Sydney Sweeney appeared in three films in 2023. She enters the Marvel universe in Madame Web in 2024. She was in the Rolling Stones' music video for "Angry." She continues her award-nominated role on Euphoria, just the latest prestige cable series she has graced.
She seems to be everywhere these days. Even...the world-famous Universal Studios Tour?
The story seems to have started with a November 2023 interview in Women's Health magazine. The author simply stated, "To help pay the bills, Sydney babysat, cleaned restaurant bathrooms, and led tours at Universal Studios." No further information is given. The line is followed by a quote from Sweeney about persevering in the industry, no matter the odds.
But when interviewers took note of this colorful period of Sweeney's past and asked her about it on camera, she became evasive. Kelly Clarkson, who once worked at Six Flags, had Sweeney on her talk show in late December, and brought up the topic. "I love theme parks, and you worked at Universal, did you not?" A straightforward question, but Sweeney never really answered it. "My friends and all of us would go to Universal all the time," she replied, "to the point that I've memorized the entire Universal Studios tour. I can go there and just recite everything."
This isn't a "yes" in any sense. Sweeney followed it up with "Like every high school kid, I needed a job, and I was taking anything I could get." When Clarkson asked, "Do you remember the speech from the tram?" Sweeney said, "I'm not reciting the speech."
A month later, Sweeney appeared on Hot Ones. Like Clarkson, host Sean Evans had a similar job in his past -- he used to give an architecture tour in Chicago -- and he asked Sweeney not only if she was a Universal guide but if she had a "favorite tour fun fact."
Sweeney's response: "I was a struggling actor in high school and had to pay all my own bills," and here she names the bills and talks about learning how to budget. Then: "I loved tour guides at Universal. I memorized the entire thing, and so I was there for a little bit, and then I actually booked Sharp Objects."
I was a tour guide at Universal Studios Hollywood. And I'm certain Sydney Sweeney is lying.
First, Universal Studios tour guides must be 18. Depending on her age at graduation, it would be difficult for Sweeney to be a high school student and a tour guide at the same time. Tour guides are trained as a class, and that training takes place on weekdays for three weeks, which would seem incompatible with a high school student's schedule.
Second, current tour guides at Universal Studios, such as TikTok creator Trang Dong, work with guides who were there during Sweeney's supposed tenure of around 2015 (when she turned 18) to 2017 (when she was cast in Sharp Objects), and she claims no one recalls Sweeney. Remember, not only would they have worked with her, they would have trained with her, forming friendships that last long after they've left the company; I speak from experience. And yet no one has come forward with any "I knew Sydney Sweeney" stories.
In addition, former tour guides have popped into Dong's TikTok comments to say they've checked with management and looked at personnel files, and there's no record of Sweeney being hired (or trained, since some people do fail).
Universal itself, never shy about self-promotion in its hiring practices, doesn't claim Sweeney as one of its former employees. There is no mention of her on any Universal Studios recruitment website.
The Women's Health article doesn't include a direct quote from Sweeney. On Kelly Clarkson's show, Sweeney doesn't outright state she was a guide, nor does she recite a single line from the tour. All we have is her statement, on camera, that "she was there for a little bit" on Hot Ones. There, again, she's given an opportunity to share a story or fun fact about the tour, and fails to do so.
Now the question becomes: Why would Sweeney lie about something so easily fact-checked? Was it a harmless fib she started in high school that she now feels she needs to maintain? Did she actually have more embarrassing jobs during that time of her life and this is the cover story? Does she think the job makes her seem more relatable? She already mentioned babysitting and cleaning bathrooms in Women's Health interview; why add Universal to the list?
The answer seems to come from The Hollywood Reporter, which quotes a "source" that Sweeney was employed at the park from June 12 to July 16, 2016. In that time, Sweeney "attended an orientation shift followed by a training shift." Since two or three weeks of "training shifts" are required, and then a test must be passed, Sweeney was never officially a guide, and never gave a tour to a paying audience. I imagine July 16 was the date Sweeney told Universal she wouldn't be returning, as she had booked an acting job (she had 11 in 2016).
Why Sweeney can't just say this, I don't know. She can say she trained to be a guide but was fortunate enough to become a working actor, and never had to return to "regular" work again. I don't see anything shameful about that.
I'd still like Sweeney to come clean. But the THR piece seems to clarify the matter once and for all.
Jason Ginsburg was a VIP tour guide, media rep, Backdraft host, and character performer at Universal Studios Hollywood. He created @FakeThemePark, a parody of the industry, which is Twitter's longest-running comedy project.