Olivia Wilde addresses Harry Styles breakup fallout and its impact on her film Don't Worry Darling
Olivia Wilde has candidly opened up about the effect her breakup with Harry Styles had on her career.
Wilde, 42, dated Styles, 32, for nearly two years, from late 2020 to November 2022, with the pair first meeting on the set of the film Don't Worry Darling back in September 2020 before being publicly seen together holding hands a few months later in January 2021.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, Wilde opened up about how the press run for her new film, The Invite, has been 'healing' in contrast to the 'media maelstrom' that came with the 2022 thriller-mystery she also directed, Don’t Worry Darling.
"We were talking about how when the film came out it was derailed by publicity. I mean many multidimensional scandals," Theroux began, prompting Wilde to agree: "Oh, yes."
Advert
"Your relationship at the time was breaking up. You had a well-publicised relationship with your co-star Harry Styles, and there was a kinda misogynistic dimension to a lot of the coverage of the drama, the fallout," he continued, adding: "Full disclosure, I didn't follow it that closely."
"Oh good," Wilde replied, before Theroux confessed: "I was confused by, maybe naively, the atmosphere of judgment."
"Me too," Wilde said.
Theroux continued: "I guess question one would be: do you have any reflection on why that wasn't in any way… like, it feels like it hurt the film, and why would that be the case?
"And then question two would be any learnings from that?"
Wilde responded: "I think it did hurt the film for sure 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.
"We made the film for $30 million. I think it looks like a much more expensive film because of the work of people like Matty Libatique, who shot the film, Katie Byron, who production designed the film, and this incredible group of couple hundred people who showed up every day testing for COVID, wearing masks, wearing shields, working together, living in this bubble, showing up to tell a story that everyone felt really passionate about, that felt was, was relevant and, and significant enough to, to show up in these uncertain times."
She carried on: "But we never got to talk about that, so I think it hurt the film. 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."
"Would you get PTSD from something like that?" Theroux asked, before Wilde answered: "Well, 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?
"I find that the conversations around The Invite are so wonderfully interesting to me, and I've actually been allowed to have them. So, it's been actually kind of healing because I understand that it's not always a garbage disposal."
The Invite is currently available to watch in selected cinemas.
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, Louis Theroux, Sex and Relationships
Rhiannon Ingle