Sydney Sweeney is one smart cookie. It’s a fact that gets overlooked, especially when the internet is hell bent on talking about her body all the time. But following the release of her hit romcom Anyone But You – an unexpected smash at the box office – it’s her brains everyone’s focusing on. Not only was she responsible for getting the film made and finding its leading man in Glen Powell, she was the one who knew that getting tongues wagging would make it a hit.
Anyone But You, written and directed by Easy A creator Will Gluck, is a modern take on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing starring Sydney, 26, and Top Gun: Maverick star Glen, 35. The pair play two feuding exes who pretend to be in a relationship when they end up at a wedding together in Australia but (spoiler alert!) end up falling in love themselves.
In the lead up to the film’s release, it was the flirty relationship between co-stars Sydney and Glen that people couldn't stop talking about. Between on-set photos and their body language in interviews promoting the film, fans were convinced something was going on. It didn’t help that Glen split from ex Gigi Paris just months after pictures of Sydney and Glen getting close while shooting Anyone But You in Australia. The fact that Sydney has been engaged to partner Jonathan Davino since 2022 was handily forgotten.
But speaking in a new interview ahead of Anyone But You arriving on Netflix in the US, Glen has revealed that Sydney herself was the mastermind behind the whole thing. As an executive producer of the film, it was her idea to stoke intrigue about their relationship in order to drum up support for the film.
‘The two things that you have to sell a romcom are fun and chemistry. Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry,” Glen told The New York Times. ‘That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit – and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.’
In many ways, Sydney was the driving force behind Anyone But You. In previous interviews, she's spoken about bringing both Glen and director Will on board to the project after reading a spec script, saying of Glen's involvement, 'I really wanted to bring back that hunk of a romantic-comedy leading man. Top Gun: Maverick really set him apart for me. I hopped on a Zoom with him, we met in person a few times, I pitched him the script, he read it, he’s a die-hard rom-com fan, and this really resonated with him.'
When production actually began, Sydney was involved at every stage. 'I was on every call. I was in text group chats. I was probably keeping everybody over at Sony marketing and distribution awake at night because I couldn’t stop with ideas,' she said. 'I wanted to make sure that we were actively having a conversation with the audience as we were promoting this film, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who created the entire narrative.'
The reaction to Glen and Sydney's original flirtation shows that people have long placed Sydney's appearance at the forefront, without considering the hard work that's gone into making her a star. Thanks to her breakout role in the X-rated and controversial teen drama Euphoria, the focus has long been on Sydney's looks. With her appearances in the Rolling Stones’ ‘Hackney Diamonds’ video and The White Lotus, this only grew. Things reached a fever pitch in March following the actress' appearance on Saturday Night Live, when social media feeds and column inches were dedicated to debating her boobs, whether they signified the ‘death of woke’, or were even that big in the first place. Yes, really.
Things got even more out of hand in April, when Hollywood producer Carol Baum branded Anyone But You ‘unwatchable’ before hitting out at Sydney specifically. ‘I said to my class, “Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?”’ she said.
But despite all the disparaging comments (because if we’ve learnt anything after decades on the internet, it’s that nobody can ever be normal about famous women), Sydney is the one who's winning. The revelation that Anyone But You’s laser-focused marketing campaign was her idea proves Sydney to be a shrewd business woman, and it paid off.
The film was a sleeper hit, grossing £176 million in the global box office in the face of middling reviews. With her executive producer credit on the show, Sydney will be benefiting financially from this. Given she’s previously spoken about the struggle to make money in Hollywood, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, ‘If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have income to cover that. I don’t have someone supporting me, I don’t have anyone I can turn to, to pay my bills or call for help,' you can understand why she was so keen for the project to work. Anyone But You’s success is a win for everyone involved, but especially Sydney.
For what it’s worth, it doesn’t sound like she’s too bothered about what people think about her anyway. In a recent post on her Instagram, Sydney shared a picture of herself in a jumper emblazoned with the words, ‘Sorry for having great tits and correct opinions.’ Sydney Sweeney, ultimately, is having the last laugh.