Sydney Sweeney ‘Euphoria' Scene Praised Over Lack of Botox
Sydney Sweeney is being praised online for her Botox-less performance in the most recent episode of Euphoria. The episode, which featured the wedding of Sweeney's character, Cassie Howard, to Jacob Elordi's character, Nate Jacobs, included a moment where Sweeney's character delivers a line with her forehead scrunched up in confusion.
The moment has quickly amassed millions of views online and follows a widespread conversation about plastic surgery and Botox usage among actors, and how this can impact their performance.
As a freely moving forehead becomes increasingly rare in the world of Hollywood, Sweeney's performance has been received with delight online.
The podcaster Mary Morgan wrote in a post on X viewed more than 9 million times, "actresses without botox are quickly becoming an endangered species," while the social media user @trizzfilm wrote in a post viewed 8 million times, "as much as I don't like sydney, this five second clip perfectly exemplifies how having a frozen forehead can rly affect your performance lmao."
Newsweek has contacted a representative for Sweeney for comment outside of regular working hours via email.
Why It Matters
Botox treatments have become increasingly common in recent years, with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reporting that between 2000 and 2020, the number of annual Botox treatments increased by nearly 460 percent.
In 2024, there were more than 9 million Neuromodulator injection treatments such Botox in the U.S., according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a 4 percent increase from the previous year.
As this kind of plastic surgery becomes more widespread, so too does the discourse around it, particularly in response to how it impacts actors' performances.
Sweeney, 28, had previously confirmed that she had never had any body work done during Vanity Fair's December 2025 Lie Detector Test segment with Amanda Seyfried, with whom she starred in the film The Housemaid.
Seyfried asked, "There's been a question on everybody's minds recently, and I just have to ask, are your boobs real?" To which Sweeney responded, "Yes, I've never gotten any work done anywhere."
What To Know
In the Euphoria scene, Jessica Blair Herman's character, Heather, who is a guest at the wedding and the wife of one of Elordi's character’s friends, confronts Sweeney's character over how her husband has used her family's money.
"We invested our kids' college funds!" Herman's character yells.
Sweeney's character replies, with her face scrunched up, "What does that have to do with me…?"
The scene has quickly gone viral online, with social media users praising Sweeney's performance.
The social media user @dntbescared wrote in a post viewed over 20 million times, "I know we don't like her but Sydney ate this line up so I gotta give her her tens I was cackling."
Social media users have also contrasted Herman and Sweeney's performances in the scene, as Herman's forehead is noticeably stiller and smoother in comparison to Sweeney's.
Social media user @cinnomng1rl wrote in a post viewed 4 million times: "fillers are actually so crazy bc with sydney's acting you can literally see that cassie doesn't care in her facial expressions but the other lady's face doesn't move at all like if you watched without sound you wouldn't know she was mad."
The praise of Sweeney follows an onslaught of criticism directed at her in recent months, often based on her ad campaign with retailer American Eagle, in which she whispers: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”
Critics noted the ad implied a conventional standard of beauty-blonde hair and blue eyes.
As such, the recent positive sentiment signifies something of a tide change online.
The writer Rachel Moiselle highlighted this, writing in a post on X viewed over 800,000 times, "I'm a Sydney defender primarily because I think the hatred of her is rooted in intrasexual misogynistic jealousy, but also because she is a good actress whose ability to facially emote is unencumbered by plastic surgery or vanity."
What Happens Next
Euphoria Season 3 will have eight episodes. The five remaining episodes in this season will be released weekly on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 7:07 AM.