Sydney Sweeneyis living out her dream as a working actress.
The 24-year-old, who is featured inPEOPLE’s 2021 Ones to Watch packagein this week’s issue, remembers wanting to act “even before I knew exactly what acting was.”
But the path to Hollywood was “difficult,” admits Sweeney, who grew up in Spokane, Washington.
“[My parents] looked at it as just a dream, a fairytale. … It wasn’t something that was tangible,” she recalls. “We didn’t have the connections. We didn’t have the money, any of it, to be able to pull something like this off. My parents literally sacrificed so much to be able to support me [and my] dreams.”
Determined to achieve her goals, Sweeney pitched an official proposal to her parents around age 13.
“I created a five-year business plan presentation of what could happen if they let me start auditioning for movies,” she says. “I was like, ‘How can I communicate to them on a level that they’ll take me seriously and they’ll understand?'”
“I think they were like, ‘Oh man, she’s very serious and she’s not going to shut up about this.’ And so they let me [do it],” she continues. “We started doing road trips to Seattle, and doing short films and little indies. And it snowballed [from there].”
They couldn’t afford plane tickets to L.A., so they would drive to the city for auditions and back home the next day.
“We didn’t have to spend money on a hotel — just gas,” she says. “And we did that sometimes twice a month. It was crazy. It’s like, a good 19, 20-hour drive.”
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She went on to score roles inThe Handmaid’s Tale,EuphoriaandTheWhite Lotus. Next, she’ll be producing and starring inThe Players Tablefor HBO Max alongsideHalsey.
HBO
Sweeney credits her success to her family and calls mom Lisa her “biggest role model.”
“This is finally my dream coming true,” theOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywoodstar says. “It’s amazing. Being able to bring them on set, or being able to bring them to red carpets — I flew my grandmother to Paris Fashion Week, and she got to go to a fashion show and sit front row.”
“Just being able to share those experiences with my family who saw me struggle and struggled themselves, getting to share the success with them has been really heartwarming. Sometimes I get so teary thinking about it, but it’s really good.”
So what does Sweeney’s five-year plan look like today?
“I hope to have produced a couple of different projects. I have two that I’ve sold already and I’m producing,” she says. “I would love to direct something in the next five years.”
Also, “I hope to do a character that challenges me to a whole other level, where I have to physically and mentally change myself,” she adds. “And I hope to continue having a healthy and happy relationship with my family.”
source: people.com
