Having transitioned from actor to director with hit comedy Booksmart, Olivia Wilde makes a sophomore left turn with tricky period thriller Don’t Worry Darling. She tells Total Film how she’s spent a career observing directors in order to challenge herself, ensure a ‘no asshole’ set environment and surprise audiences.
Though we’re talking in a luxe hotel room in Berlin in early August, where Olivia Wilde is “meeting friends” (a quick Google search reveals her boyfriend, Harry Styles, is playing in the city that night), the actor/ director isn’t a fan of comfort. It’s not, she says, what keeps one sharp. “The worst thing is to be comfortable,” she says when talking about her artistic output, hands waving expressively as she talks, her gold signet pinkie ring flashing in the afternoon sun. “If you’re comfortable, and you feel you’re leaning back on any sort of accomplishments, then you won’t be paying as close attention.”
Wilde has been paying close attention to the business end of moviemaking for years – ever since she came to attention as Alex on hit TV show The O.C., and through roles in House, Tron: Legacy, Cowboys & Aliens, Her and even her recent outing in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the 38-year-old has been watchful of directors (good and bad) to inform her move from on camera to behind it. That marinated knowledge was successfully parlayed into delightful high-school comedy Booksmart in 2019.
This story is from the October 2022 edition of Total Film.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the October 2022 edition of Total Film.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Dune: Part Two – Desert Power
Like a colossal sandworm racing towards the rhythmic beat of a thumper, Dune: Part Two is almost upon us. And this time, it's war. Total Film returns to Arrakis with writer/director Denis Villeneuve and his (inter) stellar cast to spill the spice on the sci-fi event of the year.
Here Be Dragons
DAMSEL – Millie Bobby Brown fights fire with fire in the bedtime story that’s finally being told the right way.
Back to School
MONSTER – Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest takes us into a child’s viewpoint once again...
JESSIE BUCKLEY
Catapulting to fame over the last five years, instinctive Irish actor Jessie Buckley has wowed in films (Wild Rose, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Men) and TV (Chernobyl, Fargo S4). She was Oscar-nominated for The Lost Daughter, won a Laurence Olivier award for Cabaret and now she's spewing wild profanities at Olivia Colman in hilarious period comedy Wicked Little Letters.....
Marty me
Thelma Schoonmaker has edited every Martin Scorsese movie since 1980's Raging Bull. The three-time Oscar winner tells Total Film all about their legendary relationship, and why movies like Good Fellas, The Departed and Killers of the Flower Moon are a cut above...
FRISKY BUSINESS
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan star as queer friends being chased by dumb male criminals in Drive-Away Dolls, a road movie/ romantic comedy/crime caper by husband-and-wife team Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. Total Film hitches a ride with the directors and stars to talk dark laughs, dim crims and dildos…
JACK MY LIFE IN PICTURES BLACK
Over the years he's made us laugh as rockers, animated critters and videogame avatars. As he prepares to go full Dragon Warrior again in the fourth Kung Fu Panda movie, JACK BLACK riffs on some of his biggest hits with Total Film
DOG DAYS
Pablo Berger's animated silent’ movie brings the noise.
BEHIND PARADISE
RED ISLAND A coming-of-age-tale that creatively explores France’s colonial past.
THE SIXTH SENSE
MADAME WEB Dakota Johnson brings wit and grit to Sony’s clairvoyant-superhero-origin-story thriller.