It's always a good idea to keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them later!
Following disparaging comments from veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum towards Madame Web and Immaculate star Sydney Sweeney, a representative for the highly in-demand actress has shared a statement in response (via Variety).
“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.”
Baum was quoted as saying the following during a discussion in Pleasantville, N.Y., with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin.
“There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie [‘Anyone but You’] because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this … romantic comedy where they hate each other.”
“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. But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’ That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”
Though Baum's reps have yet to officially respond, reports claim that the producer is “already expressing regret over the whole thing” and “wishes she never would’ve made her original comments.”
After breaking out thanks to Emmy Award-nominated performances in TV shows Euphoria and The White Lotus, Sweeney has become one of the most sought-after young actors in Hollywood. The 26-year-old has two hit movies (we can't count Madame Web!) currently either in theaters or on streaming, as well as several major projects in the pipeline, including a remake of cult sci-fi comedy Barbarella.
"Meanwhile, in another universe...' reads the official synopsis, "In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing's most enigmatic heroines." "The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures...if they can all survive a deadly present."
Dakota Johnson stars as the clairvoyant Cassandra Webb, who uses her abilities to save a group of young woman, played by Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor, from a villainous Spider-Man lookalike known as Ezekiel Simms.
The girls Webb is doing her best to keep safe, Julia Carpenter, Mattie Franklin and Anya Corazón, are all destined to become heroes with Spider-like powers of their own, and Simms is targetting them because of what they do to him in the future.
S.J. Clarkson, who also helmed Marvel’s Jessica Jones and The Defenders, directs from a script by Matt Sazama, Kerem Sazama and Burk Sharpless. Adam Merims executive produced.