Seasoned actress and director Olivia Wilde said she doesn’t ask for your approval when she chooses a project to work on.
Wilde, who has been in the film industry since she was 20, told the audience at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that while she wasn’t looking for acceptance or love from the viewer, she was pursuing projects with an element of uncertainty.
Wilde said she was “naturally drawn to roles that involved a little bit of risk,” which ultimately had an impact on the types of projects she was asked to be a part of. per deadline.
Wilde’s career was launched by the short-lived controversial TV series “Skin” in 2003.
Olivia Wilde doesn’t want to be “accepted or loved” as a director. (Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty Images)
She then guest-starred as Alex Kelley in television’s most popular teen drama, “The O.C.” in 2004, playing a bisexual bartender who dates both Adam Brody and Mischa Barton’s characters on the show. Wilde was ultimately written off the show as her storyline with the latter sparked public debate.
But Wilde was not alarmed. As a result, the 40-year-old says she’s pitched projects that people “know I’m not going to be scared of,” she said. “And I think part of that is the willingness not to be accepted, the willingness not to be celebrated by everyone, the willingness not to be loved by everyone.”
Olivia Wilde poses at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for the Red Sea International Film Festival)
“I think it’s a huge problem for our business – all over the world, I think it’s the same – if you conflate filmmaking or acting with fame or with mass acceptance, you immediately block any opportunity to do risky work,” she continued. . “And so I think it was important for me to never become overly focused on being accepted or loved,” she said.
Wilde’s directorial debut came in 2019 with ‘Booksmart’, a coming-of-age film that resonated with the masses, although her next feature, “Don’t worry, honey,” in 2022 was more controversial, full of scandals from inside and outside the film set. The film starred actress Florence Pugh and pop star Harry Styles, whom Wilde reportedly dated until now.
Florence Pugh and Harry Styles starred in Olivia Wilde’s 2022 film ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. (Warner Bros. Images)
Wilde went a step further and said she would rather be called “controversial” or have her work hated than conform: “I’d rather be controversial then boring. As a director, you never want to make a movie where people say, “Eh, I don’t know, I didn’t feel anything.” I’d rather people hate it than not feel anything.”
Olivia Wilde would rather do something controversial and be hated than make something boring. (Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty Images)
“It was important to me to never become overly focused on being accepted or loved.”
Looking ahead, Wilde will prioritize work that is “more challenging than the last thing I did,” she revealed. “Otherwise I get bored. I think my biggest fear is probably something like shutting down an artist and just getting lazy.”
