Wilde Agrees with Pugh: Media Focus on 'Don't Worry Darling' Sex Scenes Overshadowed Film

"Don't Worry Darling" director Olivia Wilde agreed with lead star Florence Pugh after previously championing the film about female pleasure.

Wilde Agrees with Pugh: Media Focus on ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Sex Scenes Overshadowed Film

After championing “Don’t Worry Darling” as a beacon of “female pleasure” onscreen, director Olivia Wilde agrees with star Florence Pugh that discussions about the film’s steamy sex scenes overshadowed the film.

“It’s interesting because Florence very wisely pointed out that a lot of attention has been given to the sex scenes. And I think she’s so right,” Wilde told Elle. “I completely agree with her that it’s overshadowing everything else that the movie’s about, which is so interestingly ironic because one of the uses of sex in Victory is as a tool of distraction.”

Wilde added, “When Florence pointed that out that this film is so much bigger and better than just the sex scenes, I was so happy that she said that because I feel the same way.”

Pugh previously explained to Harper’s Bazaar that the message of the film was “better than” being “reduced” to its sex scenes.

“To watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry,” Pugh said in August 2022. “Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.”

Director Wilde, who also shut down rumors of a feud with Pugh allegedly resulting in a screaming match on set, described in September 2022 that the “puritanical” MPA “came down hard” on the “Don’t Worry Darling” trailer.

“We want to be provocative. The idea is not to make you feel safe,” Wilde said of the sex scenes in the film, which did not use an intimacy coordinator on set. “I do think the lack of eroticism in American film is kind of new. Then when it comes to female pleasure, it’s something that we just don’t see very often unless you’re talking about queer cinema.”

To Elle, Wilde continued, “I was interested in acknowledging female pleasure that doesn’t come from penetration. The one area of cinema where I don’t see people being held back [about sex] in this way is queer cinema. Harry [Styles] has a film coming out, ‘My Policeman,’ which is a wonderful example of real eroticism that is explored and treated in an adult way without being fetishized or objectified.”

Wilde also addressed her “no assholes policy” on set, which seemingly led to the departure of Shia LaBeouf, who was originally cast in Styles’ role as Pugh’s onscreen husband.

“We let go of people who aren’t kind all the time. I think it should be the expectation of the workplace. We don’t say, ‘My set’s a no sexual assault set,'” Wilde said.

As for the changes in Hollywood five years since the start of the #MeToo movement, Wilde added, “There’s a much stronger sense of community. We were kept in separate rooms for a long time….[Women] could realize, ‘Wait a minute, why have I been told you’re my competitor? You’re not. You’re actually my partner. How convenient that they told us we were competitors.'”