The American people can rest east, though: After everything she’s been through, Sweeney still loves jeans. “I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans,” she said. “All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.” Everyone can go ahead and take a deep breath, now—perhaps even our president and vice president, both of whom commented on the brouhaha after the ad hit the internet over the summer. “My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi… That appears to be their actual strategy,” JD Vance japed in response to the backlash. (At that point, no notable Democrats had actually commented on the clip.) Donald Trump himself piped up a few days later, following the revelation that Sweeney is a registered member of his party. “You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans,” he said. “If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.”
To Sweeney, this executive response was “surreal,” full stop. Otherwise, “I kind of just put my phone away,” she said. “I was filming every day. I’m filming Euphoria, so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.” She did see headlines claiming that the ad had negatively impacted the company’s sales, but in her view, “it was all just a lot of talk.” She added, “I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”
Despite all the noise, the actor “know[s] who I am… [and] what I value,” as she commented earlier in the interview. She didn’t elaborate on exactly what those values are, but she did add, “I know that I’m a kind person. I know that I love a lot, and I know that I’m just excited to see what happens next. And so I don’t really let other people define who I am.” That sounds like it will be Sweeney’s final word on the issue for a while, even as she embarks on a multitude of press tours in the coming months.
