This might be the most dramatic movie of the year, though not because of its script. Don’t Worry Darling, the sophomore movie for director Olivia Wilde, has been plagued by rumors of actors bickering, cheating allegations, and just being bad.
This must be the most talked about movie of the year, and we still have another 3 and a half months left. When you put some of Hollywood’s biggest, most influential stars, such as Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, and Shia LaBeouf, together for a high-profile movie, there’s bound to be some bad blood over hurt egos.
And that’s exactly what has (supposedly) happened here.
This film, even though it was supposed to be one of Warner Bros. most high-profiled releases of the year, has had such terrible press around it that I’m astonished it’s even coming out.
Oliva Wilde, the director, and Shia LaBeouf, the lead male star before leaving the project, have publicly battled one another over whether LaBeouf was fired (as Wilde claims) for being obnoxious and difficult to work with or quit (as LaBeouf claims) because Wilde was bad at her job.
And, seeing as LaBeouf (or someone close to him) has leaked a video message to him from Wilde in which she was practically begging LaBeouf to stay on the project and to “give this (the movie) a shot. With me. With us (the crew, I’m guessing)”, I’m kind of on LaBeouf’s side here.
Why would Wilde ask him to stay if he was obnoxious ad difficult to work with?
Anyway, that’s not where the drama ends as Wilde ended up replacing LaBeouf with Harry Styles. Just coming off his first, and widely acclaimed, role in Dunkirk (2017) and being a global pop-superstar, it makes sense why Wilde and Warner Bros. wanted Styles as the lead man with Florence Pugh, who is a star in her own right.
But I’m sure Warner Bros. couldn’t have predicted that Wilde would abruptly leave her fiancé, Jason Sudeikis, of seven years (and the relationship between them that produced two children) as soon as filming began and immediately start to date Harry Styles.
Or, in other word, the film director abruptly leaving her fiancé of seven years for the lead male star said director wanted to hire in the first place (if Wilde is to be believed).
Yeah, not a great look for Wilde, Styles, or Warner Bros.
“Jeez, can this movie’s reputation get any worse?” you’re probably wondering. “Not only has the film director and lead male star publicly feuded, causing the star to quit, but the film director has also (supposedly) cheated on her fiancé and left him for the replacement of said male star.”
Well, it does. It gets a whole lot worse.
Remember when I said that Wilde had a video of her leak asking Shia LaBeouf to stay on as the lead actor? Well, that’s not the only thing she said.
She also demeaned Florence Pugh, her lead female star, by calling her “Miss Flo” (supposedly, but we all know that’s who she was talking about) and openly questioned her work ethic and drive as an actor.
Of course, this video and Florence Pugh’s lack of promotion for this movie has further fueled the negative press for this film, and rumors of a conflict between Pugh and Wilde.
That press only got worse at the Vencie Film Festival premiere a few days ago. Florence Pugh backed out of the pre-movie press panel, even though she attended the premiere, leaving just Chris Pine (who looked disinterested the whole time), Olivia Wilde, and Harry Styles to discuss the film.
Then, during the showing of the film, someone caught of video of Harry Styles seemingly spit on Chris Pine.
Obviously, Styles, Pine, and Wilde have refuted these allegations, as expected, but Pine’s reaction and Styles’ mouth movements sure makes it look like he did.
Anyway, things have only gotten even more heated when Wilde, who recently posed for Vogue Magazine, said that she had to fire Shia LaBeouf because he “made Florence Pugh uncomfortable”.
However, LaBeouf (or someone close to him) has recently leaked some texts (if they are actually real) between him and Pugh that shows the pair had a good relationship and that someone, that was not Pugh, was feeding this “uncomfortable” narrative to LaBeouf.
I think we might know who that was now.
Nevertheless, seeing how this movie currently has a 1/10 rating on IMdB, it’s clear this project has been nothing but a headache for everyone involved. Especially Warner Bros. For a company that is constantly putting out dud movies and losing billions of dollars each year, this catastrophe really couldn’t have helped their bottom line.
I wasn’t planning on seeing Don’t Worry Darling, but maybe I will now. Just to see if all of this drama was justified.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Warner Bros. Pictures) (Don’t Worry Darling | Official Trailer – YouTube)
