Don’t Worry Darling is bound to be one of the year’s most controversial films due to the behind-the-scenes drama that’s plagued the project for the last few months. The news cycle has been flooded with reports surrounding the upcoming movie, including a romantic relationship between Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde that left a rift between the director and co-star Florence Pugh. In addition, a reported pay gap between Styles and Pugh left a bad mark on Don’t Worry Darling; however, Wilde has since come out claiming the pay gap was far from true.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Earlier last month, conflicting reports began to surface surrounding Shia LaBeouf’s exit from the film. Wilde claimed she fired the actor for his problems with Pugh, while LaBeouf gave a very different story, including a leaked video from 2020 showing Wilde pleading for the actor to change his mind and blaming Pugh for the rift between co-stars. Regardless of the truth, Don’t Worry Darling has constantly been making headlines.
Now, during the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference, Wilde is keeping questions limited to the movie itself. She describes her sophomore directorial effort as a metaphor or a paradox and compares the film to the era of make America great again. The Hollywood Reporter captured her thoughts ahead of the big premiere.
She added that she thought a lot about women, bodily autonomy, and the current state of the world while making Don’t Worry Darling.
“We were really interested in the kind of problematic nature of nostalgia itself for everyone, but a very slim portion of the population. And, you know, we started writing this film in the era of make America great again. And we were really questioning what exactly is meant by that? I think also with this film, you have to remember everything is a metaphor. You know, the paradox of victory is that everything that is beautiful is also sinister. That’s by design.”
Don’t Worry Darling is Nearly in Theaters
Warner Bros.
Despite the controversy, Don’t Worry Darling is sure to be a film many fans want to see. The A-list cast includes Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde (who both directs and stars), Chris Pine, and Harry Styles. The official synopsis for the film reads: “A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.”
“We thought a lot about the generations of women that came before ours, but unfortunately, also the generation of women that we are in right now — in terms of bodily autonomy. It was a huge part of why we wanted to tell the story.”
Don’t Worry Darling will be the second directorial outing for Olivia Wilde, whose previous work includes Booksmart, and the short film, Wake Up. Following the premiere in Venice, Don’t Worry Darling will head to the Deauville American Film Festival and the San Sebastian International Film Festival before arriving in theaters on Sept. 23.
