The Motion Picture Association compelled the director of Don’t Worry, Darling, Olivia Wilde, to remove some portions from the movie’s trailer. The suspenseful thriller with a 1950s background got its start with the May 2 publication of the first Don’t Worry Darling trailer. In the movie, Florence Pugh plays Alice Chambers, a housewife who joins her husband, Jack, in a secret sociological experiment (played by Harry Styles).
The trailer opens with a cheerful 1950s party and changes tone midway through to a more menacing one. The Don’t Worry Darling teaser contains a brief scene where Alice is shown having oral sex with Jack on top of a dining table in addition to setting up its major mystery. Wilde made her feature film directorial debut in 2019 with Booksmart. She is an actor best known for her roles in A Vigilante, The Lazarus Effect, and Her. Booksmart was praised for its hilarious moments brought on by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever’s outstanding performances.
Wilde talks about her original ideas for the movie trailer in a conversation with The Associated Press. She admits that the MPA’s demands led to the removal of various sequences from the Don’t Worry Darling teaser’s original edit, which she wanted viewers to see. She said, “There’s a lot that had to be taken out of the trailer. The MPA came down hard on me and the trailer at the last second and I had to cut some shots, which I was upset about because I thought they it took it up another notch. But of course we still live in a really puritanical society. I do think the lack of eroticism in American film is kind of new.“
Wilde added, “Then when it comes to female pleasure, it’s something that we just don’t see very often unless you’re talking about queer cinema. You know, it’s interesting because in a lot of queer films, the female characters are allowed to have more pleasure. Audiences aren’t as puritanical as corporations think they are. And yet people get upset. I mean, people are upset with me already over this. I think it’s a testament to the film. We want to be provocative. The idea is not to make you feel safe.“
Given that the filmmaker has been quite vocal about wanting Don’t Worry Darling to encourage sex positivity, it makes reasonable that Wilde would be outraged about making creative modifications to a trailer because the MPA deemed certain aspects unsuitable for public viewing. In addition, even when filmmakers invest a lot of effort into their movies, it could all be for nothing if the movie’s marketing fails to draw audiences to the cinemas.