28-year-old Grammy-winning pop and soft rock musician Harry Styles recently embroiled himself in a mess of controversies after starring in the Warner Bros. film, Don’t worry honey. His rise to global dominance as a pop culture icon was going well until he decided to dive deeper into the acting pool, after testing the waters with Dunkirk and Eternals. Now, Harry Styles’ role in the psychological thriller is not only marred by nasty controversy, but his charming screen presence is in question due to his overall performance.
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Harry Styles and his difficult journey to DWD
2022 was the year of Harry Styles. He’s performed on America and Europe’s twice-sold out Love On Tour, headlined his first Coachella, released a new album, smashed about half a dozen records, launched his first business commercial with Pleasing, starred in two movies as the leading man, and had his banner raised in Madison Square Garden — and it’s only September. But despite her many bright conquests on the horizon, the young British pop star hung on when it came to Don’t worry honey.
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It was meant to be a celebration of the power wielded on screen by the world’s most famous man associated with the brilliant Florence Pugh, surrounded by Hollywood stars and directed by rising and visionary director, Olivia Wilde. But then the film fell apart within weeks once the cast wrapped and the film’s deeply unsettling promotion began.
The problem with the Warner Bros. has many facets. The crowd, whether they liked it or not, became aware of the consecutive controversies surrounding Don’t worry honey. What began as mounting drama behind the scenes quickly became the next topic to be picked up and dissected by critics, critics and the ever-woke internet. But even as debate and dissent over Olivia Wilde’s alleged fake feminism now take center stage in society, it also vicariously affects the lesser crime Harry Styles committed with his shoddy acting.
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Harry Styles becomes a subject of mass criticism
The singer/actor’s presence in the Olivia Wilde-directed film should have been a passing blemish on paper. Instead, due to the obvious PR stunt that made up the entirety of the film’s press tour, including the Styles-Wilde relationship, the Shia LaBeouf controversy, Florence Pugh’s non-involvement and the Spitgate incident unnecessarily exploded, the star-studded film’s popularity became higher in the public eye.
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The growing popularity also meant inflated fan expectations that went unmet when the film turned out to be just another psychological thriller. But that gets complicated because the less-experienced Harry Styles fails to keep up with the star-studded affair involving Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan and Olivia Wilde. His acting was passable and did not make a good impression. But considering he played notable in his short stint on Christopher Nolan’s set, perhaps the problem here could be traced to the late director’s limited contribution to the rookie among all the other A-listers. .
His accent, on the other hand, becomes a jargon of the southern United States and his native northern England. It would have been an easier and smarter choice to govern his character, Jack Chambers, as an Englishman. As quoted by The Guardian critic, Peter Bradshaw, “Styles may or may not be a talented actor; it’s hard to tell from that. But Twitter has stronger opinions.
No because half the crowd burst out laughing during this in the theater I went to 😭
— c (@milanszn) September 23, 2022
putting Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in the same movie was a mistake because his acting literally circles around him in every scene.
— ︎ ً (@HailEternal) September 25, 2022
I hope Harry Styles will use this money for acting lessons.
— katie*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ (@katiebaileey) September 1, 2022
Harry Styles’ acting was so bad that even his fans misinterpreted his character’s action or plot. https://t.co/8Ic6VJMBaK
— o’brien (@deeplyfrost) September 21, 2022
Believe it or not, it wasn’t Florence Pugh playing, it was her real reaction to Harry Styles’ ‘playing’ pic.twitter.com/vHCmN5xsGh
— liv (@napakins) September 21, 2022
harry styles acting is like when your high school drama department recruits a random hot guy to be the male lead because no one else is auditioning
— elizabeth (@elizabeyonce) September 24, 2022
Leaving aside the opinions of critics, don’t worry darling offered a storyline limited to a flat character, and while professional actors have done more with less, Harry Styles is far from a professional in the field. That’s what makes it frightening for veteran world-building institutions like Marvel to have names like his attached to their lead roster, especially when there could be a future possibility of Starfox appearing in the MCU. For the Styles name to be linked to Eternals on a whim was a bad call and whether they decide to recast it or scrap the Eros role altogether, it still requires a reassessment of an industry’s priorities to feature famous names just for publicity.
don’t worry darling is now playing in theaters around the world.
Source: Screen Rant
