Sydney Sweeney Reflects on 'Firsthand' Experience with Addiction and Reveals How Manipulation Runs Echo Valley

Sydney Sweeney opens up about confronting family trauma and addiction in the upcoming Apple TV+ thriller Echo Valley. Read on to know what the actress said.

Written by Ipshita Chakraborty , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 25, 2025 | 03:24 PM GMT | 4.5K

CC: Instagram

Sydney Sweeney teams up with Julianne Moore in Echo Valley, an intense Apple TV+ thriller debuting June 13, in which a mother's love is tested to the limit.

Moore plays Kate, a suburban Pennsylvania farm mom leading a peaceful existence. However, that does not last long as her estranged daughter, Claire, played by Sweeney, shows up late one evening, drenched in someone else's blood.

Echo Valley goes all in on the emotional and ethical intricacies of a parent's urge to defend her child at all costs. Sweeney takes on Claire's troubled history with unvarnished intensity.

The Euphoria actress plays an addict who has manipulated her mom in the past, so viewers are left wondering if she's the victim or a menace. Sweeney used her own life as inspiration to play Claire's moodiness. She had relatives with addiction issues.

Sweeney told Vanity Fair, "I’ve had a lot of family members deal with addiction and then struggle with similar issues as Claire and her friends, and her group that she hangs out with. I’ve kind of had firsthand experience with it."

In preparation, Sweeney watched hundreds of YouTube interviews with addicts to learn their body language and emotions. She said, "I mean, there’s a manipulation underneath a lot of it. But when there was love in the air in the room, you truly still felt it. The person that they are at the core, as buried as they might be, is still there."

In spite of its domestic location, the thriller reportedly packs more than a serene family melodrama. It ramps up to high-octane drama with blazing action scenes, tough combat sequences, and instances of physical and psychological resilience.

For Moore and Sweeney, however, the central conflict is Kate and Claire's damaged relationship. Shot on a farm in rural New Jersey over the course of six weeks, Echo Valley challenged the actresses to do something new.

Sydney Sweeney worked hard to learn horseback riding and said she loved the experience.

Echo Valley debuts June 13 on Apple TV+.