{"id":1092,"date":"2026-07-26T11:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092"},"modified":"2026-07-26T11:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:36:25","slug":"gregg-araki-thinks-its-good-to-get-your-heart-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092","title":{"rendered":"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Gregg Araki never misses an opportunity to remind the public that he is the buffest of the auteurs. He frequently appears on red carpets in a tank top; on set, he\u2019s been known to man the monitors shirtless. A pioneer of the \u201cnew queer cinema\u201d of the early nineties, Araki has built a career crafting audacious, existential, often graphic films about marginalized desire and the listless ennui of his native Los Angeles. The fact that he embodies the life style he depicts has earned him considerable street cred. He wrote, shot, and edited his first two features by himself, for five thousand dollars apiece; his third, \u201cThe Living End,\u201d is a road movie about two H.I.V.-positive lovers who go on the lam after one of them kills a cop\u2014the closest Araki gets to traditional romance. Next came the series for which he would become known: the \u201cTeen Apocalypse Trilogy\u201d of \u201cTotally F***ed Up\u201d (1993), \u201cThe Doom Generation\u201d (1995), and \u201cNowhere\u201d (1997), which include such adolescent exploits as falling in love, hallucinating a monstrous Godzilla that may be an allegory for homosexual yearning, and downing a full glass of whiskey and Drano. Whether he\u2019s shooting on a spring-wound Bolex or on a studio backlot, his work is lurid, bloody, and alive with youthful nihilism.<\/p>\n

Read more \u201cPadam Padam\u201d Separates the Party People from the Homebodies<\/a><\/p>\n

At sixty-six, Araki maintains his mop of boyish dark hair and arch, flirtatious disposition. (He began our video call the other day, from his bedroom, wearing another tank top, by telling me that I look like Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet.) Araki\u2019s new feature, \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d follows in the tradition of his comedies\u2014recalcitrant, slapstick, psychedelically technicolor\u2014and takes on the contemporary-art world. Olivia Wilde plays the swaggering multidisciplinary artist Erika Tracy, whose portfolio includes a pointillist vulva composed of chewed gum, an audio loop of her own orgasm, and an enormous, Claes Oldenburg-esque sculpture of a spiked fetish collar. She hires a new studio assistant\u2014the wayward recent college grad Elliot, played with na\u00efve bluster by a scruffy, flannelled Cooper Hoffman\u2014then makes him the willing object of her sadomasochistic pedagogy. It\u2019s clear from the outset that their dalliance won\u2019t end well for him: the film opens with Elliot waking up, smeared with blood, to find a naked body floating in Erika\u2019s pool.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Over Zoom, Araki and I talked about the transformative potential of threesomes, whether Gen Z is having enough sex, and his use of an intimacy co\u00f6rdinator after years of D.I.Y. shooting. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n

The first thing that struck me about the movie was the framing structure. The narrative mode by which you tell this story is a police interrogation, which is so much fun because it turns a comedy into this cheeky procedural.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Somebody said Margaret Cho and Johnny Knoxville are our Stabler and Benson [from \u201cLaw and Order: SVU\u201d].<\/p>\n

Seeing Johnny Knoxville in that role is such a great reveal. But I also thought that the device was really interesting for a film that\u2019s about<\/em> the ambiguities of S & M relationships\u2014who holds the power, how much you can trust your own perspective. Obviously the cops want Elliot to indict himself as a suspect, so they\u2019re looking for a motive. They want him to evince passion or irrationality in his telling, but these are things that are intrinsic to that kind of dynamic. For a film that is about a relationship where power is unclear, guilt is unclear, responsibility is unclear, agency is unclear\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

