Hollywood icon Kim Novak is distancing herself from the long-developing biopic Scandalous, saying she would never have approved Sydney Sweeney's portrayal of her in the film about her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr.
According to Variety, Novak said Sweeney is “totally wrong” for the role in the stalled project, which is set to be directed by Sweeney’s Euphoria co-star Colman Domingo. The film, first announced in 2024, would star Sweeney as Novak opposite David Jonsson as Davis Jr.
The 93-year-old actor said she worries Scandalous will reduce her relationship with Davis to a tabloid-style affair rather than the emotional connection they actually shared.
“Sydney Sweeney looks sexy all the time,” Novak said. “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.”
Novak also said Sweeney “sticks out so much above the waist” and added, “I would never have approved.”
The film is based on Novak’s brief but closely guarded romance with Davis, which began after the pair met on The Steve Allen Show in 1956. Their relationship deepened the following year after reconnecting in Chicago and continued in secret as Davis visited Novak on the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Novak has repeatedly said the relationship was rooted in how much they had in common, not in the “scandalous” image that surrounded it.
“I don’t think the relationship was scandalous,” she said. “He’s somebody I really cared about. We had so much in common, including that need to be accepted for who we are and what we do, rather than how we look.”
That relationship became public in 1958 after a Chicago columnist reported that Novak and Davis were romantically involved and might marry. According to Novak, the fallout was immediate. Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn reportedly threatened Davis with violence unless he ended the relationship. Davis married singer Loray White within days, and that marriage lasted less than a year.
Sweeney has taken a very different view of the project. In an interview last year, she said she felt “incredibly honored” to portray Novak and described the actor’s story as “still very relevant today,” particularly because of the scrutiny Novak faced over her private life and public image.
