Olivia Wilde on Living a Fulfilling Life

There’s definitely nothing wild about Olivia. Not in a crazy or unruly way, at any rate. As far as I can tell, it’s being insanely beautiful, smart, and genuinely passionate about her causes that makes her stand out as an actress. Although of course, you can likely attribute her “normal” (or so she calls it) childhood — where one night she was having an (innocent) altercation with Mick Jagger (at age 5) and the next being surrounded by activists talking about world issues — as part of what helped form the outstanding woman that Olivia is today.

She’s graced our televisions, the big screen and is now conquering the indie scene, but Olivia keeps her toes very much on the ground. Keen on finding out what Olivia has to say about her involvement in philanthropic activities, politics, and her desire to make the world a better place, we sat down and had a little chat with the Wilde one.

Urbanette Magazine: It’s obvious that you care about giving back. How did you initially get involved in philanthropy?

Olivia Wilde: It’s something we were raised with — a sense of responsibility, the idea of leaving the world better than how we found it. It was instilled in us quite young, my siblings and I.

“Question everything.”

Urbanette: Sounds like it’s almost a part of your overall lifestyle. What other lifestyle choices do you think are worthwhile?

Olivia: I’m a big believer in the vegan lifestyle. I’ve been vegetarian since I was 12 and vegan for about eight years. I think vegan is the best lifestyle. I believe in it for many reasons — environmental, political and humanitarian.

Urbanette: It seems like it’s, thankfully, getting more common for artists and celebrities to be involved in philanthropy and world issues these days…

Olivia: I enjoy using the platform that I have in order to do good things, and to be a social justice warrior. It’s such a loss when someone has an audience and a voice and doesn’t use it.

I am a member of Artists For Peace and Justice, which is a wonderful organization. We support a local org in Haiti. And we run the only free secondary school in Haiti. And I’m so proud to be a part of that. I love traveling down there every few months, and being a part of something that is so effective, and I believe in standing over something that I have personal experience in.

Olivia Wilde in Haiti

Urbanette: What makes your philanthropic activities unique from all the other artists out there?

Olivia: I think that my generation is defined by a new type of philanthropy. Philanthropy is no longer a word just for rich, older people who have fat checkbooks. It is an active philosophy, the idea of really participating, and going around the world and building wells, or saving trees or whatever your thing is. It’s active.

Urbanette: We’re both friends and fans of Hugh Evans and the Global Citizen Festival. Can you tell us more about that?

Olivia: It’s the only advocacy-oriented rock music festival. You can actually earn your way into the festival by participating, and it’s focusing on women and girls worldwide and ending global poverty. It’s the intersection of music and activism — all focused in the right place. At the festival, there are sixty thousand people on the great lawn in Central Park watching these incredible bands, and all these people watching around the world, it’s live-streamed to a dozen different countries, hundreds of millions of dollars being raised, and all of it is for the purpose of ending global poverty. It’s so powerful — I can hardly even believe it’s real!

Olivia Wilde with Usher on stage at the Global Citizen Festival

Urbanette: You were also on Obama’s campaign trail years back. How do you feel about the current political climate? If there’s any advice you can give American citizens out there, what would it be?

Continue for more of this fascinating interview…