By Nell Geraets
In just one year, Sydney Sweeney took on the role of a real-life whistleblower in a sharply executed thriller, breathed new life into the rom-com genre, and transformed into a Marvel hero. Now, with the release of Michael Mohan’s horror film Immaculate, she is adding nun in crisis to her rapidly growing resume.
The 26-year-old has rapidly gone from “young babe on TV” to one of Hollywood’s It Girls – an incredibly varied one at that. Her impressive trajectory has a lot in common with that of major movie stars from the ’90s like Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie.
But can Sweeney achieve their level of stardom, acclaim and influence? Hollywood has changed a lot since then, with streaming fragmenting audiences and fewer people flocking to cinemas, the number of movie stars, as well as their power over audiences, has diminished. If Sweeney can’t replicate the hey-day of Hollywood, who can?
Could Sydney Sweeney be the next Julia Roberts, or is she in a league of her own?Credit: Compiled by Marija Ercegovac.
Born to non-famous parents (her mother was a criminal defence lawyer and her father a hospitality professional), Sweeney’s acting career began the way many do: in tiny guest roles on network TV shows like 90210 and Criminal Minds. She began to attract more attention upon joining larger budget productions alongside recognisable A-listers from 2018 onwards, including HBO’s Sharp Objects, Netflix’s Everything Sucks!, The Handmaid’s Tale and even Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
However, her breakthrough moment was undeniably Euphoria in 2019. Her role as Cassie Howard seems a parallel to Sweeney herself – sex symbol on the surface, but a nuanced, intelligent woman beneath. That image was further consolidated when she starred as Olivia Mossbacher in the first season of Mike White’s The White Lotus, playing a sharp-tongued teen unafraid of questioning her elders.
Sydney Sweeney’s role as Cassie Howard in Euphoria was her breakthrough moment.
By this point, it was clear that Sweeney could confidently embody teenage characters, offering strong, controlled performances amid glitzy set productions. It would have been easy to continue riding the acclaimed TV show wave (she earned two Emmy nominations from it, after all). But diamonds are only made under pressure.
Her performance as NSA whistleblower Reality Winner in the understated political drama Reality (2023) marked Sweeney’s shift. With its real-life narrative, and limited theatrical release and promotion campaign, it contrasted starkly with her previous flashy projects.
Sydney Sweeney stunned audiences when she shifted away from her usual teen characters to the role of a whistleblower in Reality.Credit: Lily Olsen/HBO/AP
Her character was also leagues apart from her earlier, largely “sexy” roles. Winner, with her hair messily tied up, make-up-free face and dressed in casual clothing, was peak-ordinary. Sweeney’s performance was hinged on her detailed prior research and carefully modulated facial expressions rather than her sex appeal or youthful energy.
She then went from whistleblower to sardonic love interest in the smash hit Anyone But You. Unlike Reality, this rom-com worked overtime to get its name out ahead of release, with Sweeney and co-star Glen Powell cleverly leaning into rumours of their real-life affair. Though the film was generally critically panned, it arguably breathed new life into the genre, largely thanks to the aforementioned rumours pulling hordes of rom-com fans back to cinemas.
Anyone But You may have been critically panned, but it became an unexpected box office hit.Credit: Brook Rushton/Sony via AP
It also became the most financially successful film in which Sweeney held a lead role, grossing over $328 million worldwide, and was the first rom-com to earn over US$100 million since Bridget Jones’ Baby in 2016. Notably, Sweeney executive produced the film under her production company Fifty-Fifty Films, which she launched in 2020.
Her next film was less of a smash hit and more of a crash. Sony’s Madame Web flopped at the box office, grossing just over $149 million globally. Sweeney’s decision to turn to the (rapidly crumbling) Marvel Universe may have dumbfounded some, but the actress has said it initiated her relationship with Sony, thereby helping her land Anyone But You, which is also distributed by Sony. Clearly, she knows how to play the Hollywood game.
Her most recent project – the upcoming horror film Immaculate, in which she plays an American nun who inexplicably becomes pregnant upon joining an Italian convent – allows her to play with the nunsploitation genre and body horror, as well as reclaim her seat at the producers’ table.
So, she’s been in TV and film, has traversed between horror, drama, rom-coms and superhero films, and has produced multiple projects. That’s not even mentioning her extracurricular work, such as her well-received stint on SNL and her ambassadorship of fashion and beauty companies like Kerastase, Laneige and Tony Burch. The hustle doesn’t end – Sweeney already has three productions lined up, including Echo Valley (which she’ll star in alongside Julianne Moore), the Ron Howard-directed film Eden and season three of Euphoria.
To a certain extent, every celebrity has to be a multi-hyphenate. Think Margot Robbie, who both acts and produces. Robbie’s stardom is obvious, but Sweeney’s range appears limitless, with a willingness to take risks and delve into the absurd (see the nun horror film).
Other actresses have climbed the Hollywood ranks since the 90s, including Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence. Johansson began her film career at age nine (she starred in North in 1994), and Lawrence’s fame was largely elevated by well-known IP like X-Men and The Hunger Games. Those are probably the most recent comparisons to Sweeney, but the Anyone But You actress belongs to an even newer generation, being shaped by TikTok more than Hollywood studios.
Yet, Sweeney could be destined for the kind of fame enjoyed by hall-of-famers like Bette Davis or, more recently, Julia Roberts. Davis wasn’t afraid to get messy in films like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Dead Ringer. Similarly, Roberts famously traversed between rom-com Pretty Woman and psychological horror Flatliners in the same year (1990), while also co-producing many of her own films.
Like Sweeney, these women refused to be typecast, carving out space for themselves both in front of and behind the camera. But unlike Sweeney, they reached their peak when Hollywood was smaller and cinema still entertainment’s golden child. Sweeney herself has spoken of the competition in Hollywood, especially between actresses. And while actresses multiply, the number of people flocking to cinemas has dwindled since COVID-19, with many scrolling through 30-second videos on TikTok instead.
In such an uncertain environment, celebrities like Sweeney have no choice but to hustle and diversify, not necessarily to become the best, but to simply remain relevant. It just so happens that the hustle suits Sweeney better than others.
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