A lot of lines are getting crossed.<\/p>\n

Exactly. It\u2019s the perfect dramatic juxtaposition. How did you arrive at that structure?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working on this movie for eleven, twelve years. In the original spec script that was sent to me, way back in, like, 2012, 2013, there was no police framing device. There was no body in the pool. There was no mansion. A lot of the stuff through the years has been sort of part of the development as I\u2019ve been working on the story, because the original script was a female intern and a male boss. It was more like \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d or the movie \u201cSecretary.\u201d It had a completely different attitude. But it became much more interesting to me to have a male intern and a female boss, which sort of led to the impetus for Erika. There was a version of the movie with a female intern that was supposed to happen around 2015, and it fell apart, as indie movies do. The movie just kept evolving. That cop thing came about as what I\u2019ve been calling \u201cpreposterous film noir.\u201d It\u2019s a bit like those old Almod\u00f3var movies, which were a big influence, like \u201cLaw of Desire\u201d and \u201cMatador,\u201d where there\u2019s this very convoluted film-noir plot going on that kind of makes sense but doesn\u2019t really<\/em> make sense.<\/p>\n

Right\u2014there\u2019s a certain disorientation that I think mirrors the ambiguity of Elliot\u2019s reliability. Are we supposed to believe his perspective?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I mean, Elliot is our narrator. He\u2019s our entry into the story. I think he\u2019s a reliable narrator just because I believe his character. But it\u2019s one of those stories where it could be anything. That\u2019s the kind of story we wanted to tell because\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. obviously the relationship is not a \u201chealthy\u201d one. [Laughs.<\/em>] When Elliot\u2019s, like, \u201cYou ruined my fucking life! You destroyed me,\u201d it is what he feels in that moment, but I do feel like a major theme of the movie is that these mistakes that you make, these sort of confusing situations you get yourself into, particularly related to sex, sexuality, desire, attraction, lust\u2014all of it\u2014those adventures in your life are critical to your evolution as a person. So my idea for Elliot is that when he\u2019s, like, forty-five, he\u2019ll look back on that relationship and go, \u201cThat was so fucked up and crazy. I can\u2019t believe I did that. I can\u2019t believe that happened. But, at the same time, I\u2019m glad it happened.\u201d You know what I mean? Like, \u201cThat experience, I learned from it, I grew from it, and it was painful and confusing and fucked me up for a while, but at the end of the day, it was something that has a positive effect on my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is what she says to him! She\u2019s, like, I know you\u2019re not going to believe me, but you\u2019re going to look back on this and be grateful. I want to talk about that moment you\u2019re referring to, when his life crumbles and he\u2019s blaming her. The threesome is what catalyzes this. You\u2019re always interested in triangulations of people, these groups of threes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My very first movie was called \u201cThree Bewildered People in the Night\u201d! It was also about a kind of threesome with a bisexual character in the middle. It\u2019s funny because, if you look back at my very, very first movies, there\u2019s definitely a through line\u2014that movie is a lot about sexual confusion, and \u201cWho am I?\u201d and \u201cWhat<\/em> am I?\u201d<\/p>\n

Something that interests me about that triangular dynamic in particular is that in the early films\u2014\u201cSplendor,\u201d \u201cDoom Generation,\u201d \u201cNowhere\u201d\u2014it\u2019s about a character needing to explore their latent queerness. Usually a guy who\u2019s gay but doesn\u2019t really know it, and it\u2019s sort of teased out of him. In this one, obviously that\u2019s true for Chase Sui Wonders\u2019s character, Apple.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everybody sees it but her!<\/p>\n

But I think what makes the threesome in this film different, and the reason that it\u2019s so upsetting for Elliot and such a colossal failure, is because it\u2019s not just about someone experimenting sexually. It\u2019s a person attempting to join their fantasy life and their real life, and then the inevitable clash.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

I think you\u2019re completely right. It\u2019s the collision of what his normal life is, what his normal relationships are. But that\u2019s kind of what Erika Tracy is. She\u2019s this disruptor. He\u2019s in a relationship with Minerva, the Charli XCX character, and it\u2019s just this stale, unhealthy, terrible thing. And if Erika hadn\u2019t come along, he probably still would be! He\u2019s stagnant, and Erika upends his whole life. It\u2019s the same with his relationship with Apple\u2014they\u2019ve been friends and roommates forever, since college. I love their chemistry; I love the way Chase and Cooper hit it off right out of the gate. They just instantly developed this symbiotic relationship. But because of Erika, he crossed a line that should definitely not be crossed. It\u2019s opening up a Pandora\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

