Anyone But You: Glen Powell Confirms That Scandalous Sydney Sweeney Rumor Is False
Remember how everybody though that Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney — two major rising stars in Hollywood — had some sort of fling while they filmed their rom-com "Anyone But You?" That's exactly what they wanted you to think.
In an interview with The New York Times about the resounding success of "Anyone But You," which became a huge box office success when it released in late 2023, Powell revealed that the film's marketing — which often featured Powell and Sweeney brazenly flirting while they examined thirsty tweets for Buzzfeed or answered popular search engine queries for Wired — was meticulously planned.
"The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry," Powell told the outlet. "Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry," Powell said in an interview. "That's people wanting what's on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit — and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart."
These rumors were then fueled by Powell's split from his girlfriend Gigi Paris (though Sweeney is still with her fiancé, restauranteur Jonathan Davino, who also served as an executive producer on "Anyone But You"). So was Sweeney fueling this fire too? She absolutely was.
Sydney Sweeney also worked behind the scenes to make Anyone But You a huge success
Apparently, the real mastermind behind these real-life romance rumors between Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell was Sweeney herself. As her career has risen to new heights, Sweeney has proven herself to be a savvy, smart producer, who champions her projects and often gets them off the ground in the first place ... and according to Sweeney herself, she was the driving force behind a lot of the press tour antics for "Anyone But You."
"I was on every call," Sweeney revealed. I was in text group chats. I was probably keeping everybody over at Sony marketing and distribution awake at night because I couldn't stop with ideas," she said. "I wanted to make sure that we were actively having a conversation with the audience as we were promoting this film, because at the end of the day, they're the ones who created the entire narrative."
Sweeney's gambit seriously paid off, as the film garnered solid reviews from critics and became a slow burn success at the box office, marking the apparent return of the studio rom-com. Not only that, but Sweeney basically made the movie happen in the first place; as its executive producer, she had a ton of say in both the finished project and the press tour.
The success of Anyone But You is thanks partly to Sydney Sweeney's smart business decisions
Sydney Sweeney's last two big movies, "Immaculate" and "Anyone But You," were both spearheaded by the starlet herself through her production company Fifty-Fifty Films. The interview with the New York Times specifically notes that Sweeney happened across the script for "Anyone But You" written by Ilana Wolpert, she wanted to make the film immediately. "Ilana took such a cool, modern twist on Shakespeare, I felt like I was reading an early 2000s rom-com," she said. "I loved wanting to be kissed in the rain, wanting to fall in love once I finished reading the script, wanting to cry, laugh, feeling all the feels."
Sweeney — described elsewhere in the piece as a "force of nature" by Tom Rothman, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group's CEO and chairman — also decided to be extremely hands-on with the marketing. We now know that Sweeney, in what she calls an "act of faith" on Sony's part, came up with the idea for her and Glen Powell to read "raunchy ASMR pickup lines" for a viral video ... which racked up millions upon millions of views. She also noticed that moviegoers loved the way that "Anyone But You" utilizes Natasha Bedingfield's song "Unwritten," and took it upon herself to create a TikTok trend with the song.
"I was like, this is really interesting, so I saved that and I storied that [on Instagram]," Sweeney said. "Before I knew it, I was doing it every single night. It just spiraled into this thing that created a TikTok trend, and that is truly what built the audience."
Will Anyone But You get a sequel?
So will "Anyone But You" get a sequel after its surprising success? Maybe, but as Tom Rothman says in the article, there could be another way to play off the success of "Anyone But You." After saying they'd "consider" a sequel, Rothman continued, "But I think maybe the healthiest opportunity is another original starring the two of them." Having Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell become the new Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks certainly isn't a bad idea, but they'll need more vehicles to show off their crackling chemistry.
That's why the discussion is partly about the success of "Anyone But You" and, in a larger sense, more about the future of the studio romantic comedy. After the genre experienced a huge boom in the 2000s, great studio rom-coms have become a thing of the past, with most rom-coms ending up attached to various streaming services without a proper theatrical release. So what does the team behind "Anyone But You" think?
Director Will Gluck, known for projects like "Easy A" and "Friends With Benefits," had a pretty cynical view of the situation: "There's one thing I know for certain: Nothing will be learned from this. I hope I'm wrong, but it's not like, in six months get ready for a rom-com revolution every weekend. I still think people are a little hesitant to figure out why it worked." Perhaps the secret is just that every romcom needs Powell and Sweeney flirting off-camera to keep audiences guessing.