A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
At the beginning of the new film "The Invite," a line from an Oscar Wilde play pops up on the screen. It goes, one should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.
"The Invite" is a story of a marriage on the ropes. Olivia Wilde - no relation to Oscar - plays Angela. Seth Rogen plays Joe. They are at each other's throats right from the start.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE INVITE")
SETH ROGEN: (As Joe) What is this?
OLIVIA WILDE: (As Angela) That's a rug.
ROGEN: (As Joe) Did you buy this rug because the neighbors are coming?
WILDE: (As Angela) Oh, my God.
MARTÍNEZ: Angela is frantically preparing to host a dinner party for a mysterious new couple living in the apartment above them. Joe is not keen on having them over. The couple brings a dessert to the party and a shocking proposal.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE INVITE")
ROGEN: (As Joe) Just to be clear, you, you, her and me.
PENELOPE CRUZ: (As Pina) Yes.
ROGEN: (As Joe) Me too.
CRUZ: (As Pina) Yes. Also you.
MARTÍNEZ: "The Invite" was directed by Olivia Wilde. When we meet her character, Angela is a big ball of anxiety.
WILDE: She is existing on top of a very powerful fault line of tension. And like many people in relationships that last, you know, about 20 years, which is Angela and Joe at the point we meet them, she started out in a way that was a lot more relaxed and then has kind of become unrecognizable to herself, let alone her husband. And I think that Joe, Seth Rogen's character, is in a very similar place. He gave up his dream of being a musician and also has this sense of, if we can keep this family intact, we have not failed, even if we are deeply unhappy.
MARTÍNEZ: How do you get past that? Well, don't you, like, reach out to your best friend, your spouse, to try and work these things out? But it seems like they never say a word to each other about these kind of things.
WILDE: They don't. I think the last person most people turn to in that state is the person they really should, which is the other person experiencing it, because it would be too painful to acknowledge that it's real. I think that they would have probably continued on in this state if not for this kind of combustion that occurs on the night that the movie takes place, which is when their neighbors come for dinner. I think without this moment, they'd probably still be living that way.
MARTÍNEZ: And their neighbors - Ed Norton and Penelope Cruz - they play the mysterious couple in the apartment above them.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE INVITE")
EDWARD NORTON: (As Hawk) It took you a while to come to the door.
CRUZ: (As Pina, speaking Spanish).
NORTON: (As Hawk) And it sounded like you were arguing.
CRUZ: (As Pina) No filter.
NORTON: (As Hawk) No, I just want to be honest. We were at the door before we rang, and we could hear you were fighting.
WILDE: (As Angela) Oh, we were...
ROGEN: (As Joe) We were fighting.
WILDE: (As Angela) We were fighting, yeah.
ROGEN: (As Joe) Bit of a contentious environment in here, so I understand if that's repellent to you. No hard feelings. You know what I mean? Completely understand, you know?
NORTON: (As Hawk) We love a contentious environment.
ROGEN: (As Joe) You hit the jackpot then, my friend.
(LAUGHTER)
ROGEN: (As Joe) You're in for a treat.
MARTÍNEZ: So the character that you play and that Seth plays, you guys are kind of noisy with each other in that you're arguing a lot. Now, Hawk and Pina...
WILDE: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...They're also noisy, too, but in a kind of a different way.
WILDE: Very different way, yes. So in the beginning of the film, it's revealed that Joe, in particular - Seth's character - has been kind of plagued by this constant noise of our neighbors having sex loudly above us. And it is extreme, and it's driving him nuts. And he is threatening that this will be the night he will bring up how loud they are. And it's sort of this guillotine hanging over Angela's head the whole film that Joe will bring up the noise.
MARTÍNEZ: And, you know, what is so funny about this, Olivia, is that when I think about people that make noise complaints of any kind, I always wonder what the root of the complaint is. Does the noise represent something they wish they were a part of, too, or maybe that they used to have?
WILDE: Exactly. It's just rubbing in their faces that they aren't having sex. And these neighbors are not, like, 20-year-old kids. It's not like, oh, the college kids upstairs are really loud. And it is a couple that is a little bit older than Joe and Angela. And that, I think, is even harder for him because it is confronting the fact that it is a choice to give up one's connection to one's sexuality and certainly in that relationship. It's not this inevitability. It's putting into focus for him his own failure.
MARTÍNEZ: I mean, they're having a lot of sex, but that also doesn't necessarily mean that they're 100% happy either.
WILDE: Correct. Yeah. It was very important to me that we not suggest that this other couple is perfect because they have sex all the time and they never fight. And in fact, they do fight. And we kind of see them demonstrate for Joe and Angela that there is beauty in rupture and repair. It's not about whether or not you fight. It's how you recover.
MARTÍNEZ: What do you think makes for a great marriage - and I'm doing air quotes - a, quote-unquote, "great marriage"?
WILDE: (Laughter) You know, we had a great consultant on this film, who's Esther Perel. She is an expert in relationships. She is adamant that the core of a great relationship is really honesty and communication, which doesn't mean full transparency to the point where you have to know absolutely everything about your partner and they you. I actually think that many people mistake love for melding. It's not actually that.
MARTÍNEZ: So I need to ask, then, when you said about honesty and transparency - so, like, when my wife comes up to me and says, how does this blouse look on me?
WILDE: (Laughter) You know exactly what to say.
MARTÍNEZ: Am I being honest or...
WILDE: Yes (laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: Or do I want to just...
WILDE: You are being....
MARTÍNEZ: ...All of a sudden not speak for three days?
WILDE: You are looking at the question behind the question, which is, do - am I worthy of love in this blouse? And the answer is, yes, you look...
MARTÍNEZ: That's a different way. See...
WILDE: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So if she were to ask it that way, of course, the answer would be yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
WILDE: (Laughter) None of us are ever asking what we're asking, are we?
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I guess not. For me, the biggest thing that this film did really well was showing how very serious, intense-sounding arguments between married couples can be really funny and even silly...
WILDE: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...At a distance or in retrospect. I mean, you don't know how many times my wife and I have remembered an argument from 10 years ago and kind of laughed at it.
WILDE: Yes - and cracked up. That's the best feeling. I love that feeling. And I do think that Joe and Angela, they're very funny together. Like, I think that there is a bit of Lucy and Desi in this couple. They actually do make each other laugh. There's several points in the film where Seth would make me break with his improv lines that - you can see that I'm actually just incapable of holding it back. And I kept those in because I think even when Angela is so angry at her husband, she can't help but laugh. He makes her laugh, even when they're sobbing. And if you laugh at it, I think you can prevent a lot of sadness.
MARTÍNEZ: That is Olivia Wilde. She stars in a new film she's directed. It's called "The Invite." Olivia, thank you.
WILDE: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALABAMA SHAKES SONG, "DON'T WANNA FIGHT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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