Hollywood actress and director Olivia Wilde has addressed the “startling” red carpet photos of her that shocked the internet last week.
Wilde, 42, stopped for a red carpet interview at the opening night of the San Francisco International Film Festival – and the resulting footage soon went viral on social media for all the wrong reasons.
Wilde appeared wide-eyed and noticeably thinner in the face in the footage, which had fans speculating as to whether she was suffering a health issue. Others were less charitable, and straight up slammed the star over her appearance.
Some, however, suggested the entire issue could simply have been caused by a photographer’s fisheye lens showing Wilde at an unflattering angle.
In a new Instagram story overnight, Wilde showed she’s taken the debate over her appearance with good humour – even after copping some ribbing from her family.
“Leave it to your little brother to give you the maximum amount of s**t,” she captioned the post, which showed her lounging on a sofa in a hoodie, her brother Charlie behind the camera.
“Olivia Wilde, do you care to address recent rumours that you’re a resurrected corpse?” Charlie asked his big sister, as the pair laughed.
“Listen! That was a fish eye lens. And I’ll admit – was that my best angle, was that my best ever look? No. No. It’s startling, it was a startling image,” Wilde explained.
“It was a fish eye lens! I don’t know why I was so close to the camera, I didn’t have to be. That’s not … the truth. Do you have any more questions? I’m not dead!”
Wilde topped the video off with a pair of hilariously savage side-by-side photos: The pic of her that caused all the controversy, and Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
Wilde’s red carpet interview was with San Fransisco outlet SFGate, who originally posted it to their Instagram account – where it was met with a flurry of comments calling out the outlet for doing Wilde dirty.
“The cameraman really doing a disservice here,” one person wrote.
Another asked if the interview had been shot with a “fish-eye lens.”
“I see the camera man is using the ‘[husband], can you take a picture of me?’ angle,” another joked.