Sydney Sweeney Talks 'Wildfire' Of Backlash To Her Mom's MAGA Birthday Party: 'Nothing I Say Can Help'

Sydney Sweeney doesn’t have many answers for the backlash to her mom’s birthday party.

The Euphoria star was the focus of unwanted attention in August when she posted pics and clips to Instagram of a country-infused celebration for her mom’s 60th birthday. As Perezcious readers will recall, guests were seen wearing bright red “Make Sixty Great Again” hats at the hometown hoedown — clearly inspired by former president Donald Trump‘s viral lids. Plus, eagle-eyed fans pointed out a man in the pics who appeared to be wearing a “Blue Lives Matter” shirt.

After the party pics went mega-viral on Twitter, the White Lotus star did her best to curtail the backlash. But the cat was already out of the proverbial bag. For days, the internet ragged on the 25-year-old star and her conservative, small-town family.

Now, in a new interview with British GQ, Sydney is taking her turn to speak. The TV star slammed the entire situation, saying that the viral controversy quickly spiraled out of control before she could ever react:

“Honestly I feel like nothing I say can help the conversation. It’s been turning into a wildfire, and nothing I can say will take it back to the correct track.”

And while she admitted to “sadly” reading negative comments online, she also explained how there just isn’t an easy solution for dealing with them.

Some in the star’s circle have asked her to take media training, but she told the outlet she’s balked at that:

“Why, do you want to see a robot? I don’t think there’s any winning.”

As far as viral mobs go, there may not be. We guess folks just wanted to know she didn’t approve of her fam’s apparently right-wing leanings? But assuming things about her based on it, that she’s a Republican or racist, that’s not fair. And speaking of not fair…

She revealed certain trolls have also been posting nude scenes she’s done in her movies — and tagging her family members’ social media accounts! Ick! She blasted the bullying, saying:

“My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair. You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualized person at school, and then an audience that does the same thing.”

Will it deter her from doing nude scenes on Euphoria or elsewhere? Hell no!

“I think it’s ridiculous. I’m an artist, I play characters. It makes me want to play characters that piss people off more.”

Sydney gets very candid with the mag about how different her hometown values are from what she sees in Hollywood. Having grown up in rural Washington outside Spokane, Sydney wasn’t prepared for the entertainment world. And her family doesn’t seem to be, either. She said:

“My family doesn’t understand me or the world I’m in anymore. … In this industry, my home and the place that grounds me is so vastly different to how people live there.”

Oof.

Elsewhere in the interview, Sydney recalls her childhood in the rural area near the Idaho border. While she grew to love the outdoors, she also grew quickly — like, literally.

Remembering how her body developed faster than anyone else around, she explained:

“I had boobs before other girls and I felt ostracized for it. I was embarrassed and I never wanted to change in the locker room. I think that I put on this weird persona other people had of me because of my body. So I did play every sport and I studied really hard and I did everything that people wouldn’t think I would do, to show them that my body doesn’t define who I am.”

Some of that self-consciousness still plays on her mind today — except it’s on a much bigger stage, as she explained:

“Oh yeah, but now it’s on a whole-world scale.”

Ugh…

Sweeney also looks back on the beginnings of her career. After auditioning for local low-budget films around Washington as a child, she convinced her family to move to Los Angeles. There, they struggled for a long time. She persisted, and eventually settled into stardom, but it wasn’t without adversity:

“I hated going home and friends or family members being like, ‘When are you going to come home and get a real job?’ There were a lot of really condescending statements that would make me disappointed in myself and guilty that my parents had given up so much to allow me to follow my dreams.”

Dang! It sounds like the friction was there between her life back home and her Hollywood dreams right from the start!

But there were benefits to being brought up in a tough environment. Sydney says it has helped keep her out of trouble as an adult:

“I’ve never actually tried any drug, never drank, because I’ve seen my aunts, uncles, cousins, and the effect not just on that person but the community surrounding them. It’s hard to watch someone want to destroy themselves.”

She added:

“It’s hard when people judge people they don’t know.”

It all paid off, though — at least as far as her career is concerned. And it sounds like she knows she’s found the secret to dealing with all those haters from her early days: