Last year, Sharon Stone sparked backlash when she defended Sydney Sweeney’s right to use her “hotness” to get ahead, but even she is bothered by Sydney’s latest controversial ad campaign. In an ad campaign for sports betting company Novig, Sydney posed wearing “just sports,” so she was basically nude and only covered by footballs or other sports equipment. Critics found the ad offensive, regressive, hyper-sexualized, and especially insulting to women athletes.
Last year, Sharon defended her Euphoria co-star, saying it’s “hard to be hot.” But her reaction to the Novig ad suggests that she thinks Sydney took it too far this time.
Sharon said Sydney should “take responsibility for her actions.”
Confirmed: Sydney Sweeney knows ball. pic.twitter.com/EXQ4PzVZsi
— Novig (@Novig) September 9, 2026
Ultimately, Sharon told People that she doesn’t really want to judge Sydney. At the same time, she didn’t defend her in the way that she did last year and suggested that she should “take responsibility” for the controversial campaign.
“I think that it’s up to her to take responsibility for her actions, not up to me to judge her for her actions,” Sharon told the publication.
Her comments suggested that she agrees with many of the critics who have raised concerns about the way the ad campaign has impacted women in sports. “It is up to me to be a cheerleader for the women who have made it through and become champions in women’s sports,” Sharon added.
She made her stance even clearer when she said, “We can’t denigrate women’s sports to get men’s attention so they can gamble.”
For Sharon, the ad felt personal.
An advertising campaign featuring American actor Sydney Sweeney has sparked widespread backlash from female athletes who say it is sexualizing women in sports.#SydneySweeney #Sports #Novig pic.twitter.com/FoYp0Pl6lJ
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 15, 2026
Back in high school, Sharon was an athlete herself. She wanted to compete, but as a girl, she didn’t have the same opportunities that boys did. At the time, she threatened to take action because she wanted to play golf, but there was no girls’ team at her school. The school let her try out anyway, and she “made the boys’ team.”
“I had something to prove,” she recalled. Unfortunately, many female athletes still feel this way, which is part of the reason Sydney’s ad campaign has sparked so much backlash. Numerous athletes argued that women have fought so hard to be taken seriously, and then, Sydney went and participated in a campaign like this one.
Former U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer reacted to the campaign on Instagram, writing, “I’ve spent my entire life competing in a sport where female athletes have been oversexualized, reduced to our bodies, and forced to fight to be taken seriously for what we can actually do.”
Last year, people thought Sharon was missing the point when she defended Sydney.
American Eagle responds to backlash over Sydney Sweeney campaign in new statement:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 1, 2025
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans.” pic.twitter.com/ZQmVH6LSZG
Interestingly, Sharon doesn’t seem to be a big fan of Sydney’s sexualized sports betting ad, even though she previously defended Sydney’s right to profit off of being hot. It was an interesting argument to make, given that, for the most part, people weren’t really mad about Sydney being too “hot” or sexualized in her controversial American Eagle ad campaign from last year.
Instead, critics argued the campaign promoted eugenics. And yet, when addressing the controversy, Sharon said, “It’s okay to use what mama gave you. It’s really fine. It’s hard to be hot. And I think we all know that. It’s really okay to use every bit of hotness you have — right here, right now — and go for whatever that is.”
Apparently, Sharon does draw the line somewhere, though.
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