Olivia Wilde Insists She Did Not ‘Fire’ Shia LaBeouf From ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ (But She Did Replace Him)

Olivia Wilde seems to be choosing her words very carefully while promoting Don’t Worry Darling, which arrives in theaters this weekend after what feels like several years of press tours, though it’s actually been more like a month and a half. The director/ former The OC actress was on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to promote the movie (does it really need more promo) when the various controversies surrounding the film came up.

Though she didn’t mention the leaked video of her asking Shia LeBouf to stay with the project, she did insist they were private messages that were never supposed to be seen.”There were private messages released without context to try to make a situation look like something that it wasn’t,” Wilde explained to Colbert.

“Early on in the process of making the film, as the director, I tried to mediate a situation between people to try to see if they could work together happily,” Wilde continues, referencing LaBeouf and lead actress Florence Pugh’s alleged tension. “Once it became clear that it was not a tenable working relationship, I was given an ultimatum. I chose my actress, which, I’m very happy I did.”

When asked directly if she fired LaBeouf, the director carefully responded without actually mentioning the word “fired.” “We had to replace Shia. He is a fantastic actor, but it wasn’t going to work. When he gave me the ultimatum of him or Florence, I chose Florence, and that was him feeling he was stepping away, and me feeling like we were moving on without him. He didn’t want to be part of the production we were making in the way I like to make productions, and so he moved on, we moved on and replaced him, and ended up with a cast that I’m so proud of and a movie I’m really thrilled about.” Wilde also mentioned the “click bait” aspect of Spitgatte, also known as the most exciting 8 hours on the internet in recent memory. Maybe this movie will become a classic after all