BY: Amanda Jane Stern

Before joining the rare ranks of actresses who’ve become top-tier film directors, Olivia Wilde started in TV. The New York City-born actress “borrowed” her stage name from playwright Oscar Wilde to honor her Irish heritage (she has dual citizenship) and hide her original surname, Cockburn. In the early 2000s, Wilde became known to audiences through The O.C. (as Alex Kelly) and House (as Dr. Remy Hadley).

Her feature film debut was Kellie inThe Girl Next Door (with co-stars Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert). Throughout the mid-aughts, Wilde continued to build a solid film resume, including supporting roles in Conversations with Other Women  (co-starring Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart) and as Angela Holden in the Nick Cassavetes-directed true-crime ensemble drama Alpha Dog. In the 2010s, Wilde landed lead roles in Disney’s Tron: Legacy (as Quorra, no relation to the Q&A website), and as a mysterious traveler in the sci-fi western Cowboys & Aliens (opposite Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford), among others. 

But Wilde continued to push her career in new directions. She produced several documentary shorts, including the Oscar-nominated Body Team 12 about the West African Ebola outbreak. In 2017, Wilde made her Broadway debut as Julia in 1984. It was an intense production that made audience members —including Jennifer Lawrence— vomit, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And according to a Today Show interview, Wilde broke her tailbone, split her lip, and dislocated a rib during the play’s New York previews. 

Wilde’s shift to directing has been a process. She started with a short film. Following that, Wilde cut her chops directing music videos for a folk-rock band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers song, “Dark Necessities.”

Her directorial feature film Booksmart (starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever) won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. According to a New York Times interview, Wilde is proudest of her directing credits because they are the first jobs not based on her looks. Despite the pandemic, Wilde has been busy throughout the last year. Here’s a look at some of her upcoming and (rumored) film projects. 

 

Don’t Worry Darling

This psychological thriller is currently in post-production. A period piece set in the 1950s, it stars actor/musician/shaggy-haired heartthrob, Harry Styles, as a husband trying to keep a secret from his wife (portrayed by Florence Pugh). The film will also star Chris Pine as leader of a cult-like group. This movie reunites Wilde with Katie Silberman, a screenwriter on Wilde’s directorial debut, Booksmart.

In October 2020, via social media, Wilde announced that the film was in production. Styles replaced Shia LaBeouf (scheduling conflicts), according to Deadline. Last month Wilde confirmed, via social media, that she had wrapped principal photography.

 

Perfect

This biopic film is about US Olympic gymnast Kerri Sturgis and based on her memoir Landing On My Feet, A Diary Of Dreams (co-written with John P. Lopez). It tells the incredible story of how she won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics despite a badly injured ankle.

Deadline reported that Searchlight Pictures bought the hot script for $15 million.

It’s not Wilde’s first film about the Atlanta Games. She appeared as reporter Kathy Scruggs in Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewel, the 2019 drama about the man wrongly accused of being Atlanta’s Olympic bomber.

 

Female-centric Marvel film (Untitled)

This movie is another collaboration with Booksmart screenwriter (Silberman). Like all Phase Four Marvel Films, Kevin Feige and the gang are very secretive about details, and so far, no title or featured superhero has been revealed (nor substantively leaked).

 

Untitled Holiday Comedy Project

This was announced in 2019. According to Variety, after intense bidding from 5 studios, Universal bought this concept from Wilde and Booksmart screenwriter Silberman. 

To date, it is unclear if this project is still a go or if it’s morphed into a different deal with Warner Brothers.