During her monologue for “Saturday Night Live,” Sydney Sweeney humorously knocked down several pervasive internet rumors about her, including that she had a supposed “affair” with her “Anyone But You” co-star Glen Powell while engaged to someone else, or that her success and beauty is due to nutrition advice she received from a self-proclaimed dietician.
The other pervasive internet rumor over the past couple months has been that the two-time Emmy nominee lied about landing a prestigious job as a tour guide at Universal Studios as a teenager.
“Like I once said I worked at Universal Studios, and someone online accused me of lying about that,” Sweeney said while introducing herself as “SNL’s” latest host.
“Which is insane,” Sweeney proclaimed. “If I didn’t work there, how would I know all of Universal’s characters like Shrok, the Munions and Harry Porter,” she joked, riffing on the names of Shrek, the Minions and Harry Potter.
Sweeney’s Universal Studios mini-scandal erupted earlier this year. During multiple recent interviews, Sweeney offered up a rags-to-riches story about moving to Los Angeles with her family as a teenager, so she could make it as an actor, as entertainment site Perez Hilton and The Hollywood Reporter recounted. Sweeney explained that she had to help support her family, because of her parents’ financial struggles, so she babysat, cleaned restaurant bathrooms and worked as a tour guide at the famed L.A. tourist attraction.
“I watched my parents lose a lot. We filed for bankruptcy, and they lost their house back home on the lake,” she told Women’s Health, according to THR. “We couldn’t afford life in L.A.”
As The Hollywood Reporter said, “a fledging actress punching a time card on the Universal Studios backlot is the type of celebrity factoid that travels far and wide on today’s worldwide web” — especially considering her meteoric rise after breakout roles in “Sharp Objects” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” followed by “Euphoria” an the first season of “The White Lotus.”
Soon, “multiple” TikTokers, who claimed past and current gigs at Universal Studios, called Sweeney out, THR and Perez Hilton reported. The main argument of Sweeney’s detractors is that landing such a job involves a long and “notoriously difficult” screening process.
“It’s not true, she’s lying,” declared TikTok user Taylor Hancock, who posted a clip that details his “many years” of leading tours himself on the classic (Universal) tour as well as a VIP guide on the backlot,” THR reported. Hancock said the screening process involves “multiple rounds of auditions just to join a class to study the information to possibly get the job.” He said, “It’s not just a summer job that any teenager can get.”
Hancock also argued that Sweeney began to appear “cagey or uncomfortable” in interviews on the subject, as if she wanted to quickly change the subject to avoid anyone digging deep into her employment history, THR said.
“No hate to her,” Hancock said, according to THR. “I don’t know why she’s choosing to fib about this. But seeing Sydney Sweeney dance around this and never give a straight answer is kinda crazy considering she’s the one that volunteered that information, that verifiably false information.”
But The Hollywood Reporter ended up doing that deep-dive into Sweeney’s employment history last month and found that she was telling the truth. She was employed as a tour guide at Universal Studios — though her tenure was “short-lived.”
Sweeney was hired by Universal Studios Hollywood on June 12, 2016, and attended an orientation shift, followed by a training shift, THR found. However, she left the job on July 18, 2016, when she booked an acting job. THR said she was indeed busy in 2016 and 2017, with a number of small roles in films and TV series.
In her “SNL” monologue, Sweeney explained how grateful she was to her parents for believing her — enough to drive her 19 hours from her hometown of Spokane, Washington to Los Angeles so she could begin auditioning for film and TV roles.
Sweeney said that the only reason they believed in her is because “I presented them with a five-point plan to break into acting. It was a PowerPoint presentation and I still have it.” Sweeney pointed to a screen that showed a slide that said: “Audition, get an agent, do commercials and short films, then get my SAG card.’”
However, Sweeney also joked that she had a backup plan if the first one failed. That’s when a slide appeared on the screen that read, “Plan B: Show boobs.”