Whether you first saw her in “Euphoria,” “White Lotus,” or the ill-fated “Madame Web,” you probably know who Sydney Sweeney is by now. Sweeney’s been acting since she was just 12 years old, but her breakout role came in 2019 with the first season of “Euphoria.” Sweeney portrays Cassie, one of the many toxic characters in “Euphoria,” but a quick peek through her IMDb page shows that she’s not just a one-note actor.
Sweeney’s starred in gripping dramas like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and irresistible romances like “Anyone But You,” and with every new role she proves her talent all over again. Sweeney’s acting career has her fans wondering why she does so many commercials, and that goes to show just how much people have yet to learn about her. Among the many facts people don’t know about Sweeney is a family history filled with financial struggle, but the tragic true story of Sydney Sweeney only makes her success that much more rewarding to see.
Sydney Sweeney grew up poor
Today Sydney Sweeney enjoys a booming Hollywood career, has her own production company, and owns six houses across the country. But her current life as a successful star couldn’t be more different than the one she lived when she was still growing up. Sweeney knew that she wanted to be an actor when she was just a little kid, but her family was far away from Hollywood privilege.
Sweeney grew up in a small town in Washington. When she started chasing her acting dreams as a young girl, her family had to take massive road trips to get her down to auditions and film shoots in California. Her family eventually relocated to Los Angeles when Sweeney was 13, but the move put them in an incredibly tough financial position. Just three years after the move, Sweeney’s family had to sell their house to get by. They found themselves living in a single hotel room for the better part of a year, sharing the bed and pull-out couch.
Sweeney’s parents were willing to sacrifice a lot to help her live her dreams, and they got help where they could. Scholarships helped pay Sweeney’s way through private school, but she stuck out from her classmates. Sweeney told The Times in 2025 that while other students in her high school were driving luxury cars, she was cruising around in a classic teenage beater. “My car leaked oil everywhere and I jump-started it to get it to work. I didn’t really fit in in that sense,” she recalled. Her experience growing up makes Sweeney’s rise to fame even more satisfying and joyous for her family.
Sweeney feels responsible her parents’ divorce
Sydney Sweeney’s parents were willing to give up comfort and financial stability to help their daughter, but everything they did to help also left Sweeney with a residual sense of guilt. “The moment I started this [acting], I could feel it. I knew this was the cause of their stress,” Sweeney told The Times.
When Sweeney was 16 her parents had to sell their house and move into a hotel. Just three years later, they filed for bankruptcy and got divorced. To hear Sweeney tell it, she can’t help but feel that her insistence on acting contributed to her parents’ struggles.
“My parents sacrificed so much to support my dream, and they lost so much during it,” Sweeney told Variety in 2023, adding, “I think as a kid, as the eldest, I feel a responsibility. They’ll say no, or they’ll say yes, depending on what fight it is. But I’ll always feel responsible.” Sweeney’s sense of responsibility is part of what drives her to make the absolute most of her Hollywood career.
She didn’t have an easy start in the business
Sydney Sweeney started acting as a kid, and when a low-budget zombie movie filmed near her town when she was 12, her interest really ignited. Despite jumping into the acting business at a very young age, Sweeney isn’t usually known as a child actor. That’s because her entry into the business was anything but easy. Setting aside the financial barriers Sweeney faced, she also had to overcome a major challenge that most actors are faced with throughout their career: casting directors.
Sweeney may have been young when she was trying to break into Hollywood, but that doesn’t mean anyone went easy on her. “The rejection you get while you’re trying to learn to be yourself is insane,” Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022. “It’s insane how adults look at you.” Sweeney said that as a kid she didn’t realize how many people get into acting because they already have a connection with someone working in the industry. Without anyone to give her a leg up, a young Sweeney had to face rejection after rejection and learn how to recalibrate and keep going all by herself.
Her family’s history of addiction haunts her
In “Euphoria,” Sydney Sweeney plays Cassie Howard, a popular high school girl who’s no stranger to alcohol, drugs, and massive parties. In real life Cassie and Sweeney couldn’t be further apart as people. Sweeney herself is extremely opposed to drinking or taking drugs, largely because her family has a history of substance abuse. “I’m terrified that I’m going to have that addiction,” Sweeney told The Sun. “There’s something in my family’s blood that just hits a different way when they do stuff.”
