Olivia Wilde’s recent appearance at CinemaCon, a high-profile Las Vegas expo for movie theater owners, to promote her mysterious new Florence Pugh and Harry Styles-starring film, Don’t Worry Darling, was interrupted when a woman approached to hand Wilde an envelope containing what Deadline initially reported was a spec script–but turned out to be custody papers from Wilde’s ex, Jason Sudeikis, with whom she shares two children. After opening the envelope, Wilde reportedly continued with the presentation of her trailer unflustered; a person connected to Sudeikis told People that he was unaware of when the papers would be served to Wilde, though a family law attorney that the magazine consulted expressed skepticism that he would not have been told these details.
Wilde and Sudeikis began dating in 2011 and became engaged in 2013, though they never married; their relationship ended in November 2020. In a July 2021 GQ cover story, Sudeikis admitted that he still didn’t understand why they split up. “I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year, and an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it’ll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle,” he said.
There has been an added layer of media attention around Don’t Worry Darling, the second feature Wilde has directed after Booksmart, because of the romantic relationship between Wilde and Styles that reportedly began on set. In a cover story for Vogue, Wilde said, “I’m happier than I’ve ever been. And I’m healthier than I’ve ever been, and it’s just wonderful to feel that.”
There still aren’t many plot details about Don’t Worry Darling, although Wilde has cited Inception, The Matrix, and The Truman Show as inspirations. In that same Vogue story, Wilde revealed that Pugh plays “a happy young housewife who begins to suspect that all is not well in the glamorous paradise that she and her husband inhabit.”
“I want you to imagine a life where you have everything you could want,” Wilde said to the audience at CinemaCon. “Not just material, tangible things… like a beautiful house, perfect weather and gorgeous cars. But also the things that really matter, like true love or the perfect partner or real trusted friendships and a purpose that feels meaningful. “What would it take for you to give up that life, that perfect life. What are you really willing to sacrifice to do what’s right? Are you willing to dismantle the system that’s designed to serve you?”
Meanwhile, Styles’ new album Harry’s House will be released in May. The video for the first single, “As It Was,” has already appeared, and Styles played Coachella last weekend. In a new Better Homes and Gardens cover story, Styles showed fans his actual house and revealed that for a long time, he was “ashamed at the idea of people even knowing that I was having sex, let alone who with,” due to the pressure of being in the boy band One Direction. Thankfully, Styles can now proudly proclaim “it’s like, yes, I have sex.”