Olivia Wilde Has Entered Her ‘Lack of F-cks Given’ Era

O livia Wilde would be the first to tell you she knows nothing about farming. But recently, the actor turned filmmaker was talking to a friend and the subject of fallowing came up. “It’s when farmers take a year off and the soil gets turned over,” she explains. “It becomes full of nutrients again. I heard him describe the artistic need to give the crops some time off and let everything rejuvenate.” She pauses. “After what I went through, I could have just jumped right back into the ring. But I took some time to turn the soil over.”

Clearly, Wilde’s time away has paid off, turning 2026 into a creative annus mirabilis. It started at Sundance this past January, which saw the premiere of not one but two Wilde projects about love, sex, and the emotional minefield of modern relationships. The first was I Want Your Sex, the latest from cult director Gregg Araki, which centers on a no-holds-barred BDSM affair between a performance artist, played by Wilde, and her much younger assistant ( Cooper Hoffman ). The second was The Invite , a remake of the 2020 Spanish movie The People Upstairs, about a dinner party between two married couples that goes off the rails. Wilde directed the comedy of manners and co-stars opposite Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton.

Both hit theaters in July, giving Wilde a big moment back in the spotlight. More important, both represent a rebirth of sorts for her. Wilde not only rebounded from some very public PR crises (a divorce that turned messy; gossip-mongering and judgment over the relationship that followed, with Harry Styles; rumors of behind-the-scenes turmoil on her sophomore feature, Don’t Worry Darling ), but she also came back with a vengeance, delivering a one-two punch of the best work of her career. “I think what you’re potentially sensing onscreen in both these roles is a true lack of fucks given,” Wilde says, laughing. “The kind of vulnerability [needed] for The Invite in particular wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t been knocked on my ass.” Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Wilde had never seen the original film on which The Invite is based; she’d been sent the script by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, who’d been hired to write an English-language redo. She had just come off a year of traveling, reading a lot of books, watching a lot of movies, “and letting the dust settle.” Wilde was initially unsure whether she would ever act again, but she’d signed on to do an episode of The Studio, her friend Seth Rogen’s showbiz comedy on Apple TV, and then Araki’s film. Those two roles — one a parody of herself as an egomaniac, the other a sexed-up artist who was like “the devil on my shoulder” (loosely based on Truth or Dare -era Madonna, she says) — helped her get rid of a certain self-consciousness she’d admittedly felt in front of the camera in the past.

Still, when The Invite came to her, Wilde wasn’t interested in starring — she wanted to direct it.