Will Sydney Sweeney Be Successful Since She...Became A Republican?

 

 

Since it's been going on three years since the second season ended I think I need to remind some of my readers: I think Euphoria is by far the most overrated series on TV today.

To simply call it an exercise in style over substance is to speak in euphemisms, when you consider the style is for all the fancy narration and cinematography purely an act in gross exaggeration and sexual exploitation. In the few episodes I've been able to stomach watching over the years it genuinely seems like creator Sam Levenson has decided to take all of the exaggerations conservatives and Fox News have been saying about liberal Hollywood in the 21^st century not only literally but to exponentially increase them for a single television.

Because Euphoria is a series that doesn't even bother to hide that it using the guise of growing up as a teenager to essentially engage in every kind of exploitation of young adults. Ten years ago HBO wouldn't have touched this series with a ten-foot pole and I've honestly seen shows on Cinemax that had better storylines and far less nudity. That so many critics and viewers – to say nothing of the Emmys – have decided that this is the kind of drama worthy of being recognized along side Better Call Saul, Yellowjackets and The Crown is their most recent demonstration of their inability to recognize what is genuine art from what is an exercise in style. The fact that Levenson's follow up project The Idol was torn apart so thoroughly that it was cancelled before the first season even finished demonstrates that there are limits to how far television will take things.

I truly believe that every aspect of Hollywood and its surrounding aura of Euphoria is only possible because of the 2016 election. I really believe that this series more than any other film or TV series is basically an argument by the industry just to show how accepting they are of such things involving sexuality, gender and race in the face of everything they believe MAGA stands for. In the Obama era it would have been dismissed as pure pornography with no real plot and Levenson would have been accused of exploiting his performers much the way those rumors did surface during the filming of The Idol. It is the biggest possible middle finger to what the notoriously left-wing industry has ever yet held in front of the conservative, religious right. The Deuce, which aired its entire series before Euphoria aired its first season was far most tasteful and measured when it dealt with pornography directly then Euphoria does while claiming to be art. It is the biggest argument Hollywood says to its audience that it is purely and totally accepting of the youth of America's choices. And that makes the recent reaction to one of its stars all the more ironic – though hardly surprising.

 

I've occasionally argued in other pieces that the main difference between extremists on the far left and those on the far right is that the latter has a far easier time identifying its villains and enemies then the far left has. Sadly it is far easier to do so when your 'enemies' are a different race or gender or different sexual preference then those who make up your followers.

The left's enemies have always been institutions and they have a maximalist view of all of them. It is not just the visible face or figurehead that is the problem; it is the rank and file that is part of them and this is most clear when it comes to politics. They are clearest on this when it comes to red states, believing with every fiber of their being that every single citizen of Tennessee or Utah or Kansas is a full-blow MAGA extremist unworthy of support or sympathy, even though they have been exploited far more than the citizens of blue states by the Republicans they elect. Never mind how many votes a Democratic candidate gets for Senate or Congress or President in every election year; never mind that their newsletters will regular report on the outrages that so many minorities or women or members of the LGBTQ+ community are suffering in deep red states. Ironically considering how they view gender and sexuality as fluid concepts, when it comes to states and the voters within them, they see them as a binary decision. A state that votes Republican only has Republicans in it, therefore it deserves no sympathy from the enlightened progressive.

There is also the added irony that for a generation that believes that gender and sexual preference are only the business of the individual and not the state, they openly believe ones political preference – which is a private matter and is held secret by the ballot box -  is something that the entire country and the world absolutely has a right to know so that you can be identified and therefore shunned. Similarly they are convinced that the conservative movement and the Republican Party are far less significant then their numbers no matter how many elections that prove otherwise. You'd think last year would have finally made it clear that there are more Republicans in the country than the progressives would have convinced themselves over the past twenty years.

Instead they have not only doubled down but seem more convinced to find out which one of them walk among us, no doubt to brand them with a scarlet 'R'. And that brings me to Sydney Sweeney.

Regardless of how much I loathe Euphoria I have refrained judgment on the actors in their other work during that same period. That is true of Sweeney. Her work in the first season of The White Lotus showed range that her performance in Euphoria never did and I thought she was robbed of an nomination for her work in the HBO TV movie Reality in 2023. She has had a certain amount of success in film over the last few years, most recently in the films Anyone But You and Immaculate. She also demonstrated superb work in earlier projects such as Alice in Sharp Objects. More than any other cast member I'm not inclined to hold her work in Euphoria against her.

