Sydney Sweeney and Damon Albarn’s fundamental difference of opinion: “What the hell is this?”
What do Sydney Sweeney and Damon Albarn have in common? Absolutely nothing, but the actor nonetheless indirectly confronted and subsequently shut down the musician’s opinion.
The Primetime Emmy-nominated Euphoria and The White Lotus star epitomises Hollywood’s next generation of A-listers: she knows what people expect to see from her, but she’ll only give it to them to a certain extent. The industry was desperate to pigeonhole her as a sex symbol, which isn’t what she wants to be.
Instead, the actor and producer has occasionally leaned into her reputation as the 21st century’s latest blonde bombshell, but she’s also used it as leverage to get what she wants. For every frothy rom-com like Anyone but You or scantily-clad erotic thriller like The Voyeurs, there’s a profitable horror movie like Immaculate or an acclaimed dramatic performance in Reality to balance the scales.
Sweeney knows how to play the game and is not above the odd spot of wish fulfilment, either. She was cast in the Rolling Stones’ ‘Angry’ video, where she spends the entire running time cavorting around on the bonnet of a car. It’s not as if she didn’t know what she signed up for, but Albarn nonetheless accused the crinkly old rockers of being off-puttingly lecherous in their casting.
“I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards,” he ranted. “And this young woman, objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.” While there’s definitely something to be said of the Stones capitalising on Sweeney’s popularity and strapping her to a car in a leather outfit, her perspective completely nullifies Albarn’s point.
“One of the questions I get is, ‘Are you a feminist?'” she explained to Glamour. “I find empowerment through embracing the body that I have. That’s sexy and strong, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I’m in a Rolling Stones video. How cool and iconic is that? I felt so good.”
Instead of feeling objectified, Sweeney saw the chance to star in the video as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the sort of thing she couldn’t imagine doing when she started her career. “I mean, who else gets to roll around on the top of a convertible driving down Sunset Boulevard with police escorts?” she asked. “It’s the cool things in this career that I had no idea I’d get to do.”
What Albarn called objectification, Sweeney called empowerment. Seeing as she starred in the video, it seems safe to say she won’t be taking his criticisms to heart. Maybe next time the Stones can hire the Blur frontman to parade around on a Volvo and then ask Sweeney what she thinks of it.
