Kiki Layne gets in on Don’t Worry Darling shade, says most of her scenes were cut
Don't Worry Darling star Kiki Layne and on-screen husband Ari’el Stachel poke fun at the Olivia Wilde film
Aux News KiKi Layne
We regret to inform you that the Don’t Worry Darling press cycle isn’t quite over (though surely it must be soon, right? Right?). Yes, the film is finally out, and Chris Pine and Florence Pugh skipped the final premiere, and Pugh may or may not have gotten in a screaming match with Olivia Wilde on set, but we’re past that now. Onto a new player: Kiki Layne.
Layne plays the role of Margaret in DWD, a mysterious former friend of Alice’s (Pugh) whose breakdown makes Alice suspicious of the idyllic town of Victory. But apparently, what happens on screen isn’t Margaret’s full story. “The best thing about #DontWorryDarling is that I was lucky enough to meet [Ari’el Stachel],” Layne wrote on Instagram of her co-star and real-life partner. “They cut us from most of the movie, but we thriving in real life.” (The post includes a behind-the-scenes video of the couple from a scene that does not appear in the movie.) She added the hashtags: #GotMyMan, #GotMyCheck, and #EverythingHappensForAReason.
Tony winner Satchel similarly poked fun at the limited appearance of their husband-and-wife scenes, sharing a cheeky TikTok with the caption “When you end up on the cutting room floor … Go see Don’t Worry Darling.” In a more sentimental post, he wrote of Layne, “My favorite part of my experience in Don’t Worry Darling. This woman did phenomenal work and I was thirsty the second I met her.”
Though buried under the film’s many other controversies, Layne’s role had already prompted criticism before her post. As the film’s only prominent Black character, Margaret’s intense suffering and ultimate sidelining was highlighted as one of the film’s major issues by some audience members. As The Ringer’s Adam Nayman writes, “Wilde’s deployment of a stoic, suffering African American woman as combination truth-teller and sacrificial lamb is the worst kind of cliché, with Layne’s character slaughtered on the altar of a white heroine’s triumphant self-actualization.”
In that context, Margaret’s story being cut from “most” of the movie is even more troubling—and it explains why Layne, like Pugh, was absent from much of the Don’t Worry Darling promotional tour. While the film may be raking in dollars, its legacy is only becoming more tainted as time goes on.
40 Comments
Okay.
When can I preorder the leather bound print edition of The AV Club Reports on Don’t Worry Darling Volume One?
It would make Tolkien gulp with disbelief!
When the author of Snored of the Rings is gulping with disbelief—despite being dead—that’s a sign. A sign we need more DWDrama!
AV Club: “Open wide honey, it’s time for your hourly ‘update’ on Olivia Wilde’s personal life” Readers: “Yes, dear…. :/”
Remember, sweetie: if you don’t finish all your Olivia Wilde updates, you won’t get any Venice Film Festival standing ovation reports.
[ Dejectedly pushes Olivia Wilde articles around my plate with a fork, pouting ]
*Spike Lee angrily Tweets Olivia Coleman’s home address*
gawd i never realized how much I missed these spike lee tweet comments
AUDIENCE ROARS WITH APPRECIATION, GIVES STANDING OVATION FOR RECORD-SETTING 59 MINUTES, BRENDAN FRASER WEEPS OPENLY AND KIND OF GROSSLY
I mean this article really isn’t about that at all
It’d be “yes, DARLING”*
You just wait until the AVClub wins a Pulitzer for this coverage
They’re gonna make a Spotlight-style movie about this! I hope Ruffalo comes back to add some passionate yelling to the project! “THEY KNEW!!!”
Pulitzer? I’m waiting for the fucking NOBEL AWARD FOR LITERATURE.
What else are they supposed to write about since the Snyder cut was actually released??
Entitled “If Only We’d Had A Choice…”
Damnit, and everything had been going so well for this plucky little flick!
It’s gonna suck when Olivia Wilde is up there clutching her Best Director Oscar, acting so surprised and humble. If it won’t be for this movie, she’ll get one eventually. I have a feeling she always gets what she wants in the end.
I saw it this weekend and trust me, it won’t be for this one ;-).
Good, I was about to ask if this film was actually good. So all the negative press is likely an attempt to generate interest for something people would not be likely to watch anyway. Right?
“I have a feeling she always gets what she wants in the end.”
That’s what you think after wading through all this drama? God, you’re dumb.
Right after she smacks Florence Pugh for not keeping her man Harry out her mouth?
A racial controversy is the ONE thing this movie was missing.
No longer! Bingo!
I’m sure over at The Root they’re calling Olivia Wilde a Grand Imperial Dragon Wizard or something.
We sure she’s not?
I guess not.
AV Club writers: “”Yeah, yeah, at the Root…those guys…”(quietly pushes new article on Elle Kemper’s grandmother’s ex-boyfriend’s cousin with KKK relations aside)
It’s just SICKENING that a BIPOC didn’t Win The Movie.
I’ve read some spoilers, read the Wikipedia plot and I’m confused about something.
Spoilers –
How is the sex here supposed to be empowering to women again?
I can’t wait until tomorrow when Wilde announces the Don’t Worry Darling Cinematic Universe (the DWDCU)Not only will it include the sequelsDon’t Worry Darling 2: Electric Pugh-aloo(I stole this from another commenter)Don’t Worry Darling 3: The Legend of whoever Harry Styles was playing’s goldIt will also include the spin offDon’t Worry Darling Presents Frank and DeanDon’t Worry Darling Book of ShadowsDWD Origins Shelley
Let’s steal from the Fast and the Furious
2 Don’t Worry 2 Darlings (without Pugh)
Don’t Worry Darling – Tokyo Victory (Pugh makes a cameo)
Worried Darlings
Five Worries, Five Darlings
Don’t Worry Darling 6
Worries 7
The Fate of the Worried Darlings
DWD9
Darlings X
The series is really about family
Tune in for D1W1D when they actually found a Victory chapter on the Moon and film in space.
It was me! I’m getting traction here!
“Tony winner Satchel similarly poked fun at”
In what world is A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G she says “poking fun” at anything? What the FUCK are you talking about?
Chris Pine […] skipped the final premiereThat link doesn’t mention Pine at all.It’s normal for an actor to wish they hadn’t got their scenes cut, but it’s also normal for that to happen in the editing process. Just ask the cast of The Thin Red Line! It’s a bit much to say that the film is “tainted” as a result.
If you want to twist the knife a little bit, you can point out that Wilde made these cuts while also deciding that the scenes featuring her own on-screen character were so important they just had to be in the final cut.I read this morning some speculation that her decision to shoot a script about how men can’t handle a woman’s success (and will create an entire imaginary society solely for the purpose of subjugating their wives) is in some way a critique of her ex, Jason Sudeikis. Whether or not that’s true, I’m much more interested in season three of Ted Lasso than I am in this movie.
This all feels like much ado about nothing. Folks get cut from films all the time, actors fall out with their directors all the time, actors don’t get along with each other all the time, and folks who are fired and those that fire them always have a different take on what really happened. This feels like manufactured controversy to sell tickets and everyone in the media has fallen for it. Hopeful something less manufactured will take it place soon in the media or the aggrieved parties will come forward with much more substantial claims beyond what we’re being told at this moment.