Sydney Sweeney is finally talking about the backlash to her American Eagle jeans ad.
The “Euphoria” actress, 28, spoke about the controversy that erupted in July for the first time in an interview with GQ magazine published Tuesday.
“I know who I am. I know what I value. I know that I’m a kind person,” Sweeney told the publication. “I know that I love a lot, and I know that I’m just excited to see what happens next. And so I don’t really let other people define who I am.”
When the reporter asked Sweeney directly if she “was surprised by the reaction” to the ad, she responded: “I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans.”
“All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life,” the “Christy” star continued.
Sweeney also called it “surreal” that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both reacted to the controversy.
Trump, 79, praised Sweeney and her ad in August after learning that she’s allegedly a registered Republican.
“She’s a registered Republican? Oh, now I love her ad,” Trump told reporters. He added, “If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.”
When the interviewer asked Sweeney if she felt “thankful” that “very powerful people” like POTUS “had [her] back in public,” she replied, “Hm, I don’t think that … it’s not that I didn’t have that feeling but I wasn’t thinking of it like that, of any of it.”
Many criticized American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ad for its play on words, seemingly using “jeans” instead of “genes” to talk about the blond-haired, blue-eyed starlet.
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” Sweeney said in a video for the campaign as she buttoned up her denim.
In the GQ interview, Sweeney said that she ignored the noise about the ad.
“I kind of just put my phone away,” she shared. “I was filming every day. I’m filming ‘Euphoria,‘ so I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it.”
But Sweeney did confirm that she was aware of American Eagle’s 38% soaring stocks thanks to the ad.
“When I saw all the headlines of in-store visits were down a certain percentage, none of it was true,” she explained. “It was all made up, but nobody could say anything because [the company was] in their quiet period. So it was all just a lot of talk. And because I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”
When asked if she wanted to specifically comment on the ad and why it garnered criticism, Sweeney told the reporter: “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
Sweeney also had a pointed message to those who won’t watch her TV and film projects because of the jeans ad. Her portrayal of boxer Christy Martin in “Christy” hits theaters Nov. 7.
“I think that if somebody is closed off because of something they read online to a powerful story like ‘Christy,’ then I hope that something else can open their eyes to being open to art and being open to learning, and I’m not going to be affected by that,” she said.
