Sydney Sweeney wants a new challenge as an actor and producer

Sydney Sweeney is quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, and in recent years she’s done so largely through edgy, unconventional and wildly entertaining films. Ahead of the release of her latest film, the nun horror film Immaculatespoke with Sweeney about how she chooses her projects and what it means to star in or produce them.

According to Sweeney, her process for choosing scripts and projects is simple: It has to scare her. When thinking about scripts, she explains, “If something scares me in a challenging way, then that’s what I should do.”

That didn’t hurt Immaculate scared her for more reasons than just the feeling that it was a challenging role. She first auditioned for the film a decade ago, when she was 16 – long before that euphoria increased her fame by leaps and bounds. says Sweeney Immaculate was “very different” when she first auditioned for it, but that it stuck with her. When she founded her own production company, Fifty Fifty FilmsWhen she thought about how she could weaponize her love of horror films for her next project, she immediately wanted to track down the script that still scared her all these years later. When she found out Immaculate wasn’t produced yet, she says she had to take this chance.

“I had never seen a character go on such a crazy journey as Cecilia,” Sweeney said. “She starts off in such a calm, pure, innocent space and just goes through such a transformation. […] So it’s really fun to have a character on the acting side that just challenges you and challenges you in new ways.”

To take all these risks as both a producer and an actress, Sweeney needed people around her that she could trust. So she handpicked the crew and chose her frequent collaborator Michael Mohan as director.

“Mike and I have worked together on several projects and I always felt like I had such a great relationship with him that I could help him,” Sweeney said. “Mike actually listens and even disagrees with me, which I think is important. You don’t want to have a yes manager as a partner.

“And I think we just look at films the same way. I love that he is loyal to his team. I love it. He is loyal to the crew members. I like the way he works on set. […] And as a producer, I want to make sure that the sets I run also have an environment similar to the one I experienced as an actor working with Mike. With him leading the project, I know everyone will feel respected and enjoy their experience.”

While the fear of failure and the prospect of new and exciting success can be crucial to Sweeney as an actress, her decisions for her production company are slightly different, although no less risky.

“On the production side, it’s more about me just wanting to try everything and see what I like best or maybe what I can do better,” Sweeney said. “And until I figure that out, I’m going to keep trying different genres.”

Immaculate is now in the cinema.