“I would always worry that I was only going to play the girl next door or the cute girlfriend,” Sydney Sweeney told a journalist in 2018. And while the actress is every bit as Miss Americana as Taylor Swift, she has succeeded in her quest not to be pigeonholed.
Sweeney initially broke through after landing supporting roles in a handful of revered TV shows, such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects, alongside heavyweights like Elizabeth Moss and Amy Adams. She also portrayed a lead character, Emaline, in Netflix’s 2018 teen comedy series Everything Sucks!, which meant more screentime and an opportunity to flex her acting muscles as a dramatic diva teenager. It clearly struck a chord: Sweeney’s big breaks, in HBO’s Euphoria and The White Lotus, which debuted within two years of each other, both involved her playing a difficult, flawed Gen Z teen.
