“Americana” star and singer Halsey said she was displeased with the commotion surrounding the film, which costars Sydney Sweeney. The movie’s success has apparently been impacted by the blowback following Sweeney’s divisive American Eagle ad.
“I do agree that our words are important in this climate,” Halsey wrote in her Instagram story Thursday. “I don’t, however, think that it’s fair for the news cycle to predatorily rip a hardworking director and his hardworking crew for their film that is completely separate-from and unrelated-to a (pretty dumb) advertising take.”
“If it’s not clear who the actual people I’m standing up for are, I’m sorry look closer,” she added.
“Americana” opened last weekend to just $500,000 and many speculated the failure at the box office was related to the recent controversy surrounding the American Eagle campaign.
Halsey also penned two posts she later deleted defending director Tony Tost. “Because his work and his vision are greater than the 24 hr gossip tabloid denim bulls–t,” she wrote in one post, per the Daily Mail.
“I’m not upset the film’s release is being hurt by the timing. I am upset that bunch of non-celebrity people involved in this film are being bullied by the media,” she also wrote on X before deleting the message. “I have said everything I am permitted to say about my feelings on the ad. And if you’re a fan of mine and think I ‘support eugenics’ then idk what to say idk why you’re a fan then tbh …”
The American Eagle ad in question prompted backlash after some said it was racist, especially since it appears to celebrate Sweeney’s whiteness and thinness. Others brought up arguments that it could not only be subtly promoting white supremacy, but also eugenics, nazism and master race propaganda. “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” Sweeney says in the ad. “My jeans are blue.”
