When the first trailer for Olivia Wilde’s psychological thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” dropped in May, all anyone on social media could talk about was a provocative moment in which Harry Styles’ character performs oral sex on Florence Pugh’s character on a dining room table. The mere tease of a racy sex scene sent the internet into overdrive, but Pugh refused to discuss the scene during a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar. In fact, Pugh criticized viewers for reducing the entire film to its one sex scene.
“When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry,” Pugh said. “Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.”
Set in the 1950s, “Don’t Worry Darling” stars Pugh as an idyllic housewife living with her husband (Styles) in a utopian experimental community. When one of the wives in the community goes missing, Pugh’s character begins to worry that her husband’s glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets. The film co-stars Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Chris Pine.
Styles spoke about filming sex scenes earlier this year in an interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” saying, “It does feel vulnerable. I’d never kissed anyone on camera before and it felt like giving a part of myself away in some ways.”
“I think the most important thing in that stuff is trust,” Styles added. “I think if you speak about it properly with everyone that’s involved [that helps]. If you remember that the most important thing on the set is the two human beings doing it. If at any point either one of you is uncomfortable, I think having the conversation where it’s like, ‘It doesn’t matter if they’re getting great stuff, if you don’t feel good, you tell me and we’ll stop.’
“Don’t Worry Darling” is set to world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Warner Bros. is opening the thriller in theaters Sept. 23.
