Sharon Stone weighed in on Sydney Sweeney’s controversial sports betting ad by urging her former Euphoria costar to “take responsibility” for the backlash.
“I think that it’s up to her to take responsibility for her actions, not up to me to judge her for her actions,” Stone, 68, told People on Wednesday, September 23. “It is up to me to be a cheerleader for the women who have made it through and become champions in women’s sports.”
Sweeney, 29, who is a new strategic partner and equity holder of Novig, made headlines earlier this month when an ad campaign showed her posing naked in front of equipment for various sports, including baseball, hockey, football and tennis.
The photos received backlash for “setting women back 100 years,” according to social media comments. Sweeney, meanwhile, has not publicly addressed the criticism.
“The concept is simple: cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports,” she said in a statement about the ad at the time. “The campaign brings that idea to life with confidence, humor and a playful edge.”
Stone, for her part, understood why others took issue with the campaign, adding on Wednesday, “We can’t denigrate women’s sports to get men’s attention so they can gamble.”
This isn’t the first time Stone has discussed Sweeney after she made headlines. The Basic Instinct actress playfully poked fun at Sweeney’s story line on Euphoria season 3 that led to her stripping down several times.
“In Euphoria, I tried to get Sydney Sweeney’s character to stop being a cam girl and to come and work for me on the series I was producing called L.A. Nights,” Stone told Variety in September. “And she agreed to stop being a cam girl — which she didn’t do. As you can see from Sydney’s new lingerie line, it didn’t take.”
Despite the ongoing conversations about her decision to go full frontal multiple times on the show, Sweeney has remained unbothered.
“I grew up with boobs. I was wearing a 32DD in sixth grade, and I never felt confident,” Sweeney exclusively told Us in March. “I never had anything I felt good in, and I just wanted to hide. It wasn’t until [I played] Cassie in Euphoria that I started realizing it’s actually powerful to be confident; our bodies are incredible. We should embrace [them] and feel really good in our skin.”
