Sydney Sweeney and Christina Ricci on Playing ‘Crazy’ Characters and Reclaiming Nude Scenes

variety.com:

Sydney Sweeney has had a breakout year, stealing the spotlight on two HBO shows: as the insecure, self-destructive Cassie on “Euphoria,” and as the withering mean-girl Olivia on “The White Lotus.” Christina Ricci elicited a combination of laughter and terror as the macabre, damaged Misty on Showtime’s genre-defying survival drama “Yellowjackets.” When the two actors meet, for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” presented by Apple TV+, they discuss their characters’ varied traumas; how life on sets has changed for young women, particularly when it comes to sex scenes; and being memes. CHRISTINA RICCI: We’ve both played characters that have turned into memes.

Olivia’s a meme. Cassie’s a meme. SYDNEY SWEENEY: Misty’s a meme. Do you like it?RICCI: I think it’s really fun.SWEENEY: Sometimes when I’m texting my mom, I send back memes of my characters as replies.RICCI: Oh handy!

What Cassie goes through is so incredible in Season 2.SWEENEY: Thank you.RICCI: It’s a performance that you can make into a meme, or make it camp.

But the way you played it was never camp — it was so real that that’s where the ridiculousness came from. I feel like I do know how difficult that is.SWEENEY: You’re like, “Oh, she’s crazy, or she is fanatic — and she’s just emotional.” But there’s so much going on in her brain that it’s emotions that she’s actually feeling.RICCI: And there were so many moments that were really uncomfortable and painful, and it is like just the uncontrolled emotion of a teenager.SWEENEY: Cassie is dealing with trying to love herself in a moment where she does not love herself, and she’s looking for that from other people.