Sydney Sweeney Is Shaping Her Own Story, One Fearless Role at a Time

On a spring afternoon in Manhattan, Sydney Sweeney was getting into character for her first ever W cover, intrigued by the idea of becoming someone else. “I like the feeling of transforming,” said Sweeney, still in her street clothes of jeans and a loose white T-shirt, her long blonde hair fresh from a shower. She had arrived on the red-eye flight from Los Angeles, where she was filming the long-awaited third season of Euphoria, the TV show that made her famous as Cassie, a sex bomb having a secret love affair with her best friend’s on-and-off boyfriend.

Since the most recent episode of Euphoria aired, in 2022—in which Cassie had an emotional meltdown, garnering Sweeney an Emmy nomination—she has been extremely busy. After a captivating turn as the entitled daughter of a wealthy family on vacation in Hawaii in the first season of The White Lotus, she starred opposite Glen Powell in Anyone but You, a romantic comedy about a mismatched couple. The film was a huge hit and generated endless rumors that Sweeney and Powell were together in real life—speculation that only increased when, this past March, Sweeney called off her engagement to Jonathan Davino, her longtime fiancé. In the film, Powell and Sweeney had terrific chemistry—their frequent love-hate scenes were played for laughs, and featured a side of Sweeney that was wildly different from her far edgier persona on Euphoria.

As if that creative stretch weren’t enough, Sweeney costarred in Eden, a survival thriller set in the Galápagos Islands, out in August. She also played Claire, a charismatic but devious drug addict in Apple TV+’s new thriller Echo Valley, and the pioneering female boxer Christy Martin in a biographical film that will be released this fall. In Echo Valley, there was no trace of either Cassie or Anyone but You’s Bea. Claire puts her mother, played by Julianne Moore, through hell. “I needed someone who had that spark of warmth to win over the audience, even when they had doubts about her,” said Michael Pearce, the director of Echo Valley. “But Claire also had to be diabolical. And Sydney had no desire to make the character likable—she needed to frighten us, and she did.”

To play Martin, Sweeney gained more than 30 pounds. “Martin put female boxing on the map in the mid-’90s,” said David Michôd, the director and cowriter of the film. “She was the first woman fighter on the cover of Sports Illustrated and fought on the Mike Tyson undercard. Her husband was also her trainer, and then, after her success, he tried to murder her. Our film is a wild mix of inspiring underdog sports-world story and personal saga. Sydney trained her butt off to play the part. The beauty of Sydney is that she turned up to work every day with her tail wagging, ready to go. No matter how tough it was, she was like a ray of sunshine.”

“I loved it,” said Sweeney, settling into a chair to get her hair and makeup done. “I came onboard to play Christy, and I had about three and a half months of training. I started eating. I weight-trained in the morning for an hour, kickboxed midday for about two hours, and then weight-trained again at night for an hour.” Sweeney pulled out her phone and searched for a picture of her as Christy. In the photo, she wore brown contact lenses and a brown wig styled into a kind of mullet. “My body was completely different,” she continued. “I didn’t fit in any of my clothes. I’m usually a size 23 in jeans, and I was wearing a size 27. My boobs got bigger. And my butt got huge. It was crazy! I was like, Oh my god.” Sweeney laughed. “But it was amazing: I was so strong, like crazy strong.”

After the Martin biopic wrapped, Sweeney had to drop the weight in only seven weeks for her next project. “I hadn’t ever seen her in Euphoria,” said Michôd. “I FaceTimed with her the other day when Sydney was in the makeup truck for the show, and I was stunned by the change in her appearance. I had only seen her as an adorable, tough moppet with late-’80s hair, ready to box. Sydney was happiest when she was in the ring punching and being punched. It was shocking to see her being so glamorous.”

Growing up in Washington state, near Spokane, Sweeney, who is 27, was always determined and passionate. “My mom told me from a very young age to fall in love with as many things as possible,” she said, as the hair guru Jimmy Paul worked on a neat bun. “And so I did fall in love, again and again: I love sports. I love being outside. I was on the ski team, and I wakeboarded. I slalom ski on water. I was on the soccer team and the softball team. And then my parents got me into grappling, which is like wrestling, and kickboxing. I was the only girl at the dojo. I trained there from 13 until about 19. I fought all guys. I liked to think that if shit went down, I might be able to step up.”

