Sydney Sweeney talks about her HBO docu-drama ‘Reality’: With her most recent film role in HBO’s documentary ‘Reality,’ Sydney Sweeney is venturing into uncharted waters. The 25-year-old actress went through an exclusive interview with IndieWire to talk about her next movie, Reality, which premieres on HBO on May 29. She also dropped some hints about some of her other well-known projects, including ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 and ‘Anyone But You.’
Sweeney had also recently celebrated her birthday by attending the Emmy Awards for the first time, with two nominations for her brilliant performances in the popular shows ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Euphoria.’
Sharing her experience with the media, Sweeney commented, “It was such an amazing moment, but I did not live in the moment as much as I should have. I think I was just in shock the whole time,” said “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria” star. “I don’t even know who I talked to. I can’t remember a single thing. … It truly felt like I was living a dream.”
Sweeney seems to be back on the road to Emmy’s with HBO’s docu-drama ‘Reality’
With “Reality,” her critically acclaimed new HBO movie, which had its world premiere at the Berlinale earlier this year, Sweeney is already back on track to make this year’s Emmy Awards night an unforgettable one. “It’s definitely a crazy turnaround,” joked the actress. “It definitely feels like people are paying attention, and I like to find projects and characters that put people on their toes and don’t really expect to see from me. That’s what makes it exciting.”
What is HBO’s upcoming drama ‘Reality’ about?
The movie, which is based on a true event, centers on Reality Winner, a woman who, while working for a US government agency, revealed information about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. She was ultimately arrested as a result of what she did, and she was later given the harshest sentence ever for leaking secret government information to the media: five years and three months in prison. The play Is This a Room by Tina Satter, which employs a similar technique, serves as the inspiration for the script, which was created from the transcripts of the talks conducted with Reality during those interrogations.
Sweeney shares her experience filming ‘Reality’
“I Zoomed with her and spent quite a few hours getting to know her. I was able to take that information and that knowledge into the homework that I do to build my characters,” said Sweeney. “And then also when I reread the script, I saw so much more of Reality and who she is in it. And it just brought a whole different layer in life to it for me.” She added that Winner “would tell me different memories or experiences, and I was able to take those and expand off of it. I always say they’re my givens from the script — they’re given facts that I then build off of. And instead of just having a script, I had a real person to be able to build off of.”
The actor believes her role in “Reality” aligns with the greater aspirations for the roles she plays. “I always want people to watch my characters and get to form their own opinions about them instead of me or circumstance building that opinion for the audience already. So I try to find as many layers to them as possible just because we all have layers. We all have good and bad and right and wrong choices in us, and good thoughts and bad thoughts and highs and lows,” said the actress. “So I want to find all of those complexities that make a human. And especially a woman, we have so many layers to us.”
Sweeney teases about ‘Anyone But You’ and ‘Euphoria’ Season 3
As for what’s next for Sweeney, her upcoming rom-com ‘Anyone but You’, which is slated to be released on December 15, the actor said, “I’m so excited for people to wanna go see a rom-com. I grew up loving rom-coms, so I’m just super stoked. It was such a fun experience, and it’s a fun cast, and the crew was awesome, and Australia’s amazing, and I think people are gonna really fall in love with the story and the characters.”
The actress also hinted at the highly anticipated third season of ‘Euphoria,’ saying, “Cassie definitely has a lot more life to live, and I can’t wait for everyone to see what Season 3 brings.”
Reality premieres on HBO on May 29 at 10 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on Max the following day.
