After Don’t Worry Darling’s world premiere, Olivia Wilde told Vanity Fair that the issue of Shia LaBeouf leaving the production is “nuanced”
Olivia Wilde is sticking with her story that she fired Shia LaBeouf from Don’t Worry Darling.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, Wilde, 38, re-asserted that she did call LaBeouf, 36, and fire him from the upcoming film after Florence Pugh expressed she was uncomfortable with the actor’s behavior.
“My responsibility was towards [Florence],” Wilde told Vanity Fair. “I’m like a mother wolf. Making the call was tricky, but in a way he understood. I don’t think it would’ve been a process he enjoyed. He comes at his work with an intensity that can be combative.”
“It wasn’t the ethos that I demand in my productions,” the actress and filmmaker added. “I want him to get well and to evolve because I think it’s a great loss to the film industry when someone that talented is unable to work.”
LaBeouf publicly disputed Wilde’s claim and argued that he quit the film due to a lack of rehearsal time with Pugh, 26, and other actors in August. Wilde declined to comment further on the matter at Don’t Worry Darling’s Venice International Film Festival premiere.
In her interview with Vanity Fair, Wilde said LaBeouf’s exit was “much more nuanced than can be explained in private texts released out of context.”
“All I’ll say is he was replaced, and there was no going forward with him. I wish him the best in his recovery,” she added.
Representatives for LaBeouf did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
When Deadline reported in September 2020 that Styles, 28, had replaced LaBeouf on the film, it cited a scheduling issue.
In Wednesday’s feature story, Vanity Fair reported that both Pugh and LaBeouf had been unhappy about rehearsals, citing “a source with knowledge of the situation.”
LaBeouf was reportedly unhappy with the “limited amount of rehearsal time” on Pugh’s schedule, and Pugh expressed discomfort with LaBeouf’s “intensity,” according to Vanity Fair.
Wilde also further denied rumors that a rift between herself and Pugh grew during production on Don’t Worry Darling after Wilde and Styles met.
While the pair did not step out together publicly until January 2021, the rumors go that Wilde and Styles’ budding relationship resulted in Pugh feeling “neglected or otherwise alienated, and that Pugh and/or the cinematographer even had to direct some scenes,” as Vanity Fair puts it.
“It is very rare that people assume the best from women in power,” Wilde told the magazine. “I think they don’t often give us the benefit of the doubt. Florence did the job I hired her to do, and she did it exquisitely. She blew me away. Every day I was in awe of her, and we worked very well together.”
“It is ironic that now, with my second film — which is again about the incredible power of women, what we’re capable of when we unite, and how easy it is to strip a woman of power by using other women to judge and shame them — we’re talking about this,” she added.
Don’t Worry Darling is in theaters Sept. 23.