Sweeney also dreamed of acting, and created a PowerPoint presentation of a five-year plan to convince her parents that they should take her to Los Angeles. “It took a little longer than five years,” she said, changing into a red McQueen cable-knit dress with a matching vintage hooded cape. Today she would be impersonating a variety of characters, and the first one was a very fashion-forward Little Red Riding Hood. “I really believe in the 10-year plan now. My first real job was one line on the show Criminal Minds, or maybe Heroes—I can’t remember which one was first.” Considering her love of sports, I asked her if she ever worried about getting injured or messing up her face. “No,” said Sweeney flatly, as she prepared to go in front of the camera. “I would have bruises all over me. I loved it! My mom always wanted to make sure that acting wasn’t the only thing in my life.”

Facing the photographer, Carlijn Jacobs, as Little Red Riding Hood, Sweeney tilted her head to the side, looking both intrigued and demure. This was the first of eight different roles, among them a 1970s flower child in a short floral Celine dress and a leather-clad biker chick with smoky eyes and Hermès boots. Sports Babe Sydney would wear a red backless Balenciaga minidress and thigh-high stockings, one sharp heel balanced on a volley ball; Sleeping Beauty Sydney would nap in a voluminous Marc Jacobs white lace cloud dress.

“This is a little bit like a prom look,” Sweeney said moments later, changing into a silvery satin Miu Miu gown. “I actually didn’t go to my prom,” she continued. “But on my 26th birthday, I threw myself a 1980s prom, and it was so much fun! I rented out the venue and put streamers and disco balls everywhere. I built a cool disco stage and had letterman jackets that you could customize. I had an old-school photo booth and a caricature artist. I made my grandma the prom queen and my lawyer the prom king. I had a short custom dress made—pink with ruffles.” With her hair now teased into a beehive, Sweeney projected a Cassie-like aura, with an expression that was both sultry and defying.

“I was impressed by how fast Sydney could go in and out of character,” Michôd told me. “She has so many things going on in her life: She has new business ideas all the time, and I think she owns something like four different houses. With Sydney, the work isn’t the be-all and end-all—she’s great at everything she decides to do.” In fact, Sweeney has endorsement deals with 10 different companies, including Kérastase, Laneige, and Miu Miu. She does adore real estate and claimed to get starstruck only when she met Drew and Jonathan Scott, aka the Property Brothers, stars of HGTV. “Those are the only reality shows that I watch,” said Sweeney. “When I saw the Property Brothers, I freaked out.”

Sweeney prepared for the next look: a Roller Derby queen in red and white striped stockings, a matching helmet, red Prada shorts, and the pièce de résistance, an exaggerated push-up bra. “This will be funny,” said Sweeney. True to her nature, she was thinking like both an actor and a producer. “She has the ability to pull back and see the entire movie,” Pearce had told me earlier. “Before we started Echo Valley, I showed her what seemed like hundreds of interviews with drug addicts who live on skid row, to help her build the character. Sydney was able to absorb that raw emotion and integrate it into the rest of the film.”

Sweeney looked at herself in the mirror and adjusted the crash helmet. “In general,” she said, speaking of the roles she chooses, “if something scares me, then usually I’m going to do it, because that means I’m challenging myself.” She paused. “But I do have really bad stage fright. I’m getting better now, but I give enormous credit to anybody who does theater or live talk shows. I’m terrified by both.” She has no fear, however, when it comes to acting in the nude. “I don’t get nervous,” she said. “I think that the female body is a very powerful thing. And I’m telling my character’s story, so I owe it to them to tell it well and to do what needs to be done.”

Right now, that character happened to be a badass skating star. Sweeney arranged her hair on her shoulders and patted down the helmet. “I may never get to do this again,” she said. “Let’s go be this person.”

Hair by Jimmy Paul at Susan Price NYC; makeup by Diane Kendal at Art Partner; manicure by Eri Handa for Dior Beauty. Set design by Mila Taylor-Young at CLM.

Produced by ProdN; Senior Producer: Conor McIntyre; Producer: Taryn Kelly; Photo Assistants: Pierre Nowak, Tom Maltbie; Fashion assistants: Celeste Roh, Lila Hathaway; Production assistants: Sasha Smithie, Aaron Pimentel, Johnny Donohue; Hair assistant: Tomoko Kuwamura; Makeup assistant: Mical Klip; Set assistants: Kate Atkinson, Cedar Kirwin; Tailor: Lindsay Amir Wright.