Unveiling Secrets: Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay Reveal Their Untold Storytelling Magic

My interview with the screenwriters behind the movies Ride Along, The Invitation, and Destroyer.

In July 2016, I conducted an in-depth interview with Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi focusing on their just released indie thriller The Invitation. Here is that complete interview.

Scott Myers: You two met in college and had a background in improv comedy.

Matt Manfredi: That is correct.

Phil Hay: We went to Brown University. We were in the improv group there. That’s how we started becoming a team. Matt and I immediately became a duo within that.

Scott: Were you the same year?

Matt: No. I am one year younger than Phil. I was going to say one year behind Phil, but whatever. Look, age is just a number, but it’s a number. My number is lower than Phil’s.

Scott: Did you get involved in sketch writing?

Matt: There was a great exercise while we were there called Once Upon a Weekend.

Phil: Yeah, that’s it.

Matt: A theater professor would post a topic on the door of the theater, and then you would have a night to write a short play. If yours was chosen, you’d then produce it that weekend with limited rehearsal.

Phil and I did a couple of those and had a good time doing that. In addition to performing together, we started writing together there, too, and seemingly enjoying it.

Phil: It was interesting because we didn’t really ever do sketch. It might have seemed like a logical connection, but we were straight improv.

Scott: How did you get into long form and specifically writing movies?

Phil: There’s no future in short form.

[laughter]

Phil: I don’t know. I know for me when I was growing up, I really loved movies and that was my thing. I grew up outside of Akron, Ohio. I didn’t necessarily see any path from where I was to actually making movies. I was reading “Premiere Magazine” and reading “American Film Magazine” and it was just a dream world for me.

When I got to college and Matt and I started working together, there also happened to be a bunch…