Glen Powell has confessed that he and Sydney Sweeney played up to the romance rumours in a bid to make their rom-com a success.
Anyone But You, which was filmed here in Australia, became one of the biggest rom-coms in years, earning over $200 million at the box office and reigniting the genre in the process.
While filming the movie and during its promotional tour, Powell and Sweeney were rumoured to have struck up a relationship.
Rumours were further fuelled when Powell broke things off with his long-term girlfriend Gigi Paris, with social media awash with rumours that Sweeney was responsible, despite having a fiance herself.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Powell praised Sweeney, who was an executive producer on the film alongside her fiance Jonathan Davino, for the part she played in the movie’s winning marketing strategy.
“The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry. Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry,” Powell explained.
“That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit — and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.”
“I was on every call. I was in text group chats,” said Sweeney. “I was probably keeping everybody over at Sony marketing and distribution awake at night because I couldn’t stop with ideas.
“I wanted to make sure that we were actively having a conversation with the audience as we were promoting this film, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who created the entire narrative.”
The Euphoria actress did eventually set the record straight when she hosted Saturday Night Live! in March, saying during her monologue that “the craziest rumour I’ve seen is that while I was filming Anyone But You, I was having an affair with my co-star Glen Powell.”
“That is obviously not true,” she said, later adding that she and Davino are “still together and stronger than ever.”
Meanwhile, the Anyone But You star, who was recently described as “not pretty” and a bad actress by a veteran film producer, took to Instagram earlier this month with a picture of herself wearing a grey jumper with the words “Sorry for having great t**s” written across the front.
In the post carousel, Sweeney also shared pictures of herself letting loose with a group of friends on what appeared to be an island getaway.
Her tongue-in-cheek response came after Hollywood producer and university professor Carol Baum – who worked on Father of the Bride, Dead Ringers and Buffy The Vampire Slayer – confessed after a recent film screening that she’d found Sweeney’s latest romantic comedy “unwatchable.”
Read related topics:Sydney