Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, and at numerous screenings—even at more serious, professional club and press screenings—The Invitation has consistently drawn laughs from audiences. The film's laughs stem from a dinner party gone wrong that brings together two very different couples, neighbors who don't actually know each other but experience unspoken tension over noise issues—Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde)'s renovations versus the active sex lives of Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz).
«"I love awkward tension. I love it. I think it's because a lot of my family is British," director and lead actress Olivia Wilde said in an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. "The idea of quiet desperation and the intensity of unspoken tension is the funniest thing in the world.".
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Wilde immerses us in Angela and Joe's strained marriage, beginning with a fight that flares up before (and during) the dinner party itself. Unresolved disagreements give way to shouting and poorly disguised silences when the much healthier and more open guests arrive. In the podcast, Wilde spoke about her desire to make unspoken jokes as funny as spoken ones, finding humor in unspoken moments of rage.
«"I find it really funny when people feel so strongly about something they can't talk about or express," Wilde said. "It just makes me laugh when people go out of their way to not express their true feelings. That always amuses me.".
Wilde wants the audience to identify with the troubled couple, which she believes produces the most satisfying laughs as the awkwardness gives way to a sense of openness.
«There’s a relief in that laughter, a sense of, „Oh, my God, I know I’m this kind of person,“ or, „I’ve seen this in my relationships.“ And I wanted that laughter to be something that pokes fun at ourselves, at how ridiculous we are,» Wilde said. «There’s something healing about releasing the pressure of shame, all this tension that we hold in, of how we think we should be in relationships, and if you just acknowledge that we’re all struggling, then that shame is released, and the air in the room is lighter. It’s just really nice.».
During press conferences for The Invitation, Wilde often quoted Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer and star of Fleabag: "People are never as vulnerable as when they're laughing." This vulnerability was evident in Wilde and her co-stars long before filming began.
Screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormick hadn't finished writing a new draft of the script when Wilde joined the project as director with a new cast—the project was originally planned for co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, with Amy Adams, Paul Rudd, and Tessa Thompson attached. At the same time, Wilde wanted rehearsals to be improvisational, allowing the actors to explore and bring their characters to life. Ultimately, the script revision and the rehearsals became a combined effort within the acting workshop—a two-week period during which Jones, McCormick, Wilde, Rogen, Cruise, and Norton acted out scenes, improvised, and, most importantly, discussed their characters.
«"There was a kind of collective confession. I love how Seth discusses it: to talk about relationships, everyone had to share what they consider healthy relationships, which was incredibly revealing about our personal lives," Wilde said. "We all very quickly started sharing our experiences and what we'd learned in life, in therapy, and what we thought about these characters. It was incredibly revealing and completely cathartic.".
Wilde didn't want to limit herself to a two-week workshop. Since The Invitation is a film set in a single location (except for the opening credits), she insisted on filming chronologically. This allowed the actors to continue improvising and developing their characters more deeply during filming, while ensuring a linear progression of the plot.
This also allowed Rogen to improvise new jokes, many of which Wilde heard for the first time on set. Rogen's "count the rings" line and his joke about condoms—both likely sufficient grounds for the film's R rating, and the actor expressed surprise that his raunchy improvisations made it into the final cut—made Wilde burst into laughter on camera.
«"In both of those jokes, I'm losing my temper, and there was nothing else to do—I couldn't use another shot because it was the perfect shot of Seth. So I thought, 'Well, I guess I'll have to use the one where I'm losing my temper,'" said Wilde, who embraced showing an unintentional side of her character's complicated relationship. "This character, who's become so hostile to him, still laughs at him. It was perfect.".
The plot's revelations were intended to have a ripple effect on the subsequent developments. Although Jones and McCormick's script was well-structured, there was ample room for improvisation within that architecture, which is why Wilde is convinced no studio would have financed or supported the film.
«"This film is a product of the process itself; it couldn't have been foreseen or planned. There were no script pages for the studio. The studio couldn't have provided the flexibility this process required," Wilde said. "The risks we took that led to this outcome are simply unacceptable in the studio system, unless you're Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino.".
After the film won over its initial audience at Sundance, it was approached by studio divisions—reportedly Warner Bros., Clockwork, Focus, Searchlight, as well as NEON, Apple, Sony, and Amazon—which turned into the most intense battle for festival rights. Ultimately, the film, previously backed by Megan Ellison's Annapurna, was acquired by A24, despite Netflix offering more money. Wilde is open about why.
«"For me, [getting it released] was a non-negotiable. I was very fortunate to have Annapurna on board with that. I think Megan Ellison could have easily said, 'No, we can easily get more money from Netflix,'" Wilde said.
For Wilde, the tendency to skip comedy screenings is particularly troubling given how much of the humor in a film like The Invitation is hidden behind fleeting glances and relies on the assumption that audiences will figure it out and connect with it on their own.
«I think the idea that comedies should only be on streaming platforms has slowly become accepted over the last couple of years. It’s something new, and I hope it’s ending,» Wilde said. «Even in production, there was this idea of, „Well, they’ll probably just want to put this on Netflix.“ But the thing is, this is a film that’s meant to be watched and listened to; if you’re holding a phone, you won’t understand it. And I think we both understand that films are being made specifically for people holding phones now, and that’s the worst thing that’s happened. And I think that’s the beauty of the movie theater: not only is it a wonderful communal experience where everyone’s enjoying something together, but it’s also one where you’re forced to pay attention.».
For Wilde, the danger of this form of distribution is obvious: "If we start making films without expecting it, we will not feel obliged to create something that is truly worthy of the audience's attention.".
Instead, A24 convinced Wilde of how it saw and wanted to market The Invitation.
«"They understood that this wasn't just a chamber play for an adult audience, meaning older people," Wilde said. "They were the ones who said, 'Let's release it in the summer, let's be ambitious.' And their approach to marketing was very much in line with my style of work.".
The Invitation opens in limited theaters on Friday, June 26th and wide on Friday, July 10th.
To listen For the full interview with Wildes, which airs July 2, be sure to subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.