In recent weeks, there has been rising interest in one American actor-turned-director: Olivia Wilde. After being photographed holding hands with Harry Styles at Jeffrey Azoff and Glenne Christiaansen’s wedding at the San Ysidro Ranch in California, the Internet has been abuzz with curiosity about the new couple.
The pair struck up a friendship last year after Wilde cast Styles in her latest film, Don’t Worry Darling. “We knew that he [Styles] has a real appreciation for fashion and style. And this movie is incredibly stylistic,” she told Teen Vogue, adding that she did a victory dance after he’d signed up. “It’s very heightened and opulent, and I’m really grateful that he is so enthusiastic about that element of the process – some actors just don’t care.”
Wilde, who has two children with fellow actor and screenwriter Jason Sudeikis, recently split from her fiancé at the end of 2020 after nearly 10 years together. In recent days, Wilde has been seen wearing Styles’s necklace as the budding relationship heats up.
Below, we take a closer look at the life of Olivia Wilde.
Her family is full of writers
Wilde – whose real name is Olivia Jane Cockburn – comes from an interesting line of talented artists. First of all, she’s related to Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited (he was her grandfather’s cousin). The novelist Emma Tennant was also a distant cousin. Her grandfather Claud Cockburn was a well-known journalist and writer, who fought alongside Ernest Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War.
Wilde’s parents are equally prevalent within the arts. Her father Andrew Cockburn is a famous British journalist and her mother Leslie Cockburn, also a journalist, was a producer on the American TV show, 60 Minutes. Growing up in Washington DC, Wilde has previously spoken of several famous people visiting her childhood home, including Mick Jagger and Steven Spielberg.
Wilde was also previously married to Italian aristocrat Tao Ruspoli, son of Alessandro Ruspoli, 9th Prince of Cerveteri, and American actor Debra Berger.
She holds dual citizenship
One of three siblings, Wilde grew up in Washington DC, but she spent her summers in Ireland. Sometimes, the famous writer Christopher Hitchens would be their babysitter.
In high school – Wilde attended the same boarding school in Massachusetts as George Bush Snr and Jnr – she changed her name. In honour of family members who wrote under pen names and for her love of Oscar Wilde, she left Cockburn behind. Later on, she studied at Dublin’s Gaiety School of Acting. As luck would have it, she holds dual citizenship for both America and Ireland.
She’s carved out a stellar career
Coming from such an esteemed family, it’s not surprising that Wilde has achieved her own great success. At the start of her career, the 36-year-old became known for her TV roles as Alex Kelly in The O.C. and Remy Hadley in House – with parts in the films, Conversations With Women, The Girl Next Door and Tron: Legacy.
After leaving House, she turned her hand to producing. Firstly, in 2013, she starred in and produced the biographical drama, Rush. She also helped to produce other documentary short films, including Body Team 12 in 2015, which followed a team who were tasked with dealing with dead bodies during the Ebola outbreak. It won Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival and was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2017, Wilde made her Broadway debut as Julie in 1984. She made her directorial debut with the high-school comedy Booksmart in 2019 to critical acclaim. Next, her film Don’t Worry Darling – which is expected to be released at the end of 2021 – sees Styles, Florence Pugh, Chris Pine and Kiki Layne star in the psychological thriller about a ’50s housewife.
She’s a proud vegetarian
From a young age, Wilde has always been a vegetarian. Voted PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity of 2010, Wilde has reportedly switched between being a vegetarian and being vegan over the years. “[Being vegan] is not always easy and accessible, but it’s a way of life and makes me as a person feel really good and physically look better,” she has previously said of her lifestyle choice.
She’s a women’s rights activist
Not only did Wilde take part in the 2017 Women’s March in Washington DC, but she also made an appearance during the 2018 Women’s March in Los Angeles.
She is a firm supporter of Planned Parenthood and Time’s Up, and has spoken openly in the past about raising her son to be a feminist, while making sure her daughter knows that gender equality isn’t controversial. “We have the power to shape the coming generations. But to do this, we have to make sure that the ideas and social cues they are observing and absorbing enforce concepts like equality and empathy, not outdated stereotypes,” she previously said. “I want my son and daughter to grow up thinking girls can be Batman and boys can be Wonder Woman and that gender equality isn’t controversial or political – it’s just common sense.” Is it any wonder then that Wilde recently came to Styles’s defence after he received criticism for wearing a dress on the cover of American Vogue?
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