Sydney Sweeney has almost no memory of her 25th birthday last fall.
“I don’t think I processed that night. I don’t think I even realized where I was that day. It was crazy,” the actress told IndieWire. While others throw parties or go on vacation to celebrate that milestone birthday where it’s now a lot easier to rent a car (and a harder time if they get into a crisis of a quarter-aged), Sweeney’s big day coincided with his appearance in his first-ever Primetime Emmy, as a double nominee no less.
“It was such an amazing moment, but I didn’t experience the moment as much as I should have. I think I was in shock the whole time,” said the ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Euphoria’ star. “I don’t even know who I spoke to. I can’t remember a single thing. dream.
Now in “Reality,” her acclaimed new HBO film that premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year, Sweeney is already back on track to make this year’s Emmys a night to remember. “It’s definitely a crazy twist,” the actress said with a laugh. “It definitely feels like people are paying attention and I like to find projects and characters that put people on their toes and not really expect to see from me. That’s what makes it exciting.
Based on the 2019 play “Is This a Room,” about the moment NSA contractor Reality Winner was contacted by the FBI on June 3, 2017 regarding classified information they suspected had been leaked to the press, “Reality” sees Sweeney and his co-stars speak the words of the actual interrogation transcript verbatim with chilling results.
Though the star was unfamiliar with Winner’s story before booking the role in the thriller co-written and directed by Tina Satter, who also penned the comedy, Sweeney said she saw “Reality” as both “a different challenge for myself than something else for viewers to see me.
While her two biggest roles to date, Cassie in “Euphoria” and Olivia in “The White Lotus,” were written and directed by Sam Levinson and Mike White, two visionaries with the ability to change story elements on the fly, Sweeney now she was playing a real-life person, who only said lines that Winner literally said in the hour or so that the FBI questioned her.
On the surface, the actress said “I was in brain boot camp memorizing every single night,” but to delve into Winner’s mind, Sweeney still used her approach of writing a detailed diary dedicated to her character. However, she mixed up the details that she got from Winner herself.
“I zoomed in with her and spent several hours getting to know her. I was able to bring that information and that knowledge into the tasks that I do to build my characters,” Sweeney said. “And then even when I re-read the script, I saw so much more of reality and who is in it. And it just brought a whole different layer to life for me.” The star added that Winner “would tell me different memories or experiences and I was able to take and expand on them. then I build.And instead of just having a script, I had a real person to build on.
Ultimately, the intention of the piece is not to pass judgment on Winner, but to paint a more vivid picture of the conversation that led to Winner receiving the longest sentence ever for a civilian accused of leaking confidential documents to average. “All I wanted to do as an actor was focus on her as a human being. Not the headlines around her, not the people talking around her. I just wanted to get to know her as human and on a human level,” Sweeney said of playing the informant. “I loved how raw and real it was.”
“Reality” lines up with higher aspirations for the roles she plays. “I always want people to look at my characters and form their own opinions about them instead of me, or circumstances already build that opinion for the audience. So I try to find as many layers as possible just because we all have layers. We all have good and bad, right and wrong choices in us, and good thoughts and bad thoughts and ups and downs,” the actress said. “So I want to find all those intricacies that make a human being. And especially a woman, we have so many layers for us.
As for Sweeney’s future, his upcoming film ‘Anyone but You’, produced by his company Fifty-Fifty Films, has already caused a stir after fans saw paparazzi snaps suggesting the on-screen chemistry with co-star Glen Powell was palpable. Asked if Sony, the film’s distributor, might have pushed up the romantic comedy’s release date after seeing the buzz around its production this spring, Sweeney said the film, which is set to open Dec. 15, “always aimed to either an end of year release or early next year, so I was really excited to get the slot that we did.
She added, “I’m so excited that people want to go see a romantic comedy. I grew up loving rom-coms, so I’m just super excited about them. It was such a fun experience, and it’s a fun cast, and the crew was amazing, and Australia is amazing, and I think people are going to really fall in love with the story and the characters.
And as for Sweeney’s other lauded HBO project, the highly anticipated third season of ‘Euphoria,’ the actress quipped, ‘Cassie definitely has a lot more life to live and I can’t wait for everyone to see what her future will bring. third season”.
“Reality” premieres on HBO on Monday, May 29 at 10 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on Max the following day.
