If Chris Pine’s character in “Don’t Worry Darling” seems a little familiar when it hits theaters later this month, there’s a reason why. According to director Olivia Wilde, the character is based on a real man: Jordan Peterson.
In a conversation released this week with Maggie Gyllenhaal for Interview Magazine, Wilde revealed that Frank, the leader of the Victory Project that the characters of “Don’t Worry Darling” are taking part in — knowingly or unknowingly — was directly inspired by the Canadian psychologist.
“We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community,” Wilde explained.
During his time teaching at Harvard, Peterson was described as someone who was “willing to take on any research project, no matter how unconventional” — perhaps fitting for the premise of “Don’t Worry Darling” — and has previously said “disciplines like women’s studies should be defunded.”
Wilde went on to reiterate that Peterson is widely respected among “incels,” because he furthers their ideology that “the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.”
“This guy Jordan Peterson is someone that legitimizes certain aspects of their movement because he’s a former professor, he’s an author, he wears a suit, so they feel like this is a real philosophy that should be taken seriously,” she explained.
That said, the director made a point to note that none of the men acting in “Don’t Worry Darling” were actually like Peterson, or the character of Frank.
“It was a dream to work with all these evolved men on this movie who understood what we were trying to say,” she said.
“Don’t Worry Darling” will make its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release on Sept. 23.