Sydney Sweeney unknowingly found herself at the center of the news earlier this year after veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum said Sweeney is “not pretty” and “can’t act” — and then Sweeney’s hit rom-com “Anyone but You” rejected as ‘unwatchable’. .” A rep for the actor fired back at Baum at the time, slamming the producer for having the audacity to “assault another woman.” Now, Sweeney herself spoke out about the incident in a new interview with Vanity Fair.

“It’s very disheartening to see women putting down other women, especially when women who are successful in other areas of their industry see young talent working very hard – hoping to make their dreams come true – and then trying to get any work to bash and discredit. what they did,” Sweeney said. “All the people say is this whole industry is ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it happens. It’s all fake and a cover for all the other nonsense they say behind everyone’s back.”

“I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it,” she continued. “I’ve read that we’ve grown up all our lives – and it’s a generational problem – with the idea that only one woman can be at the top. There is one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, everything. So then everyone else feels like they have to fight each other or put that one woman down, instead of saying, “Let’s all lift each other up.” I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m just doing my best here. Why am I being attacked?”

Baum, a longtime Hollywood producer and director of such films as “Dead Ringers,” “Father of the Bride” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” made the disparaging comments about Sweeney during a conversation in Pleasantville, N.Y., with New York film critic York Times. Janet Maslin.

“I don’t understand Sydney Sweeney,” Baum said during the conversation. “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ No one had an answer.”

Sweeney’s rep shared a statement with Variety Shortly afterwards, Baum’s criticism went viral: “How sad that a woman who is in a position to share her expertise and experience would choose to attack another woman instead. If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and sees fit to teach it to her students, it’s shameful. To unfairly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”

To read Sweeney’s latest interview in its entirety, visit Vanity Fair’s website.