Olivia Wilde isn’t worrying about aging out of Hollywood, darling.
The Don’t Worry Darling director, 42, revealed that entering a new decade was the catalyst that pushed her to tackle her steamy performance in her upcoming film I Want Your Sex.
“The spring right before this movie I turned 40 and I felt great and I was like, ‘Hell, yeah,’” Wilde exclusively told E! News’ Will Marfuggi at the July 4 premiere of I Want Your Sex. “‘Let’s go make this movie. This’ll be fun.’”
In the racy film, which hits theaters July 31, Wilde plays renowned artist Erika Tracy, who recruits a fresh-faced Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) to become her sexual muse.
“I love the idea of reclaiming empowered sexuality,” Wilde explained of her performance, “and the idea of like you get older and you get better. And it was such a fun way to express that. It was great.”
“Hopefully, this movie is suggesting you should try everything,” she added. “You should be exploring your whole life and if you do that then by the time you get to your 40s you’ve lived some cool lives.”
And while the Tron: Legacy star—mom to kids Otis, 12, and Daisy, 9, with ex Jason Sudeikis—couldn’t be happier with her own performance in the movie, she’s even more proud of the project as a whole.
“I just love the unpretentiousness of this film,” she said. “It’s just ballsy and fearless and irreverent and it’s designed to be a good time.”
But I Want Your Sex isn’t the only sexually liberated film Wilde has been a part of as of late. After all, she also directed and starred in The Invite—which follows two couples as they’re confronted with a NSFW decision during what’s supposed to be the perfect dinner party—alongside Seth Rogan, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton.
Just one month after that film hit theaters, it has already garnered Oscar buzz, which Wilde noted “makes my brain short circuit.”
And the parallels between I Want Your Sex and The Invite aren’t lost on her.
“These movies feel like sisters, but they’re also the opposite sides of my personality,” she explained. “But I feel very lucky to be a part of two films, that are independent films, that are comedies, that are coming out in theaters. Like, that is major.”
“It is not something that I take for granted,” she said. “There have been years where people have made great comedies that no one gets to see and we’re just lucky.”
“We’re lucky that people are excited about comedy in the theaters again,” she added. “I think they always were, but I think distributors are recognizing that this is what people wanna go see.”
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