Even if she hadn’t been scared straight by some of her family members, Sweeney had another force in her life while growing up that helped keep her on the straight and narrow. “I was terrified of my mother,” Sweeney somewhat jokingly told Elite Daily. Sweeney’s mom wouldn’t have tolerated half as much of what Cassie and her friends do in “Euphoria.” When Sweeney disappears into her most notable role, it really is a chance for her to experience a personality that’s completely unlike her own.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
She felt her work on Euphoria was discounted
There are plenty of shows like “Euphoria,” but the smash HBO hit gave Sydney Sweeney her breakout role and a chance to really show the world her talents as an actor. Without that series and the character of Cassie, Sweeney’s life wouldn’t look anything like it does today. Sweeney has a deep love for her character, but she has a complicated relationship with Cassie because of the way that other people have viewed her work on “Euphoria.”
“This is something that has bothered me for a while,” Sweeney said in an interview with The Independent. “I’m very proud of my work in ‘Euphoria.’ I thought it was a great performance. But no one talks about it because I got naked.” Sweeney said that the conversation about her part on the show mostly centered around her body, contrasing that with discussions of her role in “White Lotus” that largely focused on her actual acting.
Sweeney knows that she worked just as hard in both shows, but she says that the nudity in “Euphoria” caused people to write off some of the artistry in the show. She also pointed out that male actors tend not to be talked about in the same way when they do nude scenes, a double standard she wants to push back against. “I wish there was an easier way to have an open conversation about what we’re assuming about actors in the industry,” Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter. In a way, her own career is helping to make that dialogue easier.
She’s felt pressured into doing nude scenes
Sydney Sweeney may not appreciate the way some people talk online about her nude scenes in “Euphoria,” but she didn’t have any problems filming them. Sweeney has said that despite the highly explicit content in the show, she’s never felt uncomfortable on set. She also credits series creator Sam Levinson for being willing to listen to his actors and adjust his scripts from time to time.
Unfortunately, not every set is as comfortable and easygoing as the one on “Euphoria.” Sweeney told The Independent, “I’ve had experiences where I want to go home and scrub myself completely raw because I feel disgusting.”
In contrast to her experience with Levinson, Sweeney said that she’s been in some productions where explicit scenes felt like they were out of place for her character and just forced into the script. She hasn’t always been able to push back in those moments, and they’ve been some of her worst experiences in the acting business.
Sydney Sweeney struggles with anxiety
Having the entire world talking about her is just a regular part of Sydney Sweeney’s life. In the past Sweeney has talked about her struggles with social anxiety, and the attention she gets now doesn’t make that kind of anxiety any easier to manage. “It definitely puts me down some days. I think that it does for everyone, even when you say it doesn’t, it does,” Sweeney told Teen Vogue. “Turning it off helps. Being surrounded by real people helps.”
Connecting with real people in the real world may be Sweeney’s ideal way to unwind, but she’s said that even real world connections have gotten harder for her to maintain. “I can feel my bubble of who I can talk to and share intimate things with and have relationships shrinking, shrinking, shrinking,” Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter. She said that as she’s gotten more famous, not only has her social circle shrunk, but she’s also found that people are less likely to take her seriously when she talks about her personal problems.
Internet trolls once pushed Sweeney to a breaking point
For the most part, Sydney Sweeney doesn’t let internet comments get to her. She might have a bad day here or there after seeing something online, but she tries her best to ignore what strangers are saying on social media and stay connected to her real life. But that doesn’t always work out: Sweeney went live on Instagram in 2021 after seeing that she was trending on X (then known as Twitter), thanks to trolls talking about her being ugly.
“I think it’s really important for people to see how words actually affect people,” Sweeney said in the livestream, according to Cosmopolitan. In the video, Sweeney also directly addressed people telling her to simply ignore everything online, saying, “I’m a f***ing person.” Sweeney later told Cosmopolitan that she started the livestream at the end of a particularly rough day, so her emotions were completely raw at the time. She said that she was embarrassed by the video, but that she didn’t regret showing a genuine side of herself to people who otherwise wouldn’t consider the fact that she’s not just a character in a movie or TV show.
