{"id":838459,"date":"2026-08-01T20:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838459\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T20:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:36:11","slug":"gregg-araki-on-sex-film-and-queer-resistance-all-the-terrible-shit-in-the-world-is-because-of-sexual-repression-gregg-araki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/838459\/","title":{"rendered":"Gregg Araki on sex, film and queer resistance: \u2018All the terrible shit in the world is because of sexual repression\u2019 | Gregg Araki"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is straight sex the most perverse sex of all? Gregg Araki<\/a>\u2019s new film makes a convincing case. Titled I Want Your Sex, the movie is a deliriously fun and often hilarious study of desire, power and art that features bondage, full-frontal and a vagina made out of pink chewed-up bubble gum. \u201cFor me, it is a very queer story,\u201d the director says, speaking the week of the film\u2019s release in a video call from his Los Angeles home. \u201cIt\u2019s a take on kink and alternate sexuality that goes right across the straight-queer spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it is not the first heterosexual movie by Gregg Araki \u2013 that honor goes to his 1995 acid trip of a road movie The Doom Generation<\/a> \u2013 it features the new queer cinema pioneer\u2019s starriest cast in years, perhaps in a sign that Hollywood at large has caught up to the cult director\u2019s anarchic vision. Forty years into his career, we still want Araki\u2019s sex: the film is set to reach the director\u2019s biggest audience to date, opening to 700 US screens this week, a stunning figure for an independent film and a wider opening than recent films by indie veterans like Nicolas Winding Refn<\/a> and Jim Jarmusch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, the director is in a buoyant mood; he wears a striped tank top and looks at least two decades younger than his age of 66. \u201cThe world\u2019s so fucked up right now with wars and ICE<\/a> and fucking genocides that I want to put a little queer joy and positivity into the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The film follows Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), a puppyish 23-year-old college graduate whose ambitions in life amount to a vague goal to start a podcast. After he starts working as an assistant for the brash, sexually carnivorous artist Erika (a turbo-charged Olivia Wilde<\/a>), he instantly falls under her spell, leading to a polymorphous parade of sexual epiphanies as he becomes, as he says of one of Erika\u2019s artworks, \u201ca slave to this vagina\u201d.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an infectious sense of mischief to I Want Your Sex, helped by an ensemble cast that includes Charli xcx<\/a> as Elliot\u2019s dorky girlfriend, whose idea of a good time between the bedsheets is poring over a neurology textbook, as well as Johnny Knoxville<\/a> and Margaret Cho<\/a> as detectives who interrogate Elliot after a body is discovered floating face-first in a swimming pool. My favorite might be Zap, played by Mason Gooding, who cuts down Elliot\u2019s claim of being \u201cqueer adjacent\u201d by retorting: \u201cHave you ever sucked a dick?\u201d Araki has a soft spot for the character too. \u201cHe\u2019s very much my snarky sensibility,\u201d the director says.<\/p>\n

The film was initially scheduled to shoot after Araki wrapped promotion for White Bird in a Blizzard<\/a>, a 2014 drama starring Shailene Woodley<\/a> and Eva Green<\/a>. Back then, the script was something like \u201ca comic 50 Shades of Grey<\/a>\u201d, he says, with a female intern seduced by her male boss. But after initial funding fell through, the project was put on ice, and when Araki revisited the script after making 2019\u2019s teen TV comedy Now Apocalypse<\/a>, he worried it felt tone-deaf in the wake of #MeToo<\/a>. \u201cI started to feel uncomfortable with the [script\u2019s] image of a woman getting dragged around by the hair, even in a consensual situation,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to kink-shame anybody, but as a man, I didn\u2019t really want to put that image out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I got the idea to flip the sex roles and make it a male sub and a female dom,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a very hardcore feminist from the time I was in film school in the late 70s, so the Erika Tracy character became much more interesting to me.\u201d The script further crystallized in the wake of a 2022 study<\/a> that found that gen Z were having less sex than previous generations. \u201cWhen Erika says [to Elliot]: \u2018Your generation\u2019s all about Fomo and you\u2019re missing out on the sexual part,\u2019 that was kind of my reaction to that article,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman in I Want Your Sex. Photograph: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures<\/p>\n

The day before our interview, the Hollywood trade magazine Variety tweeted<\/a> an Araki quote predicting that gen Z will inevitably \u201cregret\u201d not having sex out of fear of getting hurt. While some readers got defensive, others seemed to take it as a metaphorical kick up the butt. \u201cHe\u2019s so right let me start fucking for real,\u201d wrote one young cinephile.<\/p>\n

When I mention the reaction, Araki seems thrilled about getting people talking. \u201cThat is one of the most exciting things about the movie to me,\u201d the director says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to lecture anybody, but I want to open up a conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say all of gen Z, but a certain number of gen Z live a sheltered life and don\u2019t go out much,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt\u2019s like [they have] a fear of making a mistake, or being uncomfortable or of having an experience that\u2019s not wonderful. A lot of those experiences are not wonderful! The first time you ever get your heart broken or someone cheats on you, it really rocks your world. I just can\u2019t imagine going through life without that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Araki thinks that sex is missing in movies, even the ones that are ostensibly all about it. \u201cThere\u2019s this whole talk about [cinema\u2019s] sexual renaissance with Babygirl<\/a> and Pillion<\/a>,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t find Babygirl sex-positive at all. The way that the Nicole Kidman character gets punished for exploring her own desires made me a little uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hockey-themed gay TV show Heated Rivalry<\/a> has also been accused of sanitizing sex for the female gaze. \u201cUh huh,\u201d Araki says with a slight frown. I\u2019m surprised to learn that he is a big fan, but he doesn\u2019t seem to mind a little debate. \u201cI thought the sex scenes were well-handled and not really watered down,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of what a lot of my sex scenes are: \u2018R-rated HBO\u2019. You don\u2019t see genitalia but it\u2019s as explicit as you can be without crossing the line into adult entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Araki and the cast of I Want Your Sex at the film\u2019s LA premiere. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Amid its fiesta of raunch, there\u2019s a sly sweetness to I Want Your Sex<\/a>. Despite Elliot\u2019s initial reservations, it seems that Erika unlocks the young man\u2019s unexplored desire to fulfill orders. At times, the pair\u2019s rapport is surprisingly touching, even if there are signs this won\u2019t end well. \u201cI kind of like being your toy,\u201d he tells her moonily over lunch as she nonchalantly drags on a cigarette.<\/p>\n

\u201cI based Cooper\u2019s character on myself when I was in my early 20s and trying to figure out what my sexual identity was,\u201d Araki says. (The director now identifies as gay but was in a public relationship with actor Kathleen Robertson in the late 90s.) Meanwhile, Erika is partly inspired by post-fame Araki, with much of her dialogue culled from the director\u2019s own past interviews. Before shooting began, he told Wilde that there was no room for nerviness on his set. \u201cI was like: \u2018Whoever plays this part needs to be completely fearless and not give a fuck about what people think,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cShe was like: \u2018That\u2019s what I want to do.\u2019\u201d (Between this and The Invite<\/a>, Wilde has emerged as one of the most fun actors to watch this summer.)<\/p>\n

The director has always taken audiences out of their comfort zones. Araki\u2019s breakout feature The Living End featured a then unprecedented sex scene between the film\u2019s HIV-positive gay lead characters, while 2004\u2019s Mysterious Skin unflinchingly examined the after-effects of childhood sexual abuse in a film anchored by career-best performances from a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt<\/a> and future Oscar-nominated director Brady Corbet<\/a>. He says that the key to his relationships with actors is trust: \u201cI\u2019m not a director that is like: \u2018OK, here\u2019s how you\u2019re going to act this scene.\u2019 Once I find the right person and they\u2019re in front of the camera, I just let them have at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Araki\u2019s 2005 film Mysterious Skin starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Photograph: Courtesy of TLA Releasing<\/p>\n

While Wilde and Hoffman\u2019s chemistry is both explosive and often outrageously funny, I Want Your Sex is just as cutting in its satire of the commercial art world. Erika\u2019s art is frankly hideous, with her gallery space full of garish pop-feminist sculptures and photography that would be bought by a finance bro trying to impress his co-workers with his hip bona fides. Araki, perhaps a little generously, describes the character as a cross between Robert Mapplethorpe<\/a> and the \u201cpure provocation\u201d of Madonna circa Sex, the 1992 top-shelf publication that caused much pearl-clutching for its graphic content. Has society gotten any more open-minded about sex, 34 years later?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn America, things are worse than they\u2019ve ever been,\u201d Araki says. \u201cThe level of puritanical tyranny, repression and cancelling of trans people \u2026 it is awful right now. That\u2019s why the movie ends with the Jessie Ware song Free Yourself<\/a>. I\u2019m old school in a sense: I absolutely believe in \u2018make love, not war.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of the hatred, the misery and the aggression and the violence and all the fucking terrible shit in the world right now is from this weird sexual repression,\u201d he goes on. \u201cMy movie is my version of Free Yourself, you know what I mean? The sentiment of the song is very positive, inclusive and progressive \u2013 the opposite of this culture of oppression and fascism with the dictatorship of our current administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

He feels fundamentally hopeful about the next generation, despite wishing they would get laid more. \u201cWhenever we do screenings in New York, [the audience is] all these Letterboxd kids,\u201d he says, referring to the social platform for movie fans. \u201cAnd they\u2019re very sophisticated cinephiles \u2013 Charli xcx<\/a> is one of them! They have very discerning taste in auteurs. It really gives me hope that this younger generation seeks out films that are not your standard popcorn multiplex movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charli xcx and Hoffman in I Want Your Sex. Photograph: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures<\/p>\n

While a recent Glaad report<\/a> found that LGBTQ+ inclusion is at a three-year low in films from the 10 largest distributors, Araki says that queer cinema is in great shape if you know where to look. \u201cAt Cannes this year, it was like a bonanza<\/a> of<\/a> queer<\/a> movies<\/a>,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing that that is the state of where we are at. That\u2019s kind of where the queer new wave came from in the first place, way back in the early 90s where all of us \u2013 Todd [Haynes] and Gus [Van Sant] and I \u2013 were just kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Araki says that he can see some similarities between LGBTQ+ life today and that of the early 90s. He leaves me with this slightly grim but necessary thought. \u201cBecause of the Aids crisis, queer people were kind of being exterminated, so there was a need for expression,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that exists today as well. Queer film-makers that can see the writing on the wall, and that the right wing in this country are not going to stop at trans people. We\u2019re not safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important to be able to have a queer voice and be unfiltered about it,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where almost all my movies come from. You know, that\u2019s the magic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is straight sex the most perverse sex of all? Gregg Araki\u2019s new film makes a convincing case. Titled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-838459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}