Olivia Wilde is currently promoting The Invite, which she stars in and directed. The Invite is the first film she directed since the extremely messy situation with 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling, which was her second film as director. Gossip nostalgia: during DWD’s production, Olivia allegedly left Jason Sudeikis for Harry Styles, fought with Florence Pugh and was so toxic to several actors, they later called her out on her lies and BS. Olivia’s behavior was so ridiculous and her lies so outrageous, she had Shia LaBeouf looking like a model of sobriety. One of the stories which I still find absolutely bonkers is that Olivia was so enamored with Harry Styles, she would go off with Harry and she wasn’t even on the set to direct several scenes. That was seemingly the root of Olivia and Florence Pugh’s beef as well. Why this trip down memory lane? Because Olivia referenced some of this in her cover profile in The Cut. Some highlights:
The rumors about Don’t Worry Darling: Tabloids revealed she was dating Harry Styles, her decade-younger co-star, and reported on alleged major friction between star Florence Pugh and Wilde. The buzz was bad. “I have never had a screaming match on my set. I was never not available on set. I wanted to be like, ‘None of this is true,’” she now says about those rumors.
The backlash hurt her: Still, the experience took its toll. Hollywood “has robbed me of my naïveté for sure,” Wilde says. “I deeply hate the feeling of being misunderstood, too.” Jennifer Garner schooled her early in her career, when they starred together in a 2011 indie film called Butter, about how actresses get categorized. “She said it’s like you get cast in a soap opera by the public,” Wilde remembers. “And they assign you an obvious archetype: the damsel in distress, the good girl, the pretty girl.” Wilde says she was initially cast as “an object of desire.” But in the past few years, she feels her character was rewritten: “I became the full-on villain. Like Cruella.”
She doesn’t regret her relationship with Harry Styles: She describes that relationship to me as “loving and wonderful and joyful.” (The pair dated for around two years until late 2022.) But she hates that she didn’t directly, publicly acknowledge the negative buzz around the film and her personal life. The studio and others involved wanted her to stay stoic. “I was told, ‘Don’t say a f–king word. Just go out there and smile,’” she recalls, shaking her head. “I resent that, but it taught me it’s not the way I want to handle things.”
Rebuilding: After Don’t Worry Darling, Wilde took a few years to rebuild herself and do some therapy. She read books by Eve Babitz and Carrie Fisher and started journaling. “I don’t think you know what you’re made of until you fall apart. I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t had their heart broken,” she says. “If you can push through the moment you have previously identified as the worst possible thing that could happen to you, whether that is divorce or the internet hating you or whatever, you are forged into something way better than you could have possibly imagined.”
Coparenting with Jason Sudeikis. “We’re very, very, very different people who are certainly much better as friends and co-parents,” Wilde says matter-of-factly of Sudeikis. The children alternate weeks between Mom and Dad, and according to her, the arrangement is “flexible and fluid.”
She’s probably dating art dealer Caspar Jopling: She’s been cautious about how to refer to her relationship in public. “When you’re with someone who’s not in the entertainment industry or isn’t a public figure, I have a sense of, I want to protect this person as much as I can.” But she’s excited. “I’m in a really lovely relationship now. I adore him, and I feel completely whole and intact as a person,” says Wilde, flashing a grin. “I think it’s only possible after spending a couple years alone. If you haven’t ever been single for a few years, how do you even know who you are?”
What’s funny about the “they advised me not to say anything” is that it was probably her publicist trying to do damage-control on all of Olivia’s lies. I even wrote that in my coverage at the time, that her publicist needed to sit on her to get her to stop talking, such was the steady stream of BS coming out of Olivia’s mouth. As for the “Miss Flo” situation… while there were rumors that Olivia and Florence had a loud fight during DWD’s production, the bigger story (and the rumor which stuck around) was that Florence had huge issues with Olivia’s unprofessional behavior, and that Florence went to the studio to complain (and the studio took Florence’s side). Florence came out of that mess completely unscathed, and she probably won a lot of new fans for how she handled herself. All of which to say, I’m not really buying Olivia’s comments now.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red. Cover courtesy of The Cut.
