AUSTIN, Texas – Sydney Sweeney is having a moment.

The American actress shot to fame playing a promiscuous teenager on the controversial HBO drama series Euphoria (2019 to present), for which she received an Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy nomination.

The 26-year-old bombshell was also praised for her supporting roles in acclaimed television shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale (2017 to present) and The White Lotus (2021 to present), picking up a second Emmy nomination for the latter.

But with key roles in five movies in 2024 – as well as a viral stint on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in March, when she wore one of her signature curve-hugging dresses – she is now indisputably Hollywood’s It girl.

Sweeney is more than just an actress, though.

At the South By Southwest media festival in Austin, Texas, in March, the star – who was there to premiere her horror movie Immaculate, which opens in Singapore cinemas on May 9 – spoke proudly of her work as a producer on this and other films.

Sweeney – last seen alongside American co-star Dakota Johnson in the superhero film Madame Web earlier in 2024 as one of three future Spider-Women – remembers the first time she spoke up on set, at age 19, and realised she wanted to be more than just a performer.

It was when she was on Everything Sucks! (2018), a television comedy helmed by American director Michael Mohan – who also directed Immaculate, in which Sweeney plays a devout nun who discovers that her new convent in the Italian countryside harbours sinister secrets.

“He is just so incredible and I always felt very comfortable and safe to share an idea.

“Whether he took it or not, it wasn’t important. He gave me the space to be able to speak my mind and feel involved in the process. That definitely encouraged me.

“And in that moment, I remember I wanted to be part of more than just acting,” she recalls.

This is why she eventually founded her own production company, Fifty-Fifty Films, in 2020, and launched projects such as Immaculate.

She had auditioned for an earlier version of the movie when she was 17, but when that fell through, she decided to produce it herself, acquiring the script and going on to find a new writer, director as well as financing.

Hollywood stars often receive producer credits even when they do not do any real producing, but Sweeney says she loves getting her hands dirty.

“Whenever I put my name on a project as a producer, I don’t want to miss a step. I want to be a part of everything I can put my hands on.

“I do not like the idea of just putting my name on something and taking credit where it’s not due. I want to conceptualise the project and bring it all together.

“So to me, being a producer is basically like being a parent and helping a project grow,” adds the rising star, whose fiance, American businessman Jonathan Davino, 39, was her co-producer on Immaculate.

She also co-produced Anyone But You, a romantic comedy that lands in Singapore cinemas on May 16 and was a sleeper hit when it opened in the United States in December 2023.

She and American actor Glen Powell, best known for the action movie Top Gun: Maverick (2022), play two singles whose hot first date ends badly after a misunderstanding. But when they end up at the same destination wedding in Australia, they pretend to be a couple for strategic reasons.

Loosely based on the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing, Anyone But You is directed by American film-maker Will Gluck, who made the cult teenage romcom Easy A (2010).

And Sweeney helped steer the ship here too.

“From the beginning, when I was working on the script – and then I hired Will and I hired Glen, and we sold it to (the studio) Sony (Pictures) – I wanted to bring back those early 2000s romcoms that people went to see, and then left wanting to fall in love, sing and dance in the rain, and have big romantic gestures.”

Sweeney will appear in two more films expected to be released later in 2024: Echo Valley, a thriller with Julianne Moore, and Eden, a survival drama co-starring Ana de Armas and Jude Law.

But she cannot wait to get back to producing.

“I hope that I can create more projects where you can just feel that love and that energy – and the audience can walk away wanting that as well.”

• Immaculate and Anyone But You open in Singapore cinemas on May 9 and May 16, respectively.