Olivia Wilde didn't have to worry, darling—because Pamela Anderson had her back. Nearly four years after Don't Worry Darling descended into tabloid madness, the director is finally revealing how an unlikely friendship with the Baywatch legend helped her survive the storm.
In a candid conversation on Call Her Daddy (June 17), Wilde explained that after watching Anderson's 2023 Netflix documentary Pamela: A Love Story, she felt compelled to reach out. "This sounds so crazy, but I was like, 'Yo, respect, just want to say big fan, respect,'" she recalled.
Anderson's response was straightforward. The icon, who knows a thing or two about weathering public scrutiny, told Wilde: "The most rebellious thing you can do is stay soft. Don't let it harden you."
For Wilde—drowning in rumors about feuds with Florence Pugh, alleged spitting incidents between Chris Pine and Harry Styles, and a very public breakup from Jason Sudeikis—those words mattered. "I've never felt more disconnected from the person that people were talking about," she told host Alex Cooper. "It was very strange to see complete fiction traded as fact."
The director admitted the silence was torture. "I wanted to be like, 'Can I just talk to people? Can I just say that's not true?'" But she quickly learned that fighting back only fueled the fire. Instead, she tried to stay soft—vulnerable, honest, human.
"Staying soft and vulnerable, and being comfortable saying, 'You guys, it f--king hurts, and it's not real, and it's not true'—don't feel like you have to stay so strong for us," Wilde now advises others facing their own public crucible. "We know you're strong, it's okay to be soft if you need to."
The pummeling she took was, by her own admission, "insanely disproportionate." But thanks to Anderson's wisdom, Wilde emerged on the other side—softer, smarter, and still standing. That's the real story.
