Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney found themselves at the center of some juicy rumors leading up to the release of Anyone But You, and it appears anyone who bought into them was played like a fiddle after the stars of the rom-com proved they’re capable of acting just as well off of the screen as they do on it.
Hollywood has slowly but surely strayed away from the romantic comedies that once served as a tentpole of the movie industry, but the tides may have turned in the wake of Anyone But You, which featured a very dynamic duo in the form of Objectively Handsome Man Glen Powell and It Girl Sydney Sweeney.
The two actors eventually fall for each other in Anyone But You, and plenty of people were convinced they’d done the same in real life based on the body language we were treated to when they appeared together in public to promote the movie (the fact that Powell and former girlfriend Gigi Paris broke up after she visited the set of the film in Australia only fueled the speculation).
That would have been an especially salacious development when you consider Sweeney’s fiancé, Jonathan Davino, was an executive producer on the project that got off to a slow start at the box office when it was released at the end of December. However, it experienced a second wind courtesy of the positive word of mouth that gave it a major boost and ultimately raked in close to $220 million worldwide on a $25 million budget.
Sweeney joked about her supposed affair with Powell during her Saturday Night Live monologue in March, and during an interview with The New York Times, he credited her with deciding to latch onto the narrative and convincing him to team up with her to purposefully stoke the flames to take advantage of the publicity their non-existent relationship was able to generate, saying:
“The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry. Sydney and I have a ton of fun together, and we have a ton of effortless chemistry.
That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit — and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.”
Well played.