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Sydney Sweeney is recalling a small but impactful moment from the Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood set.
The actress spoke with Cosmopolitan for the magazine’s 2026 Love Issue cover story and revealed one thing she admired about her former Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood castmate, Brad Pitt.
While on set for the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film, Sweeney took particular notice of Pitt’s kindness to everyone who worked on the movie, she said, and recalled wanting to reflect the same quality in herself.
“I remember on the set of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, I watched Brad Pitt sit and hang out with the transpo department,” Sweeney recalled. “I absolutely loved that, and I was like, ‘Yeah, you have to respect everybody in your life.’ ”
Sweeney said that instance reflects one of her core values. “I’ve always led with love. I’ve always believed that love is love in every single form. You should be kind to whoever you meet.”
Sony Pictures; Andrew Cooper/Sony Pictures
The Christy actress played Snake — a member of the Manson Family cult — in the film, which follows television star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt) in the late ’60s as they navigate a version of Hollywood they barely recognize anymore and become entangled with Charles Manson and his followers.
In addition to Sweeney, many other actors had breakout roles in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, including Mikey Madison, Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler, Maya Hawke and Victoria Pedretti.
The film came out the same year as Sweeney’s other breakout role in Euphoria, in which she played popular, but misguided, teenager Cassie Howard.
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Sweeney told Cosmopolitan that to her, Cassie was the start of people “creating their own narratives” about her and who she is. According to the 28-year-old, as Cassie (and some of her other past characters, Sweeney said) makes some “questionable” decisions, people often conflate her with her roles.
“It’s definitely not a comfortable thing to have people saying what you believe or think, especially when that doesn’t align with you,” she said. “It’s been a weird thing having to navigate and digest, because it’s not me. None of it is me.”
“It’s definitely gone to a level where it’s just not healthy for me to digest it all,” Sweeney continued, adding that she’d ideally like to retire the narrative that she’s a “hateful person.”
