Gaze into Florence Pugh and Harry Styles’ eyes in first look at Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling

Pugh and Styles star in an erotic thriller Wilde says was inspired by Inception, The Matrix, and The Truman Show

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  April 27, 2022 | 6:20pm
Aux News harry styles
Gaze into Florence Pugh and Harry Styles’ eyes in first look at Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling
Harry Styles and Florence Pugh Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

The first image of Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s upcoming thriller led by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, radiates star power. With Pugh and Styles staring deep into each other’s eyes, Warner Bros. is banking on the stars’ respective and vocal stan army to do a lot of its marketing for film. But Olivia Wilde teases something more.

Speaking on stage at CinemaCon, Wilde dropped a couple of tidbits about the film, including its influences. “Inception, The Matrix, Truman Show. It’s my love letter to the movies that pushed boundaries of ambition,” Wilde told the crowd.

“I want you to imagine a life where you have everything you could want,” she said. “Not just material, tangible things, like a beautiful house, perfect weather and gorgeous cars. But also the things that really matter, like true love or the perfect partner or real trusted friendships and a purpose that feels meaningful.”

“What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what’s right? Are you willing to dismantle the system that’s designed to serve you?”

Per Variety, the film centers around power couple Alice and Jack (played by Pugh and Styles respectively). Jack works for The Victory Project, a mysterious company that promises world change. Meanwhile, Alice suspects her husband may be hiding something. Something evil.

“Do you even know what the Victory Project even is? Have you ever asked?” Alice asks in the trailer shown to the CinemaCon audience. “I don’t trust him, and I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Don’t Worry Darling is set in the 1950s, famously before people had sex. But that’s not the case in Wilde’s film. Instead, people are doing lots of intercourse, if you catch our drift. We’re talking about sex, baby, yeah.

Though it has yet to be released—perhaps because our puritanical society can’t handle Harry Styles performing a little cunnilingus on Florence Pugh—sex riddles the trailer. They do it in a car, at the dinner table, and, everybody’s favorite location, in front of Chris Pine. Billed as a psychological thriller, based on reports, Wilde is taking a cue from Adrian Lyne by putting the erotic back into the thriller.

Don’t Worry Darling is Wilde’s follow-up to the sleeper teen comedy Booksmart. As for her stars, we know that Pugh had breakout roles in Midsommar and Little Women. As for Styles, Wilde put it best: He’s “an up-and-coming actor with no other career that I am aware of, and he is nothing short of a revelation in this part.”

Don’t Worry Darling opens on September 23, 2022.

 
Join the discussion...