Seth Rogen stars as Olivia Wilde's husband in the new movie, also directed by Wilde
NEED TO KNOW
- Seth Rogen pokes fun at Edward Norton in a new clip from The Invite
- The movie focuses on a struggling married couple who invite their upstairs neighbor over for a dinner party that devolves into chaos
- The Invite releases in select theaters on June 26
Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton make one great group — and it shows in their latest movie, The Invite.
The film, which is also directed by Wilde, 42, centers on a struggling couple, Joe (Rogen, 44) and Angela (Wilde), who are hosting a dinner party for their rowdy upstairs neighbors, Pína (Cruz, 52) and Hawk (Norton, 56). When the latter couple make an unexpected proposition, the night spirals into uncharted territory.
In a new clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Joe finds out that Hawk works as a firefighter. While Angela and Pína fawn over the impressive career, Joe appears in disbelief, noting that Hawk doesn't look like a firefighter.
"You don't seem like a firefighter!" Joe says in dismay, while Angela appears to defend Hawk, asking Joe why he would say that. "They're brawnier. They have mustaches. They're brawnier!"
Credit: A24
The four all talk over each other at once as Joe explains to Pína what "brawny" means, and Angela seems ready to chastise Joe for questioning it.
The Invite was written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, and is Wilde's third movie as a director and first since 2022's Don't Worry Darling. Based on its Spanish predecessor The People Upstairs, the movie, which has received rave reviews, sees Joe as a curmudgeonly music teacher who has lost the spark in his marriage with Angela, an overly anxious stay-at-home mom who is obsessed with impressing Hawk and Pína, a seemingly perfect (and attractive) couple.
Once the four characters were cast, the six stars worked together to workshop the script, with each person sharing personal anecdotes that informed the revised script.
"We rehearsed the movie going into it, and the movie was completely rewritten, I would say, in the weeks leading up to shooting," Rogen told The New York Times in a June interview. "Huge ideas that are in the movie were not there when we started the rehearsal. What's funny with a movie like this is that you're rehearsing, and the actors are there, the writers are there, and you're talking about relationships, and at some point you have to define what, according to this film at least, is a good relationship and what is a bad relationship."
Credit: A24
He continued, "People really bring their own personal stuff into those definitions. I remember feeling like I could really confidently speak about what a very good relationship was like — one that had been good for a very long time."
While Wilde was already attached as a director, it took some time for her to join the movie as one of its stars, Rogen previously shared.
"When I first signed on the movie, [Wilde] was not going to act in it," Rogen said during a post-screening Q&A at Sundance Film Festival. "Me and Edward and I were texting each other like, 'How the f— do we talk her into being in the movie?' She kept sending us names of other people. I was like, 'Why are you doing this? What exercise are we doing here? There's an obvious person who should do this.' "
He continued, "And then once she decided to cast herself in this film, which she didn't seem to want to do, it really took off."
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The Invite releases in select theaters on June 26 before going wide on July 10.
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