Olivia Wilde struggled with sexy look at early auditions

Actress Olivia Wilde faced a serious style struggle at the start of her career after receiving contradictory advice about looking sexy at auditions.

The TRON: Legacy beauty started out working as an assistant for casting director Mali Finn, who once rejected a scantily-clad actress who walked into her office to try out for a role.

Wilde assumed she should wear more conservative clothing and donned a frumpy sweater and trousers for one of her earliest jobs - until Finn reprimanded her for not flashing enough flesh.

She recalls, "I remember an actress coming in wearing a too-short dress. And after she left, Mali said, 'Why was she wearing that dress? She's a joke, I'm not meeting with her ever again.' And this girl was never heard from again.

"A few days later, I was going for an audition and I was wearing this huge cashmere turtleneck and pants, thinking I looked very 'executive'. As I was walking out of the office, Mali said, 'Olivia, what are you wearing? I said I was going to a meeting, and she said, 'Oh! You can't wear that! You have to wear something tight and sexy.'"

Wilde admits she felt "confused" by her boss' tips, adding, "I had just learned this lesson of this actress who wore the short skirt and now her career is over. So she said, 'You're going to meet a male executive. You have to learn this game, you have to learn when to use sexuality and beauty and appearance in general, and when it's inappropriate.' (It was my) first kind of dunk into the world of Hollywood. It gives you this idea of the contradiction that exists, really in all fields."