{"id":778771,"date":"2026-07-04T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T15:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778771\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T15:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T15:33:16","slug":"olivia-wilde-my-family-is-all-in-ireland-right-now-we-still-have-the-same-house-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778771\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Wilde: \u2018My family is all in Ireland right now. We still have the same house\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olivia Wilde is Irish like the Manchester-Irish are Irish. Stay with me here. Yes, she was born in New York and raised largely in Washington, but, like Steve Coogan<\/a> and Noel Gallagher<\/a>, she spent many formative summers on the old sod. When the time came to attend drama school, she plumped for the Gaiety School of Acting<\/a> in Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Born Olivia Jane Cockburn \u2013 her grandfather Claud Cockburn wrote for The Irish Times \u2013 she took Wilde as a professional name in honour of the blessed Oscar. There is no need to wrap her in the flag. She has already done that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I spent a lot of time there as a kid,\u201d she says. \u201cWe went back and forth constantly. I always considered myself just as Irish as I am American. Because, as a kid, your summers are kind of what define you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That makes sense. And her family has roots in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always there. And I still go back. I\u2019m going in a couple of weeks. My family is all there right now. We still have the same house. We are in Ardmore, which is in Co Waterford<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

We will come back to all that, but mention must first be made of Wilde\u2019s third film as director. She and her costar Edward Norton<\/a> are here to discuss an acidic, sharply written comedy-drama titled The Invite. <\/p>\n

Wilde and Seth Rogen<\/a> play a well-off couple from San Francisco whose uneasy marriage develops potentially fatal cracks when Norton and Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, as superior upstairs neighbours, descend to spread sexually charged gobbledygook. <\/p>\n

The film is a classic in the drinks-shindig-from-hell genre to compare with Mike Leigh\u2019s Abigail\u2019s Party and Edward Albee\u2019s Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Before too long, barbed insults are being spat across the charcuterie platter.<\/p>\n

\"OliviaOlivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Pen\u00e9lope Cruz star in The Invite <\/p>\n

There is a social truth here. Nothing brings out the suppressed tensions in a relationship more than the arrival of guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s impossible to not be witnessed when you bring someone else into your home and reveal your relationship,\u201d Wilde says. \u201cIt is often when it crystallises. It becomes unavoidable. The truth of it is terrifying for many.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remember the savage unleashing of hostilities between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor when Sandy Dennis and George Segal call over for drinks in Mike Nichols\u2019s film of the Albee play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s why it\u2019s been used over and over again, and certainly Virginia Woolf was our North Star for the film in several ways,\u201d Wilde says. \u201cBut I think that it\u2019s also something very relatable. Most people have had the unique terror of being witnessed by other people coming into their home and seeing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s just the others,\u201d Norton says. \u201cI think the inevitable thing is that, when you host, you watch your partner too. You watch the performance of your partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, yes!\u201d Wilde says.<\/p>\n

She has spoken elsewhere of how she brought her own pain to the eccentric creation process. Cast members joined Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, the film\u2019s screenwriters, in lengthy workshops that helped mould the roles to fit the actors. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy character had this experience of heartbreak that was not foreign to me,\u201d Wilde told Time magazine. \u201cThe movie was in many ways plucking from experiences that I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Don'tDon’t Worry Darling: Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in Olivia Wilde’s film. Photograph: Warner Bros <\/p>\n

From 2003 until 2011 she was married to the Italian-American film-maker, photographer, musician and aristocrat Tao dei Principi Ruspoli. A nine-year relationship with the actor Jason Sudeikis, star of Ted Lasso, had an unhappy coda when, in 2022, she was served with court documents regarding custody of their children while presenting footage of Don\u2019t Worry Darling<\/a>, her second film as director, at the CinemaCon industry event in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n

Then there was the hoo-ha<\/a> around her relationship with Harry Styles<\/a>, star of Don\u2019t Worry Darling, in the run-up to that year\u2019s Venice International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy living under the hot gaze of a greedy media. There has been a lot to process in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never have been able to make this film in my early 20s, when you think you know a lot about relationships but you really know nothing,\u201d she says. \u201cI love the value of getting older and going through things. The deep humbling of life as you tumble through it gives you this wisdom \u2013 the wisdom to laugh at the most painful parts of life as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OliviaOlivia Wilde directing on the set of The Invite <\/p>\n

Wilde took inspiration from Nora Ephron, the late writer of Heartburn and When Harry Met Sally. That first work, a book and then a film, had much to do with Ephron\u2019s marriage to the journalist Carl Bernstein.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big fan of Nora Ephron,\u201d the director says. \u201cThe ability to laugh at herself was such a gift to the rest of us, because it allowed us to feel less alone. When she wrote Heartburn it was a catharsis for herself and for generations to come. Because it has this sense that you can go through something that allows you to have perspective that is really valuable. I think that all of us were bringing texture from our personal lives into this script.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process sounds most unusual. Not only were the actors involved with mutating the screenplay but The Invite was shot sequentially, to allow emotions and tensions to build. Taking inspiration from Cesc Gay\u2019s Spanish film The People Upstairs, The Invite developed into its own singular beast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this wonderful workshopping process of everybody just pouring in anecdotes or observed experiences to create this kind of stew that felt very specific,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all based in experiences, and certainly for myself. I am so lucky to have a job where we get to pour in everything we\u2019ve been through and explore it through art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norton, who starred in Fight Club and American History X, has been in the business for more than 30 years, but he has rarely been granted as much freedom as on The Invite.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt evolved more than anything I\u2019ve ever worked on,\u201d he says. \u201cThe text of it, the actual structure, and even the end. When we started shooting, the entire last act was different to what we actually ended up doing. That changed on the basis of the scenes as they unfolded, but I would say it was the most improvisation of any film I\u2019ve ever been in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilde has an interesting background. Claud, a busy journalist who actively opposed appeasement before the second World War, was born in Beijing (as it then wasn\u2019t) to a senior British diplomat, but he ended up living in Youghal, Co Cork, until his death in 1981. <\/p>\n

