(The Epoch Times)—Actress Sydney Sweeney has broken her silence months after her American Eagle jeans ad triggered an online uproar, saying that she was surprised by both the backlash and the unexpected praise from the nation’s top leaders.

The 28-year-old discussed the controversy for the first time in an interview with GQ magazine published Tuesday.
“I did a jean ad. I mean, the reaction definitely was a surprise, but I love jeans,” Sweeney said when asked if she was surprised by the reaction to the brand’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” ad.

The ad, released in July, quickly went viral for what many interpreted as a play on words, seemingly using “jeans” instead of “genes” to refer to the blonde, blue-eyed star’s looks.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” Sweeney said in a promotional video as she buttoned up a pair of denim pants.

The pun sparked a debate that initially focused on American society’s beauty standards but soon escalated into a wider conversation about race and racism, with some accusing American Eagle of giving a nod to eugenics. Other commenters dismissed those claims as baseless and an example of overanalyzing the situation.

The most high-profile figures to react positively to the American Eagle ad were perhaps President Donald Trump, who called Sweeney’s ad “fantastic,” and Vice President JD Vance, who said some people had become “unhinged” over a “pretty girl” promoting jeans to young Americans.

Sweeney told GQ it was “surreal” to see both Trump and Vance publicly comment on her commercial.

The actress also said she didn’t pay much attention to the backlash because of her busy schedule filming the upcoming third season of HBO’s TV series “Euphoria.”

“I’m working 16-hour days and I don’t really bring my phone on set, so I work and then I go home and I go to sleep. So I didn’t really see a lot of it,” she said.

Amid the backlash, American Eagle has stood by its ad campaign, maintaining that the message “is and always was about the jeans.”

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way,” the Pittsburgh-based company said in a statement. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”

The company’s decision appears to have paid off. Its stock price rose in September after a second-quarter earnings report, in which American Eagle credited Sweeney’s campaign for driving record sales. The People magazine reported, citing company representatives, that her collection sold out within a week, with some items gone in less than a day.
When asked whether reports of American Eagle’s recent commercial success make her feel better, Sweeney said she was aware of them but unaffected.

“I knew at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was for great jeans; it didn’t affect me one way or the other,” she told GQ.