Olivia Wilde has described the premiere of The Invite at the Sundance Film Festival as “the best night of my life”.
Olivia Wilde at the premiere of The Invite at the Sundance Film Festival
The 41-year-old star both directs and features in the new comedy film and was delighted to see it shown to audiences at the film festival in Utah last Saturday (24.01.26).
Speaking to Deadline, Olivia said: “It was the best night of my life, it was so fun. To sit and laugh with that audience was just so wonderful, so full of joy, I was just levitating in my seat.”
The Invite – which also stars Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton and centres on a jaded couple as they spend an evening with their sexually liberated neighbours – was shot in chronological order and Wilde approached the project as if it were a theatrical production.
The Don’t Worry Darling filmmaker said: “The intention was to approach it like a play. To have the opportunity to workshop it together, to live in the characters a bit, and have some time to rehearse… To make it feel authentic and natural.”
Olivia explained that working on the project made her realise that she can make a film in exactly the style she wants.
The I Want Your Sex star said: “What this project taught me was it’s actually OK to have non-negotiables going into something.
“I think so much time you’re deferring to the man, meaning the studio, or the money people. It’s like, ‘Sorry, it’s probably impossible, it’s too much to ask.’
“And this time I was like, ‘Guys, what if we just do it the way we’ve always wanted to do it?’ And it was so rewarding that it made me think, that’s what I want to do. It’s impossible. It’ll never happen again. But I’m really happy.”
Rogen explained that signing up for The Invite was an easy decision because he had previously worked with Olivia on the comedy series The Studio.
He said: “We’d worked together on The Studio and really, I think, did good work together and got along very well and I think had a good dynamic.”
The 40-Year-Old Virgin star added: “She described a very collaborative process and a period of time where we would go through the characters and make them our own, and even restructure the film in some ways to accommodate new ideas that were arising.”
Seth, 43, revealed how he relished the undercurrent of tension that exists at the heart of the plot.
He said: “I think I thrive comedically in situations where there’s a lot of tension and pressure and an underlying, unnerving, impending doom of some sort, and this was perfect for that.
“It was an incredibly collaborative process that was led by a very clear-headed director who wasn’t afraid when things were changing and evolving, and instead, was really excited by that and embracing it, which is not how I direct.”