A Hollywood icon has slammed a move to cast Sydney Sweeney to play her in an upcoming biopic about her life.
Kim Novak, 93, has hit out at Sweeney’s roleSydney Sweeney in the upcoming drama Scandalous, which will document Novak’s interracial romance with jazz legend Sammy Davis Jr, which was controversial when it happened from 1957 to 1958.
“I would never have approved,” Novak shared in a new interview with The Times of London.
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The Vertigo actress shared that she ”had so much in common” with Davis Jr despite their brief relationship, which crumbled due to racial tensions and tabloid scrutiny.
One BBC documentary claims that to end their relationship, Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn hired mobsters to threaten Davis Jr with blinding or having his legs broken if he refused to marry a black woman within 48 hours.
Novak remains concerned that the drama will focus on only the physical relationship between the pair, which she says is inevitable since Sweeney ”sticks out so much above the waist”.
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“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,” Novak said of the 28-year-old.
Despite Novak’s reservations, the Anyone But You star is excited to take on the new role in the drama, in which she will star opposite actor David Jonsson as Davis Jr and be directed by Colman Domingo in his directorial debut.
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When the casting was first reported in October 2024, Sweeney told People she felt “incredibly honored” to be able to play Novak.
“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.
“I relate to it in a lot of different ways.”
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