Sydney Sweeney did her best not to reignite any controversy while weighing in on the blue jeans commercial that inspired this summer’s most maddening speech.

Four months after American Eagle launched an ad campaign saluting the way the “Euphoria” star’s “great genes” made her look in her “fantastic jeans,” it managed to cautiously dismiss critics while also appearing to distance itself from its defenders.

“I did a jeans ad,” he told GQ in an interview published Tuesday. “I mean, the reaction was definitely a surprise, but I love jeans. All I wear is jeans. I literally wear jeans and a t-shirt every day of my life.”

But Sweeney’s outfit wasn’t what made the ads a cultural lightning rod when they appeared in July.

Sydney Sweeney, here at Variety's Power of Women 2025 event in October, was strategically neutral when discussing her controversial
Sydney Sweeney, here at Variety’s Power of Women 2025 event in October, was strategically neutral when discussing her controversial “big jeans” ad campaign with GQ.

Maya Dehlin Spach via Getty Images

Some stray comments on social media wondered if there was a whiff of white supremacy in focusing on the blue-eyed blonde’s superior genes He was picked up and promoted by conservative influencers eager for another example of wokeness gone wrong.

The debate spiraled into the political world, with Vice President JD Vance calling the backlash the reason Democrats aren’t winning over young people, while President Donald Trump publicly reveled in speculation that Sweeney was a Republican.

When asked what it was like to have the president and his second-in-command talk about her and the announcement, she opted for the word “surreal.”

Interviewer Katherine Stoeffel then opened the door for Sweeney to share his opinion, saying, “I think it would be totally human to feel (I probably would feel) grateful that someone had my back in public and, conveniently, from some very powerful people. I was wondering if you felt that way.”

“I don’t think… It’s not that I didn’t have that feeling, but I wasn’t thinking about that, any of that,” deflected Sweeney, who is in the middle of promoting her new movie, “Christy.”

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“I just put my phone away. I was filming every day.”

Giving one last chance to weigh in on everything, GQ asked him if he had anything to say about the ad itself or the idea that “white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority” in the current political climate.

“I think when I have a topic I want to talk about, people listen to me,” he responded.