Recently, Esquire magazine met with Olivia Wilde for an interview, and what followed may have surprised the journalist, because Ms. Wilde proceeded to edit the interview herself. Better still, Esquire published the interview with Olivia’s annotations included, printed in bold for easy reading. Ms. Wilde began the interview talking about her Georgetown home and growing up with two journalist parents who expected much from her, even as a child, and would admonish her not to be a boring child.
“And whenever I was being kind of a pill, whining or whatever, my parents would say, ‘Oh, Olivia, don’t be boring.’ Like: ‘Don’t whine. Whining’s boring. Do something interesting.’ So that was my only goal as a kid: to not be boring. And that probably had a lot to do with the choices I made subsequently.”
The interview is unique for Olivia’s frankness as well as for the entertaining (and not boring) way she’s annotated the article. Her acting credits prove that she has range as a performer in both television and film with no hang-ups about exploring sexuality on camera. She has played two bisexual characters — Alex Kelly on The O.C. and Dr. Remy ‘Thirteen’ Hadley on House — and each one was wildly popular with fans.
Ms. Wilde admits she has tried to choose good roles, films that would advance her career, but that she has sometimes chosen poorly. Olivia also admits that she finds the influence of star power on film sets to be unnerving to say the least. Treating one actor or actress better than the rest of the crew is a hinderance to the filmmaking process, Olivia says, and it ultimately detracts from the quality of the finished film.
That wasn’t an issue on her newest release, The Lazarus Effect.
“We made it for so little money it was like being on a student porn set [similar craft service] . And it was a blast because we felt empowered. There was no executive saying, ‘We need bouncing boobs in this scene…’ “
And speaking of Olivia’s horror film hit, she told NY Daily News that her fear was real in at least one scene in the film. The scene featured a dog (Ms. Wilde’s canine co-star’s real name is Cato) that returned from the dead and attacked her character in bed while she slept.
“We had to hide all these dog treats under my hair, so that he would find me interesting enough. I definitely thought if I was this dog, I would attack my hair, but luckily the dog was much better behaved than I am.”
Being cast in a horror film was a dream come true for Olivia, a long-time fan of the horror genre. She recalls being scared as a teenager by many horror flicks, and cites Friday The 13th and Child’s Play as having been particularly frightening. In fact, she was so eager, she ended up screaming hard enough to burst a few blood vessels in her face.
“I started thinking it was awesome to be hanging from the harness like a bat, so I really went for it every time.”
The Lazarus Effect, also reviewed on Inquisitr, is currently playing in theaters. Check local listings for days and times.