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Don't Worry Darling has yet to hit theaters, but the film has already made plenty of headlines. In early 2021, the confirmed relationship between film director and actress Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles (who also stars in the film) drew attention to Don't Worry Darling. This past May, when the film's official trailer debuted, talks of a racy scene between Styles and Florence Pugh got viewers talking. During a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Pugh discussed her feelings regarding the interest in that particular scene.
“When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry,” Pugh said. “Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.”
Don't Worry Darling is set in the 1950s, with Pugh and Styles portraying one of the married couples living in a utopian experimental community. Every wife is responsible for her housewife duties, including house chores, preparing elaborate dinners and enjoying poolside martinis with other wives, while every husband is employed at the same location: Victory Project. Things take a shift in their perpetually blissful lives when one of the community's wives goes missing. It is then that Alice (Pugh) begins to question what is really going on and begins to investigate her husband's glamorous company.
Although Pugh now has the lead role in Don't Worry Darling, she was initially set to play Bunny, another of the neighborhood's wives. When Covid-19 affected production scheduling, the chance of playing Alice opened up. Pugh called the swap "a different beast" but told Harper's Bazaar that she loves "playing a distressed woman.”
Don't Worry Darling also stars Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine. The screenplay was written by Katie Silberman, based on an original story by Carey van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke, and Silberman. Wilde has stated that the idea behind Don't Worry Darling was inspired by The Truman Show, Inception and The Matrix.
The film will premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival before making its way to theaters on September 23.
Pugh's Career
Pugh made her feature debut in Carol Orley's The Falling and is best known for her performance in the horror film Midsommar. The actress received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her part in Greta Gerwig's Little Women adaptation.
Pugh has several projects in the works: she will appear in this year's Netflix film The Wonder; recently finished filming for Oppenheimer, the upcoming movie based on physicist J Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb; and will begin filming Dune: Part Two this summer. She will also appear in next year's A Good Person, which ex-boyfriend Zach Braff penned.
Pugh will also star in an East of Eden adaptation penned by Zoe Kazan. The limited series is based on author and Nobel Prize Winner John Steinbeck's classic novel. Pugh will also serve as a producer on that upcoming series.