EXCLUSIVE: Adam Driver set to ‘pull a Florence Pugh’ at Venice Film Festival with a VERY
Last year, the biggest story at the Venice Film Festival was the blink-and-you-miss-it visit by actress Florence Pugh, and the beef with director Olivia Wilde which lay behind it.
And this year, the biggest star attending is going to ‘pull a Pugh’ by attending Venice so briefly that he won’t even stay the night.
Two-time Oscar nominee Adam Driver, 39, has agreed to show up to promote the movie Ferrari, in which he stars.
However there is such nervousness about being seen to ‘break’ the actors and writers strikes that – even though the film has earned an exemption – he won’t be hanging around.
Driver will be flying from Paris to Venice on a private jet in the morning of Thursday 31st, going up the red carpet in the late afternoon, and flying back again to the Hotel Bristol in Paris that same day.
Brief: Adam Driver is going to ‘pull a Florence Pugh’ by attending Venice Film Festival so briefly that he won’t even stay the night (he is pictured at last year’s film festival)
It’s not yet clear whether he will do any promotional interviews or a press conference before the red carpet. Sources say that he is thinking of making some kind of strike-supporting speech at some point, but details are scarce.
Sources also say that Driver is planning to wear a t-shirt in support of the strikes under his tuxedo.
Co-star Penelope Cruz is now thinking hard about her own outfit options as a result. She is a long-term ambassador of the fashion brand Chanel.
Nobody in Hollywood wants to be seen doing the wrong thing by the strikers and the whole film and TV industry has ground to a complete stop.
The writers union, the WGA, went on strike on May 2nd, and were followed by SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, on July 14th.
Ferrari actors (and writers) can attend with out breaking the strikes as the film has been given an exemption because it was made by an independent, Neon, not a studio.
The stars of the film Priscilla, about Priscilla Presley’s life, can also attend without breaking the strike as it was made in Canada.
Earlier this week it was confirmed that Priscilla has a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement which would allow cast including Jacob Elordi – who plays Elvis – to come. It’s not clear whether he will though.
Memorable: Last year, the biggest story at the Venice Film Festival was the blink-and-you-miss-it visit by actress Florence Pugh, and the beef with director Olivia Wilde which lay behind it
Solidarity: Sources also say that Driver is planning to wear a t-shirt in support of the strikes under his tuxedo
Priscilla Presley, on whose 1985 memoir it is based, is expected to attend. She is an actress, herself, having appeared in Dallas and the Naked Gun films.
Most other stars have no option but to stay away. Bradley Cooper, who wrote, produced stars in and directed Maestro, about the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, will not be in Venice to see possibly the defining film of his career premiere. It is by Netflix, who are a struck company.
A festival spokesman confirmed last month that he would not attend in solidarity with the strike by the actors union SAG-AFTRA.
The film Challengers, a tennis and three-somes drama starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor, of The Crown, was going to open the festival but that dropped after the actor’s came on strike in July.
The prestige film Poor Things, an adaptation of a Frankenstein-esque gothic tale starring Emma Stone, will premiere at the festival but star Emma Stone and the rest of the cast will not be there.
Ferrari is a film by renowned director Michael Man and examines three months in the life of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the car company. He has money trouble, is grieving his son who died, and has a child with his mistress – which is discovered by his wife.
Last year Florence Pugh skipped the press conference and photo call before the premiere of Don’t Worry Darling, in which she starred alongside Harry Styles. It was reported that she and director Olivia Wilde had fallen out during the making of the film, after Styles and Wilde started a love affair.
Strikes: Co-star Penelope Cruz is now thinking hard about her own outfit options as a result. She is a long-term ambassador of the fashion brand Chanel
Pickets: Florence Pugh has been among the stars on the picket lines in support of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike in recent days
Pugh was friends with Wilde’s estranged partner Jason Sudeikis via her former relationship with actor Zach Braff. In addition she felt that the marketing of the show, and the focus on her explicit love scenes with Styles, was exploitative and may have blamed director Wilde for it.
She said in a magazine interview: ‘When it’s reduced to your sex scenes, or to watch the most famous man in the world go down on someone, it’s not why we do it. It’s not why I’m in this industry.
‘Obviously, the nature of hiring the most famous pop star in the world, you’re going to have conversations like that. That’s just not what I’m going to be discussing because [this movie is] bigger and better than that. And the people who made it are bigger and better than that.’
On the red carpet she and Wilde steered completely clear of each other, arriving at different times and not exchanging any pleasantries. Pugh left directly after the film was screened and did not attend a cast dinner or party. She was at the time making the film Dune 2 in Budapest.