Olivia Wilde only appears in Don’t Worry Darling “out of necessity”
The production needed someone who would work for no money but who also understood the whole concept
Aux News Olivia Wilde
The movie about the making of Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is going to be fascinating (who will they cast to play Shia LaBeouf in the scenes where he insists that he didn’t get fired?), but until somebody starts making that, we’ll have to keep relying on behind-the-scenes stories. Today we have Maggie Gyllenhaal interviewing Wilde for Interview Magazine, during which Wilde talks about the experience of acting in a movie that she was also directing—and the “bunch of dudes” who told her it was a “great” thing to try.
Wilde says that she only appears in Don’t Worry Darling as an actor “out of necessity,” explaining that they “basically ran out of money” and needed someone who would work for very little money but who still “understood the role.” The film’s casting director told Wilde that she should just do it herself (it was probably phrased nicer than that), so Wilde checked with some other directors she knows to see what it would be like. She tells Gyllenhaal that she ended up asking “a bunch of dudes” (Bradley Cooper is the one she calls out by name), and while they were supportive, they failed to realize that it’s easier for a man “in comfortable shoes” to quickly go from being on set to needing to look at the monitors.
“Part of it is that I was in a fucking bustier and heels and a wig,” she adds, saying, “they were coming at me doing these necessary but frustrating touch-ups at every second, and I was like, ‘I need to be at the monitor, I need to be in charge.” Still, Wilde says that dealing with that was important for showing “solidarity with the actors,” since they were all stuck in a desert with the high emotions that come from making a thriller (plus, as she says, “the COVID of it all”).
Elsewhere in the Interview interview, Wilde talks about how directing a Red Hot Chili Peppers video convinced her that more actors should push themselves as hard as musicians do, which is one of the reasons she wanted to cast Harry Styles in this movie. So, like with most things, you can thank Anthony Kiedis for that.
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Don’t Worry Darling is one scrappy, can do tale of indie filmmaker stick-to-it-tiveness. I mean, have you heard about the studio that produced it? They can only afford to release two movies the rest of the year, and actually shelved one of them. Talk about a mom and pop operation.
A lot of people seem to be down on this film and/or on Wilde right now, but it actually looks interesting to me, and I feel a little bad that I won’t be buying a ticket for it since I’m not giving a dime to WB until they fire Zaslav.
I’m willing to cut Wilde a lot of slack because a lot of what she’s been accused of, are things that tons of male directors have done. What bothers me, is she portrayed herself as different, as better, virtue signaling her feminism and proclaiming her set an “asshole free” environment, and it was all a lie, because she was absolutely willing to disregard the safety of a female actor on set for the sake of keeping a very problematic male actor on board. Either be the change you want to be, or don’t. But don’t lie about it. It’s the hypocrisy that I hate.
The juice isn’t worth the squeeze at this point with her.
Are you Harry Styles?
Does the timeline support that though? I don’t think people knew quite how terrible Shia was (allegedly) during initial casting for this movie.
Apparently Shia’s conduct on set was the real issue. He reportedly said something to Pugh that made her uncomfortable/unwilling to work with him. Wilde in interviews claimed she fire LeBeauf because she as a “no assholes” policy and wanted to keep the set safe, but LeBeauf rebutted he quit, and then leaked a video Wilde facetiming him and all but begging him to stay with the production, and blaming Pugh for being unwilling to go along (and rather condescendingly calling her “Miss Flo.”)The timing is a little unclear, so yes it could be that some of the more salacious details about LeBeauf’s conduct hadn’t come out yet, but he’s long had a rep as a difficult, aggressive actor, and the substance of the issue is that, Pugh felt unsafe working with him, LeBeauf tried to exit the film, and Wilde sided with him, and tried to get him to stay despite Pugh’s personal safety, and later lied about it to the press.
I was under the impression they never actually got on set, as it was still pre-production. Shia could have alienated Pugh over Zoom or something though.
Florence certainly didn’t, as she expressed excitement to work with him.
We don’t actually know that Florence’s issue was one of “safety”. Perhaps one day Florence herself will discuss what happened, but for now she’s keeping mum.
It’s interesting how it’s always the assholes who are the ones with the “No Assholes” policy.
but it actually looks interesting to meInteresting for sure.No idea if it’ll be any good, but I’m definitely interested, for Harry’s accent if nothing else.
Yeah, I finally saw a trailer for this last night, and now I’m interested. The title had me thinking it was just going to be some standard flatline melodrama, but it actually looks weird and worth checking out.
