Halsey has publicly defended director Tony Tost and the crew of the film Americana amid controversy stemming from a promotional campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney. per Deadline, Halsey wrote, “I do agree that our words are important in this climate,” but argued, “I don’t, however, think that it’s fair for the news cycle to predatorily rip a hardworking director and his hardworking crew for their film that is wholly separate-from and unrelated-to a (pretty dumb) advertising take.”
Tost has also addressed the film’s challenging launch, appearing to link it to the advertising campaign. In an X post on Friday, Tost stated Americana had been “gobbled up by the zeitgeist.” He continued, “One of the great things about movies is that they outlive the zeitgeist into which they were released.” Tost expressed curiosity about how the film would be received after the initial controversy subsided, saying, “As someone whose first film sorta got gobbled up by the zeitgeist, I’ll be curious to see how it’ll stand up after this moment is over. Hopefully fairly well!” Streaming numbers will likely provide insight into the film’s long-term performance.
