Olivia Wilde Finally Addresses On-Set Feud With Florence Pugh
Olivia Wilde is setting things straight about what happened on the set of Don't Worry Darling.
Her 2022 movie is better remembered for what happened off-screen than for what happened on it. Upon release, rumors swirled that Wilde, who directed the movie, had an on-set feud with leading actress Florence Pugh.
There were even reports that Pugh and Wilde had screaming matches on-set. Wilde has finally addressed these rumors and confirmed they were totally made up.
"I have never had a screaming match on my set. I was never not available on set," Olivia told The Cuton Wednesday.
Luckily, the House actor was fiercely defended by her crew. After Vulture reported screaming matches between the director and Pugh, a group of 40 crew members who worked on the movie issued a joint statement in support of her.
"As a crew, we've avoided addressing the absurd gossip surrounding the movie we're so proud of, but feel the need to correct the anonymous ‘sources' quoted in a recent article," the statement read. "There was never a screaming match between our director and anyone, let alone a member of our cast."
"We are happy to put our names on this, as real people who worked on the film, and who have witnessed and benefitted from the collaborative and safe space Olivia creates as a director and leader," the crew's statement continued. "We're also thrilled that the movie is in theaters this weekend. We can't wait for you to see it on the big screen."
While Wilde has bounced back as both an actress and director, she believes Hollywood "has robbed me of my naïveté," adding. "I deeply hate the feeling of being misunderstood, too."
She found some comfort from Jennifer Garner, someone she worked with back in 2011 on an indie project called Butter. "She said it's like you get cast in a soap opera by the public," Wilde remembers. "And they assign you an obvious archetype: the damsel in distress, the good girl, the pretty girl."
Wilde admitted she was initially cast as "an object of desire." But in the past few years, she feels her character was rewritten: "I became the full-on villain. Like Cruella."
This is the first time Olivia has publicly spoken about the incident, but not because she didn't want to but because the studio asked her not to.
"I was told, ‘Don't say a f------ word. Just go out there and smile,'" she recalls, shaking her head. "I resent that, but it taught me it's not the way I want to handle things."
Last week, Olivia told Variety how hard it was not to be able to address the backlash, much of which revolved around Wilde's relationship with Harry Styles.
"I was like, ‘It's not about me. It's about this movie that everyone works so hard to make,'" Wilde explained. "And I felt like I was working on behalf of hundreds of people who had worked through Covid to make something really difficult."
Related: Olivia Wilde Breaks Silence on ‘Miracle' Harry Styles Romance
Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This story was originally published June 24, 2026 at 8:56 PM.