Glen Powell & Sydney Sweeney Admit To Leaning Into Romance Rumors To Promote Film: “It Worked”
Glen Powell & Sydney Sweeney Admit To Leaning Into Romance Rumors To Promote ‘Anyone But You’: “It Worked Wonderfully” https://t.co/BqyEGqO6tq
- Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) April 24, 2024
Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney have admitted that they leaned into the affair and love rumors to help promote their RomCom, Anyone But You.
Powell, 35, and Sweeney, 26, had a surprising box office hit with their 2023 RomCom, which grossed $219 million at the worldwide box office. The months-long lead-up to the movie included speculation that the two costars had engaged in an offscreen relationship after Powell and his ex-girlfriend Gigi Paris broke up in April 2023 and Sweeney was engaged, but the costars recently told The New York Times, those rumors worked in their favor.
“The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry," Powell told the outlet. "Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry. That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit - and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.”
Sweeney worked as an executive producer on the film in addition to leading the movie as her character Bea.
“I was on every call. I was in text group chats. I was probably keeping everybody over at Sony marketing and distribution awake at night because I couldn’t stop with ideas,” Sweeney told The NY Times. “I wanted to make sure that we were actively having a conversation with the audience as we were promoting this film, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones who created the entire narrative.”
With a budget of $25 million, the film opened to a “disappointing” $8-million box-office take during Christmas weekend, director Will Gluck said. But the film benefited from word-of-mouth and online virality with its “eventize”-ing of Powell’s character’s “serenity song” - 2004’s “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield - and enjoyed a strong run in the succeeding weeks.
Both Sweeney and Powell have said they intend to make another movie together, but it's not clear if it will be a sequel or a different film entirely.
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