Olivia Wilde Takes San Francisco by Storm with ‘The Invite’ [Q&A]
The 69th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) kicked off last night Olivia Wilde’s Sundance hit The Invite, starring Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton and Wilde herself. Wilde introduced the film (with a very sly anti-AI nod, saying, “This film was made by humans. Which is something you have to say now”) and stayed for a post-screening Q&A at the legendary and newly restored and refurbished Castro Theatre with SFFILM Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks to talk about adapting the Spanish film The People Upstairs by Cesc Gay with Will McCormack and Rashida Jones as writers, the importance of the San Francisco setting and what her award-winning cast brought to the four-person marriage story of two couples at very different places in their relationships.
During the discussion, Wilde tips her hat to director Mike Nichols and the films that The Invite sees as inspirations and predecessors, like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate and The Birdcage. While the film originally screened at Sundance, the San Francisco screening marks the first time it’s been seen by an audience on a film projector, and is also the first of Wilde’s three films to be shot on film. In her review out of Sundance, AwardsWatch’s Karen Peterson called it “her smartest, wittiest, most grounded to date” and filled with “incredible performances, crisp and often hilarious dialogue.”
Jessie Fairbanks: I do want to come back to [cinematographer] Adam Newport-Berra and some of the craft but first, girl, you’ve got perimenopause in a film and it is not a throwaway line. It is an entire exchange with Penélope Cruz explaining to all of you about what peri and menopause are for women. And I’m just so impressed and delighted with this because it’s something that half of the population goes through and it is so much more extensive than just hot flashes. And it’s not a joke. I mean, it’s funny obviously, but it’s just… Talk to us about shooting that scene.
Olivia Wilde: That is a great example of how these actors personalized this material. And we basically approached this film as an experiment, where we committed to six weeks together, where we spent two weeks work-shopping the material with our screenwriters, with Rashida Jones, Will McCormack. And we six tore into pieces and infused so much of our own DNA into the piece and then shot the film in order, re-conceptualizing things as we felt them as we went along. So the work-shopping continued between all of us as we went. And that scene is an example of Penélope Cruz feeling very passionately about the need to have this conversation in the movie. And she brought so much knowledge.
She and Rashida both have this real dedication to telling this story. And I learned so much from them. And it was wonderful because I felt their passion in everything, but Penelope in that scene, she just felt that she just needed to communicate it and she put it into this character. And when she picked up those olives, I had no idea. And I was in the scene just like, “Wow.” And then she squeezed them and one of them fully exploded into my eye. I was like, “Just keep going.” But that’s an example of the kind of genius ideas these actors brought to the film every day.
JF: That’s amazing. And I do really want to talk a little bit more about the rehearsal process because you have such an amazing all-star cast here. And I am so curious because obviously the script… The script is amazing but the dialogue you’ve mentioned Rashida in a few times. It’s so fresh and lived in. One of my favorite lines in it is that “we love the contentious environment.” I also particularly love the inclusion of the Below the Deck preference sheet because if you know, you know. But the script is only the building box, the beginning of it. And so, I mean, you just shared a little bit about the rehearsal process, but maybe tell us a little bit about the casting process and then also how… You said that you became a brain trust, but how did you really build the trust and the energy that you were seeking because it’s so rapid fire. Was there improv at all? How did you open that up?
OW: Yeah. Well, so the work-shopping process was intense and so exciting because everyone’s ideas were valid and we were debating and Esther Perel is our consultant on this film and yes, as you may have been able to tell and Esther was like our fairy godmother and we would… The six of us would sit around the table, on a soundstage by the way where they shot the pilot for I Love Lucy, which I felt was really meaningful. But we were sitting there just arguing over gender politics and then we’d go and get Esther on the phone and be like, “What do you think? We’re arguing.” And then put that into the film. It was so exciting. And then as we started filming, so much just kind of revealed itself to us and we developed this incredible rhythm together. It was like a jazz quartet. It was suddenly we just found this rhythm that we could just fall into together.
And Seth and I had worked together before and we knew we had this kind of weird ability to harmonize with each other. We like to say that we can talk over each other while listening to each other and we really enjoy arguing and it was so fun. Thank you. We love to argue and scream in each other’s faces and he couldn’t be a nicer person. So the irony of it is great, but the improvisation came out of a very intense period of working with our screenwriters. So it was like we built such a strong scaffolding together and there was so much great material that they had put in there. There was so much great material that was based on the original play that was in the film and lines like, “We love a contentious environment.” That’s a line from the original film and Edward was so passionate about that line and he lands it so perfectly. So it was a real mixture. We were responding to each other. We were also really trying to stay true to the original intention of both the original and also Will and Rashida’s screenplay.
JF: And then maybe also a little bit of play on that was incorporated as you were going, because some of those lines just feel fine and fresh out of your mind.
