Olivia Wilde’s Very Quick Guide To Making Something Impactful

In divisive times like these, it could feel impossible to find anything people can get in back of. Even things that should be no-brainers — the climate crisis that all real scientists agree on, as an example — are turned into incredibly contentious debates.


So as soon as something comes along that is so dearly beloved, it’s worth taking a look at what went right to unite swaths of individuals in back of one cause. I’m talking, naturally, about crucial darling, Booksmart, which is currently accessible for your repeated at-home viewing pleasure on digital and Blu-ray.


To commemorate her successful directorial debut, Olivia Wilde is helping MTV News break down the ins and outs of creating something that moves the masses, and how it’s up to the younger generations to take the lead.


Find a lens we can all relate to.


At first glance, Booksmart seems to be a film about teens and for teens. Only one of these things is actually true. Wilde merely used the lens of adolescence to grab crowds by their lingering teenage emotions group in attempt to hook them with a greater lesson.


You visualize, we’ve all experienced those heightened emotions of our teenage years; once when each crush, every fight, every report card, every extracurricular felt like a major segment of our existence. That period of emotional development is universally relevant. “At once it makes you nostalgic as well as connects you with the sort of core of your own generic fears that maybe have existed since you were an adolescent,” Wilde says.


And whenever you feel a segment of yourself in the characters, it’s easier to place yourself in the lessons they’re learning. “In terms of Booksmart, I wanted all ages to watch it and feel a connection to their own tendency to judge others,” she continues. “I wanted each person to notice that was a segment of their lives and I wanted to stimulate each person to be more empathetic without consideration of age.”


Olivia Wilde with Booksmart collaborators Katie Silberman, Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, and producer Jessica Elbaum at the film's SXSW premiere.


Amplify the talent in the room.


Wilde’s greatest asset isn't her wit, charm, brains, or aesthetics. It’s her ability to bring out those qualities in others, which, it turns out, might be the very best good class of all — especially once you’re seated in the director’s chair.


Armed with a powerful script from one of Hollywood’s most sought immediately after scribes, Katie Silberman, and with performances led by the faces of the industry’s future, Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, and Billie Lourd, Wilde certainly had assistance in creating something that would touch several people.


“I think there's people who go through their lives not networking with because they think it means sacrificing a certain quantity of creative autonomy, and it's not,” Wilde says. “You don't diminish your own participation, you amplify it. You permit for yourself to achieve so much more.”


case in point, it’s the group effort — guided by parties who remind each other of their brilliance and know as soon as to demand more — that takes an assignment to the next level. “There's nothing more powerful than an alliance,” she notes.


Communicate.


Wilde’s main job at the helm was to set the tone and then sit back as everyone’s genius took over. “If I have any skill as a director, it's clarity of communication in describing that tone so that people can effectively plug into it,” she says.


Nevertheless Wilde is aware true communication isn't an one-sided activity. It also necessitates listening to your collaborators and reacting to what they’re saying. In some cases, you might have the ability to convince another party to hear your position. In others, you might learn a new viewpoint. Either way, sounds like a win-win.


“So much of what I love about the film is based on lessons I learned as soon as listening to people,” Wilde says, before doubling down. “Really, it's clear to me that where people go wrong, where people have really frustrating experiences with directing, is any time as soon as they lose the ability to listen and so they sort of close up out of a defensive categorize kind of fear and so they mention, ‘No, no, no, no, no. It's my project. It's my project. I'm not going to listen because everyone's attempting to take it from me.’”


Embrace the evolution.


“I pay attention. I read a lot. I find myself exploring every sort of corner of storytelling. I attempt to never let myself be boxed in.” That’s Wilde’s approach to allowing for the willingness and openness to evolve as a storyteller and as a human. It’s a required developments to make real progress — not just on screen, through outspoken and ambitious young female characters like Molly and Amy, yet in the real world.


That’s why, while some “underestimate the intelligence and the self-awareness of young people,” Wilde sees power in the young activists, like Greta Thunberg, the Parkland survivors, and the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, who are taking control of the paradigm and demanding a different future.


“They are telling their own stories, so they’re no longer relying on an older generation to give them a voice,” Wilde says. “They understand how to own their own voice.” It’s storytelling at its most inspiring, and it’s exactly what drives the entire process to start again.