Sydney Sweeney Claps Back at American Eagle Ad Question During TIFF: 'Not There to Talk About Jeans'

Sydney Sweeney is done addressing her controversial American Eagles campaign.

While promoting her latest film, Christy, ahead of the Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Sweeney, 27, refused to speak about anything other than the biopic. The movie sees the actress take on the titular role of Christy Martin, a ‘90s-era boxer.

“I am there to support my movie and the people involved in making it, and I’m not there to talk about jeans,” the Euphoria alum told a news outlet on Thursday, September 4. “The movie’s about Christy, and that’s what I’ll be there to talk about.”

Sweeney has been the center of controversy since she starred as the face of American Eagle’s denim collection in August. The advertisement was a recreation of a famous 1980s Calvin Klein campaign that featured Brooke Shields and featured the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Genes.”

In Sweeney’s version, the Handmaid actress discussed the color of her jeans and compared them to her own eye color. "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” the White Lotus alum said in the advertisement.

Many fans believed the campaign promoted eugenics, which is a widely discredited theory about the improvement of human genetics through selective reproduction.

“Sydney thinks this whole thing has been blown out of proportion,” a source told a news outlet of Sweeney’s reaction to the backlash. “She’s focusing her energy on work.”

American Eagle has also come to the actress’s defense. “‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” the retailer shared in a statement. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”

Weeks later, Sweeney ruffled feathers again when she revealed she “strategically” thought about what brands she chooses to represent while addressing backlash surrounding selling her used bathwater.

“I think it’s important to have a finger on the pulse of what people are saying, because everything is a conversation with the audience,” she told WSJ. magazine on August 20.

Sweeney’s limited edition bath products sold out in seconds, with sellers currently asking $1,500 on the resell market, according to the soap maker Dr. Squatch.

“It was mainly the girls making comments about it, which I thought was really interesting,” she continued.

“They all loved the idea of Jacob Elordi’s bathwater,” she continued, referencing the Saltburn scene where Barry Keoghan drank Elordi’s used bathwater.