And he did it in five minutes, according to director Olivia Wilde.
Already a pop star, singer-songwriter and actor, Harry Styles is now adding film composer to his resume. In Olivia Wilde’s new cover story interview with Variety, it was revealed that the 28-year-old Grammy winner contributed an original song to Don’t Worry Darling — and it only took him five minutes to make.
Out Sept. 23, Don’t Worry Darling stars Styles as Jack, husband of Florence Pugh’s leading lady, Alice. The 1950s-set psychological thriller — Wilde’s latest directorial project — repeatedly features a tune simply labeled in the script as the “trigger song,” something Alice often hums to herself.
“In prep, Harry called me and said, ‘What’s the trigger song? Like, what’s the melody?’” Wilde explained to the publication. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I’m going to different writers to write it. Do you have anything in mind?’ And he said, ‘I’ll think about it.’”
“Five minutes later, he sent me a demo from his piano, and it was what ended up in the film,” she continued. “He called me and said, ‘What about this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. And that’s really insane that you did that in five minutes.’”
The “As It Was” singer also spoke to Variety about the song, saying, “I wanted something that could be both sweet and creepy, entirely dependent on the context.”
“I remember first playing it on the piano, and it had a sort of homemade nursery rhyme feel to it,” he added. “Applied to the different moments in the film, I think it takes on a couple of different lives — I hope.”
The Don’t Worry Darling trailer features Pugh singing eerily along to a solo piano melody, “Darling I’m with you all the time ….” Both sweet and chilling, it fits the description given by Styles of his song. Check it out below: