Carol Baum, a Hollywood director, says she feels terrible about what she said about Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney recently.
Baum, who was known for her work on Father of the Bride, publicly criticised Sweeney’s looks and acting skills at a Pleasantville, NY, panel talk. This was the start of the scandal.
The Daily Mail caught Baum’s honest comments, which sent shockwaves through the business.
“I don’t get Sydney Sweeney,” she said. “I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her.”
She said that the 26-year-old actress’s funny movie was “unwatchable” and that her students at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California couldn’t explain why the star’s career had taken off.
“Tell me about this girl,” I told my class. She’s not pretty and can’t act. It made her think, “Why is she so hot?” “Nobody had an answer.”
The director did say, though, that she would work on a project if the Handmaid’s Tale actress was in it. “Everyone wants the movie to be made, and who turns down a green light?” “No one I know,” she said. “Your job is to get the movie made.”
Surprise, surprise, Baum now tells TMZ that she wishes she had never said those things. “Cr***ing on an actor like that usually isn’t my style,” she told me. This comes after a harsh rebuke from Sweeney’s representative, who called Baum’s words “shameful.”
A rep for Sweeney told E! News, “How sad that a woman who could share her knowledge and experience instead chooses 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,” they said. “To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
When it comes to Sweeney, her popularity keeps growing after her big break in Euphoria. Fans and coworkers have been very supportive. A lot of people on social media wrote supportive messages. One person pointed out Sweeney’s impressive young accomplishments: “Sydney Sweeney received two Emmy nominations for acting at age 24 [and] delivered two hit films she headlined AND produced at age 26.”
Indeed, Sweeney’s skill and success say a lot. Variety says that her romantic film Anyone But You, which she produced with her fiancé Jonathan Davino, became the highest-grossing R-rated romantic comedy since 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby.