Don't Worry Darling, the newest psychological/thriller film directed by Olivia Wilde starring Harry styles and Florence Pugh, has been causing quite the stir on social media. The 2022 movie made its debut at the Venice Film Festival earlier this week and the tension between the cast was ever so apparent - even involving a possible spit. Confused about what the polemic is all about? Well, don't worry darling, This article will catch you up to date.
It all started when Olivia Wilde claimed that she had fired Shia Labeouf - who would've been the leading actor in the movie - as she wanted to maintain a more safe and comfortable environment on set, given that the actor was sued for sexual assault. Labeouf denied this saying he had to leave due to time constraints and even shared a video of Wilde asking him to stay.
In the video, she refers to the Academy Nominated Actress as 'Miss Flo' and claims that if Pugh would commit harder and try to make peace with Shia, more could happen.
Florence Pugh had already shown disapproval of the movie's trailer stating that: “When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry. Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that." Additionally, people noticed that Florence was barely promoting the movie - speculating that it was due to a feud with the film's director.
To add fuel to the fire, Pugh was apparently uncomfortable that Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde were "all over each other" on set. Harry Styles, the movie's lead, has been dating director Olivia Wilde. This relationship has been quite controversial given that they, allegedly, had an affair while Olivia was still married to her ex-husband Jason Sudekis.
All of this mess culminated in the Venice Film Festival (September 5th). The cast of Don't Worry Darling showed up on the red carpet and all started to take photos together. Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh, however, did not have any pictures taken of them alone, and the actress did not ever look at or acknowledge the director's presence.
During a press conference, Olivia Wilde was asked about the supposed fallout between her and Florence Pugh. She denied, sparing only compliments for the star: "I can't say how honored I am to have [Florence] as our lead, she's amazing in the film. And as for all the endless tabloid, gossip, and all the noise out there, I mean the internet feeds itself. I don't feel the need to contribute, I think it's sufficiently well nourished."
If that wasn't enough, a video of Harry Styles apparently spitting on Chris Pine has gone viral. During the screening of the film in Venice, the singer walks to sit next to his co-star, Chris Pine, and while sitting down appears to make a "puh" movement with his mouth towards him. The co-star suddenly stops clapping, looks at his lap, and laughs ironically.
The 'spitting incident', however, appears to have never happened. A representative of Chris Pine stated: “This is a ridiculous story — a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation[...]” Harry Styles even made a sarcastic joke during one of his concerts saying that he went "very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine."
It doesn't help that the movie has been receiving not so great reviews from critics. All of them seem to agree that Pugh's performance was a stand-out, but Harry's acting, the plot, and problematic topics have been source for a lot of criticism.
The movie comes out September 22, 2022 in theaters everywhere.