The seemingly never-ending press cycle for Don’t Worry Darling picked up again as now reports of a screaming match between director Olivia Wilde and star Florence Pugh have emerged. Is anyone surprised?
Vulture did a deep dive about the movie and its rollout and spoke with anonymous sources over at Warner Bros., and the article provides a little more insight into why the two women were so chilly to each other at the film’s premiere and beyond.
According to the report, the tension on the set between Pugh (a friend of Wilde’s ex Jason Sudeikis) and Wilde culminated in a “screaming match.” The incident happened when the movie was more than halfway done filming, and Pugh was purportedly upset that Wilde kept leaving the set with Pugh’s co-star Harry Styles.
“Olivia and Harry would just disappear,” the source told the magazine. The fight was so intense that Toby Emmerich, a high-ranking Warner Bros. executive, was forced to step in and moderate. There was a “long negotiation process” to try and convince Pugh to promote the film “in any way.” Of course, Pugh has a hefty and engaged Instagram following, so her lack of posts about the movie was cause for alarm.
Another source told Vulture that Warner Bros. wasn’t happy with the way Wilde was promoting the film – especially when it came to talking about the departure of previous co-star Shia Labeouf.
“Olivia is either a mad genius who figured out a way to make people more aware of the movie in a way that just drives up the box office or she doesn’t have any self-awareness that she is fucking up her movie,” the source said.
Regardless, even the mole people know about this movie. But is it good? That’s another story altogether. You can always go see for yourself, as Don’t Worry Darling is in theaters now.