Sydney Sweeney Wasn’t Lying About Working at Universal Studios

Getty Images

After being accused of lying for months on TikTok, it turns out Sydney Sweeney really did work at Universal Studios as a backlot tour guide.

Let’s rewind. Since November, Sydney Sweeney has been doing press engagements to promote her buzzy romcom Anyone But You co-starring Glen Powell. During her press tour, Sweeney has spoken at length about the humble origins of her career, including the details of her résumé and the jobs she took after relocating her family to Los Angeles.

In a profile on Sweeney in Women’s Health back in November, writer Lindsay Geller wrote that Sweeney “babysat, cleaned restaurant bathrooms, and led tours at Universal Studios” to “help pay the bills.” “I watched my parents lose a lot. We filed for bankruptcy… We couldn’t afford life in L.A. We couldn’t afford life anywhere,” the Euphoria and White Lotus star told the magazine. “It was hard because they were supporting my dream, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I didn’t want to fail them.”

Sweeney was directly asked about her time as Universal Studios tour guide while appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show a month later in December 2023. “I was a huge theme park person, my family and friends would go to Universal all the time,” Sweeney told Clarkson, “To the point that I’ve memorized the Universal Studios tour… I can go there and just recite everything, mouth every word they say.” She added: “Like every high school kid I needed a job and I was taking anything that I could get.”

Sydney Sweeney on The Kelly Clarkson Show in December 2023

NBC/Getty Images

Only one month passed before Sweeney would recite the anecdote again, this time on the latest episode of Hot Ones that aired on January 25, 2024. Like Clarkson, host Sean Evans asked Sweeney directly about the gig, asking if it was “true” whether she worked at the theme park and what her favorite tour fact was, if so.

“I was a struggling actor in high school,” Sweeney said, listing all the bills she had to pay on her own without her parents’ help and explaining how the experience taught her to budget . “I love tour guides at Universal, I memorized the entire thing. So I was there for a little bit and then I actually booked Sharp Objects.”

Sweeney’s anecdote subsequently sparked outrage from a niche of social media users who claim to have also previously worked at Universal Studios Hollywood during the timeframe that Sweeney says she did — and according to them, Sweeney was never a tour guide at the park.

One creator in particular named Taylor Hancock, who has “worked for the Universal Studios tour department for many years,” has amassed over 1.5 million views with his video accusing Sweeney of lying. Hancock says his years of employment at the theme park makes him “qualified” to expose the discrepancies he claims are in Sweeney’s story.

“No. It’s not true, she’s lying,” Hancock starts off the TikTok, calling Sweeney out for repeatedly “suggesting” she was a tour guide at the park. “No hate to her, I don’t know why she’s choosing to fib about this, but Sydney Sweeney has never been a Universal tour guide. Watching her dance around questions about this and never give a straight answer is kinda crazy considering she’s the one that volunteered that information — that verifiably false information.”

Hancock goes on to say that it is “notoriously difficult” to land a tour guide job at Universal, as the role — which he says is not a trivial “summer job that any teenager can get” — requires “multiple rounds of auditions just to get the chance to join a class to study the information to possibly get the job”… details that Sweeney “would know” if she was really formerly employed as a guide.

“I assume she got kind of taken out of context and then was asked about it a bunch of times, and then decided to just kind of go with it,” said Hancock, ultimately calling the lie “insulting” to actual Universal tour guides.

But the real question is this: why would Sydney Sweeney lie about working at Universal Studios? Come to find out, she was telling the truth.

In a new “investigation” from The Hollywood Reporter published on February 7, 2024, the magazine confirmed that Sweeney was in fact hired by Universal Studios Hollywood on June 12, 2016 and attended both an orientation and a training shift. She left the job soon after, on July 18, 2016, after booking an acting gig — THR notes 11 acting credits on Sweeney’s résumé between 2016 and 2017 that act as an alibi and could have absolutely pulled her away from the park. This short employment period could explain why no other tour guides remember her as a coworker.

Seems like the only thing Sweeney is actually guilty of is maybe forgetting specifically which job she booked, as The Cut points out it couldn’t have been Sharp Objects due to the show’s production starting during the summer of 2017.

Now that that mystery is solved, let’s get into the real conundrum: will we all be old and gray by the time Euphoria season 3 airs???

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

Want more great Culture stories from Teen Vogue? Check these out: