Sydney Sweeney Responds to Producer Who Said She ‘Can’t Act’

Sydney Sweeney responded to veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum’s comments about her appearance and filmography. 

Baum, whose credits include Father of the Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, made critical comments about Sweeney during a discussion with The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in Pleasantville, New York.

“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” a representative for Sweeney, 26, said in a statement to PEOPLE. “If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”

Sweeny recently produced and starred in the box office hit Anyone But You and the horror film Immaculate.

Baum’s comments discussed the actress’ recent romantic comedy hit.

“There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie [Anyone but You] because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this … romantic comedy where they hate each other,” said Baum, according to the Daily Mail.

Baum, who is also a University of Southern California adjunct professor, said she spoke about Sweeney with her class.

“I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer,” said Baum. “But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’… That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”

Baum reportedly told TMZ that she regrets her original comments and explained that she doesn’t typically speak negatively about an actor like that. 

A representative for Buam did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Wednesday.

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Anyone But You will be available to stream on Netflix beginning April 23. Audiences can rent or buy Immaculate on Prime Video, AppleTV+ and VUDU.