OLIVIA WILDE

‘YOU BETTER BE MAKING STUFF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE, AND NOT JUST STUFF THAT FEELS EASY’

- JANE CROWTHER

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.