OW: Yes, yes. I mean, my favorite improvised line is, “Next time you’re in there, count the rings.”
JF: Yes. Some of it just was like, “Oh, that feels like Seth.”
OW: Yeah. There’s a few times that I fully break on camera, but we had to keep it because I gave us no choice.
JF: Yeah. It’s so great though, because it does feel like speaking of modalities in the film, it feels like both Edward and Penélope and Seth are also kind of working against their modalities here. Penélope is so passionate and sexual and beautiful, my God, and she squeezes those olives, but she’s also very stealing and incredibly intellectual and she’s holding… She’s the one that everything kind of moves around.
OW: Yes.
JF: Your performance is off the hook. You’re moving so quick, you’re processing so many emotions, you’re holding all the space and then you’re also behind the camera. And Edward Norton is kind of playing against type as Hawk and we all know these people in our lives in some way. And then Seth was really embracing… I sat next to my husband during this screening and he unfortunately empathized too much with some of the dynamics at play. [audience laughter] But we all kind of know some of these people and we… I just gave away a lot about my life. We all kind of know these people and it’s about being seen and about not losing touch with ourselves. And I just think that’s so brave. And so that is probably part of the source material that you brought it into modern day.
OW: Yes. And I like to say that we are all each of them. I mean, I’m really Joe. The idea of being ambushed by a social situation is my true idea of hell and like a dinner party I don’t want and then being forced to interact with strangers in that kind of dynamic. We were kind of filming it like a thriller because to me it was a real nightmare scenario and it was so fun to empathize with each of them. And I mean, boy did they bring just so much specificity to it, so much. I mean, Penelope coming up with all, the business, she just would bring her physicality, just interacting with the environment. Penelope makes an environment feel real by the way she interacts with it. She just would make the room suddenly feel real. And Edward… I just was so blown away by them.
I wasn’t supposed to play any role in the film. I would never have dared put myself in the movie with those three. It really came out of… We were in the middle of the casting process and the boys ganged up on me and they called me and said, “We want you to play Angela.” And I was terrified because I’m just really intimidated by them. I was like, “I can’t stand across from Edward Norton. Penélope Cruz?” Like, “Seth, okay, we’ve acted together before.” I mean, I just was so blown away that they had faith in me and the four of us formed this little pod. I like to say that it was like we were wearing this harness that wouldn’t let anyone fall. So there was this sense of freedom of play, unselfconsciousness, and that I think relaxed everyone to the point of really being able to just try new things. Every day was a complete discovery. We really didn’t know how the movie ended a week before we shot it.
****SPOILER TERRITORY BEGINS**** (highlight to reveal)
JF: Something else I love is the ambiguity that you leave us with. And that’s a bold decision, especially… I hate to say it for American audiences, we like a clean decision in a lot of ways. I think you were all, of course, incredibly erudite to love ambiguity, but…
OW: I mean, Seth and I disagree about the ending, which is appropriate.
JF: Let’s talk about it.
OW: I think everyone projects their own experience onto it. I love this notion, which is very much Esther Perel, the idea that you can have a new relationship with the same person, but most importantly, it’s that you are responsible for your own happiness and your choices are your own, and you cannot blame your misery on your partner. And the idea that maybe they decide to kind of take responsibility for their happiness separately and set themselves free, or it’s an agreement to start something new with each other. And people disagree on this in every screening, and I’m very curious how you guys felt, but I am so grateful that I had producers who embraced that ambiguity because as we all know, I think this film, were it made in the large studio system, would have had a very different ending. So it was one of the joys of independent films is being able to take this risk with the ending.
****SPOILER TERRITORY ENDS****
JF: Yes. You said something about the specificity earlier, and I just want to… The look and the feel of the film is so specific. I talked a little bit about the opening credit and the opening sequence. I’m just curious, what films did you watch to prepare for or draw inspiration from? Because as you just said, it was a very big task to be both the director and one of the main players of the foreperson.
OW: Yes. And that I think just takes even more prep. And I had the most incredible crew in the world, so we prepped it to death. We really prepped it to life, I hope. Adam Newport-Berra, our cinematographer, and I watched so many films. We were obviously really inspired by Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I think Mike Nichols is one of my heroes, and you can probably really feel that the whole thing is a tip of the hat to Mike Nichols. And I think probably Virginia Woolf, The Graduate and The Birdcage, I think are all kind of infused into this film. And then films like Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice.
I mean, I love Ruben Östlund, so in a much more modern era of film. I think Force Majeure is a film that I love so much because it’s this juxtaposition of a seemingly kind of low stakes domestic situation with incredibly high stakes emotional drama and certainly the way he uses music with putting Vivaldi in that film, you really feel that. And we were very inspired by that. Dev Hynes who created the score that I’m so in love with, which is entirely on the cello, and that score was our attempt to create the kind of high emotional stakes.
