Sydney Sweeney at the Emmy Awards, ‘Reality’, ‘Anyone But You’ and ‘Euphoria’ – IndieWire

Sydney Sweeney has almost no memory of her 25th birthday last fall.

“I don’t think I’ve processed that night.” I don’t think I even realized where I was that day. It was crazy,” the actress told IndieWire. While others throw parties or go on vacation to celebrate milestone birthdays where it’s much easier to rent a car (and harder when you’re in a quarter-life crisis), Sweeney’s big day happened to coincide with her first Primetime -you. Emmy as a dual nominee no less.

“It was an amazing moment, but I didn’t live in the moment as much as I should have. I think I was in shock the whole time,” said the “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria” star. “I don’t even know who I was talking to. I don’t remember a single thing. … It really felt like I was living a dream.”

Now in “Reality,” his new HBO movie that premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year, Sweeney is back on track to make this year’s Emmys a night to remember. “It’s definitely a crazy twist,” the actress said with a laugh. “I definitely feel like people are paying attention, and I love finding projects and characters that excite people and not really expect me to. That’s what makes it exciting.”

Based on the 2019 play Is This a Room, about the moment on June 3, 2017, when NSA contractor Reality Winner was approached by the FBI about classified information suspected of being leaked to the press, “Reality” sees Sweeney and co. -stars speak verbatim words from actual interrogation transcripts to chilling results.

Although the star didn’t know Winner’s story before booking the role in the thriller, which was co-written and directed by Tina Satter, who also designed the play, Sweeney said she sees “reality” as both a different challenge for herself and something different. for the viewers to see in me.”

While her two biggest roles to date, Cassie in “Euphoria” and Olivia in “The White Lotus,” were written and directed by Sam Levinson and Mike White, two visionaries with the ability to change story elements on the fly, Sweeney now played. a real person, only saying lines that Winner spoke verbatim during the hour he was being questioned by the FBI.

On the surface, the actress said, “I was in brain boot camp memorizing every night,” but to get more inside Winner’s mind, Sweeney continued to take the approach of writing a detailed journal dedicated to her character. However, he got mixed up in the details he received from Winner.

“I really zoomed in on it and spent quite a few hours getting to know it. I was able to bring that information and knowledge into my homework, which I do to build my characters,” Sweeney said. “And even when I reread the script, I saw a lot more of the reality and who was in it. And it brought a whole different layer of life to me.” The star added that Winner “tells me different memories or experiences and I was able to take them and develop from them. I always say that from the script I gave it – they get facts from which I then build. And instead of just having a script, I had a real person to build off of.”

Ultimately, the play’s purpose is not to pass judgment on Winner, but to provide a more vivid picture of the conversation that led to Winner receiving the longest sentence ever for a civilian accused of leaking classified documents to the media. “All I wanted to do as an actor was to focus on him as a human being. Not the headlines surrounding him, nor the people around him. I just wanted to know him as a person and on a human level,” Sweeney said of his whistleblower role. “I loved how raw and real it was.”

“Reality” aligns with the larger aspirations of the roles he plays. “I always want people to watch my characters and form an opinion about them for me, or for the audience to already form that opinion. That’s why I try to find as many layers as possible for them, just because we all have layers. We all have good and bad, good and bad decisions, good and bad thoughts, highs and lows,” said the actress. “So I want to find all the complexities that make up a person. And especially a woman, we have so many layers.”

As for what’s next for Sweeney, his upcoming movie Anyone But You, produced by his company Fifty-Fifty Films, has already made waves after fans saw paparazzi shots suggesting his on-screen chemistry with co-star Glen Powell it was palpable. When asked if Sony, the film’s distributor, might have pushed the romantic comedy’s release date after seeing the excitement surrounding the spring production, Sweeney said the Dec. 15 film was “always headed toward the end. release of the year or the peak of the next, so I was really excited that we got the slot that we did.”

He added: “I’m really excited that people want to go see a rom-com. I grew up loving rom-coms, so I’m really excited. It was a really fun experience and a fun cast and the crew was fantastic and Australia is amazing and I think people are going to really fall in love with the story and the characters.”

As for the highly-anticipated third season of Sweeney’s other acclaimed HBO project, “Euphoria,” the actress teased, “Cassie definitely has a lot more life to live, and I can’t wait for everyone to see what Season 3 brings. “

“Reality” premieres Monday, May 29 at 10:00 PM on HBO and can also be seen the following day on Max.