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Midway through Don’t Worry Darling comes a disturbing party scene in an already disturbing movie: A cultish Chris Pine is on stage, riling up a crowd of tuxedoed company men and compelling Harry Styles to tap dance like a trained monkey, all while Florence Pugh’s Alice begins to fall apart. In stark contrast to the machismo, however, is burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, who makes a glittering cameo in a soap-bubbly, life-size Champagne glass topped off with a giant strawberry.
“We filmed it in late 2020, and for all I knew it could hit the cutting room floor,” Von Teese tells me from Los Angeles. It was only when she watched the psychological thriller at its recent New York premiere that she realized she played a role in the twisty film’s turning point. Von Teese says she’s “tickled” by fans approaching her about the cameo, recognizing her even with her signature raven hair hidden by a platinum blonde wig. She’t assumed that “people would probably just be like, ‘That’t that girl in the glass.’”
Vogue spoke with Von Teese about director Olivia Wilde, the drama that has swirled around Don’t Worry Darling, and what it was like to shoot that seminal scene with Pine, Pugh, and Styles.
Vogue: How did you come to be cast in the movie? I read that your neighbor, [Don’t Worry Darling costume designer] Arianne Phillips, was your connection.
Dita Von Teese: I got a call from Arianne. We’ve been friends for a long time, and when I heard it was Olivia Wilde...I am a big fan of her work. I was immediately like, “Oh my God, I would love this,” because I’d been just sitting... you know, show biz was completely shut down. I was planning on doing a world tour that was supposed to start in February 2020. I’m my own producer and I invested my own money into it, so I was a little like, Am I ever going to have a show again? I’d canceled my tour and the movie was my very first performance back. So, a little bit nerve-wracking, but I was really excited at the same time.
When Arianne called you, what did she tell you about the film?
Almost immediately it went from a couple of text messages to Olivia and Arianne in my garage, and we were pulling out the costumes and I was showing them everything on a big table. We lay ’em flat because they’re so heavy with big Swarovski crystals. I didn’t know very much about the film. In fact, when I saw it last Monday, that was the first time I’d seen it, and I didn’t know anything about the plot.
What did you think of the movie? Personally, I did not see the twist coming.
So many plot twists, including the plot twist where a lot of the reviews are saying it’s bad, but everyone’s loving this movie. Now that it’s out, it speaks for itself. I was a little like, Wow, this seems like some kind of misogyny going on here.
Do you think there’s a thread between the message of the movie and the way that a film by a female director has been received? I’ve also wondered if all of the picking-apart and scrutiny would be happening...
…If it were a man. That’s what I was thinking the whole time, too. It would be a non-issue if the director were a man and was like... you know, everything that went on. Anyway, I’m not privy... I was only on the movie one day, so I don’t know about all that, but I was just watching [all the film coverage] going, Oh, so strange. Is this going to be a good movie? And now it’s the number-one movie in the country and people can’t stop talking about it. I know that I don’t have bad taste in movies and I enjoyed it, whether I was in it or not.
What was your experience like, being directed by Olivia Wilde?
Amazing. I had a great time. I was just doing my thing for the most part. It’s interesting because we filmed it at [Los Angeles’s] Cicada Club, which is one of the places that I first did my shows in the early 2000s. [Olivia] was the one that suggested I be blonde and I was like, “Well, I have a great blonde wig right here.” It was just fun. I mean, it was not an easy performance for me because I’m used to being on a big, big stage and I was basically on a small platform in the center of the room. I just had to reconcile the costumes in a different way and dance in a different way than I normally would in my tour.
Why do you think being blonde was important?
I think [Olivia] wanted to tie it in with the Busby Berkeley-type girls with the blonde wigs who were in the weird flashback thing.
How did you and Olivia settle on the Champagne glass, as opposed to a clam shell or a martini glass or any of your other aesthetics?
The Champagne class is really fun because of the soap. I thought for the film it would be a fun thing to see the big frosty soap in the glass, and have the bubbles going, as opposed to the clear martini glass.. I have maybe seven or eight glass designs. I keep evolving the design because people copy it.
How was your scene in the film different from your normal performances otherwise?
I had to modify the costume. One of the things that I really love is challenging costuming. These costumes are built to fill these big stages—tons of crystals elsewhere, all Swarovski. I whittled it down to the minimum for this. I have things that I do in movement, in motion, like walking across the big, grand stage of the Beacon Theater or the Chicago Theater, and there’s things I can do that people won’t see while I’m in motion. So, being on that tiny little platform for the movie, I was like, Oh, I can’t hide my tricks as easily.