I want to talk about what Erika represents, not just as a force of sexual awakening in Elliot\u2019s life but as a contemporary artist, and the way that her practice informed the way the movie looks. The surreal neon aesthetics feel of a piece with a lot of your past work, but you often turn L.A. into this kind of gritty urban nightmare. Setting \u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d in the contemporary-art world, within the white sterile walls of the corporatized gallery space, turns that attitude on its head. I\u2019m curious how you thought about those visuals, and what her own art was going to look like.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely having fun with the pop-art world. I wanted to make a movie that had a sort of lightness to it. I feel like the world right now is so fucking dark and nightmarish, beyond anything I could ever imagine as a younger person. I personally don\u2019t like to see stuff that\u2019s too dark or too dystopian, because the world is so dystopian right now. It\u2019s still obviously provocative, and it has a lot going on thematically for people to digest and talk about, but the purpose of the movie for me is to put a little bit of joy in the world.<\/p>\n

Do you believe in her as an artist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do I believe that she thinks she\u2019s a good artist, or do I<\/em> think she\u2019s a good artist?<\/p>\n

Both. She\u2019s so wry and contrarian, I can never tell if she feels like a hack or if she\u2019s just really alert to irony. Early in the film, she tells Elliot, \u201cContemporary art is a scam.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. The real art is convincing people you\u2019re making something meaningful and complex when it\u2019s really just arbitrary masturbation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always thought of her as being a cross between Robert Mapplethorpe and Madonna.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to meet that person.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her name is Erika Tracy. Now, she is a figure. She is an icon. She is a personality, a star. A little bit of a showman, you know what I mean? But truly an artist. I think that she\u2019s creative. As the script evolved and progressed, I found that she became much more of\u2014I don\u2019t want to say an autobiographical character for me, but something like it. For instance, in that first interview with her that Cooper watches on his laptop, everything she says is literally, quote for quote, things I\u2019ve said. My work is also about sex, sexuality; it\u2019s also provocative, controversial, polarizing\u2014all the stuff that her work is. And when the whole discussion comes up about Gen Z not having sex and being this sort of puritanical, uptight generation, everything she says is my opinion. She\u2019s my mouthpiece. Going, \u201cYou guys are the FOMO<\/em> generation, but you don\u2019t care that you\u2019re missing out on the sexual prime of your life. You\u2019re gonna be fifty years old one day, and are you gonna look back and go, \u2018What was I fucking thinking? When I was young and beautiful, I was fucking sitting in my room texting people when I could have been out falling in love, getting my heart broken.\u2019\u00a0\u201d Having all those fucking adventures that, like Elliot\u2019s experience in the movie, are somewhat traumatizing sometimes, somewhat confusing\u2014you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, it\u2019s uncomfortable. But that\u2019s what life is. It\u2019s such an important part of growing up and becoming a person. When I think of, like, sneaking into a gay bar when I was nineteen, twenty years old, I can\u2019t imagine what my life would be if I didn\u2019t have all of those weird, scary, confusing experiences. Erika says something like, \u201cDon\u2019t get AIDS<\/em> and don\u2019t get pregnant.\u201d To me, that\u2019s the line. Yeah, protect yourself, but go out and take a chance. That\u2019s what being young is. As an older person\u2014I\u2019m in my sixties now\u2014I\u2019m so glad I did that. That\u2019s what made me who I am. And also, it\u2019s what informs my art and my creativity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

You\u2019ve called the film a \u201csex-positive love letter for Gen Z\u201d\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s my one-liner.<\/p>\n

