Olivia Wilde Is Calling Out The Press For Focusing On ‘Baseless Rumors’ Instead Of Florence Pugh’s ‘Astounding’ Performance In ‘Don’t Worry Darling’

Going into the Venice Film Festival premiere of Don’t Worry Darling, there were rumors of tension between director Olivia Wilde and the film’s star, Florence Pugh. At first, Wilde’s romance with Harry Styles was reportedly the cause of contention. However, Shia LaBeouf showing up with an armload of receipts that prove he wasn’t fired from the film added a whole new layer thanks to a video LaBeouf gave to the press that showed Wilde derogatorily referring to Pugh as “Miss Flo.” (Wilde had claimed in an interview that she fired LaBeouf to “protect” Pugh.)

Again, all of this was going down before the cast even arrived in Venice. Pugh didn’t attend the festival press conference, which left Wilde to downplay that there’s a problem between the two. (Wilde also declined to answer questions about LaBeouf.) In the background to all of this, Pugh’s hair and makeup team were wearing “Miss Flo” T-shirts and using the name in their Instagram posts. Once the cast did assemble on the red carpet, Pugh and Wilde had minimal to zero interaction. In a nutshell, things did not look great.

With the film’s release still two weeks away, Wilde is still continuing to damage control. Here’s what she told Vanity Fair in a recent interview about the alleged drama:

Pugh didn’t respond to V.F.’s requests for this piece, and her silence about the movie has generally been taken as shade aimed at its director. When I speak to Wilde in London, she tells me, “Florence is one of the most in-demand actresses in the universe. She’s on set on Dune. I gather that some people expect for her to be engaging more on social media. I didn’t hire her to post. I hired her to act. She fulfilled every single expectation I had of her. That’s all that matters to me.”

Wilde also sidestepped the messiness in Venice and blasted the media for taking the spotlight away from Pugh’s “astounding” performance in Don’t Worry Darling.

“It’s just baffling to me that the media would rather focus on baseless rumors and gossip, thereby overshadowing her profound talent,” Wilde said. “She deserves more than that. As does the movie, and everyone who worked so hard on it.”