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- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – APRIL 18: Olivia Wilde wearing Erdem FW26 RTW arrives at the 12th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony 2026 held at the Barker Hangar on April 18, 2026 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1093311043, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Olivia Wilde , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- New York, NY Olivia Wilde was spotted leaving the press junket for “The Invite” at The Whitby Hotel in New York City. Wilde, who directed the 2026 comedy film, departed after taking part in promotional duties for the upcoming release. Pictured: Olivia Wilde BACKGRID USA 15 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Santi Ramales / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY Olivia Wilde was spotted leaving the press junket for “The Invite” at The Whitby Hotel in New York City. Wilde, who directed the 2026 comedy film, departed after taking part in promotional duties for the upcoming release. Pictured: Olivia Wilde BACKGRID USA 15 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Santi Ramales / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I really don’t get the appeal of Harry Styles and his fug tats. The way women go gaga over him boggles my mind.
Ditto!
I don’t think Olivia is an awful person. And I don’t know what all for sure happened on that set. But I do remember the video where she patronizingly called Florence, Miss Flo, and kind of rolled her eyes. I thought that was in really poor taste. But it’s good to see she’s out there directing again and hopefully she can be more mindful about how she talks about her actors, both publicly AND privately.
I always thought there was such a pile-on on her. Any man can do 1000000 times worse than she allegedly did and have no one comment or condemn. Seemed like a fake misoginistic controversy then and still does now.
While I guess that it’s good she’s getting a second chance because men get 3rd and 4th chances after much worse, there’s a lot of evidence that she was highly unprofessional. Styles was too but of course he didn’t get any of the pushback.
That whole project was a mess because she lost her damn mind, blew up her family and almost lost her career for that D.
If your lead actress refuses to stand next to you let alone talk about it, there is a big problem and the circumstances were not blown up by the rumor mill.
Some handled it poorly when people said we should wait for all the facts to come out before accusing her of cheating. That shouldn’t have been a controversial position to hold- it should be the default position with women whether we like them, dislike them, or are neutral on them. Even though it’s very possible that this particular woman lied about not cheating, the truth of the matter is that on more than one occasion the public has gotten it wrong about celebrity women (and non-celebrity women) having affairs. Off the top of my head I can name 4 famous women whom gossip sites were loud and wrong about when it comes to this subject. So there is a need for caution. It’s better to give a woman the benefit of the doubt and turn out to be wrong in that way than it is to falsely accuse a woman of cheating and participate in a misogynistic smear campaign against someone who isn’t even cheating or homewrecking.
The days of men behaving badly on set without consequences are disappearing. Sure there are always going to be exceptions but the number of high profile cases where male directors/actors who harassed cast members and were publicly condemned is considerable. The difference with Olivia Wilde is that her situation is being branded as simply unprofessional. The devil’s advocate in me says that if she was a man and had been accused of yelling at a female actress AND having an affair with a younger actress, the conversation would be very different. Don’t Worry Darling was not a good movie.
Does she forget there’s video of her out there talking crap on Florence? I mean….girl whatever. This is hilariously her trying to act like nothing we saw was actually happening. And she was so into Styles it was embarrassing and that man cannot act! So there’s also that.
I had the impression that she uses feminism as a shield to deflect criticism of some of her own behavior and decisions during this movie’s production
From what I remember, the first reports about her conflict with Florence Pugh stemmed from disagreements surrounding Shia LaBeouf’s involvement in the film. There were also claims that the script was revised to give Harry Styles a more prominent role and that his needs seemed to take priority over those of other cast members.
There were reportedly quite a few scenes cut during editing that significantly reshaped the film, and some actors apparently weren’t informed about those changes. I also remember Kiki Layne commenting on social media about how much of her role had been removed from the final cut.
I don’t think she’s completely innocent in how things unfolded, but at the same time it does highlight the level of privilege she has within the industry. Even after all the chaos surrounding the production and promotion of the film, she’s still in a position to secure another well-funded project with major talent attached—something that wouldn’t necessarily be the case for a lesser-known director in a similar situation.
You are right about all of those things also going on. I am just wondering who is even buying this mess since everyone had front row seats to her mess and the cast didn’t even defend her (Wilde) and most seemed to be doing their level best to avoid her and Harry when they were doing photocalls at Cannes right?
