Sydney Sweeney cannot escape talking about her own sexualization

Sydney Sweeney is rising to the forefront of her generation in terms of talent (see: her rare coup of being nominated for both Euphoria and The White Lotus at this year’s Emmys). Of course, no one can ever be normal about that, particularly because she’s a beautiful young woman. In nearly every interview, the actor is forced to walk a fine line between bemoaning the glaring attention of our hypersexualized culture and expressing the right amount of gratitude for her good fortune.

Such is the case in a new interview with GQ, in which she reflects that even as a schoolgirl she “felt ostracized” when she developed boobs before other girls in her class. “I think that I put on this weird persona other people had of me because of my body,” she muses. “So I did play every sport and I studied really hard and I did everything that people wouldn’t think I would do, to show them that my body doesn’t define who I am.”

It’s a feeling she carries with her today, “but now it’s on a whole-world scale.” She’s understandably uncomfortable with the way fans have pored over her Euphoria nudity: “It got to the point where they were tagging my family. My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair,” Sweeney says. “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.”

There’s a lot of overlap between the experiences of Sweeney and her Euphoria character, as when Cassie, too, realizes people around her are beginning to view her body differently. “I think everyone goes through their own experience of that. It almost feels like a power,” she says. And while Sweeney seems to know that this power is more of a curse than a blessing, it is something she’d like to see explored in the show’s third season: “There was a moment there when Cassie started learning how to manipulate Nate. I think it would be fun to play into that power she learned she had.”

So far, the overwhelming spotlight on her (and her body) has not deterred Sweeney from climbing Hollywood’s ladder—at least, “Not anymore.” She defiantly states, “I think it’s ridiculous. I’m an artist, I play characters. It makes me want to play characters that piss people off more.”