Sydney Sweeney’s cameo has been cut from the Devil Wears Prada 2 movie following a string of controversies.
The actress’s appearance in an American Eagle denim campaign that had the tagline: ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,’sparked liberal hysteria with left-wing critics claiming the ad was pro-eugenics and supported far-Right politics.
Her cull is the latest blow for the star amid backlash over her character Cassie Howard’s ‘infancy roleplay’ on teen drama Euphoria after she became an OnlyFans model in season three.
Sydney, 28, had played herself in a three-minute scene in the new Devil Wears Prada movie, in which she was styled by Emily Blunt’s character, Emily Charlton.
It’s been said her appearance was scrapped due to creative differences and because it did not work structurally but the timing of the decision to cut her cameo after several headline-grabbing controversies cannot be ignored.
Rising to fame with roles on shows like The White Lotus and The Handmaid’s Tale, Sydney’s career reached new heights when she was cast as Cassie on Euphoria opposite now fellow A-list actors Zendaya and Jacob Elordi.
This led to a burgeoning film career with hits like romantic comedy Anyone But You and blockbuster thriller The Housemaid.
Sydney’s cameo in The Devil Wears Prada 2 has been cut ahead of the film’s release following a string of controversies the star has been involved in (pictured in Euphoria)
The actress appeared in an American Eagle denim campaign that had the tagline: ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,’ with critics claiming the ad was pro-eugenics
The Devil Wears Prada 2 had its US premiere on Monday and Sydney did not attend
But she has suffered pushback on her rise to fame, most notably with her American Eage ad campaign. In one ad, the actress could be seen buttoning a pair of denim blue jeans while saying: ‘Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My genes are blue.’
Another clip saw the star wearing a denim jumpsuit with a plunging neckline on the front as the camera panned down towards her chest.
‘My body’s composition is determined by my genes,’ she said, and then stopped to add, ‘Hey, eyes up here.’ The camera then jumped back up to her face.
Some social media users slammed the campaign and labelled it as ‘Nazi propaganda’ while other fans branded the backlash as ‘unhinged’.
However, it seemed the backlash only had a positive effect on the brand’s profits, as figures published on Wednesday showed it has earned $1.28 billion since June.
Wall Street responded after the bell, sending the clothing store’s stock price up 25 percent. The stock is still down 18 percent on the year.
Experts previously told the Daily Mail that the contentious ad was intentionally attention-grabbing.
‘From a PR perspective, what we’re seeing from Sydney Sweeney isn’t a “misstep”‘, Alexandria Hurley, a Las Vegas-based publicist, said.
‘Sydney has flirted with controversy before — from her SNL Hooters skit to her recent Bathwater Bliss collaboration with Dr. Squatch — and rather than walk it back after criticism, she’s leaned further in. That’s not oversight. That’s strategy.’
The Euphoria star would have appeared as herself in a three-minute scene, in which she was styled by Emily Blunt’s character, Emily Charlton
Her role in Euphoria has drawn controversy for the third season’s sexually charged plotlines where Sydney’s character engages in ‘dog roleplay’ for OnlyFans
A trailer for the newest season revealed her dressed as a baby in a compromising sexual position, pictured above
More recently, her role in Euphoria has drawn controversy for the third season’s sexually charged plotlines. In the series, Sydney’s character, Cassie, is exploring a career as an OnlyFans model.
Since landing on the box in 2019, the show has been famed for breaking boundaries with its graphic portrayal of teenage drug use, sex and violence.
However, viewers have now claimed that creator Sam Levinson’s ‘disturbing’ and ‘misogynistic’ storylines for the new season have ‘lost the plot’.
In the latest episode, titled America My Dream, fans were appalled by how far Cassie was willing to go, with it being the actress’s most X-rated scenes in her career yet.
The first episode of the show’s third season dropped this month and fans criticized the hyper-sexual depictions of its female characters.
A trailer for the entire season depicts Cassie dressed as a baby in a compromising sexual position.
Megyn Kelly claimed this was ‘sexualizing infancy’ when she analyzed the trailer alongside the hosts of the Ruthless podcast on Tuesday’s Megyn Kelly Show.
‘The truth is – this is sexualizing infancy. That’s what this is,’ Kelly said to her cohosts while showing an image of Sweeney ‘spread eagle’ on a couch in a baby costume.
She went on to slam fans who defended its content as a ‘pretty common kink,’ even branding Euphoria’s creator, Sam Levinson, as ‘sick.’
As for Sydney, Kelly said she was shocked the actress agreed to the sexual content, referencing another scene from the first episode where she was dressed as a dog and barked for her romantic partner, Nate Jacobs, played by Jacob Elordi.
The following instalment showed Cassie shooting fetish content as an adult baby before posing fully nude.
Levinson took the majority of the heat from the talk show host. Kelly went on to reference reports that some of the actresses on Euphoria were uncomfortable with the amount of nudity.
She accused Levinson of ‘injecting nudity’ into scenes so the actresses would have to take their clothes off.
Kelly speculated that the actresses put up with the excessive nudity because they want to be stars, but noted that some stories have leaked to the press that the women were uncomfortable.
She then slammed Levinson as ‘at a minimum a jerk, and more than likely – a problem.’
Kelly argued that the controversial scenes were an example of ‘Hollywood not understanding at all where the line is,’ adding that most ‘normal people,’ including Sweeney’s fans, will recoil at her dressed as a baby.
Levinson has defended the show, explaining that Sweeney’s sexual scenes were intended to ‘break the wall’ between the audience and the characters.
He said Cassie has ‘got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humor, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it.’
‘What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion—the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.’
‘We wanted to capture what she’s trying to show the audience and be inside of it, but then also pull back wider and see how depressing it is.’
Sydney told The Independent in 2022 that she never felt pushed into doing naked scenes, and Levinson welcomed feedback.
‘There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and I would tell Sam, “I don’t really think that’s necessary here.” He was like, “Okay, we don’t need it,”‘ she added.
Ahead of its premiere, the third season was torched with early reviews, with the show being labeled as an ‘unhinged disaster’ yet ‘pretty uneventful.’
The season currently holds a 46 percent ‘rotten’ rating on reviews aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, in comparison to season one and two’s 80 and 78 percent ‘fresh’ score.