But it feels like actually your perspective is pretty critical. Maybe it\u2019s because of the world I\u2019m in, but I\u2019m not convinced that my generation isn\u2019t having sex.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019re right! I just know from personal experience that this is a problem for a lot of people I know. I don\u2019t do real \u201cresearch,\u201d in the sense that I don\u2019t interview people on the street. But, for instance, the way Cooper\u2019s character is so eloquently talking about Gen Z and his generation and where they\u2019re coming from, where this anxiety around sex starts, all of that is literally stuff that I\u2019ve heard from people: \u201cMy kids don\u2019t date.\u201d The kids of so many people I know have never had a boyfriend, never had a girlfriend, never been in a relationship\u2014and they\u2019re fucking thirty! They don\u2019t go out, they don\u2019t do all the stupid shit I did when I was a kid. They\u2019re afraid. They don\u2019t want to be uncomfortable. They don\u2019t want to be embarrassed. Because of technology, everybody\u2019s constantly being filmed. I heard the other day that kids don\u2019t hit on each other in bars anymore, because they don\u2019t want to get rejected and filmed getting rejected.<\/p>\n

At the gay bars in Brooklyn, this is not what\u2019s happening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Laughs.<\/em>] I know, I know. There are definitely kids having sex out there, but I do think part of that is the queer contingent. I think once you come to terms with your queerness, your queerness is so much a part of your personality. If you\u2019re a closeted person, you probably don\u2019t have that openness. You\u2019re not connected to your sexuality and your desires and who you are inside. But I\u2019ve heard of queer people, too, who don\u2019t have sex. They declare themselves: I\u2019m queer, I\u2019m bisexual, I\u2019m this, that, or the other\u2014pan, or whatever\u2014but still celibate. I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s no Gen Zs having sex, but this is definitely real. Like, my friends tell me, \u201cMy kids have never been on a date. They\u2019re in their fuckin\u2019 twenties. They have never gone on a date.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other thing is, I don\u2019t intend the movie to be a lecture. I\u2019m not telling anybody what to do. I just want to bring it up, and then you<\/em> guys talk about it, you<\/em> guys argue about it. The idea for me with the movie is, have a fun ride, have a fun adventure, enjoy it\u2014I hope! And then afterward, go out with your friends to a bar and argue about it.<\/p>\n

The way that sex is or can be depicted onscreen has really changed since the nineties. Hearing you say you wanted this to be kind of a romp because of all the dark stuff going on in the world is interesting to me because in the past you have depicted a lot of really graphic sexual violence. For instance, the rape scene in \u201cNowhere.\u201d How did you think about how you wanted to show the sex in this movie, and, also, how aware were you of how it would be received?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

It was really around MeToo, around 2016, that I was, like, I actually think that even in a consensual relationship, I don\u2019t really want to have a woman getting dragged around by the hair. It\u2019s just not an image I really feel comfortable putting out there. I don\u2019t want to kink-shame anybody, but I just didn\u2019t want to put that image into the world.<\/p>\n

Read more Which Way Should the Democratic Party Go Now?<\/a><\/p>\n

I saw you worked with Yehuda Duenyas, the intimacy co\u00f6rdinator. I am really curious how you\u2014as a person who made your first few films by yourself, with just a few actors and a Bolex camera, alone in a room\u2014approached these larger productions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mean, honestly, I\u2019ve been doing sex scenes forever. So I\u2019m very comfortable with it. I know this is what everybody says, but it\u2019s not sexy at all. It\u2019s not fun. It\u2019s just work. And it is very much choreography. As a director, for me the priority is always making sure the sets are super safe and as comfortable as they can be for the actors, because they are physically and emotionally naked. The sets are always closed. The other thing is, I always make it really clear what I want\u2014because of the way I work, I know from the start what the sex scene\u2019s going to be. I think it\u2019s harder for actors when the director says, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t really know what it is, we\u2019re just going to figure it out as we go.\u201d When we were casting \u201cNow Apocalypse,\u201d it was just, like, \u201cThis is going to be HBO-style, R-rated sex\u2014so boobs, butt, no full frontal, you can wear your little pouch.\u201d So, if you do not want to do that, please don\u2019t come in and audition, because I\u2019m not gonna change it.<\/p>\n

