‘Don’t Worry Darling’: Olivia Wilde Praises Harry Styles’ Subtle Acting in the Dinner Party Scene
Don’t Worry Darling is one of this fall’s most anticipated movies. Fans are excited to see stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine perform in the twisty thriller. Director and co-star Olivia Wilde recently gave a sneak peek at the tense dinner party scene and complimented Styles on his nuanced acting.
What is ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ about?
The movie follows a young couple, Jack (Styles) and Alice (Pugh), living in a small town in 1960s California. The mysterious company Jack works for created the town, Victory.
Alice begins to question the “Victory Project” and the circumstances of their seemingly perfect life. As her investigation leads her further down the rabbit hole, cracks appear in her and Jack’s magical life, and tensions rise in their community.
Don’t Worry Darling boasts a star-studded cast. Pugh is one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors, proving her talent with lead roles in Midsommar, Little Women, and Black Widow. Styles, who has appeared in the 2017 film Dunkirk and the TV series Eternals, only recently began snagging starring roles. But he’s already a household name as a former member of One Direction and successful pop star. Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Kate Berlant, and Wilde round out the main cast of Don’t Worry Darling.
Olivia Wilde teases the ‘terrifying’ dinner party scene in ‘Don’t Worry Darling’
In a recent video for Vanity Fair, Wilde broke down a complicated dinner party scene featuring Pugh and Styles. The director explained that the scene comes halfway through Don’t Worry Darling and shows Alice confronting Frank (Pine) about the “Victory Project.”
“We are asking the audience to focus for several minutes on a group of people sitting around a table,” Wilde explained. “That can be really terrifying ’cause you think, ‘Well, inevitably, the audience is gonna get kind of bored.’ And so you have to continue to inject energy into the scene with everything — with the performance, with the music, with the work of the cameras.”
Olivia Wilde praises Harry Styles’ performance in the scene
As she broke down the scene, pointing out set design and shot details, Wilde also praised the stars — including Styles, who is also her boyfriend.
“This was a moment for Harry, playing Jack, to really let this sense of betrayal land,” she said of the scene. Wilde explained that these noverbal moments can challenge less experienced actors, who might rely on dialogue to help them show the audience their feelings.
“If you don’t have lines, you really just have to communicate at all with your eyes, with your energy,” she added. “No easy feat for any actor, even if they’re really experienced. Harry, at this point, was not extremely experienced. This was his second film. And this moment was one that really allowed an emotional insight into his character.”
The scene took a whole day to shoot
Wilde also spoke about this scene’s importance in Don’t Worry Darling and even dedicated an entire day to film it.
“This scene took all day long, and I would’ve loved seven days for this scene,” the director laughed. “I knew that I would only have a day, and so I asked quite a lot of the actors to come prepared, come ready, come focused. And they absolutely did, and they delivered in a way that would just far surpass my expectations.”
