Olivia Wilde reportedly fired Shia LaBeouf from Don't Worry Darling due to his 'combative energy'
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UPDATED on Friday, Aug. 26, at 4:25 p.m. ET: Shia LaBeouf refutes Olivia Wilde's claim to Variety that he was fired from Don't Worry Darling, and says he left the production on his own. A source close to the project also confirms to EW that LaBeouf was not formally fired from the film.
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Olivia Wilde is opening up about Shia LaBeouf's departure from her upcoming thriller Don't Worry Darling, in which he nearly starred in the role ultimately played by her beau, Harry Styles.
The studio had cited a scheduling conflict, but in a new interview with Variety, the filmmaker elaborated on his exit for the first time. "I say this as someone who is such an admirer of his work; his process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions," she told the outlet. "He has a process that, in some ways, seems to require a combative energy, and I don't personally believe that is conducive to the best performances."
She added, "I believe that creating a safe, trusting environment is the best way to get people to do their best work. Ultimately, my responsibility is to the production and to the cast to protect them. That was my job."
Taylor Hill/WireImage; Rich Fury/Getty Images Olivia Wilde; Shia LaBeouf
Not long after his exit from the film, LaBeouf's ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs, who starred opposite him in Honey Boy, sued him for physical, emotional, and mental abuse. His legal team denounced the accusations in a court filing, saying the actor "denies generally and specifically each and every allegation," according to Reuters. In the wake of the allegations, LaBeouf split from his agency and entered an inpatient facility.
"A lot came to light after this happened that really troubled me, in terms of his behavior," Wilde told Variety. "I find myself just really wishing him health and evolution because I believe in restorative justice. But for our film, what we really needed was an energy that was incredibly supportive. Particularly with a movie like this, I knew that I was going to be asking Florence [Pugh] to be in very vulnerable situations, and my priority was making her feel safe and making her feel supported."
Wilde, Chris Pine, Kiki Layne, Gemma Chan, and Nick Kroll also star in the film out Sept. 23, which follows Alice (Pugh), a 1950s housewife who lives with her husband Jack (Styles) in a utopian experimental community. When one of the wives goes missing, Alice suspects her husband's company is hiding disturbing secrets.
Wilde recently teased a scene featuring Styles and Pine that left the set in tears. "It's a strange scene, full of fascist references, and a disturbing amount of male rage," she told Rolling Stone in Styles' cover interview published earlier this week. "The scene called for him to stand onstage with Frank (Pine) and chant their creepy slogan, 'Whose world is it? Ours!' over and over again."
"Dark as hell. But Harry took it to another level. He was so fully in the moment, he began screaming the lines to the crowd, in this primal roar, that was way more intense than anything we expected from the scene," she said. "The camera operator followed him as he paced around the stage like a kind of wild animal. We were all gobsmacked at the monitor. I think even Harry was surprised by it. Those are the best moments for an actor — when you're completely outside your body."
Watch the trailer for Don't Worry Darling above.
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