‘Don’t Worry Darling’, is a 2022 American psychological thriller film directed by Olivia Wide. A screenplay by Katie Silberman, based on a story by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke and Silberman. The film stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine. 

   ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, which hits theaters Sept 23, 2022, is about a 1950’s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets. Production started in Sept 2020 and wrapped up in 2021.  

    “I’m still taking it all in!” Florence began her caption, “A massive congratulations to everyone standing on that carpet. We premiered in Venice! A huge, wonderful win. I’d never been to Venice Film Festival before. It was mega! The crowds! The cheers! The energy was incredible.” Pugh said to an Instagram post, after not being able to attend the press conference in New York on Sept 19.  

    The drama around the movie, a more recent development in the sustained hoopla surrounding ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ is the assumption by some that Wilde and Pugh are not only at odds but have been for some time now. 

    A key element in this part of the discourse has been the social media activity of each. Some pointed out that Pugh had promoted the film on her Instagram, with which she stared a ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ clip to the main timeline in August of this year, and lack of promotion when the trailer debuted in April.  

     An earlier post commemorating production wrap on the film saw Pugh giving the crew a moment to shine, without a mention of Wilde. Pugh also appeared to not acknowledge a Jul 2022 post from Wilde praising her performance. 

       Basing such speculation entirely on IG activity is arguably ludicrous, although additional elements of speculation were later brought into the fold. As for such talk in connection with Pugh not attending a Venice Film Festival press conference, Variety reported that her limited time at the event was due to shooting commitments for other projects, a Dune sequel among them. 

      Surrounding’ Don’t Worry Darling’ further escalated when Wilde appeared on the cover of Variety in late August to talk about the film and explained her decision to not have LaBeouf as a part of the cast. She went on to say that she fired LaBeouf from the production because, “his process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions,” which went against the initial reports that he left the film due to a scheduling conflict.  

      “He has a process that, in some ways, seems to require a combative energy, and I don’t personally believe that is conducive to the best performances,” she added. “I believe that creating a safe, trusting environment is the best way to get people to do their best work. Ultimately, my responsibility is to the production and to the cast to protect them. That was my job.” 

      Hopefully as ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ proceeds to come out in theaters, the drama will die down and the media can enjoy the movie peacefully.