Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Wilde said the film had “melted the cynic” out of her and made her “so much more romantic.”
The film, Wilde’s third feature as a director after “Booksmart” and “Don’t Worry Darling,” stars Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. It follows Joe and Angela, played by Rogen and Wilde, who invite their upstairs neighbors, Piña and Hawk, to a dinner party. What begins as a simple evening gradually becomes a deeper look at relationships and the ways people can change over time.
Wilde said she originally believed the film was mainly about the end of a relationship. After speaking with audiences, however, she now sees it differently.
“I feel that it’s much more about whether a relationship can begin again with the same person,” she said. “Whether you can have multiple relationships with one person, and actually whether there’s more merit to that than I would have thought before.”
Conversations with older couples especially affected her. Wilde said she had spoken with people who had been married for 40, 50 and even 60 years, and many recognized their own experiences in the film.
“They told me it was a very honest depiction of their own experience of really having several relationships with the same person,” she said.
Wilde was also surprised by the film’s popularity among younger viewers. She expected “The Invite” to appeal mainly to people at a similar stage of life to the filmmakers, but audiences under 35 have become its biggest group in the United States.
A large part of that audience is in their twenties, she said, and their response has given her a more hopeful view of young people and relationships.
“Their questions are not based in regret. They’re based in hope,” Wilde said.
She added that meeting younger viewers had made her “less cynical across the board” and more optimistic about the future of romantic films and adult storytelling in theaters.
That optimism is closely tied to Wilde’s decision to fight for a theatrical release for “The Invite.” She said she believes watching films with other people remains an important part of human culture.
“We used to gather and tell stories, and laugh together – for thousands of years,” she said.
Wilde argued that comedies have increasingly been treated as less important than other films and pushed away from theaters. But she said the reaction to “The Invite” convinced her that audiences still want the shared experience of watching and laughing together.
A screening at the festival was particularly meaningful for her. Wilde said she had originally hoped the film would be shown in just a few theaters, but she was preparing to watch it with an audience of 8,000 people.
She said seeing the film with audiences at Sundance had helped convince her that a theatrical release was the right decision. The film was ultimately backed for theatrical distribution by A24, while FilmNation Entertainment handled international deals, also focusing on theatrical releases.
For Wilde, the experience has also reinforced how much she enjoys directing.
“Directing is like being multilingual,” she said, explaining that directors need to understand how to communicate with actors who have different backgrounds and approaches to their work.
Wilde said her years as an actor helped her understand performers and communicate with them. She directed her first feature, “Booksmart,” at 35.
On “The Invite,” she initially did not plan to play Angela. According to Wilde, the cast encouraged her to take the role, and she is glad they did.
“I’m really happy they bullied me into it because I didn’t realize how much I needed to play her,” she said.
Playing Angela while directing the film was challenging, but Wilde also found it freeing. She said being on camera allowed her to demonstrate to the other actors that it was safe to be vulnerable, imperfect and even make a fool of themselves.
Wilde praised her cast, saying Cruz and Norton brought unexpected detail and depth to their characters, while Rogen combined humor, vulnerability and anger in a way she found particularly impressive.
She also credited cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra and the crew with giving her the support she needed to direct and act at the same time.
Despite enjoying the experience, Wilde is unsure whether she will ever direct herself again.
“I don’t know if I could ever do it again. I think I probably won’t,” she said. “But I’m glad I did it this time.”
The experience did, however, help Wilde discover something new about herself as an actor.
She said she had often been told to be less expressive, including being warned that her face could look “quite intense.” While directing herself, she decided not to follow those old instructions.
“Part of getting older is getting rid of that,” she said.
Wilde wanted audiences to see Angela’s emotions clearly, describing her goal as allowing viewers to see the character’s “heart beating.”
For Wilde, that vulnerability became one of the most liberating parts of making “The Invite” — and perhaps one of the reasons the film changed her own view of love.
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