Culture

We’re Still Reeling From ‘Don’t Worry Darling’s Venice Film Festival Premiere

Florence and Olivia avoided each other, Gemma Chan looked miserable, and Harry Styles may have spit on Chris Pine.

by Reena Gupta  6 September 2022

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Say what you want about Don’t Worry Darling — a film that’s currently sitting on a 39 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and been dubbed a “cause for concern” — because these guys know how to promote themselves.

And look, frankly the film itself is irrelevant. It’s the chatter around the movie that matters. It’s the drama, the leaked emails, the rogue videos, and of course the spectre of ‘Miss Flo’, that has made this one of the most entertaining movie roll-outs we’ve ever witnessed.

To celebrate, let’s whip through some of our favourite moments from the Venice Film Festival premiere of Don’t Worry Darling on Tuesday.

#1. This Press Conference

Honestly, when have you been this invested in a press conference happening at a film festival before? You haven’t. No one has. But as soon as we came across headlines that lead actor Florence Pugh would be walking the red carpet but not attending the press conference, we were bought. We had to see that press conference. We had to see her not be there.

We also got to enjoy some amazing moments from the press conference. For example, did you know that Gemma Chan and Chris Pine are also in this movie? Who knew? Plus, this happened.

That’s Harry Styles in the background explaining how he loves that the movie Don’t Worry Darling feels like a movie; like a real ‘go-to-the-theatre’ movie. Nice.

#2. Florence Pugh Becomes The Walking Embodiment of ‘That Girl’

Florence Pugh’s presence at the Venice Film Festival was either heavily curated or quickly jumped on by content makers to make it look that way. The glimpses of the actor that we saw on social media quickly built up a narrative around Pugh being unbothered, flawless, an icon. Do we not see her, ignoring the haters, sashaying through the Venetian air with an Aperol Spritz in hand?

Amid the movie’s alleged behind-the-scenes drama, where Pugh was rumoured to be unhappy with Wilde, and a video surfaced of Wilde seemingly referring to her disparagingly, Pugh seems to have come out of this by embodying every single ‘thriving white girl on TikTok’ aesthetic that you can think of — and the internet is eating it up.

#3. Harry Styles And Olivia Wilde Do Their Best To Social Distance

You’d be hard-pressed to find a single photo of Wilde and Styles, who are reportedly in a relationship, standing next to each other or even looking each other in the eye. While the two did attend the festival press conference, movie screening, and red carpet together, they’re always separated by some poor sod — usually Gemma Chan or Chris Pine — looking like they’d very much rather be elsewhere.

Honestly, someone let these poor (wealthy celebrities) go home.

#4. Harry Maybe Spits On Chris Pine

It’s not clear why on earth he would do this, but footage has emerged of Harry Styles looking as though he literally spat on Chris Pine after taking his seat for the screening of the film. What possible motivation did Styles have for this? Did the fame finally get to his head? And hasn’t Chris Pine suffered enough?

Make your own call about what happened below.

#5. Harry Styles Kisses Nick Kroll

Now this was a surprising development, mostly because I didn’t know that Nick Kroll was an actor, let alone in this movie. I’m learning so much! But also worth mentioning is that footage is circulating on social media of Styles taking Kroll’s face in his hands and giving him a big kiss. Is this a reaction to the queerbaiting story we put out the other day? Harry, please know that kissing a straight comedian guy on the lips is not going to do anything.

This was the very staged-looking prelude, by the way.

And then there was this.

Don’t Worry Darling is due in Australian cinemas on October 6, 2022.

Photo credit: Getty Images