Sydney Sweeney says her family made a series of costly sacrifices while she pursued her dreams in Hollywood as a teenager.
The 27-year-old actress – speaking with Glamor As part of her Woman of the Year 2024 coverage, she detailed the difficult period after her family moved from Washington to be closer to Southern California, and her parents divorced and filed for bankruptcy in 2016.
“I knew I could never fail because, I mean, on a very broad scale, my family lost everything,” the Emmy-nominated actress said. ‘They got divorced.
‘Whether he came here or not, he was definitely a catalyst for it. “I knew then that I had to succeed in some capacity so that it wouldn’t be in vain.”
Sweeney, who has recently bulked up to play boxer Christy Martin in a biopic directed by filmmaker David Michôd, said “there was a moment” when she “felt like a failure” before taking significant steps in her career. career.
Sydney Sweeney, 24, says her family made a series of costly sacrifices while she pursued her dreams in Hollywood as a teenager. Photographed in Toronto on September 7.
The Emmy-nominated actress said, “I knew I could never fail because, I mean, on a very broad scale, my family lost everything.” Photographed in Toronto last month.
The Euphoria actress, who proposed a career to her parents in a PowerPoint presentation, had moved to Los Angeles with her family after two years of traveling there from Washington on what amounted to 38 round trips. hours, Glamor reported on October 3.
He said the people he knew in Washington were not particularly supportive of his efforts.
He said he was asked questions like, “When are you going to come home and stop dragging your family to a hell-ravaged city?” and ‘When are you going to stop breaking up your family and wasting all their money and just get a real job and have a real life?’
She said tough times in the past have made her a “big saver” when it comes to her finances, adding: “I don’t just spend money.”
“I come from a family where I saw my parents lose everything, and that terrifies me,” he said. Sweeney. “That fear will always be instilled in me.”
Sweeney reflected on how her humble beginnings have helped her stay grounded amid her rapid rise to fame.
“For 20 years I was this person,” Sweeney said. ‘It has only been in the last five years that my life has changed and grown. For most of my life I was a completely normal person. You didn’t see it because I wasn’t famous.
The White Lotus alum said she wasn’t bitter toward past detractors, telling the outlet, “I’m never one to hold a grudge.”
Sweeney has been bulking up lately to play boxer Christy Martin in a biopic directed by filmmaker David Michôd.
Sweeney said she was “honored to tell Christy’s powerful story” as she physically adjusts to the role of the accomplished boxer.
“I don’t think people’s perception of the world can change with hate,” Sweeney said. “Hate doesn’t solve anything.”
Sweeney said that, amid his successes, he feels like he has “barely scratched the surface” of his aspirations in his life and career.
“It’s a strange feeling when people say, ‘Oh, you’re successful,’ or they say, ‘You did it,'” Sweeney said. ‘It doesn’t feel like that because there’s so much more I want to accomplish and accomplish.
“I have gotten everything and bought everything myself, and I support myself and my family.”
Sweeney talked about her support system in the article, saying she has a “very small” inner circle.
“I have my family and my cousins are my best friends,” Sweeney said. “I have my team and a handful of best friends… most of them… aren’t in the industry.” (Among Sweeney’s friends in show business is his Euphoria co-star Maude Apatow.)
In May, Sweeney shared a link on Instagram to a Deadline article confirming her role as Martin and saying she was “honored to tell Christy’s powerful story.”
Sweeney told the outlet about the experience he brings to the role in terms of combat sports and the enthusiasm he brings to the boxing project.
The Emmy-nominated actress said she was “honored to tell Christy’s powerful story.”
The Euphoria actress professed her admiration for Martin and his credentials when the project was announced.
Sweeney said that “Martin not only legitimized women’s boxing, she overcame gender stereotypes and fought emotional, physical and financial abuse.” Photographed in Las Vegas in 1996.
“I wrestled and kickboxed from the ages of 12 to 19,” Sweeney told Deadline. ‘I’ve been looking forward to getting back in the ring, training and transforming my body.
‘Christy’s story is not light, it is physically and emotionally demanding, there is a lot of weight to carry. But I love challenging myself.’
Sweeney professed her admiration for Martin and her credentials, saying: “Christy Martin not only legitimized women’s boxing, she overcame gender stereotypes and fought against emotional, physical and financial abuse.”
“I am passionate about the world of wrestling, Christy’s story sheds light on her incredible rise to the top while showing the struggles of fame behind the scenes.”
Sweeney said she felt “compelled to tell a story about a woman who faced so much adversity and didn’t let it defeat her,” calling her life story “powerful and emotional.”
Director Michôd, whose previous credits include War Machine, Animal Kingdom and The Rover, said Martin’s rise to prominence in the boxing world in the 1990s creates a story that the film’s producers compared to that of a ‘Rocky woman’ Balboa.
Michôd told the outlet: “I have a history of making films about damaged men and I wanted to make a film about a woman with a fierce energy within her.”
‘When I came across Christy Martin’s story two years ago I knew I had found her. “Her ferocity is intelligible and justifiable and the public will long for her because of the circumstances she was forced to endure.”
Martin was seen training in Las Vegas in October 1995.
Sweeney has been on a career roll, having recently appeared in the 2023 romantic comedy Everyone But You alongside Glen Powell; and starred in the horror film Immaculate.
Michôd said that Sweeney’s performance as Reality Winner in the 2023 HBO drama Reality impressed him: ‘Sydney’s performance in Reality blew me away. She has been tremendously athletic since she was a child and likes fighting games.’
Michôd said the film “is about Christy as a young gay woman in a small town in Virginia in the 1990s” and how she used sports as an outlet for her emotions.
“The film is about Christy as a young gay woman in a small town in Virginia in the 1990s,” Michôd said. “She came from a relatively conservative family and wasn’t allowed to be who she was, so she used boxing as a vehicle to express herself and her anger.”
Michôd, who wrote the script with Mirrah Foulkes, said the film will also detail Martin’s troubled first marriage to James V. Martin, who stabbed her in a November 2010 attack in Apopka, Florida.
James V. Martin was subsequently sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison following his conviction for attempted second-degree murder in 2012.
Michôd said the boxer “had to make some fundamental and dangerous compromises in her life, the most important of which was marrying an incredibly dangerous man.”
Martin, who was Don King’s first female client, gained national attention in March 1996 when she captured the World Boxing Council women’s lightweight championship in a bloody fight in Las Vegas against Deirdre Gogarty.
The film will also detail Martin’s troubled first marriage to James V. Martin, who is in prison after he stabbed her in a November 2010 attack in Apopka, Florida. Photographed in Auburn Hills, Michigan in October 1993.
Sweeney said she felt “compelled to tell a story about a woman who faced so much adversity and didn’t let it defeat her,” calling her life story “powerful and emotional.”
Martin, nicknamed The Miner’s Daughter, was on the undercard of the infamous 1997 fight in which Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear. She is also the only female boxer to have appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Producer Kerry Kohansky-Roberts told Deadline: “Doing the cover of Sports Illustrated was difficult enough, doing it as a boxer was exceptional and paved the way for so many boxers and MMA fighters to come.”
She also fought Laila Ali, the daughter of the late boxing icon Muhammad Ali, in a high-profile fight in 2003 in which Laila knocked her out.
According CajaRecMartin has a record of 49-7-3, winning more than half of his contests with 31 career knockouts. Her last fight was a 2012 loss to Mia St. John.
According to the outlet, the film will be produced by independent studio Black Bear, and production will begin in the United States this fall.
