'The Invite' screenwriters Rashida Jones & Will McCormack

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Fresh Air interviews Rashida Jones and Will McCormack about their long creative partnership, shaped by a brief romantic history and sustained by shared humor, empathy, and a fascination with heartbreak. They discuss their new single-location dinner-party comedy The Invite, their writing process, the role of collaboration, and how grief, aging, and loss inform both their art and lives.

Main Topics: The Invite and its dinner-party pressure cooker (Priority: 5/5): Jones and McCormack explain the premise of their new film: two couples in one apartment over one night, where awkward small talk turns into emotional exposure and relationship truths unravel. Writing partnership rooted in shared voice and humor (Priority: 5/5): They describe how their chemistry as former short-term daters became a durable writing partnership built on similar rhythm, shared emotional instincts, and the ability to laugh through pain. Heartbreak, grief, and loss as creative fuel (Priority: 5/5): Both argue that loss is central to being human and therefore central to their work; they return to painful emotional territory because it is universal, funny, and cathartic. Esther Perel’s influence on the film’s themes (Priority: 4/5): They discuss relationship expert Esther Perel’s consultation and her idea that difficult relationships eventually require acknowledgment, letting go, and the possibility of a new relationship. Celeste and Jesse Forever as an early template (Priority: 4/5): The conversation revisits their first screenplay together, using a clip from Celeste and Jesse Forever to show how they write sharp, emotionally devastating dialogue about love, failure, and maturity. Individual biographies shaped by collaboration and storytelling (Priority: 4/5): Jones reflects on rejecting a law path after the O.J. Simpson trial and on growing up around Quincy Jones; McCormack discusses his family, sobriety, and how storytelling became his vocation. Ethics, complexity, and seeing gray (Priority: 3/5): Jones talks about moving beyond black-and-white thinking, from her teenage letter to Tupac to her later understanding that people and justice are more complex than simple categories.

Key Arguments: The Invite works because it contrasts two couples: one already rupturing and one performing openness, creating immediate dramatic tension. The title The Invite carries multiple meanings and sets a slightly ominous, classic tone. Their strongest material comes from exploring the exact emotional moment people usually avoid: grief, disappointment, and the end of an old self. Heartbreak is not just sad; it is a shared human experience that creates connection and can also be funny. McCormack’s Oscar-winning short If Anything Happens, I Love You shows that audiences will engage deeply with painful material when it is honest and carefully made. Jones and McCormack’s collaboration succeeds because they protect each other’s younger, more vulnerable selves and give each other confidence. Jones’s work with Quincy Jones and McCormack’s family background both reinforce their belief in collaboration as a deeply human, generous practice. Their art is driven by an effort to live inside emotional truth rather than avoid it, even when that means confronting fear and loss.

Data Points: Years of creative partnership: More than 2 decades - Jones and McCormack have worked together for over twenty years. Release year of Celeste and Jesse Forever: 2012 - Their first screenplay together was Celeste and Jesse Forever. Number of couples in The Invite: 2 - The film centers on two couples at a dinner party. Setting of The Invite: A single San Francisco apartment - The entire film unfolds in one location. Academy Award wins for Will McCormack: 1 Oscar - He won for the animated short If Anything Happens, I Love You. Grammy wins for Rashida Jones: 1 Grammy - She co-directed Quincy, the documentary about her father. Emmy nominations for Rashida Jones: 1 Emmy nomination - For her performance in Black Mirror. Runtime/length of If Anything Happens, I Love You: 12 minutes - McCormack describes the animated film as 12 minutes long. Screenplay length of If Anything Happens, I Love You: 12 pages - He says the script was only 12 pages long. Time to write If Anything Happens, I Love You: 1 year - McCormack says it took a year to write carefully and thoroughly. Time filming Quincy: 6 years - Jones says she filmed the documentary about her father for six years. Years Quincy Jones lived after his coma: 9 years - Jones says he survived and lived another nine years. Sober length: 19 years - McCormack says he has been sober for 19 years.

Pivotal Quotes: "It's like the great connector." — Will McCormack: He explains why heartbreak and loss are central to his writing. "we're in an open relationship as writers. A very healthy, open relationship." — Rashida Jones: She describes how they write together while maintaining individual voices. "If you love it and if you believe it, do it." — Will McCormack: He recalls his father’s advice about pursuing one’s calling.

Implications: The interview frames emotionally uncomfortable stories as commercially and artistically valuable, suggesting audiences want truthful depictions of grief, aging, and relational collapse. It also highlights collaboration as a creative superpower in film and TV.