Sydney Sweeney is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in Hollywood, and in recent years she has done so primarily through unusual, unconventional and highly entertaining films. Ahead of the release of her latest film, the non-horror film SpotlessPolygon spoke with Sweeney about how she chooses her projects, and what it means to star in them rather than produce them.
According to Sweeney, her process for choosing scripts and projects is simple: It has to scare her. When thinking about scripts, she explains, “If something scares me in a challenging way, that’s the one to do.”
That didn’t hurt Spotless scared her for more reasons than feeling like it was a challenging role. She first auditioned for the film ten years ago, when she was sixteen – long before that Euphoria her fame skyrocketed. says Sweeney Spotless was “very different” when she first auditioned for it, but it stuck with her. So when she started her own production company, Fifty-Fifty Movies, and started thinking about how she could channel her love of horror films into her next project, she immediately wanted to track down the script that still creeped her out all these years later. When she discovered that Spotless was still not produced, she says she had to seize the opportunity.
“I had never seen a character who had such a journey with a crazy arc like Cecilia,” Sweeney said. “She starts out in such a quiet, pure, innocent space and just goes through such a transformation. (…) So it’s really fun to have a character on the acting side that just stretches your legs and challenges you in new ways.
Image: Neon/Everett Collection
To take all those risks, both as a producer and as an actor, Sweeney says she needed people she could trust around her. That’s why she hand-selected the crew and chose her frequent collaborator Michael Mohan to direct.
“Mike and I have worked together on several projects and I’ve always felt like I’ve had such a great relationship with him where I can follow up with him,” Sweeney said. “Mike really listens and will even fight me on my opinion, which is important to me. You don’t want to have a yes manager as a partner.
“And I think we just look at movies the same way. I love that he is loyal to his team. I love it. He is loyal to the crew members. I like how he works on set. (…) And as a producer, I want to make sure that the sets I shoot also have a similar environment to the one I experienced as an actor working with Mike. With him leading the project, I know everyone will feel respected and enjoy their experience.”
While fear of failure and the promise of new and exciting success may be crucial to Sweeney as an actor, her choices for her production company are a little different, but no less risky.
“On the production side, it’s more like I just want to try everything out and see what I like best, or what I might be better at,” Sweeney said. “And until I discover that, I’ll keep trying different genres.”
Spotless is in theaters now.