I think that we had all these films that we loved, we really just wanted it to have a look and a feel that would allow you to be comfortable being in this kind of limited space. There’s so many great single space movies. I mean, we watched 12 Angry Men also, really studying how can you use the camera to make the audience feel intrigued by staying in the same space. We shot flashbacks that aren’t in the film, running down some streets of the mission here, flashbacks at the make-out room, shout out to the Make-Out room. We love it. We had fun there and a lot that’s not in the movie, only because some really smart mentors of mine were like, “Stick the landing, dude. You stay in one space, don’t bail on that. Just stay there.” And I’m so glad that they pushed me to that because it’s really tempting to be like, “Oh God, maybe they’re bored. Let’s cut to the flashback.” And just to trust that the audience actually has more patience than we often give them credit for.
JF: Well, they keep talking about shooting in San Francisco because obviously we are all very proud. I think Seth took a very interesting route home from the East Bay [audience laughter]. It’s just a delight and a pleasure to see our city reflected on the big screen and we love it. And also, yes, I mean, your use of a single space… I mean, all the blocking, the way that they’re standing on other sides of the frames, the way that you don’t see people in frames together. I mean, you mentioned Mike Nichols and obviously Ruben’s work in particular, but also the way that you build up and then drop us in it. The pacing and the craft of edit, it’s all just beautiful.
OW: Thank you. I mean, you really… With a production designer like Jade Healy, she has done many films, including Marriage Story and she knows how to make a space feel like a character and she built this set in a very short amount of time on a soundstage and the joy of being able to build it on soundstage was to control the architectural… The idea of frames within frames was something that we were able to control and that we knew when we wanted the characters to be separated and the use of the doorways and the hallways and the ceiling, what a joy to be able to control that and to hopefully make it feel like a sort of subconscious storytelling device that people are just molded.
The use of mirrors, that is really all Adam and Jade putting their heads together. Our costume designer, Arianne Phillips, who came up with the idea that my character should be wearing a shirt that is the exact same color as the walls. Her identity is she’s just faded into this house. Yeah. This kind of movie is only possible when everybody completely devotes themselves to it in the way that they’re coming up with all these great ideas. And it’s really the dream to be able to have something that everybody wants to chew on together.
JF: But it needs a leader, it needs a vision.
Fairbanks then reached to the audience for two questions.
For your character Angela, and specifically about how tightly wound and the amount of anxiety that she’s able to emote and share, and what did you dig into to get to that performance?
OW: I really dug into just my own raw, deep anxiety. I think that the experience of the characters have really mirroring the experience of myself, because he’s invited people over to this dinner party hoping it will work out. And I invited this crew and this audience into this film really hoping it would work out. So there was a parallel there. I think that it was interesting. I’ve never had an easier time kind of slipping into character. I think it was because these scene partners were so lived in, they were so present that I just had to respond to them. I keep likening it to playing in an NBA All Star game that you somehow… I don’t know, there’s some freak accident happens and you get pulled into the game and you’re like, “What am I doing here? I’m playing with Steph Curry and Kobe and LeBron.”
And they make it pretty easy to play because you just kind of throw the ball and they can catch it no matter where it was. I just got to be so present in it. It’s weird. It’s the only time I… That experience of playing that character was weirdly… I don’t know. It felt like a side of me that I usually probably keep secret and it was a relief to feel this kind of catharsis of confession. But boy, I mean, my muscles would be so sore at the end of the day because I had been completely wound tight the whole time, but I had a lot of love for her.
Why San Francisco?
JF: Oh, I love this question. Especially because it was shot inside. It’s a great question. Why set it in San Francisco?
OW: Yes. So Rashida and Will had lived in San Francisco into their screenplay and it was one of the first things that I really loved about the screenplay. I loved the specificity of that choice. My mom grew up here. I have a lot of family here and I love San Francisco and I felt… [audience applause]. Yes. I felt like I knew exactly who they were based on that choice that the screenwriters made. I knew, “Okay, the type of people in this story…” Somehow I just understood that they would probably live here. It feels like Pina and Hawk could live above any of you, right? But I think also there’s such specificity to it and it’s really easy to make a movie that’s just any town in America and you can say like, I don’t know, “It’s a city.” And hope that that means everyone will find something in common with it.
But I love the specific choice of San Francisco because it just gave it so much vibrancy and it’s such a vivid place and the vast expansiveness of the beautiful hills and the landscapes, we were just blown away. The entire crew was like, “We’re buying real estate. We’re moving here. This is the most beautiful place on the planet.” Because it happened to be two days of zero clouds. It was so nice. And I have to say that the film crew here was spectacular and it was such a joy to film here and people… We were barging into the BART train and into Molinari’s and people were just so happy to see something creative happening. So creatively it was the right choice for the film. And then as far as our experience, we couldn’t have had a better time.
A24 will release The Invite only in theaters on June 26, 2026.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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