Olivia Wilde on creating the most controversial film of the year – Sydney Morning Herald

Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size

All right, lets get the stuff youre here for out of the way. For starters, theres something to be said about timing. When I interviewed Olivia Wilde back in mid-August for Dont Worry Darling, the most pressing controversy surrounding the film was rather innocuous. It was, as we all know, the project where Wilde, the films director, began a relationship with her actor, the teen-heart-throb Harry Styles.

Because Styles fans are, lets say, deeply devoted, Wilde had already become a daily trending topic on Twitter for months, and not in a good way. Head to Twitter and type in Olivia Wilde dancing and feel the waves of anonymous, intergenerational resentment. The fact that Wilde, a 38-year-old mother-of-two, might be seen dancing off-stage at the arena concerts of the fantasy boy shed stolen from them was too much for some young uns. The bitter commentary veered from quips like so embarrassing to GIFs of Elaine dancing on Seinfeld.

Olivia Wilde pulls double-duty as an actor and director in Dont Worry Darling.

And so, during our tight, 20-odd minute Zoom chat at 10pm on Monday, August 15 which, just to set the mood, I took in my mouldy, wet bathroom (my kids were asleep, and it was the only remaining room in the house with a door), with Wilde unknowingly (and figuratively) sitting on a stool in my shower, and I, precariously hovering in front of the toilet roll holder to maintain the illusion that I was speaking from any ordinary, nothing-to-question-here room I asked her about it.

Im sure youre aware that youve been trending on Twitter, like, almost every morning since the news of you and Harry first came out, mostly due to, I guess, young fans upset that youve stolen their man or something? I asked and even paused to giggle to show her I too was aware of the absurdity of the whole thing. Are you nervous that its pulling focus away from the film itself?

Wilde, Chris Pine and Florence Pugh at the films Venice premiere.Credit:Invision

Needless to say, Wilde did not care to discuss this line of questioning.

Rob, I totally get why you want to ask that, but Id rather we just keep it to the film, she said from her hotel room in Toronto (coincidentally, on the same day Styles was due to perform at Torontos Scotiabank Arena; someone add investigative reporter to my title). Wilde wasnt brusque in her response, just setting the parameters. I get it. Like, I get it, she added firmly. But lets just keep it to the film.

Of course, a mere months retrospect sure changes the story, doesnt it? About a week later, Variety ran their wild cover interview with Wilde, which instigated the unending circus that has plagued the films pre-release run to date. A brief recap, if we must:

1. There were the rumours of a tiff with the films star, Florence Pugh, supposedly sparked by her horror at watching her director and her co-star hook up on set and exacerbated by Wildes public focus on the films female-gaze sex scenes. Men dont come in this film, Wilde proudly told Variety. Pugh told Harpers Bazaar: When its reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone Its not why Im in this industry.

2. There was the ghost of Shia LaBeouf returning from Hollywood purgatory to refute Wildes claims that he had been fired (and replaced with Styles) before the film started shooting due to his combative energy, and leaking a private video chat with Wilde as receipts.

3. There was the nonstop carnival that was the movies Venice Film Festival premiere, which involved the internet parsing over the casts relationships with Zapruder-like intensity, including Pughs limited campaigning on behalf of the film (she has been labelled a quiet quitting icon for her less-than-bare commitment to the films pre-release PR) and a viral video that suggested Styles had spat on co-star Chris Pine, which prompted the incredibly insane clarification, Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine, from Pines PR rep.

Wilde didnt talk to me about any of this, perhaps because a) at that early point in the films press run she mightve thought she could still keep a lid on such tabloid-y distractions, or b) they hadnt happened yet, time being linear and all. Maybe, also, I have a face that says to celebrities, Nah, dont trust this guy, or maybe Wilde had noticed I was interviewing her from a toilet seat. Either way, and this might be your invitation to exit, the circus portion of the discussion more or less ends here.

At a private preview screening of Dont Worry Darling in a theatre also hosting a personal rep for cinematographer Matthew Libatique and a Warner Bros studio employee there to run the reels, the only reaction we could muster among us as its final credits rolled was a well, that was interesting! with a polite chuckle. If visually stunning and thematically intriguing, the film closes with a twist ending that in early reviews has already proven divisive: to some, it punctuates the films pulpish topicality and Wildes ambitious bravado; to others, it undercuts everything that came before it, turning what mightve been a stark allegory into strictly nonsense, as Entertainment Weekly scathingly wrote.

For Wilde, the big swing was part of the films appeal. Coming off her 2019 indie debut Booksmart, a critical success starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as two high-school overachievers whove realised theyve overlooked a key part of their youth (i.e. the irresponsible partying), Wilde had already defied the typical expectations of the actor-turned-director, the movie star who decides theyve got what it takes to step behind the camera.

Loading

I mean, there were no expectations of me before Booksmart whatsoever like, literally nothing. I dont think anyone had any idea of what I could do, Wilde recalls.

By any standards, Booksmart is a modern masterpiece a film perfectly realised in tone, visuals and performances; warmly empathetic in its depiction of female coming-of-age; and so creatively open to playing with filmmaking conventions. Booksmarts unlikely success convinced Wilde her follow-up had to be ambitious.

I wanted to take a big leap, to try something completely different. Its also, like comedies, another genre I love so much, psychological thrillers, and I was hopeful Id have the chance to play in that genre, she says. And so I feel lucky we got to do it because, also, its really rare now to get distribution for something that isnt a franchise, you know? Its kind of a miracle that we actually get to have this original piece of content open globally.

