Sydney Sweeney Breaks Silence on American Eagle Ad Backlash: ‘I Didn’t Really See a Lot of It’

Earlier this year, Sydney Sweeney found herself at the center of backlash surrounding her ad campaign for American Eagle, but in a recent interview, the Christy star revealed she sort of brushed off the controversy.

“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans,” Sweeney, 28, told GQ in an interview published on Tuesday, November 4. “All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life.”

The ad featured bold wordplay that ruffled some feathers: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” (with “jeans” standing in for “genes”). One spot showed her saying, “Genes are passed down from parents… even eye color. My jeans are blue.”

Critics immediately flagged the pun and pointed out that pairing a blonde-haired blue-eyed actress with imagery of inherited traits hinted at themes of eugenics and white-supremacist beauty standards. Supporters thought the outrage was overblown, and President Donald Trump even chimed in on the ad.

“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,” Trump, 79, wrote via Truth Social. “Go get ’em Sydney.”

Sweeney described having the president mention her as “surreal.”

When asked if having “some very powerful people have her back” made her feel “thankful,” she replied, “I don’t think…. It’s not that I didn’t have that feeling, but I wasn’t thinking of it like that, of any of it.”

“I kind of just put my phone away. I was filming every day,” Sweeney concluded. “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.”