Sydney Sweeney has had a turbulent year both at the box office and in the public eye. In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, she asserted that she’s “never been here to talk about politics” and has “always been here to make art,” emphasizing that she does not view her work through a political lens.
Now, I think it’s pertinent to explore Sweeney’s acting roles to consider whether or not she’s successfully removed herself from politics. One of her first roles was in The Handmaid’s Tale back in 2018. Based on the book, the show is a dystopian drama, following a theocratic authoritarian society that has replaced the United States and strips women of their rights in response to widespread infertility.
Sydney Sweeney appears in Season 2 as Eden Blaine, a teenage girl assigned as a child bride. Her role is representative of how this society indoctrinates and sacrifices young women, suggesting that even those who outwardly believe in the system are ultimately harmed by it. Does that premise sound apolitical?
I think, honestly, Sweeney’s original comment comes from a place of ignorance surrounding what it means to be “political.” Being an activist, or simply outspoken about your views, is not the only way to be political. Sweeney seems to equate her lack of overt statements with staying out of politics, when in reality, not making statements is a statement in itself, which we’ll discuss further in just a moment.
The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t political because it picks a party. No, it’s political because it examines systems of power, law, and state control over bodies. It comments on whether freedom survives when people trade rights for security.
Let’s pause on her filmography for a moment, and consider one of the bigger controversies surrounding Sweeney: her American Eagle advertisement.
Sydney Sweeney waited roughly three months to formally address the controversy surrounding her jeans ad, which launched in July 2025. When the ad first appeared, a lot of backlash ensued over the choice to have the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sweeney talk about how great her genes were. Now, whether the eugenic implications were intentional or not, the impact was there nonetheless.
Sweeney initially stayed silent amidst the controversy and in a QC interview in November, she actually stood her ground, claiming that when she has something to say, people will know. This was in response to the interviewer explaining that critics of the advertisement suggested that white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority. Also in this interview, Sweeney said it was “surreal” that Trump tweeted his praise for the ad.
About a month later she backtracked this in an interview with People, saying she regretted her initial silence. This, of course, comes out around the time that it was becoming abundantly clear how her comments (or lack thereof) were affecting her commercial success.
Sweeney starred in the boxing movie Christy (2025), which was a significant box-office flop, earning only $1.3 million on its opening weekend in over 2,000 theaters, making it one of the worst wide-release theatrical openings ever.
So, what is the film Christy even about? The movie follows the life of the lesbian female boxer, Christy Martin. Obviously, this movie was going to be a failure. Not because of the premise, but because of Sweeney’s politics. She alienated the fanbase that would have supported a film about a woman navigating her sexuality, abuse, and her rise to fame. On the other hand, the people who would have supported her (seemingly) right-wing appeal would not be the ones to watch a queer movie. Thus, the film’s financial failure.
But, again, Sweeney claims to stay out of politics.
Recently, Sweeney has expanded her career from just acting. Her new brand, Syren, is lingerie targeted for a range of body types. Historically, the fashion and lingerie industries have been marketed towards thin bodies. Declaring that her brand has designs for “different bodies” challenges those norms and aligns with the emerging inclusivity movements. This is, obviously, political.
Even the potential mythological reference of the brand name (Syren being like the sirens of Greek mythology) is inherently political. Sirens were known to lure sailors to their death, so this intentional naming can raise questions about who gets defined as alluring and by whose standards. So while the language sounds like branding, it’s actually participating in broader cultural conversations around representation.
Even who funds Sydney Sweeney’s lingerie brand can be political because money isn’t neutral. When extremely wealthy figures like Michael Dell or Jeff Bezos back a brand, it links the project to concentrated economic power.
Politics isn’t simply about partisanship. We need to consider capitalism, influence, and how cultural products that claim liberation can still be constrained by elite financial interests. It’s easy to make the argument that a celebrity-driven lingerie brand isn’t just about fashion as much as it’s about who profits from women’s bodies.
Sweeney claims that she entered the acting industry to make art, not to be political. However, art is inherently political because it reflects and shapes how people see the world. Every artistic choice, from whose story gets told to whose bodies are represented, operates within systems of power shaped by history, culture, and economics. Even art that claims to be apolitical still reinforces existing norms by choosing not to question them. In that way, art always participates in politics, whether it challenges authority or upholds it.
To my earlier point, I believe Sweeney doesn’t fully grasp what being political means. Sure, it’s political to back a candidate, or to attend a protest. But, being political doesn’t necessarily mean being an activist. Politics isn’t something you do only when you enter a voting booth; simply participating in society already places you within political structures.
Everyday choices, like where you work, what you eat, how you speak, who you listen to, what you consider “normal,” these all interact with laws, economies, and social hierarchies. Even opting out or claiming neutrality is a political position, because it allows existing systems to continue unchanged.
Think about politics in terms of impact instead of just intention. Politics is how your individual actions contribute, intentionally or not, to the world as it functions. Being political often means having a relationship to power, which Sydney Sweeney does despite her refusal to acknowledge it.