Now that “Don’t Worry Darling” is in theaters, will the drama surrounding this movie finally end? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Olivia Wilde and Shia LaBeouf may have settled their beef, and, no, Harry Styles didn’t spit on Chris Pine at the movie’s Venice premiere, but it looks like the longest-standing rumor about “Don’t Worry Darling” still has legs.
Thanks to an anonymous source, Vulture reports that Florence Pugh and Wilde did have a falling out on the “Don’t Worry Darling” set in January 2021. The source claimed a “screaming match” erupted between actress and director about three-quarters of the way through production. And the reason? Pugh had had enough of Wilde’s repeated unexplained absences on set. “Olivia and Harry would just disappear,” said the source. So, it looks like the rumors of infidelity on set and Pugh and Wilde hating each other’s guts may be true after all.
Vulture’s source also said that Pugh and Wilde’s fallout was so heated that it had to be dealt with by a high-ranking Warner Bros. executive at the time, Toby Emmerich. Emmerich apparently had to play arbitrator between the actress and her director in a “long negotiation process” that ensured Pugh would still be part of the film’s life cycle “in any way.” The main reason was not to jeopardize the film’s potential box office. So, that explains Pugh’s absence for much of the promotion for “Don’t Worry Darling.” The actress still showed up for the world premiere, but outside of that, she’s done the absolute bare minimum.
Speaking of promotional duties, another source told Vulture that Warner Bros. executives are not very happy with how Wilde has handled her’s. Their biggest qualm is how Wilde cavalierly discussed LaBeouf’s exit from “Don’t Worry Darling,” bringing a lot of turbulent attention to the movie. And another source close to the movie told Vulture this gem: “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.” Yeah, pretty much.
It was only a matter of time before what really happened between Pugh and Wilde on the set of “Don’t Worry Darling” came out. But given the maelstrom of gossip that’s swirled around this film the past couple of months, it’s only fitting that this new breaks the same day the movie hits theaters. Will this be the last anyone hears about all of this? Not likely. But if “Don’t Worry Darling” has taught us anything recently, it’s that it will never cease to be a node of rumor and gossip.