The highly anticipated psychological thriller “Don’t Worry Darling”, which was directed by Olivia Wilde andstars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, premiered at the 79^th Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 5, 2022. This movie has received a lot of media coverage but not for the reasons you might think. “Don’t Worry Darling” is facing several issues regarding the casting and the alleged relationships some of the cast and crew have with one another.

One of the first issues that this movie encountered was the casting. Originally, Wilde cast Shia LeBeouf for the part that Styles plays in the film, but Wilde allegedly fired him for abusive behavior towards Pugh and the rest of the cast and crew. After Wilde made this statement, LaBeouf called out the director and said that he chose to leave the film on his own. A video was leaked of Wilde asking LaBeouf to return to the set and calling Pugh “Miss Flo”. 

This leak brought a lot of media attention to the movie and had fans speculating whether or not Wilde had been lying about other things related to the film. Wilde and Styles’s relationship has also caused people to question Wilde. Some people think the only reason Wilde cast Styles was because they are in a relationship: not because of his acting abilities. 

The tension between the cast appeared high, especially since Pugh did little press for the film. The actress never outwardly stated that she was upset with Wilde or that she was not a fan of her, but many claimed that it was obvious that she was not the biggest fan of Wilde. Many also thought that Pugh was going to skip the premiere entirely despite being in Venice. 

Pugh did end up coming to the premiere and appearing alongside Wilde, although they were conveniently separated by another cast member in the picture. The actress’s beauty team wore shirts that said “Miss Flo” on them, which the media absolutely ate up. There was also a moment between Styles and Chris Pine, who also acts in “Don’t Worry Darling”, where it appeared that Styles spit on Pine. This also sent the media into a frenzy. Styles ended up making a joke out of it at one of his concerts in New York.

Speaking of Styles, according to some of the reviews about the movie, his acting was not the greatest. This isn’t too surprising considering“Dunkirk”, a small part in “Eternals”, and one episode of “iCarly”. He was also acting next to Pugh who is quite talented and experienced. 

This movie has already managed to score a 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and it hasn’t even come out in theaters yet. Will it flop at the box office? Probably not: even though most of the news surrounding this movie has been negative, there has still been a lot of media coverage which has kept everyone interested in what this movie is really going to be like. “Don’t Worry Darling” comes to theaters Sept. 23. Will the public share the opinions of the critics?

Article by Sophia Meek