Gregg Araki Made a Chaotic Sex Comedy For a Sex-Cautious Age

The I Want Your Sex director talks Gen Z prudery, casting Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde as two sides of a generation-gap BDSM relationship, and why he doesn't miss shooting on film.Lacey TerrellAlthough Gregg Araki’s own voice has been absent from the movie landscape for more than a decade, his influence is everywhere. In the 12 years since his last feature, White Bird in a Blizzard, Araki’s descendents have steadily proliferated, from hedonistic coming-of-age series like Euphoria and Overcompensating to culty queer sci-fi like I Saw the TV Glow. Even Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day contains uncanny parallels to 2004’s Mysterious Skin. But Araki’s artistry remains unmistakably one of one; nowhere else but in an Araki film will you encounter such crass poetry as “You’re like a life support system for a cock” (from 1995’s The Doom Generation) or “Okay, I’ll fuck you tonight, but you have to bring someone to hold your ass open,” a line spoken in I Want Your Sex, his long-awaited return to the big screen, releasing in theaters July 31.I Want Your Sex follows eager-to-please intern Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) as he becomes a sexual submissive to his boss, celebrity pop artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde); their raunchy trysts open up his world (among other things) even as his life spirals into chaos. Raising a glossy-manicured middle finger in the direction of Twitter discourse and endless think-pieces about the narrative value of sex scenes in film, Araki’s horned-up comeback is a zany romp that pulls Sunset Boulevard, Secretary, film noir, screwball comedy, and industry satire all together for a sloppy, ecstatic group kiss.Co-written by Araki’s Now Apocalypse collaborator Karley Sciortino—who drew on her own personal experience in a BDSM relationship with a former employer—the film uses Elliot and Erika as totems for their respective generations’ attitudes towards sex, the chasms in between, and how we all might understand each other more intimately, even (and especially) if it gets messy. Araki has described Erika’s character—spiky and sardonic, like Doom’s Amy Blue, but loaded with hot takes about the fine art world—as a mouthpiece for himself, but he also sees himself in Elliot, whose single hoop earring and hand tattoos both mirror Araki’s own.At 66 years old, Araki’s creative approach has changed in many ways since the beloved ‘90s films that put him on the map (sorry folks: he’s never going back to shooting on celluloid) but one element that endures is his nose for talent. Not unlike his idol David Lynch, Araki has an intuition for tapping actors that mainstream Hollywood may have sidelined (e.g. Anna Faris in Smiley Face) or that are just on the brink of breaking through (e.g. Shailene Woodley in White Bird; Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Mysterious Skin; Rose McGowan in Doom; half the cast of Nowhere) and revealing something special.In I Want Your Sex, Wilde and Hoffman are both at their best. For the second time this summer, Wilde excels playing a debilitatingly horny woman whose desire she imbues with remarkable complexity; her performance as Erika permits a jagged interior to cut through the character’s latex-clad magnetism. Hoffman, meanwhile, prostrates himself to the role with a commitment that few other male actors his age (nepo babies or otherwise) would likely go for, crawling on all fours in pink lingerie with the bravura of an actor who understands, like his father did, that vanity can only impede a great performance. Supporting turns from Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, and Charli xcx (as Elliot’s prudish bookworm girlfriend) all fit with ease into the Araki-verse of idiosyncratic charmers.Cooper Hoffman and Chase Sui Wonders on the set of I Want Your Sex.Lacey TerrellAraki was famously inspired by an article he read that stated Gen Z is having less sex than previous generations, a fact that understandably shook the man who has spent roughly forty years making films about young people exploring their sexualities. But rather than be the baby boomer wagging his finger at the youth, Araki hopes the film can be received as both a playful provocation and a sincere invitation to rebuke perfectionism and embrace the chaotic, awkward, or otherwise cringey life experiences that shape us. In keeping with that philosophy, I Want Your Sex is itself a brash, tumultuous ride, but one we’re lucky to be taken on.In a recent conversation, Araki spoke at length about his filmmaking career, working with Wilde and Hoffman, the legacy of David Lynch, and why he wasn’t a fan of Challengers.GQ: This is your first feature in 12 years, which is major, but it’s not like you’ve been living under a rock all this time.Gregg Araki: People are all, "Where have you been?" I've been working! [Laughs] Indie films take a long time. I've been working on this movie for 11 or 12 years. There was a version of it that was supposed to happen right after White Bird in a Blizzard, but as happens in the indie film world, that fell apart. In the meanwhile, I did a bunch of other stuff, and over the years, the film evolved into what it is today.The original script was about a female intern and a male boss, and it was more like a comedic 50 Shades of Gray or Secretary. Around the Me Too era, I was feeling like I didn’t really want to have a woman getting dragged around by her hair, even if it's consensual. Not to kink-shame anybody, but just putting that image out in the world is not something I feel I want to do right now. So I decided