‘I feel both thrilled and ruined by this’: Olivia Wilde and Edward Norton on making sex comedy The Invite
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- A24 acquired "The Invite" for $12 million (£9m) following a Sundance premiere bidding war, and the film was shot chronologically over about three weeks on a single set — Edward Norton's first such shoot across more than 50 movies.
- Olivia Wilde dedicated the film to the late Diane Keaton, casting her character's "stupid fucking cunt" inner-monologue outburst as a direct heir to Keaton's Annie Hall self-awareness — Wilde co-starred with Keaton on 2015's Christmas with the Coopers.
- Esther Perel, the Manhattan-based psychotherapist who consulted on the film, supplies its central premise that "bed death" is built into the American dream's puritanical framework; Perel's drive toward authenticity, Wilde says, comes from being raised by Holocaust survivors.
- Norton improvised a key monologue explaining the origins of his character's name, and says Wilde is unusual in letting actors wing pivotal moments on 35mm; he describes the shoot as his first true "flow state" across a 50-film career.
- The script was workshopped for a fortnight with screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, adapted from a Spanish play previously turned into films in Italy, Switzerland, France, and South Korea.
- Wilde, who married an Italian aristocrat at 19 in a school-bus ceremony, told the Guardian she now finds that contract "shameful," arguing social media branding denies people permission to change — a tension she says Perel's work directly addresses.
Why it matters: A24's $12M Sundance purchase marks Wilde's first major commercial validation since 2019's Booksmart, arriving after Don't Worry Darling (2022) alienated reviewers, audiences and Harry Styles fans. With Norton calling the collaboration the most exhilarating of his 50-film career and the picture now positioned as an awards contender, the deal reframes Wilde from tabloid spectacle back to serious filmmaker — though a Perel-inflected "marriage reboot" thesis still has to clear mainstream comedy audiences.
