Twitter was seized by a collective fixation on Monday night when a video from the premiere of Don’t Worry Darling seemed to show Harry Styles spitting on actor Chris Pine. The clip showed Styles taking his seat at the film’s premiere in Venice, Italy beside Pine, with his girlfriend and director Olivia Wilde on Pine’s other side. Upon closer inspection, fans thought that Styles subtly spat onto Pine’s lap as he leaned over into his seat.
Thanks to Twitter’s many amateur social media sleuths, you can now watch this clip in slow-motion, frame by frame and from multiple angles to make up your own mind about whether Styles spit on his co-star. It bears re-watching to get all the evidence – as fans have pointed out, Pine is clapping along with everyone else until Styles conspicuously leans over him in the process of sitting down. Styles’ lips seem to pucker in the same moment that Pine looks down into his lap and abruptly stops clapping. He gives a wry smile and a look of disbelief to Styles, who gives an innocent wave in return.
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Fans have also zeroed in on Wilde during this whole exchange. Her clapping, smiling and eye contact seem to indicate a moment of tension as well, but of course, this is all just speculation for now. Those accusing Styles of spitting have also assigned him speculative motives. For one thing, many believe that he and Wilde are on bad terms right now, as Styles seemed to be avoiding her during the rest of the festival.
There is also the matter of Styles’ unsuccessful interviews throughout the rest of the day. The cast was there promoting Don’t Worry Darling, but sound bites from Styles’ interviews went viral in real-time. His answers baffled fans. For example, he told one reporter: “You know, my favorite thing about the movie is it feels like a movie. It feels like a real go-to-the-theatre film, movie, that ya know… the reason why you go, to watch something on the big screen.”
Part of the appeal of these viral clips was that in a couple of them, Styles was seated next to Pine who looked bemused and even mortified at times. Fans projected all kinds of feelings onto Pine’s expressions, and although the actor hasn’t said anything about the experience himself, it’s easy to believe. That’s typically all it takes for social media to run with a story.
These moments of perceived tension come on top of the more concrete controversies surrounding Don’t Worry Darling. Wilde originally cast Shia LaBeouf opposite Florence Pugh in this movie, but claimed that she fired him because of his bombastic behavior on set. However, LaBeouf denied this version of events and a video soon surfaced where Wilde seemed to be telling LaBeouf that Pugh did not want to work with him, but that she was still hoping to smooth things over. With the allegations of sexual violence hanging over LaBeouf, this had some fans questioning Wilde’s commitment to the safety of actors on set.
As many self-deprecating commenters pointed out on Monday night, most of this drama is speculative and all of it is hard to follow. Admittedly, one would probably not believe that Styles had intentionally spit on his co-star Pine unless they were already mired in all the other minutiae of this story. Now that that’s the case for so many, it seems like Styles and Pine will have their own uncomfortable questions to either answer or avoid in future interviews.
Don’t Worry Darling has gotten mixed reviews from critics so far. The movie will premiere for general audiences in the U.S. on Friday, Sept. 23 only in theaters.