She lost a coworker and friend
Angus Cloud broke into the acting world thanks to “Euphoria.” He played the drug dealer Fezco on the show, and fans of the series loved Cloud nearly as much as his coworkers. But Cloud, who was just 25 years old at the time, died in his home in Oakland, California on July 31, 2023.
The “Euphoria” cast reacted to Cloud’s death in a big way, understandably devastated to lose a friend who lit up the room both on camera and behind the scenes. Sweeney — saying it was one of the hardest things she ever had to pen — posted a memorial on Instagram in which she wrote, “Angus you were an open soul, with the kindest heart, and you filled every room with laughter.” She told the BBC that she didn’t think she’d be able to process Cloud’s death until she was back on set with the rest of the “Euphoria” team. As brutal as the loss was, Sweeney fortunately had a whole cast and crew of people mourning alongside her.
Her big Marvel debut was a flop
Sydney Sweeney has starred in comedies, dramas, horror movies, and more, playing a wide range of characters, so it’s no surprise that she jumped at the opportunity to try out a new genre by joining a superhero movie. It’s just unfortunate that Sweeney’s comic book universe debut came as part of 2024’s “Madame Web.”
“Madame Web” was part of a string of movies released by Sony Pictures that were set in the same universe as Spider-Man but that didn’t feature the wallcrawler in any capacity. “Morbius” was the first sign that this storytelling strategy might not pan out, but “Madame Web” really proved that Sony’s Spider-Man universe had nowhere to go. The movie followed the titular psychic hero (Dakota Johnson) as she unlocks her powers and meets up with a handful of future Spider-Women, including Sweeney’s character Julia Cornwall.
Sweeney said that she was drawn to the role because she was excited at the prospect of training to become a superhero and she thought her character had some surprising emotional depth. Whatever drew Sweeney to the project didn’t translate to the big screen. Our review of “Madame Web” was one of the many that pointed out the movie’s massive flaws, and the film had one of the worst openings ever for a movie starring a Marvel character. “Madame Web” was an all-around bomb, ending Sweeney’s Spider-Woman era before it could really begin.
Sweeney doesn’t feel welcomed by Hollywood culture
Sydney Sweeney grew up outside the Hollywood bubble, and her transition into stardom has come with a healthy dose of culture shock. Sweeney has said that she’d been surprised and alarmed by some of the attitudes she sees running rampant in the movie and TV business — especially how little loyalty people in the business seem to have for each other. “[Show business is] built to try to make you backstab people. It’s insane,” Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter. She added that these kinds of issues aren’t things that actors tend to talk about amongst each other and that she didn’t even broach the subject with her “Euphoria” costars.
While criticizing some of the problems that she sees in Hollywood, Sweeney has called out women in the industry in particular. “This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women,'” Sweeney told Vanity Fair. “None of it’s happening. All of it is fake and a front for all the other s*** that they say behind everyone’s back.” According to Sweeney, there’s a pervasive sense that success for women in Hollywood is a zero sum game, but by talking about the issue openly, Sweeney is helping to make it become a thing of the past.
Sydney Sweeney can’t really have a private life
Sydney Sweeney’s parents made many sacrifices to help her become a successful actor, but Sweeney herself has sacrificed plenty to get where she is today. She’s constantly working, constantly looking for new opportunities to grow her career, and constantly dealing with the pressure and isolation that comes with success.
For the most part, Sweeney was prepared for the sacrifices she’s made to become a star. There’s one small part of her life, however, that Sweeney didn’t realize she’d eventually give up when she started acting all those years ago. “A lot is gone,” Sweeney told The Times when speaking about her personal life. “Like privacy. Which is huge. You don’t realize how much that means until you lose it.”
This is yet another problem in her life that Sweeney says people write off easily. While noting that the popular perception is that she traded her privacy for fame, she said that in reality, “18-year-old me had no idea what she was signing up for.” The lack of privacy is just one more thing that Sweeney has learned to live with as her life has completely changed.