The Hollywood landscape has changed a lot since Gregg Araki last released a movie, 2014’s “White Bird In A Blizzard.” Since then, the #MeToo social movement served as a leveling event on several fronts, including two things a risqué director like Araki has never shied away from: sexually explicit scenes and how they’re shot, intimacy coordinators included. Did these changes disrupt anything about “I Want Your Sex,” Araki’s latest film, which premieres at Sundance today?
Some disruption was inevitable, but in THR’s first look at the film, Araki explained that the changes he made to “I Want Your Sex,” mainly swapping the genders of the movie’s leads, didn’t upset its central dynamic. That is to say, Araki’s first feature in over a decade, starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman, is all about intimate relationships and why they’re so important. In this film, it’s a sadomasochistic one, and for Araki, that only serves to underscore his point.
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“No one has relationships anymore. Kids don’t have boyfriends, girlfriends; they don’t fall in love, they don’t get their hearts broken, they don’t have that crazy one-night stand. These are the best years of your life — how can you miss out on these experiences?” Araki told THR. “When I think of my own life, sexuality and relationships and hookups — all of it really forged me and made me the person I’m today…. So that became a major theme of the movie, this important growing experience for Elliot [Hoffman’s character], in terms of the things that happen when you’re young and become a big part of you.”
“I Want Your Sex” stars Hoffman as Elliot, a young man in LA who scores a dream job as an intern for provocative artist Erika Tracy, played by Wilde. However, it’s not long before Wilde envisions Elliot as something else, her sexual muse, and their partnership takes on an entirely new and boundary-pushing dimension. Araki first developed the film to have the artist and muse genders reversed, but eventually changed it around. “In the wake of #MeToo and all that, I started to get less and less comfortable making a movie where a woman’s getting dragged around by the hair, even if it is a consensual relationship,” the director continued. “I didn’t want to see or propagate that image.”
Swapping the gender dynamic around meant Araki needed to find an actress with a very particular vibe for his female lead. He didn’t consider Wilde at first, but found her a no-brainer after his agent suggested her. “I literally would never even have thought of that. To me, she’s an old-time star — she’s like Ingrid Bergman or Greta Garbo, she has that face and that bone structure and that presence,” the director said of Wilde. “I feel like Hollywood has never known what to do with her. She’s always the girlfriend, the wife, the this or that. I feel like she’s been kind of wasted by Hollywood because they don’t really have great roles for women, usually.”
Wilde was more than game to play Erika after she read the “I Want Your Sex” script, albeit with a caveat for Araki. “[I] laughed so hard, just cackling away on my couch, sending them both voice notes about how much I f*cking loved it,” the actress recalled, “and said, ‘Yes of course I need to play this insane character, as long as we find the best actor of all time to play Elliot.’” Wilde’s idea for who should play the part? Hoffman, an up-and-coming star who’s nearly decades younger than the actress.
Araki loved the suggestion. “I’m all, ‘Cooper Hoffman? You mean the kid from “Licorice Pizza?” That’s so creepy and weird. He’s like a baby!’” Araki laughed. “But because of his “nepo baby” genes, he has a lot of gravitas. He could really hold his own with Olivia. It was unexpected for him to play a part like this. And as an actor, he is just a director’s dream — he’s so incredibly gifted. He and Olivia were lightning in a bottle.” As for why Wilde wanted Hoffman in the part, she said, “He reminded me of a throwback to the great leading young dudes of the ‘80s — guys like John Cusack and Matthew Broderick.” “Cooper is somehow completely unpretentious while also being the best kind of film geek. He knows his shit, but he isn’t annoying about it.”
Wilde would play Erika Tracy, a boundary-pushing artist in contemporary Los Angeles. She would need to act opposite a fearless younger actor portraying Elliot, Erika’s new intern — oh, and sadomasochistic sexual muse.
When Hoffman was offered the role, he wasn’t familiar with Araki’s previous work, but a deep dive into the director’s filmography convinced him to do it. “I started with “Mysterious Skin,” and I was obsessed with that movie, and then they were showing “Totally F***ed Up” at the Metrograph [a theater in NYC],” said the actor. “I kind of fell in love with all of it.” Hoffman did know who Wilde was, however: “My dad [the late Philip Seymour Hoffman] and I used to watch “House” together, and we were just such a big fan of hers.”
As for the challenges he faced over the film’s 17-day shoot, Hoffman took to them with relish. “I had to be on a set in these strange outfits, doing very vulnerable things with a crew around me, and I had to kind of let go,” said the actor. “I was nervous about it — honestly, scared shitless — but there’s no better reason to do something than that.” Wilde felt similarly about the shoot, calling her character “afreak in the best possible way.” “The script was a subversive, joyful, unpretentious blast.”
Of course, like every Araki film, “I Want Your Sex” has an alluring supporting ensemble beyond its main stars. Mason Gooding plays one of Elliot’s new co-workers, while musician Charli xcx is his bookish girlfriend, and Chase Sui Wonders is his roommate. Elsewhere, Johnny Knoxville, Margaret Cho, “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs, and Roxane Mesquida make appearances, too. That cast should lend the film an extra level of intrigue when it hits theaters after its Sundance premiere.
But then, Gregg Araki’s signature style should be enough to entice an audience for this film, which could be read as a mission statement for the director. “A lot of the things [Erika] says about sex and sexuality and art are literally quotations from things I’ve said in past interviews,” Araki said about the main character of “I Want Your Sex.” “My point of view as a provocative artist through the years became a big part of her character. Clearly, she’s a mouthpiece for me. I definitely related to her — except, obviously, I’ve never slept with my interns.”
“I Want Your Sex” premieres at Sundance later today. Stay tuned for The Playlist’s review of the film, and check out first-look pics from the movie below.
