Actress Sydney Sweeney has hit back at comments from film producer Carol Baum who said Sweeney is “not pretty” and “she can’t act.”
In a statement to E! News on April 17, a representative for Sweeney commented, “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.”
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“To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
Baum, who was a producer on films such as Fly Away Home, Father of the Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, made the comments during a conversation with the audience after a screening of her 1988 film Dead Ringers on April 11.
Speaking with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin before an audience of fans, the director said.
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“There’s an actress who everybody loves now, Sydney Sweeney… I don’t get Sydney Sweeney.”
Baum explained that she began watching Sweeney’s recent film Anyone But You but eventually found it “unwatchable”.
She recalled asking her class USC School of Cinematic Arts where she teaches, “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?'”
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Maslin, who moderated the talk, later took to X, formerly Twitter after the backlash, explaining, ”We brought up Anyone But You because it’s been the rare smash hit rom-com at a time when they aren’t working. Not because we wanted to take cheap shots at anyone.”
Many came to Sweeney’s defence after the comments were first revealed, with Teddy Schwarzman, a producer on Sweeney’s new film Immaculate, writing on X formerly Twitter, “I’ll enlighten Ms. Baum that two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney is not only one of the most talented actresses I’ve worked with, but also incredibly smart, kind and humble.
“I’m not sure why someone who claims to still be a producer would make such terribly ugly comments.”
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