Sydney Sweeney’s name seems to live in the trending column, whether she wants it to or not. Some days it’s because of a red-carpet look, some days it’s insider info on her and Scooter Braun's relationship, and plenty of days it’s people online deciding they know exactly who she is. However, in a new profile tied to her performance as boxer Christy Martin in the 2025 movie release, Christy, the Madame Web actress cuts through the noise with a blunt and straightforward response.
A new Sports Illustrated profile follows her transformation for Christy and also addresses the disconnect between the real Sweeney and the version the internet insists on. And this time, the White Lotus veteran uses the SI piece to draw a clear line between the persona and the person. Early in the story, she sums up the problem this way:
The perception is that the media version of who you are is who you actually are.
It’s a line that fits with the way she’s been pushing back lately. Sweeney has already clapped back at plastic-surgery rumors, reminding people that childhood photos aren’t evidence of anything. “You cannot compare a photo of me from when I was 12 to a photo of me at 26… Everybody on social media is insane,” she said. And she’s right — age, lighting, makeup, and experience change a face long before a needle ever would.
So when Sweeney was asked the straightforward version of that same idea, "What do people get wrong about you?" She didn’t spin it into an elaborate statement. She kept it short, saying:
A lot of things.
She didn’t elaborate, signaling she doesn’t owe the internet a detailed inventory of assumptions or how they land. She’ll talk when she wants to. And when she doesn’t, she’s done.
What she does hint at is how exhausted she is, having her body define her roles before she even steps onto set. She told Variety last year that all the commentary around her figure creates “this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over.”
Christy flips that dynamic. Sweeney put on 30 pounds, built a boxing gym in her grandmother’s shed, and spent months training so she could take real punches without a stunt double. She avoided training in Los Angeles specifically to keep the work from being photographed or picked apart. As she put it:
I knew that if I kept training in L.A. or anywhere else, people would start taking photos of me… I wanted to go home. I could disappear, not worry about the outside world, and just fully immerse myself in it… I wanted to actually fight.
That selective openness appears to extend to how she handles the media as well. Sydney Sweeney chooses when to engage and when to ignore the noise, and when it comes to assumptions about who she is, she’s only sharing what she feels comfortable sharing.
Now, while Christy didn’t set the box office on fire, it’s clearly a passion project for her. If you missed it during its theatrical run, it’s now available to rent and stream at home with an Amazon Prime Video subscription.