Olivia Wilde has broken her public silence surrounding the events of CinemaCon this year, at which she was served custody papers on behalf of her ex Jason Sudeikis while on stage. For the director, the moment was “a huge breach in security, which is really scary.”
Wilde was on stage presenting footage from her upcoming film “Don’t Worry Darling,” starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, in April, when she was mysteriously interrupted by an unidentified person who approached from the audience and slid a manila envelope in her direction. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that the contents of that envelope were custody papers “drawn up to establish jurisdiction relating to the children” from Sudeikis, with whom she shares two children.
In the months following, Wilde has been largely quiet on the matter, though she did slam the move in new court filings obtained by the DailyMail earlier this month. In a new interview with Variety, Wilde says the move was “an attack” and one that was “really scary.”
“It was my workplace. In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack,” Wilde said. “It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen. There was a huge breach in security, which is really scary. The hurdles that you had to jump through to get into that room with several badges, plus special COVID tests that had to be taken days in advance, which gave you wristbands that were necessary to gain access to the event — this was something that required forethought.”
In the days following the incident, John Fithian, the National Association of Theatre Owners president and CEO, admitted that show officials didn’t know who the woman was that served Wilde with the paperwork or how she became a registered attendee of the show.
“No, no we don’t,” Fithian told Wrap editor Sharon Waxman on The WrapUp podcast. “Because we we’ve looked at the security footage, and we know it was a registered delegate, because she had a badge. And we know it was a woman, but we can’t identify it. We don’t know who she was.”
Fithian added that, as a result, security protocols were being “reevaluated” and changed in real time, but that they couldn’t figure out how the woman had gotten a badge to begin with.
Wilde added that it was “sabotage that was really vicious,” but that she wasn’t totally shocked by the move. The actress and director mostly lamented the impact it had on her children.
“The only people who suffered were my kids, because they’ll have to see that, and they shouldn’t ever have to know that happened,” she said. “For me, it was appalling, but the victims were an 8- and 5-year-old, and that’s really sad. I chose to become an actress; I willingly walked into the spotlight. But it’s not something my children have asked for. And when my kids are dragged into it, it’s deeply painful.”