We recently rewatched The Old Guard (again) and I really want to see more of Kiki Layne.
Those are pretty normal things to happen on a movie
He is not a good actor at all. He definitely has/had a certain X factor that made him a pop star but it’s like Justin Timberlake: maybe OK in certain roles but limited skill set. However JT is actually good in sketch comedy and Styles can’t really do that either
Off-topic normades, but you mentioning sketch comedy got me thinking. Who have been your favorite snl guests this year?
lol @jais thanks for the question!
Honestly, while a lot of the cast members are new and the show is in a growing period, I think this has been a pretty great season overall. Ashley Padilla is the undisputed breakout star but I also love her polar opposite cast-mate Jane Wickline. Jeremy Calhune was my favourite of the new hires this season.
Anyways there were a ton of great high profile hosts this season (Ariana Grande, Amy pohler, Melissa McCartney, Ryan Gosling, Jack Black etc, etc….) but my favourite was Colman Domingo. That man can clearly do everything and just oozes charisma and charm.
Unfortunately while he was wonderful the writing could have been a little better. Matt Damon’s episode was the sharpest imo and most underrated goes to the Alexander Skarsgård episode. Connor Storrie also killed it. Dude is actually a clown irl (like literally a clown) and while his episode wasn’t the best he showed huge range.
Harry’s episode had some hysterical moments (especially the pre taped shorts like the river dancing sketch) but he’s otherwise a very bland host.
Is she going to talk about the current movie? Too much about her personal relationships.. move on!
Even if what she’s saying is true – and I don’t buy it either – her problem is that she comes across as entitled. That cover isn’t doing her any favors, either
Wow. She read two books since her movie Darling. You go girl!
“Entitled” is a good word for it. Calling out entitlement and bad professional performance is not antifeminist.
Yeah she was super messy during that entire experience, so I’m not going to do the whataboutism for other people. Unprofessional is unprofessional. And we do remember the Miss Flo thing, that’s not something that people just created, or rumors, we saw it.
Who knows why things happen the way they did, maybe her relationship with Jason was at its natural conclusion, she was in the early giddy days of a new relationship, she was thrilled about getting her second directorial experience after the success of her first, and it was all too much at the same time.
Hopefully she has learned from that experience, but this press tour still has me wondering. She’s already talked about her relationship with Jason too much for someone that is promoting a new movie, and she doesn’t need to relitigate the stuff around that movie either.
I don’t think the blonder hair suits her. Shallow comment I know, but it’s the first thing I noticed. I have a friend about her age who has beautiful, jet black hair that she recently started dying blond. I think she looks so much better with her natural hair and so does Olivia.
Anyway. I do think people jumped on her a little too much about what went on during DWD. No one knows exactly what unfolded behind the scenes. She should have handled it better, but people make mistakes. She’s moving on personally and professionally. I wish her well.
Interesting what she said about her and Sudekis being so different. Glad they seem to be co-parenting pretty well now.
She’s the reason I quit watching House back in the day. I have never seen the appeal of her in any way. She turned to directing because no one would cast her, so that should tell you something.
She pings my narcissist radar. And that headline…she clearly did have something to prove!
Yeah….shes always given me the impression that no one is more impressed by Olivia Wilde than Olivia Wilde.
💯
She was horrible in House. I liked Anne Dudek’s character (Cutthroat B!tch) better and would have preferred if she had stayed on the show instead of Thirteen. I cannot see her and not remember how much I hated her on House and that colors my judgement. She needs to make sure she has a good publicist and she needs to listen to the good publicist. Rehashing all this isn’t helpful because receipts exist.
I’m not sure how much she’s learned from all of that mess as she’s currently way oversharing about how (at least according to her) her relationship with Jason Sudeikis ended.
Right? I certainly don’t put Sudeikis – or anyone, really – on a pedestal, but the oversharing has me raising my eyebrows. She’s certainly entitled to share her perceptions of her life the way she sees fit, but she’s not considering her kids. And I think she owes caution to her children, not us.
Oh wow she’s dating Ellie Goulding’s ex-hudband? I did not know that.
She’s always struck me as a pick-me, and this interview isn’t helping any. Girl, you’re learning lessons the rest of us learned in our teens and early 20’s.
It’s also so navel-gazey.