By now, everyone has heard of the rift between Florence Pugh and Olivia Wilde that occurred on the set of their new movie, Don’t Worry Darling. The film blew all expectations away when it earned $22 million on its opening night this weekend . Yet, the real appeal to most people was the dramatic fight that had everyone trying to pry into the lives of these two women to find out more.
If you open Twitter, you’ll find thousands of tweets talking about Florence v. Olivia. Unfortunately, you will also find a plethora of harmful stereotypes against both women. Was Olivia slacking off on the job because she was too busy flirting with Harry Styles? Is Florence too dramatic, and just trying to stir up controversy?
Yet no one is talking about Shia Labeouf.
Shia Labeouf, a known abuser, has somehow become a hero of sorts within this story. When the film was first announced, it cast Florence Pugh and Shia Labeouf. However, before filming had even started, Shia was fired, and Harry Styles took up his role. In August of this year, Olivia Wilde mentioned firing Shia while talking to Variety Magazine. Shia came back by releasing a statement against her and leaking a video that Olivia had sent him (almost two whole years ago). In this video, she begs him to come back to the movie, and asks him if they can talk to work something out.
After this, many online users became furious with Olivia for asking him to come back. However, hardly anyone discussed the reason for Shia allegedly backing out. The new rumor is that he made Florence Pugh uncomfortable on set, Florence herself asked Olivia to let him go. At the same time, Shia’s ex-girlfriend, FKA Twigs, had spoken up on the abuse she had endured while dating him. She is even taking him to court in April next year.
Between the hypersexualization of Florence due to a shameful marketing strategy and the ridicule Harry Styles is facing for his acting skills, it is a shame that Don’t Worry Darling is also surrounded with so much misogyny and hypocrisy against “Miss Flo” and “Harry Styles’ girlfriend”.