At a Glance
- Sydney Sweeney, 28, appears fully nude on the January 6 cover of W Magazine‘s Annual Best Performances Issue
- The shoot pays homage to Marilyn Monroe with vintage pin-up curls and a single Chopard necklace
- Sweeney recently told Allure she has never had cosmetic work done, citing a fear of needles
- Why it matters: The headline-grabbing cover arrives as she promotes two new films and pushes back against online speculation about her appearance
Sydney Sweeney is celebrating a professional two-fer-The Housemaid and Christy Martin-by ditching wardrobe entirely for W Magazine‘s latest issue, capping a months-long stretch in which she publicly rejected rumors of plastic surgery.
The Cover Story
Inside the January 6 release, photographers captured the Emmy nominee wearing only a diamond Chopard Haute Joaillerie necklace. Her newly debuted blonde bob was set in retro curls reminiscent of Monroe’s classic 1950s glamour.
The styling choice mirrored her December red-carpet moment, where she arrived at The Housemaid premiere in a white Galia Lahav gown designed to echo Monroe’s billowing skirt scene from The Seven Year Itch.
Clearing the Record
In a December Allure interview, Sweeney addressed social-media chatter claiming she’d “gotten work done.”
> “I am so scared of needles, you have no idea,” she told the outlet, adding that comparing photos of her at 12 to professionally shot images at 26 is unfair. “Of course I’m going to look different.”
She later doubled down while taking a Vanity Fair lie-detector test with co-star Amanda Seyfried, confirming she has never undergone breast enhancement or any other cosmetic procedure.
On-Set Mindset
Speaking to W, Sweeney described the mental routine she uses to separate herself from the boxers and brides she portrays.
> “When they call ‘Cut,’ I’m able to just jump out of it and be back to Syd,” she explained, noting that after embodying fighter Christy Martin the boundary felt thinner: “It felt like I was still coming home as Christy, in a sense.”
Key Takeaways
- Sweeney’s nude W cover spotlights her two new film releases and a deliberate Monroe-inspired aesthetic
- The actress, 28, has repeatedly denied cosmetic-surgery rumors, most recently in Allure and Vanity Fair
- She credits strict mental compartmentalization for leaving her characters’ “fights and traumas” on set
The bold cover shoot secures Sweeney’s place in the awards-season conversation while reinforcing her stance that what you see is what you get.
