Sydney Sweeney “Could Never Play Me,” Says Kim Novak

Scandalous!, a new movie set to star Sydney Sweeney, is facing a minor scandal of its own. The film about Vertigo star Kim Novak’s relationship with singer and actor Sammy Davis Jr. was expected to be Colman Domingo‘s directorial debut when it was announced in 2024, with the Euphoria star set to produce as well as play Novak. David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus, The Long Walk) has been cast as Davis.

But Novak has some concerns. Speaking with the Times, the Hitchcock star says “I would never have approved” the casting of Sweeney, who Novak says “sticks out so much above the waist,” an apparent reference to her figure.

This isn’t the first time Sydney Sweeney has faced an attack on her physical appearance, and the Euphoria star did not comment on Novak’s remarks. In the past, she has expressed admiration for Novak, telling People “I’m incredibly honored to be bringing Kim to life. I mean, she is such an amazing actress.”

“I think her story is still very relevant today in that she dealt with Hollywood and scrutiny with her relationships and her own private life and the control of her image,” Sweeney said. “And I think that for me, I relate to it in a lot of different ways.”

Novak had previously expressed reservations about the plan to bring her short-lived relationship with Davis, who died in 1990, to the big screen. “I don’t think the relationship was scandalous,” she told the Guardian last year. “He’s somebody I really cared about. We had so much in common, including that need to be accepted for who we are and what we do, rather than how we look. But I’m concerned they’re going to make it all sexual reasons.”

Novak expressed those concerns again when she spoke with the Times, saying “There’s no way it wouldn’t be a sexual relationship because Sydney Sweeney looks sexy all the time. She was totally wrong to play me.”

Speaking with Deadline in 2024, Domingo suggested that his motives lie elsewhere. “Hopefully we’ll make a beautiful, sweet film that’s really about the possibility of love, but under many eyes, trying to have privacy, trying to have love, trying to have a life,” he said then.

“I think it’s something that Sydney and I both know very well. We’re trying to advocate for your humanity again in your life.”

The current status of Scandalous! is unknown, but Sweeney discussed the film as recently as December 2025, when she told The Hollywood Reporter that—as a producer on the film—Sweeney pushed for Domingo to direct the movie.

“The only person who would really be able to tell this story and to the degree that it needs to be beautifully told is Colman Domingo,” she said. “We’ve been putting it together and raising financing — it’s been a labor of love.”

Originally published by Vanity Fair France

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