Her most daring looks are reserved for the red carpet: “It’s a lot of fun to explore new things, and try out different sides of myself,” Sweeney says. There are times when she envisions what futuristic beauty might look like to inform her glam decisions — she recently matched her eyeliner to her metal breastplate — but it’s an icon of the past, Brigitte Bardot, that is her greatest inspiration. In one episode of Euphoria, Sweeney’s character, Cassie Howard, is asked if she’s auditioning for the musical Oklahoma in a coquette-country dress with a gingham tie-front blouse. Off camera, she took the same look — originally inspired by Bardot — and reinvented it for a red carpet event. “I wanted to twist it a little bit,” she says. “I had cool undereye eyelashes and loved how it opened up my eyes.”
Sydney Sweeney at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2022Karwai Tang
Now, the doe-eyed actor is looking ahead to a major year. This fall, she’ll star in Madame Web, a new Spiderman spin-off Marvel film, and her first project under her own production company, Fifty-Fifty, is already in development. She’s on the rise — and constantly on the move. When I spoke with her she was in Rome, and had already been in New York, London, and Spain that week. To bring calm to the chaos of it all, she uses candles to spark a sense of relaxation. “I’m a big advocate for making it feel like a home no matter where I am,” Sweeney says. “I’m always burning candles and I love the smell of vanilla. It makes me feel home-y and calm and safe.”
Aside from My Way and a great vanilla candle, Sweeney’s other favorite scent is saltier: “I love the smell of Parmesan,” she says. Now that the Bronco is done, perhaps there’ll be a cheese-making project in her future.
