Olivia Wilde found “liberation” in the “failure” of her 2022 film Don’t Worry Darling.
The actress-turned-director won rave reviews for her 2019 directorial debut Booksmart, but her second film Don’t Worry Darling – which starred Florence Pugh and pop star Harry Styles – ended up with a stinging 38 per cent on ratings site Rotten Tomatoes, but Olivia is adamant the criticism has helped her move forward.
She told Variety: “I believe in early failure. The first pilot I did got canceled in three episodes. There were a lot of early bumps, and I think that taught me to have level-headed expectations for Hollywood.
“Booksmart was a blessing, but it also creates a certain expectation for yourself when it comes to connecting with the audience, and you forget how subjective it all is.
“So my next movie [ Don’t Worry Darling] has a 38 on Rotten Tomatoes, and I’ve been reflecting on how healthy it is to be reminded of how fickle it all is.
“You’ve already been through the thing that strikes fear in the heart of directors. What if they don’t like it? Once you’ve survived that, there’s liberation.”
Olivia has moved on and her third film as a director, The Invite, landed in cinemas last week.
She shot the film – in which she appears alongside Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton – in just 21 days and Olivia explained she wanted to make the movie “sequentially” and give the cast enough rehearsal time.
Olivia added of The Invite: “[It was] twenty-one days on the stage, and then two days on location for the footage you see in the opening title sequence …
“For a long time, I’ve been looking for a piece of material that would allow for this experience of shooting something sequentially.
“And not only that, having time to rehearse the damn thing, which, as everybody who’s ever made a movie knows, is the first thing we give away.
“It’s amazing how much of what you see in films is the first pancake. People go for it, and I have mad respect for those who nail that.
“But I’ve always wondered what it would be like if we built in time to marinate this thing.”
