Sydney Sweeney: Hollywood says it’s about ‘women empowering other women’ but ‘all of it is fake’ and ‘none of it’s happening’

Sydney Sweeney unwittingly found herself at the center of news earlier this year after veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum said Sweeney is "not pretty" and "can't act" — and then slammed Sweeney's hit rom-com "Anyone But You" as "unwatchable." A representative for the actor fired back at Baum at the time, slamming the producer for having the audacity to "attack another woman." Now Sweeney herself addressed the incident in a new interview with Vanity Fair .

"It's very disheartening to see women tear other women down, especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard — hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have — and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they've done," Sweeney said. "This entire industry, all people say is 'Women empowering other women.' 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."

"I mean, there's so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it," she continued. "I've read that our entire lives, we were raised — and it's a generational problem — to believe only one woman can be at the top. There's one woman who can get the man. There's one woman who can be, I don't know, anything. So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, 'Let's all lift each other up.' I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?"

Baum, a longtime Hollywood producer and executive behind films including "Dead Ringers," "Father of the Bride" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," made the disparaging comments about Sweeney during a discussion in Pleasantville, New York, with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin.

"I don't get Sydney Sweeney," Baum said during the conversation. "I said to my class, 'Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?' Nobody had an answer."

Sweeney's representative shared a statement with Variety soon after Baum's criticism went viral that read: "How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. If that's what she's learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that's shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum's character."