When Sydney Sweeney arrives at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, she’ll be happy to talk about anything pertaining to Christy, the David Michôd film in which she portrays professional boxer Christy Martin. She’ll talk preparation, collaboration, and whatever else leads directly back to the movie. But don’t ask her about the recent backlash surrounding her controversial American Eagle campaign — she won’t answer.
“I am there to support my movie and the people involved in making it, and I’m not there to talk about jeans,” Sweeney told Vanity Fair in an interview ahead of the festival where the film is set to premiere. “The movie’s about Christy, and that’s what I’ll be there to talk about.”
The campaign, which launched earlier this summer, was slammed over allegations of dog-whistling eugenics because of the play-on-words tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans/Genes.” This week, American Eagle shared data showing that their Sydney Jacket sold out in one day, while their Sydney Jean sold out in one week, with plans to restock in November, per People. Proceeds from the jeans benefit the Crisis Text Line.
Sweeney didn’t have any further comment about the campaign to Vanity Fair. In August, American Eagle responded in a statement that the campaign “is and always was about the jeans.” Still, it received support from Donald Trump and Fox News, and backlash from artists like Lizzo and Doja Cat.
Christy is now Sweeney’s second promotional cycle to be plagued by the controversy. The actress declined to speak to any press around the U.S. theatrical release of Americana, the crime thriller she stars in alongside Halsey, who also wanted to keep the focus on the film.
“You should go see this movie. because [director] @tonytost made an exceptional film, in honor of a genre he knows intimately,” the musician said. “Because his work and his vision are greater than the 24 hr gossip tabloid denim bullshit. If you love cinema, then you should know that cinema comes first. This is cinema.”
Rolling Stone named Christy one of the most anticipated movies scheduled to premiere at TIFF. “Now Sydney Sweeney steps into the ring, figuratively and otherwise, to play Martin in this sports biopic from David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, War Machine),” David Fear wrote. “No word on whether her jeans are good or not, but we can tell you that she apparently trained hard for the role, and Ben Foster plays her manager-slash-husband Jim Martin.”
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