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Olivia Wilde was one of the speakers at the In Conversation session during the Red Sea International Film Festival.
Olivia Wilde made her feature directorial debut with Booksmart. (Photo Credit: X)
Hollywood actress and director Olivia Wilde was among the many celebrities who took the centrestage as one of the speakers at the ongoing Red Sea International Film Festival. During the In-Conversation segment on Sunday, Olivia spoke at length on a range of topics. While she began by addressing the existing threats in the field of filmmaking as a storytelling art, Wilde continued on how she was inspired by the art of making films, the rise of female directors, and even male domination in the industry.
Mentioning that directors in today’s time need to decide the priority between becoming a celebrity or an artist, Wilde said, “Because of social media, it’s becoming even more combined to something that is quite dangerous for the art form. When you conflate filmmaking or acting with large scale acceptance, you immediately cut off every opportunity to do any risky work. So it was important to me to never become overly focused on being accepted or loved.”
Explaining how she managed to keep a distance from the bubble, the actress shared that she is more interested in the film coming from a society that has been “indoctrinated” with the same amount of cliche material.
Olivia Wilde’s Inspiration Behind Making Films
Elsewhere in the conversation, the Tron: Legacy star also opened up about her transition from an actor to a director and shared that she always wanted to make her own films, learn to edit, and even write. “For many young women, when we love stories, we are told that you should be an actress while boys are told to be a director,” she said, further continuing that witnessing her mother making her own way in a male-dominated society came as an inspiration. “It was if you’re not shattering some glass ceiling, you’re really not trying hard enough,” she said at the event.
Wilde also explained, “Movies directed by women don’t make less money. It’s not the audience’s problem but the financiers’ and the studios’. They need to take what they perceive as a risk. I think we need to raise women to believe that they are allowed to take up space and that they’re allowed to be leaders. It’s difficult to run a production, and it is equally difficult for men. I think that it’s about shifting the way that we raise women.”
It is worth mentioning that Olivia Wilde who started her career as an actor made her first part of transition when she started as a producer with the 2015 film Meadowland. After being recognised as an actor, she eventually made her feature directorial debut with the coming-of-age comedy Booksmart.
