Gregg Araki on His New Film 'I Want Your Sex' and the Contemporary Art World

Gregg Araki, the 66-year-old pioneer of New Queer Cinema, discusses his new feature 'I Want Your Sex,' a sex-positive comedy set in the contemporary art world. The film stars Olivia Wilde as Erika Tracy, a swaggering multidisciplinary artist whose work includes a pointillist vulva made of chewed gum and an enormous Claes Oldenburg-esque sculpture of a spiked fetish collar. Cooper Hoffman plays Elliot, a recent college grad who becomes her studio assistant and the object of her sadomasochistic pedagogy. The narrative is framed as a police interrogation, with Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho playing detectives. Araki describes the film as a 'sex-positive love letter for Gen Z,' though he critiques the generation's perceived lack of sexual adventurousness, attributing it to technology and fear of being filmed. The film features a soundtrack including Slowdive and the Pretenders, but not George Michael's 'I Want Your Sex' due to budget constraints. Araki worked with intimacy coordinator Yehuda Duenyas to ensure actor comfort, especially for Hoffman's first sex scene. The film opens on 700 screens across the U.S. after a raucous screening at San Francisco's Frameline festival.