Greg Araki, the writer and director of I Want Your Sex, made some notes after seeing reports about Gen Z’s decline in sex.
“Like, why aren’t we having sex? What’s going on?” Araki told Variety on the opening night of Outfest Next at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lenberg Theater on Thursday. “Sex is a big part of my life. My journey as a person and as an artist, it’s all tied up in sex, sexual experiences, relationships. All my films are about that. I can’t understand life without sex.”
After working in television for 10 years, Araki returned to film production with the comedy I Want Your Sex, starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman, and co-wrote the screenplay with Now Apocalypse co-creator Carly Sciortino. The film follows aspiring artist Erica Tracy (Wilde) as she begins a kinky BDSM relationship with her young assistant Elliot (Hoffman), leading to Elliot’s sexual awakening, with near-death consequences. Charli xcx, mason gooding, chase sui wonders and daveed diggs round out the cast.
Lacey Terrell
The selection of Araki’s film for opening night screening is significant as OutfestNEXT looks to rebuild after a two-year hiatus due to financial and management issues. The LA native won Outfest’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, a year after the movie Mysterious Skin was released.
“I’m so excited to be here for the return of Outfest. My films have always been by, for, and about queer people. So it’s my people,” Araki said. “And I’ve lived here most of my life. This is LA. I’m queer. I’m coming home!”
Wilde’s provocative, sex-positive character represents Araki’s “spokesperson” in the film. “I’m in my 60s now. You’re going to turn around and be 40, 50 the same way. Would you regret taking a chance, taking the plunge, leaving the house, risking getting hurt, getting confused and heartbroken? Going on bad dates, having bad relationships, having bad girlfriends. Love the wrong people. That’s life! That’s how you learn about yourself!
Meanwhile, Hoffman’s 23-year-old character represents the perspective of Gen Z coming out of the pandemic.
“They haven’t used technology all their lives, so they’re not used to talking to people. Social interactions make them uncomfortable,” Araki says. “And they’re filmed and videotaped all the time. If I thought someone was going to film me going to a gay bar when I was a teenager, would they have? Probably not. Those things need to be done in private.”
I Want Your Sex is Araki’s first film to use an intimacy coordinator, a practice that has become increasingly common over the past decade (Araki’s last film was 2014’s White Bird in the Blizzard).
Director Araki said, “I leave it up to the actors because that’s what they feel most comfortable with.” “Because some actors don’t want intimacy coordinators. I’ve heard horror stories of poor intimacy coordinators who end up making sex even more awkward and uncomfortable. Personally, as a director, I’m very comfortable with sex scenes and have done sex scenes all my life. So I know exactly how to do sex scenes, and that gives actors a sense of security and security.”
“I’m always there for them because I think actors are naturally very vulnerable,” he continued. “It’s my job as a director to make sure the set is a very safe place for them to work.”
Araki explained that Wilde came to set with “much more” experience with nude scenes. Meanwhile, Cooper said he was “fearful.”
“He had never done a nude scene or a sex scene, but Cooper was like, ‘This is really scary, but that’s why I want to do it!'” Araki recalls. “That’s why Cooper is a movie star.”
“I Want Your Sex” had a classic Sundance experience earlier this year, with multiple distributors competing for the hot title in a bidding war until Magnolia Pictures secured the U.S. rights. However, this kind of story is not as common as it once was.
As an independent filmmaker who helped birth the New Queer Cinema movement with his ’90s Teen Apocalypse trilogy of Totally F**ked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere, Araki has had a unique front-row seat to many changes in independent film.
“It’s a really exciting time because the rules have kind of been thrown out the window a little bit. Movies right now rely on a really young audience, a Gen Z audience, a letterbox generation. There’s a level where they don’t want to see the same old shit. A lot of the old Hollywood formulas don’t work anymore. I think this is great,” Araki said. “But making movies and distributing movies is (still) difficult. So I’m just so grateful to be able to make this and release it in theaters!”
“I Want Your Sex” will be released in theaters on July 31st.