I also think that one's political affiliation, along with sexual orientation, race or gender, should have no effect on viewing them as an artist. And just like all the others I truly believe how you vote or your political views should not have an effect on your day  and should be kept private. The left, as we all know, doesn't feel the same way and never has.

I truly believe that if the search of the Florida registry had just revealed Sweeney was a registered Democrat, the same people who are condemning 'the message' in her ads of American Eagle Jeans would be celebrating it and the far right would be giving another example of how business is exploiting sexuality. Instead because Sweeney is apparently a Republican we've been treated to 'think-pieces' about how this ad is apparently a cover for eugenics and how American Eagle is a conservative industry designed to take over the world. I'll acknowledge Trump didn't help the matter what bit but for once I don't blame him for talking about it. Hollywood has spent the last decade so uniformly opposing him and this is particularly true with the younger generation that he must have gob-smacked to learn one of the stars of Euphoria had decided to register as a Republican – and might even have voted for him last year.

I say 'might' because all we know is that Sweeney is registered in Florida as a Republican. That only means that she can vote in Republican primaries in the state of Florida rather than Democratic ones. For all we know she was registered so she could vote for Nikki Haley last year, not that would have made much of a difference.

I'm registered as a Democrat but that has not stopped me from voting for Republicans in state elections or indeed for third party candidates. For all we know Sweeney voted for Harris in the general like every good Hollywood liberal claims to have done. And she is relatively young. Maybe she hasn't had enough time to think about the decision clearly. Perhaps when she gets old enough and comes to her sense she'll make an informed decision.

Am I baiting some people who will read this article and take the wrong message? Yes. But I do find it ironic that the same people who think that sexuality and gender are something that can fluctuate through one's entire life really do believe that the same is true when you register to vote. I also find it hysterical that these same people have had no problem with all of the sexual scenes that Sweeney has filmed throughout her career  but voting Republican is the bridge they can't cross with her.

I can just imagine so many Euphoria viewers bursting into tears: "I thought I knew her all this time!" "Is she sure about this choice?" "I invited her into my home!"  Why? Sweeney's exactly the same as she was before you knew about this – and despite all the fear-stoking the Democrats are doing, it's not like she'll be able to vote for Trump in three years' time.

And it's not like she's gone to Republican fundraisers the same way all the good Democratic celebrities have been doing all this time or campaigning for Republican officeholders. Hell, she hasn't even said if she supports most of it what the current administration is doing. Not that you bothered to ask her, of course.

No those inclusive and enlightened people on the left did what they always did and started to publicly shame her. And even when people claimed that this might be overkill – Stephen Colbert said as much on  a recent Late Show – they turned on him for defending her. No wonder Sweeney has done everything in her power not to talk about it; she knows probably better than most how little the left truly wants to listen to dissent.

Euphoria is filming its third – and what is supposedly going to be its final season as we speak. It is scheduled to air sometime in 2026. I have no intention of watching it and I will be glad when it is gone from HBO for good. The only thing I am curious about is how Sweeney's political identification might affect the show's overall opinion with its fans in that final season. Will they move to the hate-watching circle? Will they review bomb it the way so many devoted far right viewers will do with The Last of Us? Will they have moved on from the 'scandal' altogether by then? For the record I think the last is unlikely.

What I will be interested in is Sweeney's career going forward. She's not even 28 yet which would seem to indicate a big career and considering she is the youngest actor who has 'come out' as  a Republican, She already has the potential to be a formidable actress both in film and television in the years and decades to come.

And with Hollywood clearly at a crossroads and dealing with financial peril, it can't afford to isolate potential stars the way it once did. And with Trump's presence in politics finally nearing its inevitable conclusion the industry is going to have to see if it can move on to deal with this new world. In that sense how they treat Sweeney going forward will be a test case for them.

We will have to wait and see. For all that, there is one last irony of this to consider: given all of the exploitation that is present in Euphoria and the difficult roles she's already played, it is her registration as a Republican that Hollywood may consider when they refer to her as 'controversial' and that may make her 'difficult'. Considering that I believe the series only exists to demonstrate 'acceptance', how they deal with Sweeney will show how tolerant they truly are.