Olivia Wilde has reacted in good humor to cruel comments about her appearance after a recent red carpet interview went viral for the wrong reasons. The 42-year-old actor and director spoke to SFGate at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 24 ahead of the premiere of her new movie, The Invite.
However, social media commentators suggested that Wilde looked bug-eyed and skeletal in the footage, even going so far as to compare her to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings films. Wilde addressed the comparisons in a video on her Instagram Story Sunday, posting a screenshot of her viral conversation with SFGate next to a photo of the Lord of the Rings character. In the background, her brother, Charlie Cockburn, asked: “Olivia Wilde, do you care to address recent rumors that you're a resurrected corpse?”
“Listen, that's a fish-eye lens,” she explained, laughing. “And I admit, is that my best angle? Was that my best-ever look? No. No, it’s startling. It’s a startling image.” “It was a fish-eye lens. I don’t know why I was so close to the camera. I didn’t have to be. That’s not the truth,” the Don’t Worry Darling star told her brother. “Do you have any more questions?” “I’m not dead,” she added. In the caption, she quipped: “Leave it to your little brother to give you the maximum amount of s***.”
During the San Francisco International Film Festival last month, Wilde spoke about filming The Invite in San Francisco, alongside co-stars Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton. Adapted from the 2020 Spanish comedy The People Upstairs and directed by Wilde, the film follows a married couple, Angela and Joe (portrayed by Wilde and Rogen), at a rough spot in their relationship. However, things take an unexpected turn when they invite their upstairs neighbors, Pina and Hawk (played by Cruz and Norton), over for a dinner party.
“I think we really took advantage of everything that I love so much about this city,” she said on the red carpet, according to SFGate. “It’s such an incredible cultural melting pot, and you can feel that. It sets the tone for our film.” “Seth and I had worked together before. We knew we had this weird ability to harmonize with each other,” she said during a Q&A after the screening. “We like to say that we can talk over each other while listening to each other, and we really enjoy arguing. It was so fun. We loved to argue and scream in each other's faces.”
Before The Invite — which was co-written by Rashida Jones — Olivia Wilde had directed two films: 2019’s Booksmart and 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling.
