‘Merica Constantly Shows Its True Colors’: Racist Fans Threatened to Cut Off Olivia Wilde’s Lips and Kill Her for Kissing ‘House’ Co-Star Omar Epps
Olivia Wilde is opening up her time on the cast of “House,” where she played Dr. Remy Hadley, a smart, bisexual, and — at times — rebellious internal medicine doctor. She built up a fanbase after joining the show in 2004 for its fourth season and stayed on as a recurring character until its final season in 2008.
Despite having that fan base, Wilde says she also had haters, some of which spewed racial threats after her character shared a kiss with a Black doctor named Dr. Eric Foreman — played by Omar Epps.
According to Variety on Dec. 8, Wilde spoke about that experience at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. She said there were “insane death threats constantly coming into the studios,” which led to the crew taking extra precautions by hiring security.
This is not her first time speaking out about the heinous reactions she and Epps endured. As reported by the New Zealand Herald, Wilde spoke to Cosmopolitan in 2011 about how viewers reacted to the kiss, saying, “We got a lot of hate mail for that,” she says.
“There are racist people out there,” she continued. “We got hate mail that said that someone wanted to cut off my lips and kill me.”
Fans reacted with shock to learn that’s how viewers of the show reacted to Wilde’s character embarking on an interracial relationship. On Buzzfeed’s report one person wrote, “‘an actress i like is dating a black man in a show, i’m gonna send her death threats!!’ is such an insane thought process.”
Another person said, “’Merica constantly shows its true colors.”
“The sad truth of the matter is that the average American is really significantly below average, at least when it comes to common human decency,” wrote a third on The Independent.
Wilde, who is not only an actress but a director, also spoke out about the shift of more women taking on those dominant roles behind the camera.
She told Variety, “I think for many young women, when we love movies as little girls, we’re told, ‘Oh, you should be an actress. I think when little boys say they love movies, people say, ‘You should be a director.”
“I think we need to raise women to believe that they are allowed to take up space, that they’re allowed to be leaders,” she continued. “It’s difficult to run a production, and it’s difficult for men too. But as women, we’re sort of told that we should, in many ways, constantly apologize for our existence. And as a director, you can’t do that. I think that it’s about shifting the way that we raise women to consider how they should behave and to encourage that kind of fearlessness.”
In 2019, Wilde made her directorial debut with the teen comedy film “Booksmart,” for which she won a GLAAD Award in the Outstanding Film – Wide Release category. She has since gone on to direct other films like “Wake Up” and the thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh.