Actress Sydney Sweeney has hit back at a female Hollywood producer who claimed she “isn’t pretty” and “can’t act”.
Carol Baum critiqued The White Lotus and Euphoria star while speaking with a New York Times film critic before a screening of Baum’s 1988 film Dead Ringers.
She described Sweeney as “an actress who everybody loves now” but added that “I don’t get [her]” after seeing Sweeney’s rom-com film Anyone But You, which she branded “unwatchable”.
The producer, whose films include Father Of The Bride and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, also claimed she asked a class she teaches at film school: “Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?”
Sweeney responded, via a representative, calling Baum’s words “shameful”.
The statement read: “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.
“If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful.
“To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum’s character.”
Sweeney, 26, produces her own films and is tipped to star in Marvel blockbuster Spider-Woman and remake Jane Fonda’s 1968 sci-fi action movie Barbarella.
She also starred in the music video for The Rolling Stones single Angry released last year, travelling in a red convertible as it drove along Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