His wife of 41 years, Patricia Arbuthnot, from Rosscarbery, in west Co Cork, was a distinguished writer, artist and expert on mollusc shells. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism – A manic press careerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Andrew Cockburn, Wilde\u2019s father, one of five remarkable children to Claud, is a respected journalist \u2013 an expert on national security \u2013 who acts as the Washington correspondent of Harper\u2019s magazine. It is said Christopher Hitchens used to babysit the young Olivia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that kind of upbringing has filled me with a sense of responsibility,\u201d she told The Irish Times<\/a> in 2010. \u201cWe were raised to be politically aware. I have a family that has dedicated itself to social justice and bringing truth to light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now a dual citizen of Ireland and the United States, she attended Georgetown Day School in Washington when not holidaying in Co Waterford. Wilde secured a place at Bard College, the prestigious liberal-arts school (where Steely Dan met, apparently), but she threw it in for acting and, ultimately, a berth at the Gaiety School of Acting. She has spoken of a \u201ccertain humility that goes with the acting business in Dublin that I could not have learned elsewhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe OC: Olivia Wilde with Mischa Barton in the zeitgeist-defining TV series. Photograph: Fox <\/p>\n

The Cockburn name carries some weight but, when turning professional, she leaned towards the author of The Happy Prince and The Importance of Being Earnest. <\/p>\n

\u201cOlivia Wilde\u201d trips off the tongue nicely. Work came quickly enough. Striking in appearance and with a sharp voice, she secured a regular role in the zeitgeist-defining TV series The OC from 2004 to 2005. She played Remy \u201cThirteen\u201d Hadley opposite Hugh Laurie in five series of the medical drama House. She moved into directing with the hugely admired comedy Booksmart<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

Linking herself spiritually to Oscar Wilde clearly did the career no harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I wanted it to be an Irish name, and at the time I had just done The Importance of Being Earnest,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was my first experience of being really thrilled on stage and thrilled by the experience of it. Then I just read everything I could find written by Wilde or about Wilde, and I became really deeply, deeply obsessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The connection does not seem to have dimmed over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to take it in honour of him as a great Irish person, but also to remind myself to try and be as bold as him. Of course, in no way would I be trying to align myself with his brilliance. But it\u2019s now been my name longer than it hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OliviaOlivia Wilde. Photograph: Elizabeth Weinberg\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

A thought occurs to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel continuously inspired by that sense of trying to be bold like Oscar. Then we put him in the movie!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed she did. The Invite begins with an epigram from the author\u2019s An Ideal Husband: \u201cOne should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.\u201d When I casually note that this seems a tad pessimistic, Wilde pounces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it pessimistic?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, um. I guess so. If we believe in marriage as an institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s on you!\u201d Norton says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI added that while I was editing the film because I wanted to contextualise the experience for the audience from the beginning,\u201d Wilde says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really am a fan of when directors do that. Obviously, Woody Allen does it a lot. I love it in literature as well. There is something really nice about beginning with a quote or a poem as a way of saying: this is my perspective on this, but you will only understand it once you have finished this.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Himesh Patel on Enola Holmes 3: \u2018The casting decisions were made to tell a very honest story about colonialism\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

So she is not casting a blight on all marriages?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is saying that the act of being in love is something we should all aspire to at all times,\u201d she says. \u201cBeing married oftentimes ends that act. But it doesn\u2019t have to. I think what the film was trying to say is: you can choose to continue participating in the engagement of loving; don\u2019t let marriage end that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Invite marks a moment of quiet resurgence for Wilde. Recipient of much silly gossip \u2013 remember the absurd invention that Harry Styles had spat in Chris Pine\u2019s lap at Venice \u2013 Don\u2019t Worry Darling, also starring Florence Pugh<\/a>, landed as a critical flop on release in the autumn of 2023 (although it took a respectable amount at the box office). Wilde picked herself up, worked hard on The Invite and took it to the Sundance Film Festival where it premiered to unbroken raves.<\/p>\n

Now she gets to bring it home. First Sundance, then Co Waterford.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur movie is coming out in Dungarvan this weekend. Our local theatre is in Dungarvan and everybody in the village is going,\u201d Wilde raves.<\/p>\n

Norton expresses enthusiasm for making the trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best. There\u2019s nothing better,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can stay in Jeremy Irons\u2019s castle?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

Good Lord, man. That is over in Skibbereen. A universe away.<\/p>\n

The Invite is in cinemas from Friday, July 3rd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Wilde is Irish like the Manchester-Irish are Irish. Stay with me here. Yes, she was born in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,67824,17101,227655,134,20708,43540,13358,51767,203554,189166,88787,141601,18031,275932,68317],"class_list":["post-778771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-christopher-hitchens","tag-cork","tag-edward-norton","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-styles","tag-hugh-laurie","tag-jason-sudeikis","tag-jeremy-irons","tag-nora-ephron","tag-olivia-wilde","tag-oscar-wilde","tag-penelope-cruz","tag-seth-rogen","tag-waterford","tag-woody-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}