Kim Novak Says Sydney Sweeney Is Too ‘Sexy’ to Play Her in Biopic: ‘Totally Wrong’
Kim Novak has weighed in on Scandalous, a planned movie about her real-life romance with Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr.
Kim Novak weighs in on Sydney Sweeney casting in ‘Scandalous’
The Vertigo star told The Sunday Times that she didn’t approve of the biopic, in which Sydney Sweeney has been cast as Novak. David Jonsson is set to play Davis. Colman Domingo will direct.
“I would never have approved,” the Hollywood icon, now 93, said. One of her objections has to do with the Euphoria star’s physique. She “sticks out so much above the waist,” Novak said.
The now-retired actor also said she worried the film would focus too much on sex and ignore the deep emotional connection she had with Davis, with whom she had “so much in common.”
“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,” she said.
‘Vertigo’ star explains why she didn’t marry Sammy Davis Jr.
Novak and Davis began dating in the late 1950s, at a time when a romance between a Black man and a white woman was widely considered taboo. Harry Cohn, who was Novak’s boss at Columbia Pictures, ordered Davis to break things off with Novak, and allegedly threatened to have a mobster break his legs if he didn’t comply.
Eventually, Davis and Novak ended their relationship. They never tried to get married, she said. But it wasn’t because of the prohibition against interracial marriage in many parts of the U.S. at the time.
“No, no. I mean, he loved me,” she said. “I cared for him deeply. But at that time I never wanted to marry anybody.”
Sydney Sweeney is ‘honored’ to play Kim Novak
While Novak is not on board with Scandalous, Sweeney has said she is looking forward to the opportunity to portray the silver screen star.
“I’m incredibly honored to be bringing Kim to life. I mean, she is such an amazing actress,” she told People in October 2025. “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. And I think that for me, I relate to it in a lot of different ways.”
Sweeney also said she was looking forward to getting to know Novak ahead of filming.
“Once I finish Euphoria, I switch into Scandalous gear and I’m going to turn my brain into Kim,” she said. “I’m so excited. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I’m going to meet Kim Novak.’”
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