Everyone has that one friend that they’ve known forever but don’t see very often, and while the bond remains, there’s absolutely no way under any circumstances they’d ever consider letting them live under the same roof. That’s the basic premise of director Xavier Manrique’s Who Invited Charlie? in a nutshell, albeit with a COVID-tinged twist.
Adam Pally stars as the title character, who after a serendipitous run-in with Reid Scott’s self-centered hedge fund manager Phil, ends up showing up announced at his family home in the Hamptons, where Phil has fled from the city with his wife Rosie (Jordana Brewster) and son Max (Peter Dager) to escape the onset of the pandemic during the height of the first wave in March 2020.
Charlie also happens to know some of Phil’s darkest secrets, so he’s got no choice but to put a roof over the unwelcome interloper’s head, but he grows increasingly flustered as Rosie and Max welcome in the uninvited guest to be part of the family.
Who Invited Charlie? is now playing in select theaters, as well as on digital and on-demand, and We Got This Covered had the chance to speak to Manrique about his latest feature. During our chat, we dive into overcoming audience reluctance to embrace COVID-themed content, the time capsule quality of the story, and how everyone has a Charlie of their own, which you can check out below.
It’s your first feature in a while, so what was it that drew you to Who Invited Charlie? That made it obvious to you as a filmmaker that it was a project you needed to direct.
So I previously worked with the writer [Nicholas Schutt] on our first feature Chronically Metropolitan, and we’ve been kind of figuring out the next project we want to do together. And it was a version of Who Invited Charlie? It was in the same setting, but we didn’t have an impetus. And it took us like, you know, kind of noodling with it for a long time to be able to lock it.
And finally, I think through the pandemic, he was Charlie, he had to escape and went to someone’s house and he’s definitely very Charlie-like he’s always partying very loud. And I couldn’t imagine having someone, let them refuge there. So he somehow used all this as the inspiration, cranked it out, like the final pieces in about a week. And when I read it, I was like, “Holy shit, this is it. How did you figure this out?”
And I sent it over to my mentor who’s hard on everything he says – his name is David Frankel, he directed a few films; The Devil Wears Prada, Marley & Me – and he hates everything I send him. And he’s like, “No, you can’t do this. You can’t do that. Too much heavy lifting.” He has a reason for everything, why it shouldn’t be made. And after maybe four years of not liking anything, he actually said, “You got to go and do this. Shoot it with an iPhone if you have to. You have to do this.”
So we went turbo mode on it. And finally, we started the production side, where Nick started reaching out to all his close buddies, one who plays Phil in the in the film. And another one is Jordana Brewster, who plays Rosie. And at the time, David was working with Adam Pally on a biopic for [John] Belushi. And he’s like, “Don’t search anymore. I have your guy. If he likes it, he’ll do it.” And it took him about an hour to read the script.
First of all, the first conversation with him was like, “You know what, I’m very busy. I don’t know if I can read the script just yet. But I’ll let you know, in a few weeks.” And then an hour after he calls. He’s like, “I love it!”. I’m like, “I thought you’re busy?.” So I’m sure he was kind of just prepping me. You know, in case he didn’t like it to just not, probably ghost me. But it all worked out!
Xosha and Adam were already familiar with each other and have plenty of chemistry from their days on The Mindy Project, and that really comes across onscreen, was that a casting coincidence, connections or a slice of good fortune that they both ended up in the film?
Yeah, it was total connections. I mean, we shot the film in three and a half weeks. It was basically between between two variances, between the Delta variant and the Omicron variant. Which I liked, you know, it’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas when everyone started getting the Omicron!
And so we had to do it quickly. It was freezing, and nobody wanted to shoot outside. So it was mostly favors of people that would come in for a day or two to do some guest roles. But yeah, so if it wasn’t for the connections, I think the film would have taken a lot longer to make.
It’s set in a very specific point in modern history, but there’s an old school vibe in a lot of the situations and character dynamics, was it always important for you to create that juxtaposition of a comedy that’s clearly set in one moment, but has a sort of timeless quality?
