Vertigo star Kim Novak is revealing the real reason why she doesn’t approve of Sydney Sweeney starring in the upcoming biopic Scandalous!.
“[Sydney] sticks out so much above the waist,” Novak, 93, told London’s The Times in an interview published on Saturday, March 28, adding that she “would never have approved” of the casting.
“There’s no way it wouldn’t be a sexual relationship because Sydney Sweeney looks sexy all the time,” she added. “She was totally wrong to play me.”
Colman Domingo is set to direct and costar with his Euphoria castmate Sweeney, 28, in a romantic drama based on Novak’s real relationship with Sammy Davis Jr. in the late 1950s. Scandalous! will juxtapose the passion of Novak and the late Davis’ interracial romance with a time when segregation was still prevalent throughout the U.S. (Davis died at age 64 from complications from throat cancer in May 1990.)
The Golden Globe Award winner’s issues with Sweeney’s casting go beyond the Anyone but You actress’s physical presence on screen. Novak went public with her bipolar disorder diagnosis in 2012, and is now questioning whether Sweeney can accurately capture that experience on screen.
“You can’t learn to be vulnerable,” Novak insisted. “It’s a big asset to be a bipolar actor. No one feels joy or pain as much as someone who’s bipolar. The feelings are unstoppable.”
Novak has been vocally opposed to Scandalous! since the project was picked up by production company Miramax in October 2024. Last September, Novak even took issue with the title of Domingo’s movie.
“I don’t think the relationship was scandalous,” Novak told The Guardian at the time. “He’s somebody I really cared about. We had so much in common, including that need to be accepted for who we are and what we do, rather than how we look. But I’m concerned they’re going to make it all sexual reasons.”
For her part, Sweeney told People in October 2025 that she was hoping to meet Novak before shooting Scandalous!.
“I’m incredibly honored to be bringing Kim to life. I mean, she is such an amazing actress,” Sweeney said at AFI Fest. “I think her story is still very relevant today in that she dealt with Hollywood and scrutiny with her relationships and her own private life and the control of her image. And I think that for me, I relate to it in a lot of different ways.”
She went on, “Once I finish Euphoria, I switch into Scandalous! gear and I’m going to turn my brain into Kim. I’m so excited. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I’m going to meet Kim Novak.’”
Scandalous! is expected to shoot this year but does not yet have a release date.
