Sydney Sweeney’s starring role in the Rolling Stones‘ music video for “Angry,” the lead single off their most recent album “Hackney Diamonds,” led to some claims that she was sexualized during the nearly four-minute clip. The video features Sweeney wearing black studded chaps and dancing in the back seat of a convertible as it speeds down Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The street is lined with animated billboards showing the history of the Rolling Stones.
One of the most prominent critics of the music video was Blur frontman and Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn, who told French press: “I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”
Sweeney just doesn’t agree. In a new interview with Glamour UK, the Emmy nominee said: “I felt hot. I picked my own outfit out of racks and racks of clothes. I felt so good in it.”
“One of the questions I get is, ‘Are you a feminist?’ I find empowerment through embracing the body that I have,” she continued when asked about how some people thought she was objectified in the video. “That’s sexy and strong, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I’m in a Rolling Stones video. How cool and iconic is that? I felt so good. All the moves, everything I was doing was all freestyle. I mean, who else gets to roll around on the top of a convertible driving down Sunset Boulevard with police escorts? It’s the cool things in this career that I had no idea I’d get to do.”
Sweeney joined the Rolling Stones in London when they announced their new album in September, telling press at the time that appearing in the band’s music video was “the biggest thing ever.” Variety‘s Jem Aswad went on to praise “Hackney Diamonds” as the Stones’ liveliest album in 40 years.
Sweeney next stars opposite Glen Powell in the romantic-comedy “Anyone but You,” in theaters Dec. 22 from Sony Pictures.