to flip the gender roles, which immediately became so much more interesting to have a male sub and a female domme, and that was how the Erika Tracy character was born.I put a lot of myself in Erika Tracy. A lot of the things Erika Tracy says, particularly in that first interview, where she's talking about sexuality and how it's important to her art and all of that, is literally quote-for-quote things I've said in interviews before. She's a mouthpiece for me in a lot of ways. Then I started to relate to the Cooper Hoffman character, Elliot, too, because he is the way I was when I was in my early 20s—this confused, wannabe artist, finding my way in the world. It's not exactly me, but his journey began to resemble mine as a young person. I so remember being that kid.You were inspired by an article you read that said Gen Z isn’t having sex. Why did that get your attention? And what did you learn about young people’s attitudes towards sex as you continued developing the film?As I was working on the script in the later stages, I was reading these articles saying “30% of Gen Z hasn't had sex in a year.” I was like, "What? What's going on?" For me, sex is such an important part of my journey as a person and artist. It’s exactly what Erika says in the movie: all of those experiences, even if they're bad, even if it was a mistake, all of it is such an important part of my growth as a person. It became a really important theme of the movie.I have a lot of friends who have kids that are this age, and someone said, “Kids are afraid of making a mistake.” They're the first generation that's been raised on technology, and the level of difficulty they have face-to-face is a big part of that, which is what Elliot so eloquently talks about when he's having that debate with Erika.I don't think of the film as a lecture—I'm not telling Gen Z what they should do, because God knows they fucking hate that—but just opening a conversation. I want people to talk about it, to think about it, to argue about it.My take is that you can have experiences that are uncomfortable, confusing, and don't turn out well, but that's an important part of life. Your whole life can't be perfect and curated where you're never out of your comfort zone. Have that bad relationship. Fall in love with the wrong person. Get your heart broken. All of that stuff that is unpleasant to go through, but it is literally what life is.Olivia and Cooper both give such ballsy performances, and they have great chemistry together. How do you help cultivate that as a director?I didn't do anything. [Laughs] I cast them, that's basically it. I'm a director where it's 99% casting. I'm very particular in the casting process. Once you have it, it's just a matter of not fucking it up and capturing it on film.When I first met with Olivia, I told her whoever plays this part has to not give a fuck. And Olivia really got it. She loved the script from the start. She dove in the pool and was like, "I'm all in, bring it on." She was so the exact right person for this part. Olivia is like a 1940s movie star, like Rita Hayworth or Ingrid Bergman. She has such presence. She's got that bone structure. She walks into a room and it’s like, “Who's that?” I feel like Hollywood didn't really know what to do with her, in a way, which I think is why she ended up wanting to direct. And I think one of the reasons why this part appealed to her was because she could really sink her teeth into it and go for it.When Cooper was suggested, I was all, "The kid from Licorice Pizza? That's so creepy. I don't want to see her fucking Cooper Hoffman." Then Cooper put himself on tape and he was great. What cinched it was when he flew in from New York for the chemistry read with Olivia. He was barely 21 when we did the movie, but for such a young actor, he has such gravitas and presence. He feels older, like he's really lived a life already. When they read together, I just saw it instantly. They had such chemistry and were very much equal sparring partners. We [auditioned] so many Elliots, but once I saw the two of them together, it was fated to be.You have a gift for choosing performers that other directors might overlook or underuse and revealing a side of them that we haven’t seen before—whether they’re a new face or someone who’s been around for a while. What guides you in the casting process?From the time I'm working on the script, I have the movie in my head. I can really see it. I see the Erika Tracy character doing all the crazy things that Erika Tracy does. And then when Olivia's name was brought up, I instantly saw it. I've been a fan of Olivia since she was the bisexual kid on The O.C., when I was like, "Who is this girl? She's such a movie star." I've been a fan of hers forever.I saw Erika Tracy as Madonna meets Robert Mapplethorpe. She's this iconic kind of figure. I want drag queens to be her for Halloween. You know what I mean? She's that kind of character. Seeing that picture in my head with Olivia, I was like, "Oh, this is going to be amazing."It’s nice to see James Duval make an appearance in the movie. You guys are like Scorsese and De Niro. Can you talk about that relationship?I've known Jimmy since we were so young, back in the '90s, when I wrote the whole [“Teen Apocalypse”] trilogy around him. We’ve been friends for decades. When we were [shooting supplemental features for] the Criterion box set, he had so many old scripts, old notes I've written. He keeps every single thing. They went to his storage and pulled so much stuff out, because I have hardly anything left. So he's the Gregg Araki archivist as well as my muse.Those projects are dear to both of us. When we were doing the