Remember the relationship allegations about Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell that surfaced just as they were ready to start promoting Anyone But You? It turns out that Sydney Sweeney was the genius behind them all — kind of.

In a new interview with The New York Times, Sydney Sweeney confesses to feeding and semi-orchestrating rumors of an off-screen romance with her Anyone But You co-star Glen Powell in order to promote the film’s success, which worked. Anyone But You grossed an astonishing $218 million worldwide, a surprising achievement given its modest $8 million box office debut. The rumors about Sweeney and Powell’s chemistry surely contributed to their success.

In an interview with the New York Times, Powell confessed that the audience’s interest helped catapult the film to popularity and hinted that we should all thank Sweeney for lighting the fires. “Sydney and I have a lot of fun together, and we have a lot of natural chemistry. People want what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean in a little — and it worked perfectly. Sydney is incredibly intelligent.”

Sweeney, who also worked as an executive producer with her current fiancé Jonathan Davino, said, “I was on every call. I participated in text group chats. I probably kept everyone at Sony Marketing and Distribution awake at night because I couldn’t quit coming up with ideas.”

One of the ideas was to go into the off-screen romance rumors, which she saw were one of the factors that piqued audiences’ interest in the run-up to the film’s release, particularly after Powell split from his long-term girlfriend, Gigi Paris.

“I wanted to make sure that we were actively having a conversation with the audience as we were promoting this film, because, at the end of the day, they’re the ones who created the entire narrative,” Sweeney said in a recent interview. As they told the NYT, “the speculation played out exactly as they intended.” Touché.