Sydney Sweeney’s Former Acting Coach Has Come To Her Defense After After A Producer Said She ‘Can’t Act’ And Is ‘Not Pretty’

Will anyone be normal about Sydney Sweeney or women in general? Probably not. Earlier this week, producer Carol Baum spoke with New York Times film critic Jane Maslin during a film screening when she said some choice words about Sweeney, mainly that the actress is “isn’t pretty” and “can’t act.” The worst part?? The screening was for David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers.

“I don’t get Sydney Sweeney,” Baum told Maslin. “I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this movie — [this] romantic comedy where they hate each other.” Baum also recalled asking her film students at USC: “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer.” Her acting teacher has one!

Scott Sedita, Sweeney’s former acting coach, says that her beauty is what makes her acting!(?) He told TMZ that while she doesn’t have “supermodel” good looks (???) she “is beautiful because she has inner depth, intellect, compassion, style and facial features — eyes, smile, cheekbones — that the camera angles pick up on,” he told TMZ. “The camera loves her ‘look’ as well as the audience. Audiences love her because she’s relatable and approachable,” he said.

But Sedita does know that Sweeney has a good head on her shoulders and can handle criticism. “She’s been through the ups and downs of this business. So you have to be pretty much a serious actress if you’re gonna go through all that. When taking feedback or critique, she processes it, uses her acting technique and makes the adjustment.”

Sweeney isn’t too bothered by the hate. She responded to Baum’s claims with a statement that read:

How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.

She’s also too busy paying off her mom’s mortgage to really care what anyone has to say.

(Via TMZ)