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Dear Friends,
I don’t know about you but I love to cash checks. In the exhaustive and mostly ridiculous comments about Sydney Sweeney’s recent American Eagle ads, one pundit made me really mad saying something like: “Sydney Sweeney never met a check she didn’t want to cash.”
To be clear: the man who said it was not complimenting her. I say f-him.
The now infamous American Eagle Jeans ad
Sydney shows up for money and is unapologetic. She has had a lot of brand deals including but not limited to: Miu Miu, Armani Beauty, water brand Bai, the Korean skin care label Laneige, the hair care brand Kérastase and the loafer brand HeyDude. She is a proud sell-out. And by the way she is not alone in deciding that money should be a priority.
I’m working on getting an interview with her to get more intel but until then, here’s my take based on news reports and interviews from Sydney herself.
(And team Sydney if you see this- I REALLY want her to be in my updated version of “How to be a Financial Grownup” coming out next year!” Message me here!)
Is Sydney pondering where to invest the cash from this Miu Miu deal?
Some of the financial grownup lessons we can learn from Sydney:
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Own your starting line: In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Sweeney talks candidly about the fact that Hollywood is filled with nepo-babies. She is not one of them.
“I had no idea getting into this industry how many people have connections. I started from ground zero, and I know how fucking hard it is.”
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If your industry isn’t paying you (yet) find other revenue streams. Sydney has reached a level of stardom where by now her paychecks are probably pretty substantial. But until recently they were not, and the future is unknown. So in the before times, she grabbed the product endorsement money because it wasn’t coming from acting. These days, the checks are probably really big and so why shouldn’t she cash them too? Who knows what the future will hold. Many a star has found themselves in shitty financial situations- and like Justin Bieber recently, having to make very tough financial decisions.
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Expenses are just as important as income: Sydney is very clear that she has very real ongoing overhead. Her grownup life is expensive. And she wants to live well. So she has to get the money.
“I have to give 5 percent to my lawyer, 10 percent to my agents, 3 percent or something like that to my business manager. I have to pay my publicist every month, and that's more than my mortgage."
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It sucks but many of us have to adapt to a changing industry. Just like professions including journalism and so many creative fields, the entertainment industry is being transformed by many things including the rise of streaming services, and of course, AI.
“I take deals because I have to. They don’t pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals. “
Related: What if All These Money Lessons Have Kids Focusing Too Much on Money?