Months after Sydney Sweeney showed off her jeans in an American Eagle ad, the actress is finally speaking about the controversy it created — at least, sort of.
In an interview with GQ, the Euphoria and White Lotus actress stood by the ad while downplaying how much attention she paid to the internet back-and-forth that ensued.
“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life,” Sweeney told the magazine.
In the ad, Sweeney makes a play on words between jeans (the clothing item) and genes (the genetic material), which some internet users read as having eugenicist undertones. Eugenics is a discredited idea that the human race could be improved by selectively breeding for certain traits.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” Sweeney says in the ad.
Morgan Westcott, a marketing professor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, says the American Eagle ad does not signal a ‘shift,’ but rather reflects a ‘recycled concept’ and a clear call to their target market.
American Eagle responded to the backlash at the time, saying the ad was just about jeans, not about genetics.
“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone,” the company said in an Instagram post.
But Sweeney stayed silent despite much media coverage and online debate — even after U.S. President Donald Trump called it the “HOTTEST ad out there” and Vice-President JD Vance addressed it.
“It was surreal,” Sweeney said, of the fact that the president and the vice-president responded.
The actress also told GQ she was “aware of the numbers” when American Eagle’s stock rallied after the ad came out and again on Sept. 4, a day after a company earnings call in which the company credited the ad with boosting their sales and attracting new customers.
But aside from that, Sweeney said she missed much of the social media backlash.
“I kind of just put my phone away. I was filming every day. I’m filming Euphoria, so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it,” Sweeney said.
The actress has two forthcoming films, including Christy, a biography about female pro boxer Christy Martin’s career and experience with domestic violence, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year.
When asked if she thought the controversy surrounding her might turn some viewers away from seeing Christy and hearing its messages about domestic violence, Sweeney said she wasn’t worried about that. “If somebody is closed off because of something they read online … then I hope that something else can open their eyes,” she said.
