Olivia Wilde is speaking out about that viral red carpet photo from the 2026 San Francisco International Film Festival earlier this year.

The 42-year-old actress and director’s appearance came under question online and she’s even since poked fun at herself with her brother.

During a new appearance on Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper, Olivia addressed the photo, the online reactions to it and how she feels about it all now.

“Looking like an actual dead body. I looked like—did you ever watch, are you too young for, Tales from the Crypt?” Olivia asked. “Somebody out there will know what I mean. There was like a little dead, sarcophagus man. I looked like a shrunken—I don’t even know how to describe it. It was absolutely insane. And I could not believe. But here’s the thing. I was like, oh, you know, I was at a small regional film festival in San Francisco showing the film. So happy. And then, that, it’s a tiny little red carpet. It’s a tiny slip of a carpet, basically like a mat.”

“We did the thing, and then I saw that picture and I was like, ‘All right, but it probably won’t go very far. That probably won’t—no one’s gonna see this. No one cares.’ And then suddenly it was f-cking everywhere. And I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” she continued. “Because all of us have had this situation where you take a bad picture. Your friends, you’re all hanging out, there’s a bad picture, and your friends send photos to the group chat. You’re like, ‘Okay, well that one, guys, kill it. We all agree. That one goes nowhere.’ And imagine if then it was in like a hundred million people’s phones. You’re like, ‘Oh no. But that is not how I actually look.’ I laughed so hard. I mean, the thing that is great about having really good friends is that they are the ones who laugh the hardest. I guarantee any joke that’s been made about me, my friends have made it first, and in a much funnier way, because that’s the important thing. And yeah, we had to laugh.”

“‘She’s sick. She’s definitely sick. She’s dying.’ People were diagnosing me with Graves’ disease. And I was like, ‘Wow.’ Megyn Kelly did an entire segment about how much I looked dead. I was like, ‘All right, b-tch you’ll do anything to not talk about eliminating the Equal Rights Amendment or the f-cking Voting Rights Act.’ But I was really like, ‘This is undeniably hilarious.’ But it’s insane.”

Olivia then shared how her brother’s reaction came to be, which she posted on her Instagram story.

“I flew to New York from there, and I was hanging out with my brother. We were drinking a bottle of wine, and I was like, ‘Oh man, did you see this thing?’ And he was like, ‘No, what?’ And I was like, ‘Look at this thing.’ And I showed him, and he did a full spit take,” she dished. “My brother was like, ‘You look insane.’ And I was like, ‘People are saying I look dead.’ And he was like, ‘You do. What is happening?’ And so he took this video of me because he was just laughing at me, and I ended up posting it—probably because I had consumed that entire bottle of wine. It was just so funny. You have to f-cking learn to laugh at all this sh-t because it’s ridiculous.”

The actress and director commented on the internet’s reaction and the constant need to comment on women’s appearances.

“It is crazy how we seem to want—like, I was there promoting my movie. So excited. I’m there as a director. I’m so proud. It’s almost like the internet doesn’t know how to talk about a woman. It’s like there are two levers and they’re like, ‘Men in your life’ and ‘Body.’ And they’re like, ‘Uh, oh, she’s speaking. Okay, voice? Voice? But men. Body. Body. Men. Body.’ And you’re like, ‘You could also talk about other things.’ I mean, that one, I’ll hand it to them, that picture was so crazy. Like, I too would’ve been like, ‘Is she okay?’”

Olivia‘s San Francisco Film Festival appearance where the viral photo stemmed from was to promote her upcoming new movie The Invite, which she not only directed, but also stars in. Watch the trailer here!

The movie also stars Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, and hits theaters on June 26th.

Posted To:Olivia Wilde