How does it feel to have Christy out in the world?
Christy is one of those projects and stories that, when you’re making it, the crew, the cast, everyone involved, we all knew it was going to be something special. We had Christy with us on set many days, we would sometimes just cry because of how powerful the story is. Being able to share that experience with the world and to be able to show Christy’s story to the world is so impactful and I’m beyond honored and proud that we were able to bring this story to life.
In the beginning, the film is also really fun. You’ve got headgear on, you’ve got a mouthguard in, you’re grinning as you punch people in the face. Was it as much fun as it looked?
It was so much fun. I was over the moon. I felt like I finally came to life myself through Christy. We really shaped every single single fight to match Christy’s fights so all the different combos you see me doing are the actual combos from the fights. And I had the best girls to box with, because they were down to actually fight. We would do full contact, we would punch each other in the face, so a lot of those reactions are me as Christy but also just me, feeling like I couldn’t believe I did it just then.
You have a background in martial arts, tell me about that.
I was twelve, thirteen, and I started kickboxing and grappling. I did that until I was about 19, and then I booked Handsmaid’s Tale and Euphoria and I was like, I can’t fight and film at the same time, because I’d come home with bruises. But I always wanted to find a story that would be able to bring that side of myself out.
What did fighting give you at that time in your life?
The element of surprise. I was the only girl there. It was a lot of, What is she doing here? The dads were a little upset that their sons would be fighting a girl and then I would sometimes win.
You’re someone who keeps a strong division between your characters and your personal self. Is that harder when you’ve done this physical transformation for a character like Christy?
I actually learned so much more about myself throughout the process. I am someone who I build my book for my character and I learn everything about her life so that I can fully jump in and out and throughout that process of building Christy and working with Christy and filming the movie, I started realizing, Wow I have more in common with her than I realized. That’s why this project is just very personally special to me and important. When other women watch Christy, I hope that they walk away and they might either find strength within themselves or be able to be a voice for somebody else.
Can you tell me a little bit more about what you have in common with Christy?
She is fighting a fight in her home life, and she’s also fighting a fight in the public. And I think that, for me, I find myself in a lot of battles both in front and not in front of the world. So I definitely can relate.
Christy has a story about domestic violence, and The Housemaid, which you also star in and produced, takes on domestic violence in a totally different genre. And you designed jeans for American Eagle to raise awareness about domestic violence and benefit a crisis-prevention hotline. You spent a lot of time this year working around that issue, and I wondered if it meant something to you.
It does. I always speak out about something that is important to me. And for me to speak out, I use art. Through my characters in my movies, it’s a way for me to be able to do my part and spread awareness in different ways through my characters. That’s how I’ve always learned to communicate, and it’s really important.
You’ve had a very nuanced career—I’m thinking of Euphoria and the film about whistleblower Reality Winner, Reality—but you have become very swept up in politics. Has that surprised you?
I’ve always believed that I’m not here to tell people what to think. I’m just here to kind of open their eyes to different ideas. That’s why I gravitate towards characters and stories that are complicated and are maybe morally questionable, and characters that are—on the page—hard to like, but then you find the humanity underneath them.
Reading interviews with you from 2018 and 2019, when you’re blowing up with roles in culturally relevant shows, you’re like, I really want to be a producer. I’m starting my production company. Jump-cut to today, and you’re a big-deal producer. Do you feel like you’ve accomplished that goal?
I always feel like there’s more to learn and more to achieve, so I don’t know if I would say I feel like I’ve accomplished it. I constantly feel like there’s so much more to experience and learn and try, but I’m really excited to be in this part of my career.
Does producing free you up in any way as an actor?
I definitely feel more involved and more aware of how the story’s going to come together. When you’re just the actor in a project, I always feel like it’s the element of surprise. You never know what’s going to happen.
A big thing that happened to you this year is that you ended your engagement. You’re a private person, your ex-fiancé is a private person, so for a lot of us in the media, it was really surprising how much of a news story that was. Did your sense of your own fame change this year?
No. I surround myself with a really, really strong group of people who have been in my life since I was little. And they take me out of Hollywood, take me out of this bubble and remind me what the real world is and that that’s where I exist. And so the aspect and the idea of fame, it doesn’t apply to my personal life. I’m just Syd, and I don’t run in that world.
You can’t feel the difference in the volume at times?
If I turn on my phone, yes. If I have my phone off and I’m home, no.
So what is it like now being single? Are you single?
I’m single.
Okay. You’re single. You are out there now as a person who has a lot of power, I would say, and a person who people are obsessed with. And someone who I gather is really focused on their work. How does that change what you’re looking for out of relationships?
I don’t think I’m looking for a man right now. What I’ve learned this year is that I have a really, really amazing group of girlfriends and I am strong and independent and that I’m going to be okay. If love finds me, love finds me. I’m a hopeless romantic, so I hope love finds me, but I’m not the type of person that wants to go out all the time. And I do believe in true love and wanting to be with someone for the rest of my life. So I’m not going to…you won’t see me jumping around a lot of places.
Jumping around a lot of places like—
Guys.
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