Not to harp on the relevance of my rejected question but lets face it: the tacky pre-release hoopla hasnt done any favours to Wildes ambitious intentions. Written again with her Booksmart collaborator Katie Silberman, Dont Worry Darling is a vicious skewering of patriarchal nostalgia, and the central myth behind Trumpisms MAGA, defined by Wildes feminist lens.

Set in an idyllic 1950s TV dream of a world, amid the manicured lawns and palm trees of West Coast suburbia, the film follows Alice (Pugh) and Jack (Styles), newlyweds living and working among the mysterious Victory Project, led by the daunting, messianic Frank (Chris Pine, highlighting his underrated charm).

Wilde directs Pine behind the scenes on Dont Worry Darling.

[The film] has everything to do with modern incel culture and this kind of problematic nostalgia for a time in the past when men ruled the Earth without threat, Wilde explains. Theres this idea that there was a time when things were perfect which, you know, nostalgia is only ever positive for straight, white men. Theres no one else that any other time was better for.

Incels, a loose online collective of toxic young males who describe themselves as involuntary celibates, gained notoriety in mainstream spaces in recent years (in 2019, Vox described them as a support group for the dateless [that] became one of the internets most dangerous subcultures) as an example of the anonymous radicalisation fostered by social media and online forums such as 4chan. Dont Worry Darling takes their ethos a call for the return of traditional masculinity, and a reversal of woke cultural gains as the stuff of cinematic horror.

Styles and Pugh play newlyweds Jack and Alice in the film.

Pines Frank, a charismatic leader with his gang of dweeby man-boy followers, evokes the subcultures figurehead Jordan Peterson (who, coincidentally, is touring Australia in an arena tour in November; Peterson has praised the casting of attractive Pine as his stand-in, although attacked the latest bit of propaganda disseminated by the woke, self-righteous bores and bullies who now dominate Hollywood). The film does a stylish job of depicting a society that has returned to the sexual dynamics of the idyll 50s, where gender roles were defined to the point of suffocation. (Its effective if not subtle: just watch Pugh wrap her head in cling wrap, or get almost squeezed to death against the windows shes cleaning.)

What convinced Wilde this would make a good setting for a Hollywood psychological thriller?

Well, I mean, I dont think theres anything more terrifying than a disenfranchised white man, she says with a laugh. Chris character is very much based on Peterson and a combination, also, of some different cult leaders and political leaders. Its that pseudo-intellectual, deeply misogynistic rhetoric that is somehow disguised as scientific theory or something biological. Its so disturbing.

Wilde and Silberman deep-dove into 4chan forums and YouTube algorithms as part of their script research. The pandemics reinforcement of social distance and online remoteness only intensified the relevance of their themes.

I think what weve seen, with the internet creating an opportunity for wide reach and for these sub-communities to be built and for people to hide behind usernames, is theres a really dangerous kind of mob mentality out there and I think its the source of some of the most devastating tragedies happening in our world today, says Wilde.

Wilde, Pugh, prop master Joshua Bramer and cinematographer Matthew Libatigue on the set of Dont Worry Darling.

Im fascinated by the rise of strange internet cults, like QAnon, and how do we raise a generation that is more discerning about information shared on the internet, a generation that understands that algorithms are distorting the information theyre seeing, and a generation that doesnt rely on community solely in this kind of faceless world? I felt really inspired to dive into what I think is a really dangerous trend, and one that is very modern because it requires a technology which weve embraced without truly understanding its ramifications.

As far as its messages reach, Dont Worry Darling might be preaching to the converted. But the numbers of misogynistic, young trolls online arent insignificant. Is Wilde intrigued to see how theyll respond to the film?

She laughs loudly. Intrigued, yes in a twisted way. But quite often people fail to see themselves in material thats very clearly based on them. I wonder But also, you know, I think that community probably isnt my greatest fan base anyway, so I doubt theyll be first in line to see it.

Dont Worry Darlings box office take will itself be intriguing; we might yet get an answer to the perennial question of whether all publicity is good publicity. Well also see whether the media circus scares off Hollywoods studios on Wilde and dents the forward momentum her directorial career had established following Booksmart. Among the directing projects she has already been linked to are Perfect, a biopic on American gymnast Kerri Strug, and an untitled Sony/Marvel project rumoured to be a Spider-Woman film.

Wilde waves to fans at the films Venice premiere.Credit:Getty Images Europe

We have so many fun things on the burner, she says, giving away nothing. At this point, I just want to keep trying things that push me further because Im learning so much as I go and I just want to continue to challenge myself. I feel lucky Ive been able to choose exactly what I want to do, which is great, and I think Im in a position now where I can get films greenlit that wouldnt otherwise have a chance in hell, which is a real honour.

But, you know, once [Dont Worry Darling] is released, it will feel like the end of an era. Ive been making this movie for three years, and Im looking forward to kind of handing it over to the world and then getting back to work on the next thing.

Loading

The goal, says Wilde, is to not let her adventurous eye be diminished by any external criticism.

I still feel proud to have earned my directing title with Booksmart. It was, in a way, so liberating to be able to try something without any expectations. But I think if you can kind of maintain that as an artist internally, at least youll continue to take risks.

I remember when I got my DGA [Directors Guild of America] card, I cried because Nora Ephron was the photograph on the card that year, and I felt inducted into a community that I so deeply respect and it felt really incredible, very humbling, she says. And so now its like, OK, youve earned your place, stay here and see if you can make something else worth watching. And I just hope I can keep taking risks and not ever create anything from a place of fear.

Lets hope the truly bizarre experience of Dont Worry Darling hasnt crippled Wildes creative ambition, because that would be worrying.

Dont Worry Darling is out in cinemas on October 6.

To read more from Spectrum, visit our page here.

A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.

See the article here:

Olivia Wilde on creating the most controversial film of the year - Sydney Morning Herald