Bradley Cooper and Olivia Wilde are among the growing ranks of A-list actors who are also directors. They both had their directorial debuts a year apart from each other with Cooper’s A Star is Born and Wilde’s Booksmart. From one up and coming director to another, Cooper gave the Don’t Worry Darling director some inspiring advice that she ended up disagreeing with later.
Olivia Wilde ended up appearing opposite her Don’t Worry Darling cast as they needed someone who was willing to take the role of the female lead’s best friend on a very low salary. The casting director ended up recommending Wilde herself. In Interview Magazine in a discussion with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who also made her directorial debut with 2021’s The Lost Daughter, Wilde spoke about the inspiring advice given to her by Bradley Cooper about directing the scenes you act in that she ended up disagreeing with later.
Bradley Cooper was a great supporter. He said, ‘It’s going to be really wonderful to be able to direct from within the scenes.’ But what I realized once I started was that all of these men had done this in comfortable shoes, and I swear part of it is that I was in a fucking bustier and heels and a wig. They were coming at me doing these necessary but frustrating touch-ups at every second, and I was like, ‘I need to be at the monitor, I need to be in charge.’ I found that to be really hard.
I can’t imagine it being an easy transition to direct while wearing 1950s attire. While the Booksmart director had no plans to have an acting role in her own movie, the same was said with Cooper. He originally didn’t think he was cut out to play the lead in A Star is Born back when Clint Eastwood was directing the project. He felt he didn’t have enough life experience in playing the role of singer/songwriter Jackson Maine who was also a drug addict and alcoholic. But after A Star is Born lost Clint Eastwood as director when the film’s then-female lead Beyoncé got pregnant, Cooper took the director’s seat and showed off his singing and dramatic acting chops as the male lead opposite Lady Gaga. It was a good thing the Silver Linings Playbook actor changed his mind about starring in his movie as the musical film earned him three nominations including Best Actor.
The 38-year-old actress/director continued speaking to Gyllenhaal about more challenges that came from filming Don’t Worry Darling while all in glam.
Full glam! But I did find that being in solidarity with the actors— particularly on a shoot that’s difficult because it’s long, and we’re in the desert, and it’s a thriller so the emotions are running high, and there’s the COVID of it all—felt important. That I could say, ‘We, the cast, are really going through it,’ and I’m not just the director in comfortable sweats sitting over there in the air-conditioned video village, being like, ‘You guys good?’
Despite all of the alleged drama that has occurred between Olivia Wilde, Harry Styles, and Florence Pugh because of a rumored affair between the film’s director and male lead, Wilde said she’s “proud” of her movie. Based on her conversation with Interview Magazine, it looks like this two-time director put a lot of thought and effort into Don’t Worry Darling in creating the image of 1950s Palm Springs. It may not have been easy for her to transition to being on and off camera for this project, but her love and dedication to the project prove that she was willing to do anything to make it work.
So maybe the advice Bradley Cooper gave Olivia Wilde about “directing within the scenes” didn’t help her while being in “full glam” and costume while male directors wear comfortable shoes throughout their shoots. But it proves that female directors simultaneously playing characters in heels for their projects will come out like bosses by the time shooting is over. You can see Olivia Wilde’s directing and acting skills in the upcoming movie Don’t Worry Darling in theaters on September 23rd.