Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Podbit · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Olivia Wilde

Explore episode Jun 29, 2026
Arts
The Invite: Making a One-Room Film Feel Like an Action Movie

Olivia Wilde · Jun 29, 2026 Arts

The Invite takes place almost entirely in one apartment. To make it cinematic, Olivia Wilde and cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra used architecture as a psychological barrier between characters, leaning on mirrors and glass to fragment and distort. Their north star was Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Where this was said

Meeting Olivia: Instagram DMs, Mutual Friends & The Invite First Impressions

At 8:06 · chapter starts 3:03

The conversation begins with a warm, funny discovery of shared connections — their mutual friend Barb, a hairstylist who accompanied Olivia to the Met Gala for the first time and was 'giddy' throughout. Screenwriter Katie Silberman is identified as the connective tissue between all three, praised as a genius who wrote both Booksmart and Don't Worry Darling and is now described as 'basically running Netflix.' Dax then explains he sent Olivia an Instagram DM after watching The Invite and immediately compared it to a Mike Nichols film — which Olivia calls her 'actual dream review.' The exchange establishes why personal, specific filmmaking matters to her.

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