I hear it’s a scrappy pair of brothers who own that studio, by the name of Warner! Obviously, that’s why they’re so comfortable making small films with unknown filmmakers and obscure musicians. They probably run the whole thing out of their parents’ basement.
I hear they’ve got a new movie they’re working on, with sound and talking and everything. They’ll lose their shirts.
Their sister Dot is the real power behind the throne.
Wilde can’t help proving her stupidity publicly. A “bunch of dudes”? One of whom is Bradley Cooper. Sydney Pollack cast himself in The Interpreter because the production was low on cash. Wilde is no Cooper or Pollack.
In her defense, Pollack was very difficult to get ahold of.
This movie looks awesome and I’m really looking forward to it sorry if that offends.
yeah Booksmart is friggin great and this movie looks cool
I feel like spending time with Olivia Wilde would be exhausting, like hanging out with Lin Manuel Miranda or Jimmy Fallon must be. She seems like the kind of person who half listens to what other people say, just itching for her turn to talk and be the center of attention. And I’m sorry, but she’s not this super beauty Hollywood makes her out to be. I mean, I’m ugly as fuck, so I think it’s okay to say that.
I agree with B, not with C) [stone cold fox], nor A) [ would absolutely hang out with LMM for the dance party alone]
Bradley Cooper: “Yeah, the next time you call for advice, go fuck yourself first”
She really doesn’t want to do herself any favors on this press tour, does she? Already there are rumors that Florence Pugh was also unhappy with Olivia Wilde increasing the size of her own part so now this just brought that whole thing up again in a lot of places. But beyond that – It was hard for me to be in charge while people touched up my makeup probably doesn’t read the way she thinks it does.
Directing a Red Hot Chili Peppers video convinced me I’m wasting time wearing a shirt all the time.
How have I gone my whole life without shooting heroin?
The viewpoints of radarskiy do not reflect those of The Kinja Caffeine Spider or The Kinja AV Club!
I’d say “fuck Olivia Wilde,” but I don’t want to star in her next movie.
“So, like with most things, you can thank Anthony Kiedis for that.”
Okay, I thought that was kinda funny.
Hats off to Anthony, of course, but it’s Flea, always Flea, who deserves thanks.
At this point the fact that Wilde is saying this makes me think she really wanted to act in the movie.
I thought I read somewhere that Wilde was originally supposed to be the female lead (with Florence Pugh playing her role) and Harry Styles was always meant to be the male lead, but they couldn’t make his scheduling work.Then LeBeouf became the male lead, and Pugh got switched to the female lead, and Wilde dropped back to this supporting character.
But then LeBeouf left, and Styles came back (and Wilde started sleeping with Styles).If I have that right, then I really find this whole, “Oh, humble little me? No, I was FORCED to be this prominent in the film,” schtick pretty suspect. It seems like Wilde was setting herself up to play sex scenes with her eventual lover, and all else is ass-covering.
At one point early on, Wilde was supposed to play Pugh’s part.
I was in LA earlier this week and was worried that the smoke I smelt was from a nearby wildfire.Fortunately, it turns out it was just from the bridges Olivia keeps burning every time she does an interview.
My guess is this movie is an absolute stinker because I’ve heard very little about it but the drama around it is covered constantly.
ok Maggie is really hilarious in this interview tho, when Wilde asks if Maggie knows about incels, Maggie simply states, “no”.
That’s “Nine Time Academy Award Nominee Bradley Cooper”, for the record.Which is kinda mind blowing, isn’t it?Hopefully he wins one soon so he can chill for a bit.
The A-Team was airing on FX on one of the TVs in the office (I work at a sports network where we have 50 screens going at once) and it struck me that it seems like a lifetime ago that every Bradley Cooper role was just meathead fratbro until he started racking up 37 consecutive years with a nomination.
Ler’s be honest, every Bradley Cooper role is still meathead fratbro.
Just who are they making this piece of toss for?
Sooooo many stories on AV Club about this movie. Better be great. Hopefully it will be better than the script I read.
Wilde says that she only appears in Don’t Worry Darling as an actor “out of necessity,” explaining that they “basically ran out of money” and needed someone who would work for very little money but who still “understood the role.” Wilde talks about how directing a Red Hot Chili Peppers video convinced her that more actors should push themselves as hard as musicians do, which is one of the reasons she wanted to cast Harry Styles in this movie.All right, I believe her.BUT MY TOMMY GUN DON’T
Of course she’s in it. Everything must be about her.