The press tour for Don’t Worry Darling is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Every time you think “could this movie possibly have any more drama,” another little tidbit drops from various anonymous sources and supposed first-hand accounts of what exactly happened while the movie was being made last year. Now, today, still, more allegations are coming to light, this time in the form of a screaming match between leading lady Florence Pugh and director Olivia Wilde.
First, the two allegedly disagreed over the casting of Shia LaBeouf, before he was definitely not fired, but recast after some drama. Then, filming began, and the drama train simply could not be stopped.
Vulture posted a brief explanation of what went down on set between the two according to an on-set source, and it seems like higher-ups at Warner Bros had to step in:
The breaking point came when Pugh, 26, and Wilde, 38, broke into a “screaming match,” this person recalls. According to our source, the acrimony between Wilde and Pugh allegedly reached all the way to the top of the studio totem pole, with the highest-ranking Warner Bros. executive at the time, Toby Emmerich, forced to play referee in a “long negotiation process” to ensure Pugh would participate in the film’s life cycle “in any way” and not jeopardize the potential box office.
While on-set tension is pretty common, this might not be the full story. Vulture’s Chris Lee then took to Twitter to go into more details regarding the fight, which started after Wilde would frequently leave for long amounts of time. In a now-deleted tweet, Lee said that the screaming argument started after Pugh began to pick up the slack Wilde was leaving behind:
Re the screaming argument: “Florence would give input on how she thought the next scene should be shot when Olivia wasn’t there. She was like, ‘I’m directing this movie more than you are!’ That was yelled at one point and people heard it. That spread all around very quickly.”
The turning point seemed to come when Wilde was photographed with Harry Styles while filming, seemingly confirming the two’s relationship while also upsetting the cast and crew, who were still sheltering in place while the production of the movie was underway. From more of the since-deleted tweets:
Last thing: the DWD crew was extremely pissed when Olivia was photographed with Harry at that wedding in Jan 2021 because she frequently gave them “lectures”: “‘Don’t be stupid. You’re fucking up our movie. Don’t go to parties. Don’t congregate.”
Acc to my source: “There were so many complaints from the crew saying, ‘How dare she tell us to shelter in place while we’re doing this movie? And yet she goes to a public wedding with a group of people? This is fucking crazy!” 1/2
“So many people complained. That’s the turning point. That’s when everyone started hating her.”
Meanwhile…Nick Kroll is just hanging out and enjoying his paycheck. All is well over here! After what feels like 17 years of promo, Don’t Worry Darling arrives in theaters this weekend.
