Sydney Sweeney, Euphoria‘s “MAGA Barbie‚” has made headlines for her brazen on-screen acting choices. But her rumored behind-the-scenes drama with castmates has also loomed large over the show’s third and final season.
Throughout the production of the HBO drama, Sweeney, 28, was embroiled in an alleged “rivalry” with Zendaya, 29, who has not appeared in a public photo with her since 2022. When the new season came and went with the two sharing just one brief scene together, speculation of their alleged feud only intensified.
“Well, I mean, we all grew up together on this show, so it’s honestly crazy to watch how much social media and the press spin things,” Sweeney told Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast on Tuesday.
The Emmy-nominated actress explained that she has difficulty addressing controversy without creating more in the process.
“I think what’s really hard is—I’m spoken for through journalists. So whatever I say now will be rewritten and posted,“ she said.
”The thing is, people like headlines, and not everybody reads an article, not everyone listens to a podcast,“ she added. ”They want the easy clickbait and whatever is the most digestible, most interesting. And that’s all they see, and that’s what they run with. And then all of a sudden, crazy things just spin from it.”
Season 3, which premiered four years after its previous season, was speculated to have been delayed because of the overstuffed production schedules of the show’s breakout stars: Sweeney, Zendaya, and Jacob Elordi. Sweeney shut down any such rumors.
“I was in first position to HBO,” she said, meaning that she’s contractually obligated to drop everything the moment Euphoria starts filming. “So the moment they say, ‘Hey, this is the first day of filming,’ I’m legally not allowed to do anything else. So my schedule doesn’t affect the show.”
“And so that was funny to watch everybody spin narratives on it,” she added. “All of us were in first position, so it wasn’t like any of our schedules were holding it up.”
Sweeney’s Euphoria character, Cassie, had a whirlwind character arc in the show’s final season, including embarking on a racy OnlyFans career and coming out as MAGA. The actress, who herself has been accused of being overtly conservative as well as partaking in gratuitous nudity, denies any connection to Cassie.
“Everybody thinks they have me figured out, but they have no clue who I actually am. That’s why I love acting,” she said. “The whole point of acting is being able to play all these different characters. It wouldn’t be fun playing myself.”
The actress, who called out her critics with a snarky wrap-party Instagram post, said she stays off social media to avoid the naysayers.
“I post, and then I put my phone away,” she said, saying she “didn’t grow up on social media or electronics.” “And so I love putting my phone away... And when I have to be on my phone for work, I’m on my phone.”
