Olivia Wilde Was Once Denied a Role For Being Too Old… At 29
We're sure she would look just fine next to 38-years-old Leonardo DiCaprio.
Hollywood has always been extremely hard on women.
Despite the many changes the industry has seen and endured over the past few decades, many issues remain the same.
Women are rejected for being too young or too pretty for the director's taste, and even A-list movie stars are in no way protected from such judgments.
Olivia Wilde is an actress, producer, and director best known to audiences for her on-screen performances in projects such as TRON: Legacy, People Like Us, Her, and Don't Worry Darling.
The Wolf of Wall Street could be another movie on this list, but Wilde was rejected from the role for the most disturbing reason.
The actress spoke about the incident many years later on The Howard Stern Show.
As she explained, her agent initially tried to make her feel better by telling her that she was "too sophisticated" for the role.
However, she later found out that in this case, "too sophisticated" just meant old. Wilde was 29 at the time of the audition and would be playing the second wife of 38-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio.
The casting directors went with Margot Robbie instead, who was just 22 at the time of the production and, in their eyes, a much better fit.
Although the rejection must have hurt, Olivia Wilde soon got over it. After the interview, she took to Twitter to confess how much she enjoyed Robbie's performance in the role.
The actress also mentioned that she's actually grateful for the turn of events, as it allowed her to land the role in Scorsese's HBO series Vinyl without having to audition again.
As happy as everyone involved is with how the story ended, there are many Olivia Wilde fans who still see this situation as a huge red flag for the movie industry.
The only hope is that with each passing year, there will be fewer cases like this.
Source: The Howard Stern Show