If you had a late-December dustup between Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney and British music legend Damon Albarn over a Rolling Stones music video on your 2023 predictions list, congratulations. And may we suggest applying your prognosticative skills to something a bit more lucrative?
In truth, it wasn’t much of a dustup, and Sweeney never mentioned Albarn by name in her Dec. 20 interview with Glamour UK. Though she did push back against the narrative, most prominently voiced by the Blur frontman, that she had been “objectified” in her appearance in the Stones’ musicvideo for “Angry,” the first single off the group’s late-October release Hackney Diamonds.
Sweeney spoke to Glamour UK to promote her upcoming comedy, 'Anyone But You.'
Sitting for the magazine to promote her upcoming film, Anyone But You, the 26-year-old actress pushed back on criticism of her appearance in the Stones’ video, which saw her cruising down Sunset Blvd. in a convertible, dancing to the Stones’ track.
“I felt hot,” Sweeney told the magazine of the video. “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. “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 Blvd. with police escorts? It’s the cool things in this career that I had no idea I’d get to do.”
In case you’ve forgotten, Albarn levied a number of criticisms against the Stones in a freewheeling interview with French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. After calling the band “worse at persisting to stay themselves” and opining that they were “making exactly the same music music but not that good,” Albarn took aim at the “Angry” video.
“I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards,” Albarn said. “And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”
(Perhaps Albarn’s best line, however, compared his varied career — in Blur, Gorillaz, the Good the Bad and the Queen — to the Stones: “I did all sorts of things, whereas they’ve never been anything other than the Rolling Stones.”)
'Hackney Diamonds' became the Rolling Stones' 14th UK chart-topper.
The Stones were hardly done casting famous young actors in this latest round of videos, with the band releasing a video for “Mess It Up,” featuring Nicholas Hoult, just earlier this week.
The Stones’ first album released since the death of founding drummer Charlie Watts, Hackney Diamonds reached No. 1 on the charts in 19 countries, including the U.K., where it became the group’s 14th British chart-topper. (It topped out at No. 3 on the U.S. chart.) The veteran group will begin its North American tour next April with a performance in Houston, closing with a concert in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 17.
