Olivia Wilde’s Apartment Builds Secrets for The Invite

Production designer Jade Healy says she built the pre-war San Francisco apartment in The Invite as a living record of Angela and Joe’s marriage—right down to the rooms that feel unfinished, and the camera frames that split them apart.

On a hectic Friday night, Angela’s apartment is ready—renovated, decorated, and opened up for a seductive dinner party that could tip everything the couple has been trying not to break. The problem is that the space doesn’t just hold the story of Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite.” It carries it.

For production designer Jade Healy. creating the interiors for Wilde’s latest film meant diving deep into character psychology—by building an apartment that looks expansive and inviting on the outside. yet clearly shows where Angela and Joe are fraying on the inside. Healy described the work as “a version of Angela [Wilde]. designing and decorating this apartment. ” centered on a pre-war San Francisco unit that serves as the primary setting for Wilde’s charming sex comedy.

The apartment itself was built entirely on a set, but the design trail led through real life. Healy said the build was inspired by a scouting trip to San Francisco. and by hours exploring vintage apartment listings online. including listings on Zillow. The finished look is meant to reveal aspects of Angela and Joe’s inner and outer turmoil—Angela is an artist who gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mom. while Joe (Seth Rogen) is a one-time punk musician who’s now a burned out music teacher.

In Healy’s telling, the sets aren’t just comfortable or stylish. They’re a direct look into the current (crumbling) state of Angela and Joe’s marriage. Angela. in particular. pours frustrated creative energy into the apartment. keeping a tight grip on her “vast (for San Francisco) vintage kingdom”—sometimes at the expense of her relationship. and maybe even herself. Healy wanted that tension visible.

“It was really fun to think, ‘Who is she?. What did it look like before?. What is she constantly redoing in her house?. Pillows, curtains?’” Healy told IndieWire. Most of the home’s items were curated to feel like they could plausibly be assembled with care on a single-income budget. That pushed her toward inspiration sources that match Angela’s mindset: Instagram. where ordinary women share their maximalist interior design projects. rather than traditional interior design magazines. “I was really more interested in people who design with a personal touch,” Healy said.

Healy also leaned into affordability as a storytelling tool. She said many of the household items—including a vintage toilet—were found on Facebook Marketplace. and she insisted that the set decoration should stay within reach: “It was important when we were decorating…that the stuff was all affordable.” In Angela’s world. that’s where the character would spend her time—“She’s going to flea markets. she’s making curtains. ” Healy said.

Even with that abundance of personality. Healy kept a filmmaker’s priority in mind: the set has to work for the actors. not just for the audience. “The actor will see the whole room,” Healy said. “It needs to feel like the story we’re telling, so the actor can get lost in the space. It’s the last piece of information you’re giving the actors about their character when they show up on set.”.

But two rooms resist that magic.

First is Joe’s study. a cramped space where his music—and his failed ambitions—are jammed into somewhere too small to feel like he’s truly living inside his potential. Then there’s the bedroom. where Healy said. “No magic is happening.” It’s the one minimalist room in the apartment. with paint samples languishing on one wall. Healy envisioned the bedroom as a space Angela hasn’t spent much time in because her and Joe’s sex life is null. “I just wanted that feeling when you go into the bedroom that she’s worked on every other aspect of the apartment. but the bedroom is just kind of bleh. ” she said. The design choice becomes a kind of visual silence—“A wall with nothing on it says something.”.

Wilde and Healy also collaborated closely on the set’s floor plan. with Healy saying they wanted the film to never feel trapped inside one space. “We talked about how we wanted to make sure the film never felt stuck in this apartment,” she said. “We wanted it to feel like we’re actually in so many different places.” That meant jettisoning the original idea of an open floor plan for the kitchen and living room. a script change that heightens separation between Angela and Joe once filming begins.

Healy then built the apartment to match how the director of photography, Adam Newport-Berra, would likely frame it. She said she wanted “frames within frames. ” because those compositions could separate the characters—by doorways. by rooms. and even through reflections in mirrors. Watching Newport-Berra work gave her the kind of surprise she didn’t expect: she said she felt “pretty savvy” about the angles. but even then she would catch herself thinking. “What is this shot?” She praised his talent for how shots reveal character.

The production approach mattered, too. “The Invite” was shot in 23 days in chronological order. Healy told IndieWire that Wilde fought hard to shoot the film on 35mm. adding that. “I don’t think that the relationship between set design and shooting on film is discussed enough.” In Healy’s view. when shooting on film. you’re “trying to make everything feel real. ” and film stock gives the set a lived-in quality that’s “not often achieved when shooting digitally.”.

Healy has worked on dozens of films, but she said she’s only worked with a handful of female directors. Working with Wilde was a treat, and she described Wilde’s leadership as unusually focused. “She was so confident. She’d go from Angela and then put on her directing hat,” Healy said. “She knew exactly what she wanted; she knew exactly what she was doing.” Healy called the collaboration a “really great mirroring of the minds.”.

For Healy, the end goal isn’t just delivering a beautiful look. It’s helping production move past set anxiety. After a director and team receive her lookbook and model. she said they can “spend their time and energy shot listing and rehearsing with the actors. and not stressing about the sets. That’s always what I want to deliver,” Healy said.

“The Invite” opens in limited theaters on June 26 and wide on July 10.

Jade Healy Olivia Wilde The Invite production design Adam Newport-Berra Seth Rogen Penélope Cruz Edward Norton The Studio 35mm San Francisco apartment Facebook Marketplace Zillow Instagram