How did you understand why you were there and what you were supposed to bring to the scene?
Olivia didn’t speak that much about it beforehand. On set, we filmed my performance the fun way, my usual way. And then she said, “We’re gonna do a take where I need you to make eye contact with Florence’s character. This is the part where Florence’s character is connecting to what’s happening and you’re part of it.” So, we filmed one last take where it was a little bit more, should we say, evil? A little bit more intense.
Do you think it had to do with building sexual tension? Or were you part of Florence’s character realizing what’s going on in this bizarre world?
Yes. I was told, “You’re in on what’s happening to her.” It felt like a real frenzy in the room when they were filming it. It was some kind of sexual frenzy and debauchery moment. When I perform, you have all the leading men around the room screaming and acting crazy. But that’s not [usually] how I perform at all. Anybody who’s been to my shows knows that it’s at big, historic theaters, and it’s mostly women and the LGBTQ community. It’s not the sex frenzy of heteronormative guys going wild, so it was kind of unusual for me. It’s a little bit grotesque, you know?
Absolutely.
And it’s definitely the pinnacle of the movie. That was one of the things that Arianne and Olivia said to me. They said, “Well, it’s a small part, but it’s an important part of the movie.” So I was happy to hear that.
It is this pivotal scene where Chris Pine is shouting and Harry Styles is maniacally tap dancing. What were you thinking as all of that was happening in front of you?
I’d met Harry Styles before and he’s so lovely every time I’ve met him. He always remembers me and says hi. I felt really welcomed by everyone. I mean, Chris Pine was freaking me out. He’s a good villain, I have to say. I didn’t understand until later that his wife [played by Gemma Chan] is the one who presented me. She introduced me and says, “There’s a surprise.” It was actually intense to watch. I didn’t know where to look because there’s so much going on and, most of all, Florence’s incredible acting moment there.
How difficult was it for the scene to come together? Between Chris Pine’s yelling and Harry Styles’s dancing, did you have to do a million takes?
I was there for a full day. I remember not being too tortured and enjoying myself, because it did still feel like a party atmosphere. I was in the glass for quite a while, but that was fine. Everyone was taking care of me. I don’t remember being freezing.
Even though it was acting, was it strange to be performing around all of these barking mad men?
Yeah. My career has spanned an arc where, at first, it was like that, because I started my burlesque shows in strip clubs. That shifted when I came out with my beauty book and books explaining why I love burlesque and glamour and its transformative powers. I had this whole new female-forward fan base. When I first started, I was in my 20s and now I’m turning 50. I’ve lived through the arc of being a Playboy star and now keeping burlesque alive. That’s what’s important to me, is presenting my show as a whole and not necessarily being this sex symbol.
In the golden age of burlesque—the ’40s and ’50s—it was entertainment for men. It was striptease. Now it’s something else. That’s the other parallel I really like with the film. It snapped me back to what it might have been like to perform in a ’50s supper club, where you’re just being objectified, although I don’t mind being objectified, because it’s kind of liberating to indulge in that and to admit you enjoy it at times. But I feel much more power in getting to be a burlesque star in modern times, where it means something vastly different than it did back then.
The film has sparked a lot of conversation. Did you ultimately think it was about female pleasure?
I didn’t get that it was about female pleasure at all. I think they were just talking about the sex scenes, which, yes, they’re fun and frivolous sex scenes, but I don’t know that the film is about female pleasure. We kept hearing that because of all the tabloid stuff.
What part hit you the hardest?
What hit me the hardest—without giving any spoilers—is: What happens in the movie could happen. It’s creepy because it’s not far from what could be. I watched it in the theater last week, and I’m still thinking about it.
Do you have the acting bug within you?
A few years ago, the movie director Martha Fiennes, who’s part of the Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes family, wanted to have me play the part of Mata Hari in a film that she was making that didn’t get made. And she put me in private acting lessons, through a referral from Ralph, and I was in these lessons for two years and I never really got to use it. I used it for one episode on CSI all those years ago. I’m interested in it, but it’s never been my first love. It puts me way out of my comfort zone, which is a good place to be, of course. When I first became known, people were like, “You should be an actor,” but that’s not why I did all this. I did this because I love burlesque and embracing your sensuality in a playful and fun way. Burlesque was never a stepping stone to something bigger.
This interview has been edited and condensed.