Sydney Sweeney has some feelings to get off of her chest.
The “Euphoria” star, 25, reflected on her teenage years and the shame she felt when her breasts developed earlier than her peers.
“I had boobs before other girls and I felt ostracized for it,” Sweeney said in a recent Sun profile.
Similarly to the way people focused on her body as a teen, she’s been publicly bullied for revealing her body in her acting career and she constantly feels pressure to fight people’s misconceptions about her.
“I have big boobs, I’m blonde and that’s all I have,” she said of other people’s flawed assumption of her.
The star she’s faced criticism and over-sexualization for acting in nude scenes for her hit HBO show while embodying the character of Cassie Howard. Screenshots of her nude scenes from the show have since circulated online by online trolls, some of whom tagged her family in the photos.
“My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair,” the Spokane, Washington native said.
“You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualized person at school and then an audience that does the same thing,” she said.
“I think it’s ridiculous. I’m an artist, I play characters. It makes me want to play characters that piss people off more,” Sweeney continued.
The “White Lotus” actress divulged last year that she will always be happy about her work on “Euphoria” — no matter what the critics say.
Telling the Independent, Sweeney said: “I’m very proud of my work in ‘Euphoria.’ I thought it was a great performance. But no one walks about it because I got naked.”
“I do the ‘White Lotus’ and all of a sudden critics are paying attention. People are loving me. They’re going, ‘Oh my God, what’s she doing next?’ I was like, ‘Did you not see that in ‘Euphoria?’ Did you not see that in the ‘Handmaid’s Tale?’” Sweeney sighed.
She then described the stigma against women who take their clothes off on screen, stating: “When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”
Sweeny said her family has been supportive of her artistic choices.
In March 2022, Sweeney talked about her family on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” admitting that she forgot about her naked scenes on “Euphoria” when she invited her grandparents to the season two premiere.
However, she joked that they didn’t mind and that they said she has “the best t-ts in Hollywood.”
In addition to being sexualized, Sweeny has also been the target of body shaming. She posted a tearful Instagram post in 2021, denouncing online bullies for calling her ugly.
“People need to be nicer on social media,” she said at the time. “Because this is really f–ked up.” Sweeney has acted in some of television’s most popular shows, but finding work wasn’t always easy.
In a chat with British GQ published last February, the blonde bombshell admitted that she spent much of her teen years struggling to find acting gigs.
She then confessed how a casting director even shunned her and told her that she would never make it on television. Her rise to stardom did not come without obstacles.
Sweeney shared how growing up, she and her family were poor and she had to live with them in motel rooms on more than one occasion.
Her parents eventually had to sell her childhood home in Spokane due to their financial issues. She later moved to Los Angeles with her family so she could pursue acting.
Sweeny’s acting career shows no signs of slowing down. She’s set to star Spider-Man spin-off Madame Web and Sony’s Barbarella reboot, which are due to be released next year.