After ‘Booksmart’, Olivia Wilde signs her second feature film as a director: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. And he proves to our microphone that he is as interesting in directing work as in an interview.
Olivia Wilde Director: Second! After the tender teen film Booksmart on Netflix, the actor returns behind the camera and confirms all the good things we thought about him with Don’t Worry Darling. This time he immerses us in America of the 50s, in a seemingly perfect society.
But only in appearance. Because Alice (Florence Pugh, always so intense and impressive) begins to doubt the validity of her creator (Chris Pine) and what this pristine suburb hides. An opportunity for Olivia Wilde to create a disturbing and seductive atmosphere around the mysteries of her story, which she describes as a love letter to cinema. Meeting the charming director, both on screen and in an interview.
AlloCiné: What did you see in the script that made you want it to be your second film as a director? Images, iconography? Or what did this story tell you about America today?
Olivia Wilde: that’s all. An opportunity to step up my game as a director and use all the tools at my disposal to create a world. I knew this script would allow me to fully immerse myself in the concepts of cinematography, sets and costumes in an ambitious and endlessly inspiring way.
It allowed me to do something that felt cinematic to the audience. Don’t worry dear it was done during the pandemic , while we wondered if movies would continue to see the light of day or if Hollywood was dead. This film seems to me to be the answer to these questions, to some extent. This is a love letter to cinema. A love letter to the cinematic experience. It is designed with this extensive cinematic experience in mind.
And, at the same time, I was interested in the questions that the film tries to ask: What is the system that serves you and we find ourselves in? Who could be bold enough to question it, even if it is too comfortable? It really made me wonder if that idea is something you’re willing to step out of line, even if you’re comfortable with it.
We are sometimes willing to sacrifice our rights for our comfort
And that seems to be your will as a director to step out of line.
absolutely ! I want to continue to ask questions, to be brave, to be bold. I want to go beyond what is expected of me or what I think has already been said. I want to be provocative. Add items to the debate. I don’t care about being predictable and trying to fit into what already exists. Making a film takes a lot of work, so if you make one, you might as well bring something new. Even if people don’t like it. It remains an opportunity to take risks, and that is stimulating.
How much did “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” influence the script and direction? Beyond the characters called Alice and Bunny.
“On the other side of the mirror” It had a big impact, yes. This story of a woman questioning her own reality took several inspirations because these are questions people have had for a long time: “What is real? How do we know it is? Are we in a dream or in reality?”
Throughout human history, philosophy has tried to understand consciousness, and I love Don’t Worry, Darling, a tribute to all those stories that have tried to challenge the notion of reality and what we want to do with it.
Olivia Wilde and Florence Piggy in “Don’t Worry Darling”
How was the iconography of the 50s and 60s conducive to the atmosphere you create, bordering on horror?
I find it both incredibly seductive and very problematic. Because there is a very limited time for women, people of color, gays…anyone who wasn’t a straight white man. But we’re still drawn to its iconography, through the films of the period, its music, and its fashion. It is very tempting and undoubtedly sublime. But nostalgia for that time is problematic because it takes us back to something inherently imperfect.
But it fascinated me and I wondered why I wanted to belong to an era that would not serve me in any way. Why was I drinking martinis with Frank Sinatra and lounging by the pool in Palm Springs because I knew it would be a much more difficult and demanding time for me as a woman. Because we are sometimes willing to sacrifice our rights for our comfort, and I find this ambivalence interesting.
I don’t care about being predictable and trying to fit into what already exists
Did filming during the pandemic help create that somewhat timeless atmosphere on set?
This especially helped create the intensity we feel in the film. There is an energy that comes from the shared emotional intensity we felt at the time. The dynamic on set was very unusual as everyone was in a bubble to protect each other. We were much more tightly knit than on a normal production and, like everyone else, we felt isolated from society. But we were able to come together, unexpectedly, with the common goal of telling this story. It was strange to be together to make a film, but I think it comes across in the story.
Interview by Maximilien Pierret in Paris, September 17, 2022
Source: allocine
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