Olivia Wilde Clears Her Name

Olivia Wilde’s new movie The Invite is coming out on June 26, following a buzzy premiere at Sundance where it became the subject of a bidding war and sold for north of $12 million to A24. The word “Oscar” has been bandied about since then, which would send Wilde on a monthslong press cycle to first promote the movie then to push it during award season. For any filmmaker, that’s an exciting prospect. But before that can go too far, Wilde has some work to do. Namely, cleaning up the PR disaster that accompanied her last movie, Don’t Worry Darling. During that press tour, she was pilloried for dating the movie’s star, Harry Styles; got served papers while onstage at CinemaCon; and had uncomfortable moments with her other star, Florence Pugh, leaked publicly. On a new episode of Call Her Daddy, Wilde digs in, addressing many of those controversies head-on while eliding others.

The most visceral moment of the interview comes when Wilde describes the moment when she was publicly served custody papers while onstage at CinemaCon by her ex Jason Sudeikis. She calls it “one of the most fucked-up things” that she went through during the harrowing press tour. “It was incredibly traumatizing,” Wilde says. “I got through it because, weirdly, as women we’re taught to muscle through the most insane experiences.” She describes what her thought process was like in the moment. “I was like, Just finish your speech,” she says. “Got through it. I went backstage and completely dissolved into a puddle. But then I thought, No one saw it because there’s no phones allowed in this event. Oh, what’s that? It’s already up on ‘Page Six.’ There’s a video.” She was particularly disturbed upon meeting Tom Cruise months later, who told her “It’s fucked up what happened to you in Vegas.”

Retrospectively, Wilde still doesn’t know how the moment happened. “Jason has told me that he did not know, and I have to believe that in order to continue,” she says. “Lawyers can be super fucked up and do fucked-up things, and I’m aware of that. People are never their best selves when they’re engaging in that process.” She knows one thing that matters, however. “It was undeniable that it was a fucked-up thing, and I know he felt very bad that it happened to me.” 

Wilde also re-contextualizes her relationship with Harry Styles. Some people got angry at the relationship because she was his director and because she was older than him, implying that there was an inappropriate power differential. “People were fucking pissed,” she says. Behind the scenes, though, things were good. “We had the loveliest relationship, so sweet and so beautiful and very domestic, kind, and lovely,” Wilde explains. “We existed in this little bubble.” 

Throughout the discussion of her controversy, when she is talking about what the tabloid narrative got wrong or inappropriately reported on her, Wilde maintains one thing: She does not judge anyone who reads the tabloid news. “The world is insane,” she says at one point. “And the escapism of the tabloids is something that is soothing for people. It’s understandable.” She continues that strain of thought later. “America was trying to avoid its own pain,” she theorizes, by focusing on her movie’s behind-the-scenes drama. 

Still, despite all the discussion, there is one topic that was a focal point of that movie’s controversy that neither Alex Cooper nor Wilde brings up: Florence Pugh. During the movie’s filming, original star Shia LaBeouf left production under unclear circumstances. He later leaked a video that Wilde sent him. “You know, I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo, and I want to know if you’re open to giving this a shot with me, with us,” she says on it. “If she really commits, if she really puts her mind and heart into it at this point, and if you guys can make peace.” During the Venice Film Festival premiere, Pugh showed up to just one red carpet to promote the film. Now, the LaBeouf-Pugh portion is the one thing Wilde doesn’t seem eager to reflect on. Can she make it through Oscar season that way?