Venice Film Festival 2022: Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde avoid each other after 4-minute standing ovation

As shared in the media, Oscar-nominated actor Florence Pugh did make an appearance at the Venice Film Festival 2022 on Monday night. However, the tension between her and director Olivia Wilde, as reported by Vanity Fair, was palpable. 

During the screening of the movie, the audience gave the star cast a four-minute standing ovation for their performances that got Pugh teary-eyed. But, instead of celebrating this big win with her director, who she is believed to be feuding with over several issues, turned to her co-star Nick Kroll and danced with him. Wilde, who was only a few seats away from her, was not part of the victory dance, or given any form of acknowledgment. Both Harry Styles and Kroll kissed on the lips after the ovation. 

Florence Pugh had also skipped the press conference for the film, probably to avoid being asked about all the controversies and her supposed rift with Wilde. 

For months, constant news of tension between Pugh and Wilde has been doing the rounds, with Olivia Wilde and her passion project finding themselves soaked in media attention that, in many ways, isn’t in their favour. From reports of Olivia Wilde’s alleged raunchy on-set affair with lead actor Harry Styles to the ‘fired vs walk-out' confusion involving original casting choice Shia LaBeouf, Don’t Worry Darling has had a few serious things to worry about in the recent past.

And to make things only worse, reports regarding the simmering tension between Olivia Wilde and the film’s female lead Florence Pugh continue to emerge with each day offering new insights.

As per the latest reports, sources close to the production of Don’t Worry Darling have revealed that they saw Pugh and Olivia Wilde be part of a really tense conversation with the former, in particular, angered by Wilde and Styles’ absences during the set-ups of shots.

The film was made through the thick of Covid with Olivia Wilde often holding meetings regarding the on-set protocol and safety and asking her cast & crew to consciously avoid large gatherings. And yet, she would be spotted with Styles at his manager’s wedding only weeks later to make the dedicated crew feel that the director isn’t walking the talk. Alongside, the unfounded rumours of Wilde being egotistic and punishing as a director made the news which only caused the narrative to be continually nudged against her favour.

Another report reveals that Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde differed on the importance of the film’s sex scenes in the promotional material. Don’t Worry Darling is a sociological thriller set in the 1950s about a seemingly happy and loving couple whose lives turn upside down when the wife (Pugh) unravels disturbing truths about her husband’s (played by Harry Styles) secret work project. As the trailer of the film reveals, there’s striking physical chemistry between the two leads which is crucial to the shaping of the twisted narrative but both Pugh and Wilde have shared contrasting opinions in the past about the significance of these sequences.

While Wilde advocated for the need to showcase a specific kind of female hunger and pleasure, Florence Pugh asserted that the film’s publicity material shouldn’t highlight the physical intimacy part alone and that the film is “bigger and better than that”.

Backed by Warner Bros., Don’t Worry Darling in theaters on September 23, 2022.