'Don’t Worry Darling's Dumpster Fire Drama Explained

I keep hearing about this movie Don’t Worry Darling and its various controversies, what’s the deal?

Are you sure you want to do this?

Yeah …

There’s no going back.

I’m sure.

Well, Don’t Worry Darling is an upcoming movie directed by Olivia Wilde – who previously directed the acclaimed Booksmart – from a screenplay by Katie Silberman, who rewrote a script by Dick Van Dyke’s grandsons that was on 2019’s Black List. 

It’s seemingly a taut psychological thriller about a housewife in a utopian 1950s suburban community that, like pretty much all utopian 1950s suburban communities come to think of it, is not all that it seems …

So why is everyone scrutinizing this movie’s press tour as if it were the Kennedy assassination? 

Well, for starters, Wilde and the film’s male lead Harry Styles (who was in like the Backstreet Boys or something) started dating during production. Furthering the drama, Wilde was handed a mysterious manilla envelope during a presentation at Cinemacon back in April – which was later revealed to contain custody papers from her ex, Jason Sudeikis. Which seems like a dick move no amount of Ted Lasso aphorisms could justify.

Now, star Florence Pugh isn’t doing any press for the film beyond appearing at the recent Venice Film Festival premiere, where she skipped the film’s press conference and had a meme-generating cocktail instead.

Officially, this is because Pugh is busy filming Dune II: The Legend of Curly’s Spice, but that doesn’t explain said conspicuous Aperol spritz break. 

There are rumors that Pugh has been feuding with Wilde; and according to sources who spoke with Rolling Stone, there is “tension” between the two which “began during production in 2020” after Wilde’s coupling with Styles “didn’t sit well with Pugh.” Incidentally, Wilde has sort of denied any such feud – then there’s all the Shia LeBeouf stuff …

The what now?

In a recent interview, Wilde claimed that she fired LeBeouf from the film, which LeBeouf disputed, stating that he quit the film and even provided Variety with email evidence and text messages to back up his story. 

More recently, Wilde doubled down on her account, telling an interviewer that LeBeouf was “replaced” and that the situation was “much more nuanced than can be explained in private texts released out of context." Which seems fair. Although it doesn't seem like Wilde was initially telling the whole truth at first … but also Shia LeBeouf is allegedly a giant creep, so let’s just move on …

What happened at the Venice Film Festival?

In addition to Pugh’s limited appearances to promote the film, she seemingly kept her distance from Wilde, which caught the attention of the media, and also, um, Weezer?

And Harry Styles said in an interview that his “favorite thing about the movie is that it feels like a movie.”

Which elicited much online mockery. But to be fair, some movies don’t feel like movies, as evidenced by the trailer for the latest Rob Schneider vehicle.

Then there was #SpitGate – the moment where Harry Styles appeared to have spat on Chris Pine during the (overlong) standing ovation. Everyone involved in the alleged saliva-based attack denied that such a thing had occurred – and further examination of the footage revealed that Pine had merely reacted to finding his sunglasses between his legs at the same moment that Styles exhaled. 

But the fact that the internet went into full-blown conspiracy theory mode is perhaps further evidence of the mass hysteria surrounding this movie. There was clearly something going on behind the scenes of the film, but the lack of any actual details about said drama has caused people to go down some peculiar rabbit holes and see things that simply aren’t there.

Were any stars of the 2009 FX sitcom The League present?

That’s an oddly specific question, but yes, Nick Kroll was there and doesn’t seem to be feuding with anyone.

At least the movie looks g –

Pretty much every critic who’s seen it thinks it kind of sucks.

Oh.

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Thumbnail: Warner Bros.