Hidden inside Variety’s in-depth interview with Sydney Sweeney is a Bond nugget.
Apparently, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly “wants very much to happen” for Sweeney to play the next Bond girl. She attended his wedding to Lauren Sánchez in June, and the trio are also business partners on Sweeney’s new lingerie line.
When Variety confronts Sweeney about the Bond rumors, she “unravels” for the first and only time during the sit-down.
“I can’t. [Seven-second pause.] I don’t know. [Ten-second pause.] To be honest, I don’t know all the Bond rumors, but I’ve always been a huge fan of the franchise, and I’m excited and curious to see what they do with it,” she says.
That’s a coyly orchestrated non-answer. Quite honestly, Sweeney as the next Bond girl would set the internet on fire.
A few months ago—and no thanks to outlets like The Washington Post, Salon, GMA, and MSNBC—Sweeney’s recent American Eagle jeans ad was criticized by some as “racist” and “regressive.” The controversy boiled down to this: Sweeney is a blonde, blue-eyed white woman, and the AE ad played on the pun “great genes,” which she tweaks to “great jeans.”
Making matters worse, only a week later, keyboard warriors dug up public records showing that Sydney Bernice Sweeney registered as a Republican voter in June 2024—a detail since confirmed by outlets like Entertainment Weekly and PEOPLE—and, unsurprisingly, fresh backlash followed.
To make things even more combustible, Donald Trump has weighed in, praising Sweeney by name: “If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic,” he said, calling it the “hottest” commercial.
Just yesterday, in a now-deleted Reddit iser post about Sweeney playing Kim Novak in Colman Domingo’s directorial debut Scandalous, almost all the comments centered around redditors saying they would “never watch a movie” with Sweeney and that she “supports a fascist.”
I have no idea how Sweeney’s career will pan out, but she’s currently receiving good reviews for her role as real-life boxer Christy Martin in David Michod’s upcoming biopic (Christy) and recently shot Euphoria season 3. I just can’t see her saying no to being a Bond girl—it’s kind of a perfect fit—but her detractors surely won’t be happy about it.
Nonetheless, even if Bezos and Amazon want Sweeney, the casting decision will inevitably need the blessing of Bond 26 filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who will surely have a specific vision for the film he wants to make.
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.