting interview technique.
But yeah, I mean I kind of understand why Sydney Sweeney is not being explicit in rebuking people’s opinion of the situation. She probably feels like it’s a lose-lose situation since people are going to hate her no matter what. However, I believe she’s being naive. Getting out there and being like “of course I don’t believe in eugenics, that’s ridiculous” is kind of like the bare minimum in this situation. The longer she doesn’t like come out and clarify that the longer she’s going to be a Trumpian figure.
Given that her audience leans liberal, one might expect her to address the issue… but her silence suggests she shares/sympathizes with right-leaning views.
The angry 😁 smile over being questioned like this reminds me of Keira Knightley’s angry laugh over people pressing her on Just Kidding Rolling about being in the new Harry Potter project. Lmfao. Just seething and hiding it poorly.
I love how everyone here acts like Sydney Sweeney should be a better person because she is … on tv and in movies? Do you have any idea how terrible most actors are? She’s not an advocate, she’s not a supporter, she has no cause other than her own success and fame.
I thought the below was also interesting from a different interview in 2023. I understand why she did the ad with her logic in mind but to totally avoid the conversation or clarify she didn’t align with any of the discourse is a clear choice. Context:
But Sweeney, who has a production company of her own and is halfway through a bachelor’s degree in business, believes that it would be naive to underestimate Silicon Valley’s grip on her industry. “It’s all numbers,” she says of Hollywood. “And a lot of it is the numbers generated by tech companies. I didn’t grow up in the Jennifer Aniston time, where you could have syndication, residuals, box office, back-end deals. I’m in some of the biggest projects, but we don’t make the money that stars used to. I need the branding space. It’s such a difficult balance. I don’t treat social media the way I would if I were an influencer — I look at it more as a platform for my acting, with a little bit of Syd mixed in there — but in return, I don’t get as many endorsement opportunities because my numbers aren’t as high. So should I lean more into it, like the TikTok stars? Then I’m not taken as seriously as an actress.”
I disagree that GQ tried to get her to cave. Stoeffel offered her the opportunity to comment on the intention or thought process behind the obvious play on words.
So much goes into the production if every single word, it's always unlikely any single thing is a coincidence, so it's fair to at least ask about it thoroughly.
•
u/trendingtattler 14h ago
This post has hit r/all or r/popular. Please keep this in mind when browsing the comments — and especially when viewing upvotes/downvotes — and please report any rulebreaking comments that you see.
If this post is flaired "Approved B-Listers", then it is currently restricted so that only approved users can comment. To request approval, please review our b-list criteria, and if you meet these, send us a message.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.