It’s that time of the year where some of the world’s biggest movie stars pop up at Venice Film Festival to showcase their upcoming movies – but we doubt anything could ever be as dramatic as the Don’t Worry Darling premiere.
The world felt like it stopped turning during the 2022 event, with every second of the promotion dissected online, leaving us with a Hollywood moment for the ages.
Director and star Olivia Wilde found herself at the center of the speculation after dating leading man Harry Styles, leading to questions over their behavior on set.
She was also forced to battle rumors of a feud with Florence Pugh, aka Miss Flo, who skipped the film’s press conference while Chris Pine – who may or may not have been spat on by Harry – appeared to space out in front of the media.
As the sun sets on this year’s festival, join us on a walk down memory lane to reminisce on the messiest film roll-out in history.
Olivia Wilde v Miss Flo
The psychological thriller eventually hit the big screen in September 2022, and told the story of a seemingly perfect suburban life in the 1950s.
However, cracks form in Alice’s (Florence) marriage to Jack (Harry) when she is forced to question everything she’s known and whether their idealized community is real at all.
Chris and Florence were first announced for the Don’t Worry Darling cast in 2020 along with Shia LaBeouf, who was later replaced by Harry.
Olivia, who was behind the camera and also playing Bunny, later alleged that she fired the Transformers star as ‘his process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions’.
He hit back at her comments and insisted he chose to walk away from the project himself, sharing a video with Variety in which she infamously referred to Florence as ‘Miss Flo’.
As the release date inched closer, eagle-eyed fans questioned whether the director and Dune actress were feuding – something Olivia denied in multiple interviews, while Florence’s team announced she was limiting her press tour just to Venice, as she was filming Dune 2.
At the press conference, the filmmaker was asked directly about the behind-the-scenes claims, replying: ‘Florence is a force; we are so grateful she is able to make it tonight [to the premiere] despite being in production.
‘As for all the endless tabloid gossip and noise out there, the internet feeds itself. I don’t feel I need to contribute to it.
‘It’s sufficiently well-nourished.’
Harry Styles’ movie feeling like a movie
Aside from discussion about the apparent rift, many of the questions fell to Harry, as Don’t Worry Darling served as his second acting role.
Unfortunately, his answers left reporters scratching their heads, and became instant memes online.
‘You know, my favourite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie,’ he said at one point. ‘It feels like a real go-to-the-theatre film, movie, that y’know… the reason why you go, to watch something on the big screen.’
At one point, he confidently declared: ‘What I like about acting is I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.’
‘There are aspects of acting where you’re drawing from experiences a bit, but for the most part you’re pretending to play someone else,’ he said of the differences between music and acting.
‘I find it really different. I think the fun part is that you never know what you’re doing in either one of them.’
Chris, on the other hand, had a very blank, very relatable face throughout the event.
Florence Pugh rocks up late
Shortly before the aforementioned conference, it was announced that Florence was not taking part, but she would walk the red carpet with the rest of the cast, including Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll and Sydney Chandler.
When the Midsommar star did finally arrive in Venice, she immediately turned heads by stepping off a boat in a dreamy purple crop top with a matching jacket and shorts, paired with lilac heels and a bag, looking happier than ever.
She smiled widely for the cameras and clutched an Aperol Spritz, seemingly without a care in the world.
Reuniting with her castmates at the red carpet, she was in good spirits as she larked around with Chris and Nick and posed for pictures with the other stars, but kept her distance from Olivia and Harry in the cast photos.
Spit-gate
Just as you’d think the rumored rift would dominate the subsequent headlines, Harry unwittingly became the center of attention when he took his seat beside Chris at the world premiere, leaving many wondering if he had somehow managed to spit on his co-star.
Yes, seriously. Social media was flooded with pictures, gifs, eyewitness accounts, reenactments and videos from all angles, slowed down to show the split second that the Sign of the Times singer walked to his assigned seat the auditorium.
By now, we’ve all seen the footage of Harry slightly leaning into Chris – who was clapping in his seat, but promptly stopped applauding, looked down at his lap and then smirked.
Spit-gate instantly took on a life of its own, prompting both stars to squash the claims.
A rep for Chris said at the time: ‘This is a ridiculous story — a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation.
‘Just to be clear, Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine.
‘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.’
On his part, Harry made light of the allegations while on stage at his Love On Tour show at in New York a few weeks later, telling the crowd: ‘This is our 10th show at Madison Square Garden, it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back in New York.
‘I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine but fear not, we’re back.’
Chris later doubled down on his denial during a chat with Esquire in 2023, while touching on the feud claims.
‘If there was drama, there was drama,’ he said of the now-infamous shoot. ‘I absolutely didn’t know about it, nor really would I have cared. If I feel badly, it’s because the vitriol that the movie got was absolutely out of proportion with what was onscreen.
‘Venice was normal things getting swept up in a narrative that people wanted to make, compounded by the metastasizing that can happen in the Twittersphere. It was ridiculous.’
‘All the memes I saw about my face in Venice made me f**king laugh,’ he added. ‘[Especially] me on an important zoom call watching my cat throw up on the sofa.
‘Sometimes the question’s not that interesting and you just f**king zone out, and you’re looking at a ceiling because it’s really pretty.’
Although no film has managed to match the pure, low-stakes chaos of the Don’t Worry Darling roll-out, we will always have the memories.
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