# Olivia Wilde Let the Soil Rest > After a brutal public stretch, Olivia Wilde took a year off and came back with the two best performances of her career. - Title: Olivia Wilde Let the Soil Rest · Rolling Stone | Shortify - Summary: After a brutal public stretch, Olivia Wilde took a year off and came back with the two best performances of her career. Stepping away from the work isn't… - Keywords: olivia wilde, film, comeback, directing, sundance, Olivia, Wilde, Let, Soil, Rest, Rolling Stone - Source: Rolling Stone — https://rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/olivia-wilde-invite-i-want-your-sex-interview-1235624242 - Author: David Fear - Published: 2026-09-13T13:00:00+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: olivia wilde, film, comeback, directing, sundance ## A farming word she borrowed A friend explained fallowing to Wilde: farmers rest a field for a year, the soil turns over, the nutrients come back. She heard it as a description of artists. > After what I went through, I could have just jumped right back into the ring. But I took some time to turn the soil over. ## Two films, one Sundance January 2026 brought two Wilde projects to Park City, both about love, sex, and how modern couples wreck each other. ## The Araki one In Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex, Wilde plays a performance artist in an unsparing BDSM affair with her much younger assistant, played by Cooper Hoffman. ## The dinner party one The Invite remakes the Spanish film The People Upstairs. Wilde directed and co-stars with Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton as a dinner goes sideways. ## What she was recovering from A messy divorce, public judgment over her relationship with Harry Styles, and rumors of chaos on the Don't Worry Darling set. She came back with her best work. > The kind of vulnerability [needed] for The Invite in particular wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been knocked on my ass. ## Losing the self-consciousness An episode of Rogen's The Studio, where she played herself as an egomaniac, plus Araki's Madonna-inspired role, burned off the stiffness she'd felt on camera for years. ## She only wanted to direct When The Invite script arrived, Wilde wasn't after a part. She wanted her Sidney Lumet shoot: one room, 35mm, shot in sequence, rehearsed until it evolved on its own. ## The text chain that cast her After an actor dropped out of the Angela role, Wilde kept pitching replacements to Rogen and Norton. They finally told her to stop and play it herself. > Olivia, the obvious answer is that you should play Angela. It's not just the best part of your career, you're perfect for it. ## Angela unlocked her Playing an uptight fortysomething straining to impress her adventurous neighbors turned out to be freeing, the opposite of every role that asked her to be desirable. > It was sort of my 'Fuck you' to every time I felt I'd been forced to be an object of desire. ## Two weeks of confession Before shooting, the cast and writers workshopped the material, trading real fears and regrets about long-term love. Jones and McCormack wrote it all in. ## The theatrical bet paid off A24 won a bidding war at $12 million. Wilde demanded a theatrical release, betting the frank humor needed a room full of strangers. It became a summer sleeper hit. > Sharing those conversations in a public forum is something that we still feel a little bit nervous about. But the nerves are what make it fun. ## Learning to sound like herself She's prepping another comedy in London, and describes this stretch as a second or third act she's finally relaxed inside of. > Didn't Miles Davis say, 'It takes you a long time to learn to sound like yourself'? ## Key takeaway Stepping away from the work isn't quitting. Wilde's fallow year is exactly what made the vulnerability in her new roles possible.