As I’m sure you’re aware, the Don’t Worry Darling cast has had major beef recently. And the rumors escalated even more at Monday night’s Don’t Worry Darling premiere at the Venice Film Festival. This isn’t really surprising — the event takes a dramatic cast of enemies and exes, and puts them in a confined environment with an admittedly awkward seating arrangement — of course there’ll be lots of tea.
Don’t Worry Darling is a thriller-romance film set in the 1950s, and releases on Sept. 23. It has gained major attention online — probably because it stars none other than Harry Styles, among Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and Olivia Wilde, who also directed the film.
But this isn’t just about the movie. Given the cast’s prior disagreements and drama, the most pressing questions from the Don’t Worry Darling premiere have nothing to do with the film itself. Instead, fans are getting nit-picky on the details of potential beef between each cast member. And I can’t blame them — I’d love to know what actually happened as well (like, did Styles really spit on Pine?!). Read on to learn more about both sides of some of the debates floating around surrounding the bizarre premiere.
Did Harry Styles really spit on Chris Pine?
If you haven’t seen this video on Twitter yet today, are you even on the internet? Fans have noticed a peculiar incident in which Styles appears to spit in Pine’s lap — which isn’t a far stretch, given how complex the cast’s relationships are.
I’ll be honest: It took me a few watches to actually see the spit, but once I did, it became impossible to miss. Before sitting down, Styles clearly leans in closer to Pine’s lap, and Pine begins to look surprised and a bit disgusted — hence, the spitting rumors. Obviously, there’s more going on behind the scenes. Perhaps they had an argument just before, or maybe it’s just a joke between the two. Either way, fans are convinced the spit happened, and are eager for definitive answers.
But while the spit is easy to see in the first clip, others assert that Styles is innocent, and this is all just meaningless drama. While the initial video makes it look like Styles spits on Pine, some alternate angles and diagrams make it seem like just a coincidence — and have made me consider whether we’re digging too deep. A representative for Pine also told PEOPLE that Styles didn’t spit on Pine, saying, “There is nothing but respect between these two men and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist.” Regardless of what actually happened, this debate is hilarious, and I’ll be on the lookout for definitive answers from the cast.
Is Chris Pine just over this whole movie?
If Styles had spit on Pine, it may explain this next question people have been asking. During the press conference, Pine undoubtedly and noticeably appears annoyed, tired, and frankly, over it (and especially when Styles says that his “favorite thing about the movie is that it feels like a movie”). And nothing goes over fans’ heads — because Pine’s “astral projecting” has become another meme from the night.
Does this have anything to do with the spit, or the argument he and Styles may have had beforehand, leading to both events? Maybe. Or, more likely, Pine is just over it because the movie has been rated poorly and he’s not excited to be part of a “bad” film. But just like the first example, this silly quirk one fan noticed has become a fun meme, and another thing to laugh about.
Why did Florence Pugh arrive late?
Pine isn’t the only cast member who seems a bit over the whole movie. Pugh, the leading actress in Don’t Worry Darling, showed up late to the premiere — without a care in the world, and an Aperol spritz in hand.
She also skipped the press conference (you know, the one Pine practically slept through), and hasn’t posted about the movie on social media. This is all part of Pugh’s wish to skip press altogether, allegedly because of drama with costars. This includes both Wilde and Shia Lebouf, who was fired from set after having rumored disagreements with Pugh.
Pugh’s lack of support for the film has left some giving her rounds of applause. However, some people are underwhelmed by Pugh’s late entrance, confused and making jokes about why she came late. But the reason is pretty clear: She’s just not happy with her castmates.
Is there really drama between Florence Pugh & Olivia Wilde?
As if the premiere drama wasn’t enough, there are also rumors of longstanding drama between Pugh and Wilde. And the short answer to this question is yes, Pugh and Wilde are certainly not besties right now. In fact, Pugh didn’t even make eye contact with Wilde the whole night.
Both on-set and off, Pugh and Wilde have had multiple disagreements. They’ve had conflicting opinions about sex scenes, which are frequent in the film, and there have been rumors of pay inequalities between Pugh and Styles (which Wilde has denied). Also, Pugh may have had to pick up some slack dropped by Wilde during filming, due to distraction of her budding relationship with Styles.
All of this drama is nothing short of entertaining, and beyond interesting — but just don’t fall victim to the Twitter rabbit hole of memes, detailed information, and hot takes from fans, like I did.
This article was originally published on Sept. 6 at 12:15 p.m. EST. It was updated on Sept. 6 at 3:47 p.m. EST.