The drama surrounding Harry Styles, Florence Pugh and ‘Don’t Worry Darling,’ explained
“Don’t Worry Darling” isn’t taking place onscreen. It’s happening in real life.
The movie, which stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as a young married couple living in a dreamy 1950s-style suburban community that isn’t as ideal as it looks, doesn’t even arrive in theaters until Sept. 23. But for months, director Olivia Wilde’s film has been generating buzz – and not in a positive way, unless you’re all about Hollywood canoodling, passive-aggressive interviews, celebrity feuds, icy red-carpet appearances and manly loogies.
Not hip to the movie’s various scandals and controversies? Don’t worry, darlings, we’ve got you. Here’s everything you need to know about the drama:
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ review:At least Florence Pugh sparkles in buzzy but flat retro thriller
R-rated ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ arrived with a truly saucy trailer
The first footage previewed the film’s retro setting and also its sensual side, with glimpses of Styles and Pugh’s characters getting busy in a bedroom and also an oral sex scene on a dining room table. If Wilde had her way, there would have been more: Wilde acknowledged in a recent interview with The Associated Press that she “had to cut some shots” for the trailer when “the MPAA came down hard on me.”
Pugh, however, didn’t love the attention the steamy sequences brought. (She has other complaints, which we’ll get to.) “It’s not why I’m in this industry,” Pugh said in a Harper’s Bazaar cover story.
‘Don’t Worry Darling’:Olivia Wilde says Harry Styles is ‘a revelation’ in sexy thriller
Jason Sudeikis served Olivia Wilde with custody papers onstage at CinemaCon
The Las Vegas convention for theater owners was ground zero for more hubbub: Midway through her presentation, Wilde was handed a manila envelope labeled “personal and confidential” by someone from the audience. She thought it was at first a script but they turned out to be papers served by her ex Jason Sudeikis related to custody of their two children.
Wilde called the incident “really vicious.” But “it was not something that was entirely surprising to me,” she told Variety. “I mean, there’s a reason I left that relationship.”
‘Really vicious’:Olivia Wilde breaks silence on custody docs from Jason Sudeikis
Harry Styles and his ‘Darling’ director Olivia Wilde started dating (or so it appears)
Wilde and the former One Direction singer have been photographed kissing and holding hands throughout the past year, sparking speculation they’re a couple. “I’m not going to say anything about it, because I’ve never seen a relationship benefit from being dragged into the public arena,” Wilde told Variety. “We both go out of our way to protect our relationship; I think it’s out of experience, but also just out of deep love.”
Styles has kept their relationship pretty professional in interviews, telling Howard Stern that being directed by Wilde was “a wonderful experience.”
‘Don’t Worry Darling’:Why is everyone talking about Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles?
Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh may be feuding (or not, depending who you ask)
In July, unnamed sources told Page Six that Wilde and Styles being “all over each other on set did not go down well” with Pugh, since Wilde was still with Sudeikis during filming. (The couple officially split in November 2020.) Online sleuths took the “feud” and ran with it, pointing out that the day the “Darling” trailer debuted, Pugh shared a post about a different movie she’s in, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” (Pugh did share a “Don’t Worry Darling” teaser on Instagram a month later.)
Wilde, for her part, has called reports of their falling-out “tabloid gossip” and been effusive in her praise for Pugh. “I can’t say enough how honored I am to have her as our lead. She’s amazing in the film,” Wilde said Monday at a Venice Film Festival news conference that Pugh skipped because she’s filming “Dune: Part 2.” (She did walk – and totally slayed – the red carpet, though Wilde and Pugh kept their distance from each other at the film’s world premiere.)
Florence Pugh:Actress reveals she and Zach Braff quietly broke up ‘without the world knowing’
Shia LaBeouf may have been fired from ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ (or not, depending who you ask)
One of the latecomers to the “Don’t Worry” scuttlebutt is LaBeouf, who was originally cast opposite Pugh before Styles. When LaBeouf left just before production started in August 2020, Warner Bros. cited a scheduling conflict but Wilde told Variety that he was fired due to an acting process that “was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions” and required “a combative energy.”
LaBeouf fired back, forwarding a series of emails to Variety that he had sent to Wilde: “You and I both know the reasons for my exit. I quit your film because your actors and I couldn’t find time to rehearse,” he wrote. LaBeouf also included a video that Wilde allegedly sent him alluding to tension between the actor and Pugh: “I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo.”
The Internet is afire that Harry Styles (maybe) spat on Chris Pine at Venice Film Festival
The latest “Darling” debacle happened at the Venice premiere, where several audience members captured video of Styles returning to his seat next to Pine and appearing to quickly spit on his co-star’s hand. Social media is treating it like the Zapruder film, looking for different angles and everybody offering their own – ahem – spit take.
While Pine seems to stop clapping as it happens and smiles, hinting it might be an inside joke between buds, Pine’s representative told People that it was “a ridiculous story” and, at least in this instance, the spit did not hit the fan: “There is nothing but respect between these two men and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist.”
After all that, ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ turns out to be a dud
All this ado has to amount to something, right? The movie has to be awesome to be worth all this time spent talking about it, correct? Sadly, no, “Darling” has garnered a thumbs down from critics so far, only mustering a measly 39% positive rating on RottenTomatoes.com – a far cry from the 96% mark Wilde scored for her excellent debut feature, “Booksmart.”
Contributing: Patrick Ryan, Charles Trepany and Hannah Yasharoff