Kim Novak says she fears new Sydney Sweeney led biopic will sensationalise her 1950s affair

Kim Novak has expressed unease over an upcoming Sydney Sweeney-led biopic about her relationship with legendary entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., warning that the film risks reducing their bond to little more than scandal and sex.

The 92-year-old Hollywood star, best known for her leading role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), opened up in an interview with The Guardian. She said she took particular issue with the film’s title, Scandalous!, chosen by producers at Miramax.

“I don’t think the relationship was scandalous,” Novak insisted. “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. But I’m concerned they’re going to make it all sexual reasons.”

The biopic will mark the directorial debut of Euphoria star Colman Domingo, with Sweeney portraying Novak and Industry actor David Jonsson taking on the role of Davis Jr. Filming is expected to begin once the long-delayed third season of Euphoria wraps production.

Novak and Davis Jr. first met in the mid-1950s during an appearance on The Steve Allen Show. Their romance blossomed soon after but had to remain secret in an America still governed by racial segregation and deep prejudice against interracial relationships.

The relationship came under intense pressure when Harry Cohn, co-founder of Columbia Pictures and Novak’s studio boss, learned of the affair. According to accounts from the time, Cohn threatened Davis Jr. with violence through mob connections and warned Novak that her career — and Columbia’s box office returns — would be destroyed if she continued to date a Black man. The threats eventually forced the couple to part ways.

Domingo has previously said he hopes the project will present their love as something tender and defiant rather than tabloid fodder. Speaking to Deadline last year, he explained: “Hopefully we’ll make a beautiful, sweet film that’s really about the possibility of love, but under many eyes, trying to have privacy, trying to have love, trying to have a life. And I think it’s something that Sydney and I both know very well. We’re trying to advocate for your humanity again in your life.”

Despite those intentions, Novak’s concerns underline the sensitive nature of portraying interracial romance in 1950s Hollywood, where industry executives openly interfered in the personal lives of stars to protect profits. Her remarks suggest she fears her relationship with Davis Jr. — which she remembers as a genuine connection between two outsiders — could be flattened into a sensationalised story of scandal and forbidden lust.

The timing of Novak’s comments comes during a turbulent period for Sweeney herself. The Euphoria actor has faced backlash over recent advertising campaigns, including accusations of racial undertones in an American Eagle Jeans commercial. The controversy escalated when she was heckled at a film premiere by a protester shouting: “Stop the ad, that is being racist!” The brand defended the campaign, while former US president Donald Trump bizarrely endorsed it, calling it the “HOTTEST ad out there.”Whether Scandalous! will reflect Novak’s concerns or Domingo’s stated vision remains to be seen. But the project has already reignited debate about how Hollywood chooses to tell the stories of its Golden Age stars — and whether the truth of their private lives can survive the lure of sensational drama