Sydney Sweeney speaks out on American Eagle ad

(NewsNation) — Sydney Sweeney has responded to the controversy surrounding her American Eagle ad campaign earlier this year.

The Emmy-nominated actress told Variety she never made a statement explaining or defending the ad when it was at the height of its backlash because “I’ve always believed that I’m not here to tell people what to think.”

“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear are jeans. I’m literally in jeans and a T-shirt every day of my life,” Sweeney said. “I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, it didn’t affect me one way or the other.”

The ad campaign Sweeney was in featured the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” In the ad, Sweeney crosses out the word “jeans” and replaces it with “genes,” which spurred allegations of the brand promoting eugenics, some even comparing it to “Nazi propaganda.”

American Eagle later issued a statement standing by its ad on social media, saying the ad was “always about the jeans.”

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way,” the brand wrote.

The controversy grew so much so that it reached the White House, with Vice President JD Vance weighing in to defend her as well as President Donald Trump.

“She’s a registered Republican?” Trump said. “Oh, now I love her ad! Is that right? You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. I wouldn’t have known, I’m glad you told me that.”

“If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.”

Sweeney told GQ Magazine that having Trump and Vance weigh in on the ad was “surreal” but that she did not pay attention to the controversy at large, saying that she’d been working 16-hour days filming the new season of “Euphoria” and wasn’t on her phone as much.

“I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it,” Sweeney said.