Sydney Sweeney talks putting her body through hell for her art (including eating spicy wings)

Ever since she rose to prominence—nay, superstardom—through her role in Euphoria four years ago, Sydney Sweeney has had to contend with an upsetting amount of unwanted attention heaped upon her body. In the wake of all that unnecessary sexualization, those same commentators seem to have overlooked the fact that the Anyone But You star has actually performed some pretty remarkable physical feats—ones that would make even the fiercest competitors on Fear Factor squirm. Luckily, all it took was Sean Evans and some really spicy wings to bring those stunts to the forefront.

Exhibit A: that Euphoria throw-up scene. (Warning: it’s graphic.) Apparently not understanding the cardinal rule of avoiding chatter about gross bodily functions during meal time (on camera to boot!), it took Evans only four wings to ask Sweeney exactly how she made that memorable moment happen.

“There was a lot of work that went behind that,” Sweeney responded. Normally, she explained, production will just mix up a cup of anything from craft services and mix it with milk and water (“it’s the most disgusting thing!”) and actors will put the whole nasty concoction in their mouth, hold it, and spit it back out. But that wasn’t good enough for Sam Levinson, who really wanted to heighten Cassie’s humiliation by having her projectile vomit… emphasis on projectile. The solution, apparently, was a pump attached to a tube that was taped to Sweeney’s body and went into her mouth, slowly filling it up with fake puke as the scene progressed. (The tube was later CGI’d out.) The actor also wore a “huge” horse bit while this was happening, presumably to hold back the gunk, until she opened her mouth and it started “shooting out.” “It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

During her interview, Sweeney also discussed her passion for dirt bikes, MMA training, fixing up old cars, and high-intensity sports like wakeboarding, the latter of which gave her a permanent scar near her eye after her board popped up and sliced her face open when she was 11 or 12 years old. Between all of this and her recent real-life spider bite on the set of Anyone But You—something she still has a mark on her wrist from, according to her co-star Glen Powell—it feels like high time she gets an action franchise of her own.