Olivia Wilde felt conflicted about Maxim's Hot 100 List

Bang Showbiz on Jun 17, 2026

Published in Women

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Olivia Wilde has mixed feelings about being named top of Maxim's Hot 100 List.

The 42-year-old actress topped Maxim magazine's list of the 100 most beautiful women in the world in 2009, but Olivia has now described it as the "most f***** up thing in the world".

During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Olivia explained: "I remember my publicist called me and said, you're number one, do you want to accept it?

"I remember being like, I understand this is the most f***** up thing in the world, but the part of me that felt who didn't fit in from high school, the girl who never felt like who fit those [beauty] standards, who felt awkward and wrong in every way, I know that part of me was like, really? You want me?"

Olivia felt uncomfortable with the idea that her value was "entirely dependent on our fickle, subjective definition of beauty".

Despite this, Olivia acknowledged that the recognition helped her in her acting career.

The Hollywood star - who previously dated Harry Styles - explained: "I got roles upon roles from that. It led to casting. You have to take responsibility for your participation in that self-objectification."

Meanwhile, Olivia previously admitted that she finds directing to be a liberating experience.

The actress made her directorial debut with the teen comedy film Booksmart in 2019, and Olivia explained that she relished the experience.

She told The Talks: "Directing has been liberating in a way that is very profound because as an actor, you are very dependent. You're dependent on people choosing you and people projecting a certain kind of definition onto you of a character of what you are. I think it's quite an enormous responsibility to hold all of those projections.

"With being director, there's a sense of agency. I think the first time that I called action on my own set of my first film, I felt a thrill of independence for the first time. My value on a set was entirely based on my ideas and if I had an instinct to change a scene, I could do that."