Warner Bros. Heads Deny Report They’re Unhappy with Olivia Wilde’s ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ Press Tour

“Don’t Worry Darling” is the poison Hollywood gift that keeps on giving. The movie is at last debuting from Warner Bros. this weekend, already having grossed more than $3 million from Thursday previews and headed toward a successful $19 million opening. But yet another grenade was thrown into the rollout today when Vulture published a report alleging that star Florence Pugh and co-star/director Olivia Wilde tussled on the production dating back to January 2021. The story specified a screaming match between the pair and also underscored why Pugh has been visibly absent from the movie’s press tour, swanning into the Venice world premiere for a quick red carpet moment but skipping the New York premiere altogether. It’s been attributed to her duties shooting “Dune: Part Two” in Budapest.

Now, the studio has shared with IndieWire an official joint statement from Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, the co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros. Pictures. In the remarks, they denied that any drama occurred behind the scenes of the movie about a couple (Pugh and Harry Styles) living in a picture-perfect suburbia that all comes crashing down once Pugh’s character keys into the sinister machinations governing it.

“We are so proud of the work that Olivia Wilde has done making this incredibly beautiful and entertaining film and look forward to collaborating with her again. The studio is very grateful and appreciative of the tireless support by Olivia in bringing her vision to life from production through release. Any suggestion of conflict between the studio and Olivia is simply not true,” the statement read.

Director Olivia Wilde has been in hot water since a late-August Variety profile surfaced myriad controversies, including Shia LaBeouf denying he was actually fired from the movie before being replaced by Styles. In an email from LaBeouf shared with IndieWire the day after the story went live, text message video from Wilde indicated that she tried to triage the discord between him and Pugh, who allegedly tangled with him during pre-production. Sources close to the movie told IndieWire that LaBeouf verbally harassed Pugh during prep work before he stepped off of the project due to a lack of adequate rehearsal time.

Pugh on Friday shared Instagram posts celebrating the release of the movie and applauding her collaborators, looking happy on set.