'Euphoria' star Sydney Sweeney claims she can’t ‘afford’ to take a break in LA

Popular actress Sydney Sweeney revealed that despite her recent breakthrough, she still feels like money is tight.

In her candid cover story with The Hollywood Reporter, the 24-year-old starlet admitted that the pressure of making the most of this pivotal moment in her career led to a series of panic attacks in June.

“I was losing my shit,” Sweeney says.

Her family “grounded” her for two weeks by calling her back up to her home in the Pacific Northwest, where she took her time “hiking and skiing and doing what I truly love.”

The blonde bombshell, best known for her role as Cassie Howard in HBO’s Euphoria, explained that she “can’t get [her] mind to shut up” and is constantly losing sleep over fears she will lose her relevance as a rising star.

"If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have income to cover that," Sweeney said in the interview. "I don’t have someone supporting me, I don’t have anyone I can turn to, to pay my bills or call for help."

"They don’t pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals," Sweeney continued.

"The established stars still get paid, but I have to give 5% to my lawyer, 10% to my agents, 3% or something like that to my business manager. I have to pay my publicist every month, and that’s more than my mortgage."

Sweeney recently purchased a historic $3 million dollar home in Los Angeles’ Westwood neighborhood in January. She told The Hollywood Reporter that she had been picking up brand deals to make ends meet.

But her anxiety also stems from the sacrifices and financial hardships her family went through to launch her acting career at the age of 13. They gave up their life and home in Washington and moved to LA, where they could only afford a motel room.  

“We lived in one room,” says Sweeney. “My mom and I shared a bed and my dad and little brother shared a couch.”

Her parents’ marriage eventually fell apart over finances and disapproval of their choice to move to Hollywood from extended family. Sydney kept auditioning and taking small projects through her teens to keep up their faith.

“I thought that if I made enough money, I’d be able to buy my parents’ house back and that I’d be able to put my parents back together,” she says. “But when I turned 18, I only had $800 to my name. My parents weren’t back together and there was nothing I could do to help.”

Sweeney rose to prominence after small roles in The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects, both HBO projects in 2018. She is set to star in Madame Web, an upcoming spinoff from Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.