Don’t Worry Darling: Jordan Peterson responds after Olivia Wilde claims movie character was based on him

Jordan Peterson has responded to Olivia Wilde who said the sinister character played by Chris Pine in her upcoming film Don’t Worry Darling was based on him.

The film, which debuts at the Venice Film Festival on Monday (5 September), follows the story of a Fifties couple – played by Harry Styles and Florence Pugh – whose idyllic lives are overturned when Pugh’s character Alice uncovers her husband’s dark secret after one of the neighbourhood housewives goes missing.

In a recent interview with Interview Magazine, Wilde spoke with fellow actor Maggie Gyllenhaal about the inspiration behind Pine’s character.

“We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community,” Wilde said.

She further explained the incels as a community of “disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women”.

“They believe that society has now robbed them – that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place,” Wilde added.

Over the weekend, Peterson hit back at Wilde, saying: “Now, [Pine] has a reputation as quite an attractive man… so that could be worse.

“I also hope that Chris Pine at least does the sartorial splendour of my very formal public wardrobe justice as he pillories me in the latest bit of propaganda disseminated by the woke, self-righteous bores and bullies who now dominate Hollywood, and who insist that the production of such tripe,” Peterson told National Post.

Peterson began generating widespread controversy in the late 2010s for voicing a number of opinions regarding gender, political correctness, feminism and white privilege.

Don’t Worry Darling is Wilde’s second feature as a director, following her well-received 2019 teen comedy Booksmart.

The film has suffered a number of issues since production began, including the departure of Shia LaBoeuf, who was replaced in his role by Harry Styles, and rumours of a feud between Wilde and her lead actor, Florence Pugh.

Read here for a timeline of the behind-the-scenes controversies.

Don’t Worry Darling releases in cinemas on 23 September.