Olivia Wilde: Media storm amid Harry Styles romance affected Don’t Worry Darling

By Sean O'Grady, Press Association Deputy Entertainment Editor

Olivia Wilde has said the media furore around her film Don’t Worry Darling and her relationship with her co-star Harry Styles “hurt” the success of the project.

The actress, 42, directed the thriller, which she appeared in alongside Styles and Black Widow star Florence Pugh in 2022.

The film was plagued by rumours of conflict between Wilde and Pugh, as well as the fact that Styles replaced actor Shia LaBeouf, who was originally cast in the project.

At the same time, Wilde was dealing with a public split from her ex-husband Jason Sudeikis and intense interest in her relationship with Styles.

Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast, Wilde said the drama surrounding her and her co-stars “did hurt the film” because “we didn’t get to have the conversations about what the film was trying to say which was a shame because so many people worked so hard to make that film in the depths of Covid.”

She added: “It hurt me for sure, because I was so naive up until that point about the grinder, the garbage disposal that the internet can be.

“So, at this point, I have enough of a perspective on it, and that allows me to experience it as a fascinating time.

“It is interesting to witness a tornado from the inside.

“But now I look back and I think, ‘oh, the people were being given headlines without context, and it’s a natural instinct to start trying to fill those in’.”

Wilde and Sudeikis were married from 2011 to 2020 and have two children together.

She began dating Styles after they met during filming of Don’t Worry Darling.

Their relationship ended in November 2022.

Olivia, whose latest directorial effort The Invite is currently in cinemas, added: “It’s interesting because this is my first time back into the press cycle since then and I did wonder, ‘would this feel quite traumatising?”

However, the filmmaker said the conversations she has been having about her latest project have been “so wonderfully interesting to me”, and added it has “been actually kind of healing because I understand that it’s not always a garbage disposal”.

The Invite stars Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton as two couples who have a dinner party which spirals into unexpected places.