Olivia Wilde Forced to Edit Don’t Worry Darling Trailer After MPA Complaints

We’re just a few weeks away from the debut of Don’t Worry Darling, the sophomore film directed by Olivia Wilde. With an all-star ensemble cast and a unique genre-bending performance, the film was already sure to intrigue a lot of moviegoers, something that has only grown with recent headlines and other buzz. One of the most talked-about aspects of the film’s marketing campaign has been its approach to female sexuality, with Wilde previously hinting that scenes between Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) center a “type of female pleasure” not usually seen onscreen. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Wilde spoke about that aspect of Don’t Worry Darling — and revealed that she actually wanted to include more of it in the film’s marketing, but was told not to by the Motion Picture Association, which handles the ratings of films.

“Oh, yeah. There’s a lot that had to be taken out of the trailer,” Wilde reveals. “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. 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.

Pugh, meanwhile, has already taken a different outlook on Don’t Worry Darling‘s sex scenes, as well as the subsequent reaction to them.

“When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry,” Pugh told Harper’s Bazaar in an interview last month. “Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.”

The cast of Don’t Worry Darling will also include Wilde as Bunny, Chris Pine as Frank, Gemma Chan as Shelley, KiKi Layne as Margaret, Nick Kroll as Bill, Sydney Chandler as Violet, Kate Berlant as Peg, Asif Ali as Peter, Douglas Smith as John, Timothy Simons as Dr. Collins, Ari’el Stachel as Kevin, Alisha Heng as Rose, Dita Von Teese as Herself, Marcello Julian Reyes as Fred, and Mariah Justice as Barbara. Wilde directed the film, and the screenplay was written by Katie Silberman, based on a story by Silberman, Carey van Dyke, and Shane Van Dyke.

Are you excited for Don’t Worry Darling? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Don’t Worry Darling is set to be released in theaters on September 23rd.