There’s been a lot of drama in the lead-up to the premiere of Olivia Wilde‘s “Don’t Worry Darling” at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Like Wilde’s drama with Shia LaBeouf, who exited the film before production. Or Wilde’s drama with lead actress Florence Pugh, who has distanced herself from the movie before its release. All of this drama, drama, drama is too much; or, at least, it’s getting in the way of the movie itself, which, until recently, had a lot of positive buzz about it.
So, let’s focus on “Don’t Worry Darling” for a moment instead of what may or may not have happened during its production. For instance, the film also stars Chris Pine, who plays Frank, the founder of a 1950s planned community Pugh and her hubby Harry Styles move into where nothing is what it seems. So, who did Wilde use for inspiration for that character? Variety reports that in an interview with Maggie Gyllenhaal for Interview Magazine, Wilde divulged that, for Pine’s part, she primarily took inspiration from Canadian author and media personality Jordan Peterson. Of course, readers familiar with Peterson already know he’s a divisive figure, but Wilde went further, calling him a “pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community.”
So much for a drama-free piece about “Don’t Worry Darling.” But Wilde wasn’t finished. “[Incels are] basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women,” Wilde explained to Gyllenhaal after she brought up Peterson. “And they believe that society has now robbed them — that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place. They’re actually succeeding in many different ways,” Wilde continued. “But this guy Jordan Peterson is someone that legitimizes certain aspects of their movement because he’s a former professor, he’s an author, he wears a suit, so they feel like this is a real philosophy that should be taken seriously.”
So, several things to unpack here. In trailers for “Don’t Worry Darling,” Pine’s Frank looks to be the film’s primary antagonist, a man whose idyllic community and apparent traditionalism harbor dark secrets. In that regard, Peterson works as an inspiration for the character because he’s a self-described “traditionalist.” But Peterson himself may balk at Wilde connecting him to incel culture. Some of Peterson’s political views have made him a venerated figure for the alt-right, incels, and reactionary right-wingers, who have used his academic credentials to justify their stances on topics as diverse as political correctness and identity politics. However, Peterson himself has often stated that he’s often misinterpreted as being a right-wing figure.
In fact, some of Peterson’s stances, such as supporting universal healthcare and decriminalizing drugs, are more left-leaning than right. Sure, Peterson loves the limelight and all the attention he receives, positive or negative. He’s also very occasionally obnoxious, too, especially on Twitter. But it’s a mistake for Wilde, or anyone else, to lump him into incel culture when his political disposition is more nuanced than that. Peterson is a divisive thinker, and some of his commentaries easily lend themselves to alt-right movements, but he is also, on occasion, sensible in his arguments. An annoying intellectual he might be, but a far right-wing apologist, Peterson is not.
In any case, it’s clear that Wilde wants “Don’t Worry Darling” to ruffle lots of people’s feathers. In a cover story for Variety about the film, Wilde said she researched the “disenfranchised world of white men on the internet” before filming “Don’t Worry Darling.” She even logged into 4chan. “I have a sick fascination with cults,” she continued. Elsewhere, Wilde also said she pushed for a “sexy, sexy, sexy” vibe for the movie, with an intense emphasis on female sexual pleasure. Put all of this together, and this movie is bound to provoke its audience in a myriad number of ways. And at this point, it’s not just the incels who will get riled up once this movie hits theaters.
In short, expect “Don’t Worry Darling” to be, for good and ill, the movie everyone talks about this Fall. The film premieres at Venice on September 5 before it hits theaters on September 23.
