Lionsgate’s creepy drama “The Housemaid” is tracking toward a decent $35 million premiere weekend, helped in part by star Sydney Sweeney ginning up publicity with a topless photo. The pretty blonde actress released the still image of getting makeup applied while topless, though artfully concealing her bare breasts.
That behind-the-scenes staged photo was given to fans Dec. 6. The actress known for TV series “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” is a force on social media, where she struts her good looks (wearing a see-through top in the image above).
She stars in “The Housemaid,” an R-rated thriller distributed by Lionsgate scheduled for a Dec 19 premiere domestically (U.S. and Canada). The film co-stars Amanda Seyfried.
Sweeney is leveraging her personal celebrity, which includes 25.5 million followers on Instagram, accumulated starting in 2016 when she starred on HBO’s “Euphoria.” She is less of a force on Twitter with 1.3 million followers, though that’s a sizeable following.
She ranks about 95th on Instagram, which seems good for an up-and-coming TV star pushing broader Hollywood ambitions. Her social media footprint makes her bankable for Hollywood productions and she’s also fronting advertising, which keeps her name and face constantly before the public.
Her cheesy topless publicity seems to be helping “Housemaid,” which is a modest $30 million production that is headed for a solid $35 million domestic boxoffice premiere later this month. Sweeney flashing her skin is certainly helping build awareness for the flick. Lionsgate didn’t comment, but doesn’t seem directly involved in the stunt.
She was center of a media kerfuffle earlier this year stemming from her appearance in American Eagle blue-jeans advertising that ended with a voiceover “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” Some pundits howled that smacked of eugenics in subliminal reference to superior “genes.”
Though sales of the clothing brand soared in the uproar aftermath, Sweeney struggles in making the leap from TV to movie star. She starred in the female boxing biography-drama “Christy” that flopped at the boxoffice last month.
Don’t write off Sweeney though. She’s displayed a knack for breaking through media clutter and Hollywood has many examples of on-camera talent that took a long road to respectable fame. For example, Jane Fonda is today an acclaimed two-time Oscar winner, taken seriously as a political activist and pillar of Hollywood’s creative community. But as a young actress she lowered herself to star in 1968 sexually titillating spoof “Barbarella,” a futuristic satire loaded with erotic suggestions.
As for Sweeney, the Guardian online wrote: “She’s not been shy about chasing brand deals, promoting flip phones, face creams, ice-cream and super-soft slippers. ‘If I just acted, I wouldn’t be able to afford my life in L.A. … They don’t pay actors like they used to,’ Sweeney explained in 2022.”
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