Florence Pugh almost absent and Harry Styles spitting: you understand all about the drama around Don’t Worry Darling

When reality surpasses fiction, it becomes a more captivating film promotional marathon than the film itself. Let’s start from the beginning.

In Don’t Worry Darling, Harry Styles replaced Shia LaBeouf

Olivia Wilde is the director of the film Don’t worry honey, which will be released on September 21, 2022. For the title, she initially chose Florence Pugh for the role of the housewife heroine alongside Shia LaBeouf to play her husband. However, the actor collects allegations of sexual violence, in particular against the artist FKA twigs (he will find himself in trial against him on April 17, 2023).

He then chose to abandon the project before shooting in summer 2020. Since then, the director has said (a variety on 24 August 2022) after having fired him herself in order to guarantee a shooting ” safe “.

What the actor publicly denied (a variety, August 26, 2022), text messages of 2020 in support in which the director was thrilled to have chosen him despite everything. A video of Olivia Wilde also surfaced in August 2020 calling Shia LaBeouf to insist she keep her role, because she wouldn’t ” ready to give up everything “And wishes that” things settle down »With Florence Pugh whom she calls« Miss Flo “.

In fact, the actress, a convinced feminist, certainly did not appreciate this initial casting choice, which could explain the cold between her and the actor accused of sexual assault. Add to this the information that Olivia Wilde still insisted on keeping him private in 2020, while in 2022 she pretended to have fired him for security reasons.

Mad at Olivia Wilde, Florence Pugh does the minimal promo of Don’t Worry Honey

The director then picked Harry Styles at short notice to replace controversial Shia Labeouf on set in 2020. However, according to the trailer and early reviews of the film in 2022, the British singer’s performance would leave a lot to be desired. her, especially her fake American accent. What adds fuel to the fire of Florence Pugh’s legitimate anger.

This context could therefore partly explain why Florence Pugh appears so little publicly during the promotional marathon of Don’t worry honey. When she gets there, we clearly see her keeping her distance from Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles, who became a couple during filming (did you say conflict of interest?).

At the Venice Film Festival, the director announced that Florence Pugh would definitely not be able to come. However, the actress came at the last moment at the photocall of the day, all dressed in purple Valentino, cocktails in hand (enough to give a video with great meme potential). For the evening’s red carpet, the full cast has finally reunited. While we would have expected to see director Olivia Wilde in the center of her surrounded by her two headliners, Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, at least one person separates them on each side.

Why did Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine and kiss Nick Kroll at the Venice Film Festival?

As if that weren’t enough to visualize the tensions in the air, Harry Styles gave it a try. At the time of the screening of the film at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2022, a video of him shows him completely ignoring Olivia Wilde and sitting next to Chris Pine, on whom then it seems to spit. The American actor seems stunned before wiping his leg and licking his lips as if to cloud a postilion received. At the end of the screening, instead of hugging his partner, the director, Harry Styles kissed actor Nick Kroll on the mouth (enough to relive the accusations of queerbatingBut that’s another story).

And this, during a four-minute standing ovation, during which Florence Pugh, sitting well away from Olivia Wilde, danced with Nick Kroll, before disappearing after three minutes, which prompted the rest of the cast to follow her. director in the back of the line), as reported variety.

Therefore, the film has not yet come out of the dramas, but also of the theories to try to understand the why and the how and the extent of these internal interweaving.

One can largely understand the annoyance of Florence Pugh, who was first cast as a sexual predator as a co-star, before being replaced by an ambiguous singer who is actually dating the director.

The latter probably also had a lot of financial pressure on her shoulders, which could partly explain why she insisted on keeping Shia Labeouf in the cast..

But why should Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine before kissing Nick Kroll?

My personal theory is that it would be just a media diversion, in order to divert the attention of the general public from this initial fundamental problem caused by his partner. And at the same time, increase the buzz around the film to ensure its success. Because there is no bad publicity, don’t worry honey.

Don’t Worry Darling’s promotional drama is already inspiring memes

And given how many memes are already being created around all this promotional drama, this could prove to be a winning strategy. But at what cost? The one of forget Florence Pugh’s legitimate grudge?

Front page photo credit: Instagram screenshot.