Shia LaBoeuf denies Olivia Wilde claim he was fired from Don’t Worry Darling

Shia LaBeouf has denied Olivia Wilde’s claim that he was fired from Don’t Worry Darling.

Wilde, who directs and co-stars in the forthcoming psychological thriller, spoke about LaBeouf’s departure from the embattled project in an interview released earlier this week.

The controversial actor was originally meant to play Jack, the romantic partner of Florence Pugh’s character Alice, but was ultimately replaced by Harry Styles.

Wilde told Variety that she fired LaBeouf in order to create a “safe, trusting environment” on set, and claimed that his acting process “was not conducive to the ethos” that she demands in her productions.

However, LaBeouf has now denied this and sent screenshots of his email and text exchanges with Wilde to the publication, saying that he left of his own accord as he “couldn’t find time to rehearse” with the other actors.

“You and I both know the reasons for my exit,” he reportedly wrote to Wilde in an email, forwarded to Variety. “I quit your film because your actors and I couldn’t find time to rehearse.”

As well as this, the publication reports that LaBeouf sent a video of Wilde apparently trying to convince LaBeouf to stay attached to the project, soon after he allegedly told her of his planned departure in August 2020.

The Independent has reached out to representatives for Olivia Wilde for comment.

This is just the latest in a series of explosive events that have surrounded the film since production began two years ago.

In April, during a presentation for the film at CinemaCon, a major entertainment industry event, Wilde was presented with custody papers from her ex-partner, Jason Sudeikis.

“In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack,” Wilde said of the incident. “It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen.”

In addition, unsubstantiated rumours of a feud between Wilde and lead actor Pugh have persisted for months. Neither party have commented on the alleged disagreements, but Wilde has repeatedly praised Pugh’s work on set.

“She was really a great supporter of his as someone who was newer to a film set,” she said of Pugh working with Styles. “And he was such a great supporter of hers, as someone who understood it was her film.”

Elsewhere, Wilde was forced to deny rumours of a pay disparity between Pugh and Styles, with whom she entered into a relationship during the filming process.

It had been rumoured that Styles was “earning three times more” than Pugh. Wilde vehemently denied this, telling Variety in an email that the suggestion “upset” her.

“I’m a woman who has been in this business for over 20 years, and it’s something that I have fought for myself and others, especially being a director,” she wrote in an email to the publication. “There is absolutely no validity to those claims.”

Earlier this month, Pugh spoke out against some reactions to the film’s trailer, in which Jack (Styles) can be seen performing oral sex on her character, Alice.

She declared that she wouldn’t be commenting on the movie’s sex scenes during the press run.

“Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “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.”

Don’t Worry Darling is scheduled to reach UK cinemas on 23 September.