Olivia Wilde says that some tabloid stories about her personal life are
outrageous. Since filing for divorce from Tao Ruspoli, a film director
who is an Italian prince, last March, she has been linked with Justin
Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Chris Pine, and even prizewinning author
Salman Rushdie. "Isn't that hilarious? I mean, in order to be dating all
the people they think I am, I'd need four vaginas!" the actress says. "It's
impossible!" Here, Wilde poses in a silk dress by BCBG Max Azria.
Wilde, who eloped when she was 18, makes no attempt to sidestep the
subject of her divorce, calling it "the most difficult thing I've ever
dealt with." However, she doesn't seem to have regrets. "I got married
at a very young age, so I sort of jumped into a stage of adulthood
prematurely," she says. "I learned quite a lot."
The Allure shoot was on the grounds of a Malibu house designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright's grandson. Hairstylist Ken O'Rourke made Wilde a wreath
out of flowers from its surrounding fields. At the end of the day, Wilde
kept her makeup on and headed to a screen test, saying she'd wear the
wreath out afterward.
In October, Wilde stars as the mother of Justin Timberlake's character
in In Time, a film in which people stop aging at 25. The actress
welcomed the chance to play the role because it was a challenge. "We
were rehearsing, and I remember the director saying, 'No, stop! It looks
like you're going to make out.' 'Nope—that looks like you're going to
make out, too.' We were like, 'Oh, God,'" she says. "I had to find a way
to think of him as my son." In the end, Wilde tried to defuse any sexual
tension by picturing Timberlake as a toddler. "He's got these incredible
blue eyes, so I imagined him as a little baby Justin. And he was able to
transfer a lot of his feelings about his mom onto me," she says. "We're
both total acting nerds."
"I wanted her hair to look ethereal," said O'Rourke. He massaged mousse
into Wilde's hair, then blow-dried it to add volume. He curled random
pieces, pulling the curls apart with his fingers to make them look "free
and more romantic." He finished with shine spray.
Makeup artist Makky P. wanted to create a look that was "beautiful and
well-blended." To do this, he pressed a shimmery pale pink shadow on
Wilde's lids and slightly up over the crease. He then brushed a peachy
bronze highlighter down the bridge of the actress's nose and along her
chin and added a matte pink blush to her cheeks. To keep the overall
look natural, Makky topped a sheer pink lipstick with a light layer of
clear balm. Here, the actress poses in a cashmere turtleneck by Tse.
To this day, Wilde credits a particular casting agent she worked for
with giving her some of the best advice of her career, after Wilde
showed up to the office wearing a turtleneck the same day she had an
audition elsewhere. "She was like, 'A, people don't wear turtlenecks
here. B, why are you not showing any skin?' And I said, 'I'm not going
to sell my body to get a role; it's about the acting.'" Wilde laughs at
her own naïveté. "She was this very powerful, wise 60-year-old woman,
but at the same time aware of how this business works. And she's like, 'Sex
sells. Go put on a tank top.'"
Early on in her career, Wilde admits that she briefly lost her way. "I
went through this kind of A Star is Born transformation, where they made
my hair very blonde, and I got very skinny, and I was like, 'And now, I
fit the mold!'" she says. "If I could tell young actresses anything, it
would be to just be yourself through and through. I mean, really be
hard-core about sticking to your identity, because what makes you
unusual is what's going to assure your success." Here, Allure's creative
director, Paul Cavaco, makes last-minute adjustments as Wilde poses in a
dress by BCBG Max Azria.
"I gained a lot of weight after my divorce, and there was this sense of,
wait, hold on, you don't look like you did before. Are you going to be
up for the same roles? Do you need to be put in some sort of weird labor
camp to lose all your weight?" Wilde says, half-laughing.
Wilde admits that being single can be unsettling: "I find that
commitment is very relaxing, and the process of searching for a partner
in life inevitably keeps you at this level of insecurity," she says. "You're
like this heat-seeking missile, just trying to figure out where to plug
in." Here, Makky P. touches up Wilde's eye makeup.
|