UPDATE: A video has leaked of Olivia Wilde pleading, via video call, for Shia LaBoeuf to come back to her movie. She apparently made the video call while driving, you can feel the desperation. Also, is she disparaging Pugh? Calling her Ms. Flo?
Judging by Shia LaBoeuf’s letters to Olivia Wilde, obtained by Variety, the actor seems to have found some kind of inner-peace and tranquility after becoming as he says “persona non grata” in Hollywood. Good for him. He’s even converted to Catholicism — whatever gets him off that deep end …
I’m sure you’ve heard, but Wilde has been doing the media rounds for “Don’t Worry Darling” and taken the opportunity to lie about firing the originally-cast LaBoeuf. That was a lie. What I find even more funny is that Laboeuf actually provides the receipts to Variety, proving that he wasn’t canned by Wilde.
The truth is that LaBeouf’s style of acting wasn’t a good fit for Wilde’s approach, he wanted rehearsal time and she didn’t. End of story. Why she decided to say he was fired is anyone’s guess. Maybe she just wanted to take advantage of his cancellation and score some brownie points in the industry. Who knows.
At this point, the making-of-doc for “Don’t Worry Darling,” if any footage was shot, has the potential to be a masterpiece. The inherent drama behind this film has been continuous and jaw-dropping. Note to Wilde: Scrap “Don’t Worry Darling,” it’s not too late, and edit together a behind-the-scenes doc, it could very well be the next “Heart of Darkness” or “Burden of Dreams.”
Laboeuf was replaced with Harry Styles who ended up hooking up with Wilde while her then-husband, Jason Sudeikis, occasionally visited the set with their two kids. The film’s lead actress, Florence Pugh, was none-too-pleased by that, and started complaining about Wilde’s lack of on-set professionalism.
The fact that I’m hearing the movie is a stinker only enhances the potential legendary status of this production. Fact of the matter is that Wilde probably knows a critical shellacking is incoming for her film. It was vehemently disliked by Telluride and when it got picked up by Venice more than a few festival programmers confided to me their bewilderment about its selection.