100 percent. I mean, I think as far as that we think… I hope people in the future will come back, and it’s a time capsule of very specific… when we were in some kind of frenzy because of the pandemic. But also, I didn’t want it to be about leaning to one political side.
No one ever got COVID. No one got sick, no one spoke about it. It was just what everyone was experiencing at the time. And the idea behind it was just like, “what would happen if someone had crashed into a family that was in the brink of collapse, right?” Because we all have a Charlie in our life.
And I would say it’s the person you least want to ever share a roof with. But, at the end of the day, he’s like the glue to the entire family. So, for me, no one wants to really go back down that road and explore what would happen in the pandemic or revisit it. But it just has so much heart.
And everyone went through the comedy of it, like the funny stuff, and we’re just like cleaning boxes. And the fruit, leaving fruit outside for three hours to see the sun kills the bacteria or the virus. But yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a time capsule, I think when people can go back and revisit in the future.
A lot of people wouldn’t have been interested or excited about COVID-themed content at the height of COVID, so do you think we’re in a place now where Who Invited Charlie? Will allow audiences to look back with some pretty fresh nostalgia and flashbacks – particularly the car full of toilet paper – to where they were back in March 2020.
Yeah, totally. I mean, I don’t understand what the correlation is just yet. And I’m still trying to figure it out. You know, it’s a literally a shit show that was going on with the toilet paper. But it’s it’s one of the biggest laughs we get in the film. It’s just that everyone, I guess, was guilty of buying a plethora of toilet paper for whatever reason.
Almost everyone knows a Charlie, and if you don’t then you probably are the Charlie, so in one way or another film is going to be a universal experience.
Totally! Totally, I do think my Charlie, there’s different versions of the Charlie. But Charlie, in this case, the Charlie I knew was the smartest guy in the room. And he would go party the entire night, and then ace the exams. And it’s like, “Everyone’s studying for eight hours at the library. And here he comes.”
And that’s Charlie, brain-wise. But then there’s also that Charlie, physical Charlie, who’s just kind of does stuff that annoys everyone all the time. But he has the biggest heart. So I feel like emotionally and physically, there’s different versions of Charlie, and I’m positive everyone has a Charlie in their life.
Were there any inspirations and influences you drew from when putting the film together? Because there’s definitely shades of What About Bob?, Uncle Buck, and even Planes Trains and Automobiles at certain points in a number of ways.
We wanted the comedy of the John Hughes and the heart, the combo of it. And we referenced a lot of Uncle Buck, a lot of Planes, Trains and Automobiles with Del Griffith and John Candy, being someone who can annoy you, but just has such a big heart like Charlie.
Also Down and Out in Beverly Hills was another film that we we took in, of someone who was just like a complete fish out of water in a household that that’s falling apart, and he moves them back together. So, a lot. As you can see, the opening title of the sequence of the film, is I pulled from a lot of 80s movies, like Loverboy and Mannequin.
So it has a specific animation and title credit that allows you to go into the theater and not think that you’re gonna watch some film that’s all about a COVID death count, right? It’s more lighthearted. And it kind of fast forwards through all the frenzy and sets you up to where it’s gonna be regular family.
If you could direct any project of your choosing without restrictions, as in someone came up to you and said you can make whatever you want with unlimited resources, what would it be and why would it be that?
Oh, wow. That is a loaded question. I have a few projects that I that I’d love to do. They’re all comedy-based. And actually no, I have one crime based in Miami. I don’t know, there’s so many, it’s like asked me what my favorite song is or what my movie favorite movie is!
It would definitely be a comedy. And I would definitely like more than three to four weeks to shoot it! And you know, it wouldn’t have an unlimited budget, I just would just ask for a little bit more time to do things a little bit better. Just for preparation-wise.
Who Invited Charlie? is now playing in select theaters, as well as on digital and on-demand.
