It's no secret that Hollywood is famous for harboring, ahem, difficult personalities. Some people might tolerate it, but actress and director Olivia Wilde is not having it — especially on set.
In a conversation with Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell for Variety’s Directors on Directors series, Wilde detailed why she wants to foster a more inclusive and less hierarchical environment on her movie sets.
“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 said. “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.”
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In September, Wilde fired actor Shia LaBoeuf from her film Don't Worry Darling and replaced him with Harry Styles, reportedly due to his "poor behavior" on set. (Three months later, LaBoeuf's ex FKA Twigs sued him for domestic abuse, and he's since been taken off of Netflix's For Your Consideration page for his forthcoming film Pieces of a Woman).
“I think that it is an unfortunate part of the kind of the paradigm, that has been created over the last 100 years, the idea that great art has to come from a place of discomfort and anxiety," Wilde continued. "That the pressure cooker has to get to a point where it can be something intense and valuable in that way. I do think it may be a uniquely female instinct to say, ‘Look, we can be nurturing. And we can multitask.’ It doesn’t mean that anyone needs to be uncomfortable. And it doesn’t mean that I have to constantly remind you of my my position, because I don’t think anyone on a set has ever forgotten who’s in charge. It’s in fact, an incredibly hierarchical system.”
Wilde then explained her "no assholes policy." "It puts everybody on the same level," she said. “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…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.”
Yes, we know it's a movie set, but this seriously — can we live there?