Sydney Sweeney portrays Margret Wittmer, a real-life German settler who moves to a Galápagos island in the 1930s with her husband – but fans were far from impressed by her accent
06:31 ET, 02 Nov 2025Updated 00:16 ET, 03 Nov 2025
Sydney Sweeney portrays Margret Wittmer in Eden
Sydney Sweeney has gone viral on social media after critics slammed her attempt at a German accent in the recent film Eden.
The movie, directed by Ron Howard, tells the story of a group of disillusioned Europeans settling on a remote, uninhabited island in the Galápagos. Once there, they realize that the greatest threat isn’t the climate or wildlife, but one another. As tensions spiral, a twisted power struggle unfolds, which leads to betrayal, violence and death.
In the film, which also features Ana De Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Jude Law, Sydney portrays Margret Wittmer, a real-life German settler who moves to Floreana Island in the 1930s with her husband to start a new life. Her experiences living on the island were documented in her 1959 biography, which was published in English as Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galápagos. It comes as Sydney Sweeney was branded ‘hypocrite’ for her reaction to a see-through gown on a red carpet.
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The story has now been adapted as a film, but after Eden recently landed on Prime Video in the UK, fans slammed Sydney’s attempt at recreating a German accent. One posted on X, “Sydney Sweeney was struggling with that accent Jesus…” Earlier this year, a person posted, “Just saw Eden in the cinema and I love Sydney Sweeney but how did she get cast with that accent.”
Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby in a scene from the movie(Image: AP)
A third added, “Eden was FINE. Simply FINE. The accent work, casting, narrative and cultural value are questionable. It would likely have been more poignant as a German-language film, written by a German. The absence of contextual colour muddies the story. Also, Sydney Sweeney.”
The topic was also discussed on Reddit where a critic wrote, “Sweeney’s accent in the beginning is so atrocious, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was giving high school play rather than a Hollywood film. And then, after about 30 minutes, she drops the accent altogether. Then it comes back later.
“Ana’s accent wasn’t great either, but at least it fit her character who is someone with delusions of grandeur.” One questioned, “A group of Germans in the middle of nowhere… Why on Earth would they speak English?!?”
One more said, “This is always my reaction to seeing American actors brag about their foreign ‘accents’ in a movie where they should have been speaking the foreign language instead. Like that Gaga Gucci movie where we were meant to be impressed she did some goofy accent for a while, when the entire movie is set in Italy and features Italians but for some reason they do s—-y Italian accents together instead of speaking their own language.”
She has been criticized for her attempt at a German accent(Image: AP)
And another added, “I have to rant lmao. Why do Hollywood (American?) movies do this? I don’t know about this movie, maybe it’s a different thing here, but in 99.99% of cases the characters don’t need to have accents. If my assumption is right and they’re German and supposed to be speaking German, I can imagine that, no need for the accents!”
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Eden’s director Ron told Deadline, “It is a thriller, and part of that suspense is wondering who’s going to survive and why. This true story was so full of that. It is based on two wildly different accounts of the same unsolved mystery. As you delve into it, it certainly falls into that category of stranger than fiction.”
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