restorations of The Doom Generation and Nowhere and had the theatrical releases for them, it was so moving to me that 25-28 years down the road, the films mean so much to so many people. They were so meaningful for us. We really loved those movies. We put all of our heart and soul into those movies. The fact that they've lived on for all these years is incredible and means so much to me. It's so touching.I think you’ve expressed mixed feelings about the “Queer New Wave” label that was applied to your work in the 1990s. But in hindsight, it makes sense. Those films have been so instructive to younger filmmakers, in the same way that you took cues from Jean-Luc Godard.That's a high compliment. I feel so fortunate that for my whole career and life, I've just always been in the right place at the right time. To be at Sundance in the '90s like we were. To be a young person in college in the late '70s-early '80s, when punk rock and new wave music was happening and there was this explosion of culture and artistic attitude and creativity—all of that was right when I was being formed and starting to figure out my voice.Punk rock and alternative music were so important to my character, and [so was] sex. The idea that when I was 19 or 20, I snuck out of my parents’ house to go to a gay bar. Those adventures are who I am and what my movies are. That's why it's sad to me, the idea that Gen Z is like, “I don't date, I’ve never had a boyfriend or girlfriend, I just play video games and watch TikToks.” That's so sad to me, the idea that there's this life being missed—at least the life that I had as a young person.Living in LA and making movies for 40 years, you’ve watched the industry transform in real time. In terms of indie filmmaking, what has gotten easier and what has gotten harder?It's never easy. It's always a struggle. It's always hard to get the money. It's hard to get it out there. All of it. But again, I'm so fortunate to do it. When I was 20 and a film student at UC Santa Barbara, I never dreamed that I would be where I am today. It’s beyond any dream I ever had that I would’ve made the movies I've made, been all over the world a million times, gotten a standing ovation in Cannes… It's an incredible life I've had, and I'm so privileged and lucky. But it doesn't ever get any easier.It's always been tricky for filmmakers because movies cost money. We're not writing poems. We're not making paintings. What we do costs millions of dollars. [It’s about] balancing the art and the commerce of it. And what's going on in the industry with the contraction of everything and money getting tighter and tighter, it is a very uncertain time, I think. At the same time, one thing that I personally find promising—I haven't seen Obsession yet, but the fact that this million dollar movie made $200 million or whatever is incredible. And [Curry Barker] coming up through the YouTube world is amazing.One thing that is different and also promising is that the technology is getting crazier. Rick Linklater and I talk about this. When we were young kids starting out, it was hard. Making movies on 16mm was expensive. It wasn't just like, [holds up iPhone] "I'm going to make a movie today." It was very technically cumbersome. Rick and I talk about how you had to be a little bit mentally ill to say, "I'm going to devote all my money and effort into this thing that could go nowhere."There is a little bit of disconnect for young filmmakers when [they see] the Curry Barkers or Ryan Cooglers of the world and it's like that's immediately the bar. But that's just one person's path. I feel like a lot of filmmakers never make another movie because that didn't happen [for them].There's the dinosaur way of doing it with these giant crews and all this money and stuff. And there's a way to do it [like how] I started when I made Three Bewildered People in the Night; me by myself with my actors, just shooting on the streets, and then I dubbed the whole thing in post. There's a world for young filmmakers that really have that fire and vision to say, “This is what I'm going to do with my life and this is how I'm going to do it, and it's not going to be millions of dollars.” There is a future for that.Would you ever go back to shooting on film?I hate film. [Laughs] Never going back to film. I was just talking to Kristen Stewart about this last week. She shot her movie on film. I was telling her, "I'm not one of those filmmakers. I'm not Chris Nolan. I'm not you." I love digital. I love the way it looks. I love the things you can do with it. I hate sprocket holes. I hate dealing with the labs.The turning point for me was Smiley Face, which was my last film shot on 35mm. There's a lot of FX shots in that movie. Every time we did an effect, you had to take the negative, scan it, give it to the FX house. They take the thing, they're doing digital FX, then you’ve got to cut the 35mm version of the effect back in, and it's a different stock, it doesn't match anymore… Going back and forth between the film and digital was so frustrating. As a kind of control freak director, you could never get it right. When I did Kaboom a few years later, I saw digital was the way to go.When you're in the digital world, you can do anything you want. The sky's the limit. It's like every frame is a painting. As an artist, that's so exciting to me. You know what I mean? You don't have to live with the hair in the gate that drives you fucking crazy.Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Araki's Mysterious Skin, 2004Tartan Releasing/Everett CollectionBetween your last feature and this one, you’ve been active in the TV world, guest-directing on shows like American Crime, Riverdale, and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as well as making your own show, Now Apocalypse. How do you like working in that medium?When I first started doing TV, it was just out of the blue. John Ridley was doing American Crime, and he's a big Mysterious Skin fan and was looking for Sundance-y filmmakers to work on it. He was so smart and cool when I talked to him, so I was like, "Okay, I'll do it." And then I learned so much working on that show.I've wanted to do a TV show [since] Nowhere, which was written as a TV pilot. Basically I've always wanted to make a TV show since I saw Twin Peaks. That show was such a huge influence on me. Through the years I've been pitching TV shows and my shows were always like, "It’s Twin Peaks meets this." Twin Peaks was always part of the pitch.I finally got to do it when I made Now Apocalypse in 2019. All the episodic stuff I worked on in between was what I call going to TV school, because I learned so much about showrunning and how a TV show works. TV is related to film, and certainly indie film, because you have to be fast and resourceful and think on your feet. But it's also a totally different animal. I really enjoyed it.One of the things I loved about TV is that it's easy. Movies are so hard. I've been working on I Want Your Sex for 12 years. TV is like, 10 days. And what’s great is that it's not your vision, it's the showrunner's vision. You're there to direct the best episode you can. It's almost like going to film school and making a short or something. You're just trying to make the best possible version of the best little movie within the house rules. It's not about you as a director, it's about the show.It really builds your muscles. I'm such a better director after working on TV. It really sharpened my skillset. I directed all 10 episodes of Now Apocalypse in 40 days, and it was so crazy, but so much fun. Literally the best creative experience I've ever had.Speaking of Twin Peaks and mastering multiple mediums, I’d love to talk with you about David Lynch’s legacy.Fire Walk With Me is one of my favorite movies of all time. But [I love] all of his movies and his vision and sensibility; he was such an outlaw and an artist. When he passed away, and Godard had passed away [a few years earlier], it was like, what a fucking legacy. They both literally changed the face of cinema in their lifetimes. What more can you ask for? I'm sad that they're both gone, but what a legacy they left us.In this French interview I did last week, they were like, "There's a moment in I Want Your Sex which is very Mulholland Drive-coded." I'm all, "What? I don't even remember." And he's like, "When Erika is putting the wig on Elliot." And I was like, "Oh yeah, I see that.” But the thing about Lynch is that he's so ingrained in my psyche that it's not even a conscious reference.Some of the things [in the film] are quotations of other movies, like the body in the pool is Sunset Boulevard. The preposterous film noir tone is very late '80s Almodóvar, like Law of Desire and Matador, and that was very intentional. But the Mulholland Drive thing, I didn't even see it until it was pointed out to me, because it was completely unconscious.What was it like working with Sheryl Lee in White Bird in a Blizzard?Incredible. Love her to death. Her performance in Fire Walk With Me is literally one of my top 10 performances of all time. I was totally up her ass like, "Oh my God, I can't believe you're here. I'm such a big fan." And she was so sweet and cool and humble.It's funny, I got to meet Kyle MacLachlan a few weeks ago too. Charli xcx had a party and he was there. I was like, "Oh my God, Kyle MacLachlan. You were in two incredibly iconic shows that literally changed television." Twin Peaks and Sex and the City are both huge influences on me and my work.I actually have a bit of history with Fire Walk With Me, because it was [released] the same summer that The Living End came out, and we got a bigger theater because Fire Walk With Me was so critically reviled. It was playing at the Showcase Theater on La Brea, and we got that theater because Fire Walk With Me opened and closed like that. When I saw the movie, I was like, "Oh my God." I literally think it's his masterpiece. And she's so incredible in it.He's a visionary and he knew what he was doing even if nobody else got it. I got it. The cult all got it. But the mainstream critics did not understand it at all. And I was like, "How could they not see how brilliant this movie is?"Outside of your cast, who from the younger generation do you find interesting or promising right now?Zendaya. Fucking love her. I love her to death. I don't love Euphoria, but I love her on a red carpet, you know what I mean? She's such a movie star. I would just love to see her in something where she's badass, wearing crazy shit, driving a moped around and shooting people. [Watching] Euphoria it’s like, "Oh my God, I can't watch her with no makeup on, wearing a sweatshirt." I just can't. No. Dune’s the same thing. She's running around with a thing in her nose and a turban? I want to see her be Zendaya!I thought Challengers could have gone there, but Challengers was a weird movie for me. I didn't get it. I remember talking to my friend about it like, “I don't get it. Is this a period piece?” I don't understand why there's this weird, coy thing like, "Let's suck on our churros." What? Why isn’t it just out there? It would've been more interesting if he was just all, "I'm bisexual and have sex with both of you." But yeah, I love Josh O'Connor too.They needed to watch Splendor and take some notes.“We’re a threesome. We’re tennis champions. What’s the problem here?”