Olivia Wilde is opening up about her brief experience with Shia LaBeouf on the set of her upcoming thriller Don’t Worry Darling. LaBeouf was initially hired to star opposite up-and-comer Florence Pugh, but due to his bad behavior on set, the Transformers star was replaced with Harry Styles. Wilde spoke to Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell for Variety’s Directors on Directors series, and she explained how she instituted a “no a–holes” rule on her sets, although she doesn’t mention LaBeouf by name.
“Someone, who’s a very established actor and director in this industry, gave me really terrible advice that was helpful, because I just knew I had to do the opposite,” Wilde, 36, explained. “They said, ‘Listen, the way to get respect on a set, you have to have three arguments a day. Three big arguments that reinstate your power, remind everyone who’s in charge, be the predator.’ That is the opposite of my process. And I want none of that. … The no a–holes policy, it puts everybody on the same level.”
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“I also noticed as an actress for years how the hierarchy of the set separated the actors from the crew in this very strange way that serves no one,” Wilde continued. “I think actors would actually like to know more about what’s happening there when you’re pulling my focus? What is that lens change? But the idea of, don’t bother the actors and keep them separate and don’t look at them. I think it makes everyone quite anxious.”
LaBeouf was dropped from the project after reports surfaced that he clashed with the cast and crew on set. Shortly after he exited the project, his ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs alleged that he was physically and emotionally abusive during their relationship. “Although many of these allegations are not true, I am not in the position to defend any of my actions,” LaBeouf said in a statement in December 2020. “I owe these women the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done. As someone in recovery, I have to face almost daily reminders of things I did say and do when I was drinking.”
The Don’t Worry Darling set has been the source of quite a bit of gossip. Wilde split from her longtime partner, Jason Sudeikis, with whom she shares two children at the end of the year and started dating Styles. The timeline is murky at best, and Styles is said to be a contributor to the breakup.
