Kim Novak says she ‘would never have approved’ her new biopic and the reason she thinks Sydney Sweeney is ‘totally wrong’ is truly unexpected

Kim Novak, the 93-year-old legendary star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, has come out swinging against the casting of Sydney Sweeney in Scandalous!, an upcoming film about Novak’s iconic romance with Sammy Davis Jr. Novak flat-out said she “would never have approved” of Sweeney portraying her, as she believes Sweeney is simply too sexy for the role. This adds to the recent political firestorm triggered by Sweeney’s social media support for her brother stationed in the Middle East.

According to BroBible, Novak didn’t hold back in a recent interview, detailing exactly why she thinks Sydney Sweeney is a poor choice to play her in the film. She stressed that Sweeney’s inherent sex appeal just isn’t the right fit for the story being told. “I would never have approved,” Novak said about Sweeney’s casting, adding that Sweeney “stands out so much above the waist.”

Novak went even further, stating, “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.” Scandalous! was announced in the Fall of 2024, with Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo set to direct. We haven’t heard a ton of updates on the project since that initial announcement, so Novak’s comments are definitely shaking things up a bit.

Casting choices always get messy when real people speak up

Opposite Sweeney, David Jonsson, who you might know from Alien: Romulus or The Long Walk, is set to play Sammy Davis Jr. Jonsson spoke about the project last Fall, sharing a much more positive take on the casting, especially when it came to his co-stars. “First and foremost, I find both of those wonderful human beings [Colman Domingo and Sydney Sweeney] are incredibly exciting, and I do think that they’re inspiring in many ways,” Jonsson shared on BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast.

He explained that he didn’t even do any traditional auditions for the role. “I actually just met with them, and we spoke about it for a long time,” he said. Jonsson also touched on the weight of their roles. “We spoke about what we wanted to do and playing an icon like Sammy Davis Jr. is no small feat. But also playing Kim Novak, which Sydney is wonderfully gonna inhabit, we had to talk about these things.”

He discussed these roles through the lens of their Hollywood experiences, feeling their journeys were “almost akin to the people we’re about to inhabit.” The real-life romance between Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr. began on The Steve Allen Show in 1956. After going public in 1958, rampant racism threatened to derail their burgeoning careers. It’s a powerful story of love against the odds that deserves a nuanced portrayal.

Interestingly, Sydney Sweeney’s next big role is in the third and final season of HBO’s Euphoria. In that upcoming season, her character will actually be selling adult content online.