For \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d it was the same way. I knew what it was, and when I talked to Olivia [Wilde] for the first time she got it. She was, like, I don\u2019t want to be naked the whole movie. And I\u2019m all, No, well, because of the S & M nature of it, there\u2019s a lot of costume going on, looks<\/em> going on. [Laughs.<\/em>]\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. It\u2019s not that you\u2019re just walking around naked all the time, but I feel like it\u2019s important that you are<\/em> naked sometimes<\/em>. Because\u2014and this is my personal pet peeve\u2014I hate when it feels like nudity clauses everywhere. I watch HBO shows, and all I see are nudity clauses. This<\/em> actor has one, this<\/em> actor has one, this<\/em> actor has one, but this day player will show fucking anything because they don\u2019t have a fucking nudity clause. I don\u2019t want that. I want it to feel real. Again, it\u2019s related to those Almod\u00f3var movies, where the sex scenes always felt so real to me, and that\u2019s what made them cool and interesting. It wasn\u2019t about the genitalia, it was just about the authenticity of those moments. That\u2019s something I shoot for in my movies, and I always have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

The success of a scene is always about the actor\u2019s comfort, and that\u2019s where Yehuda was great, because he really comes in and helps actors feel comfortable, helps the situation, helps the language of it all. I know people have worked with bad intimacy co\u00f6rdinators, and I can\u2019t imagine anything worse than that, where they make it more<\/em> awkward and more<\/em> uncomfortable. But it\u2019s completely up to the actor to me. It\u2019s literally, like, Do you want one? Because I\u2019ve worked with actors before, like Roxane Mesquida, when we did \u201cNow Apocalypse,\u201d she was, like, \u201cI don\u2019t need one, I\u2019ve been doing nudity since I was eighteen in France. I know what it is. I don\u2019t need somebody to tell me what to do.\u201d For this movie, Olivia was very comfortable, but Cooper [Hoffman] had never done a sex scene before. So just having someone there that\u2019s not me, to talk to and to talk about any issues with, I felt was really helpful. It\u2019s a case-by-case basis. It\u2019s definitely important to have a good one.<\/p>\n

Almod\u00f3var is a great example of a certain type of sensualist. I love the scene in \u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d where Roxane\u2019s character, Yvette, chastises Elliot for his ignorance of eroticism, saying that \u201cAmericans treat sex like it\u2019s an animal act, stripped of sensuality, of mystery. This is not erotic, this is performance.\u201d It\u2019s interesting because in the past you\u2019ve shown a lot of very sensual intimacy, but a lot of the sex that Elliot and Erika have is really performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely theatrical. S & M is a lot of performance. It\u2019s costumes and drama. But that\u2019s the kink of it, that\u2019s what makes it hot, the performative nature of it. I mean, I personally don\u2019t do it, so I don\u2019t know\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. but I\u2019m just thinking, to be a dom or to be a sub and you\u2019re in the role, you\u2019re fulfilling that role, I think that\u2019s a part of its strong, intense appeal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

You\u2019re saying there is a relationship between performance and eroticism, or there can be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yehuda was very well versed in that world, and was kind of a technical expert for us.<\/p>\n

This relates to something else I want to talk to you about, which is shame, or the role of eradicating shame in your films. There\u2019s often one character who is more comfortable with themselves, trying to bring other characters into their world or encouraging them to let go of shame. My favorite example of this is in \u201cThe Living End,\u201d how the H.I.V. status is disclosed. The first time they have sex, Jon tries to tell Luke that he has something he wants to tell him, and Luke cuts him off and just says, \u201cIf you\u2019re trying to say what I think you are, don\u2019t worry about it. It\u2019s no big deal. Welcome to the club, partner.\u201d It\u2019s so subtle in the way it dispenses with stigma around being H.I.V.-positive. Maybe this has to do with your own upbringing, because I know you\u2019ve talked about growing up with very accepting parents. How do you think about shame when you\u2019re writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My movies have always been very sex-positive, and \u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d is really about sex positivity, and I think you hit the nail on the head, because my own queerness was not villainized. My parents are that generation that they very easily could have had a more adversarial relationship with it. I\u2019ve heard of people who are much younger than me and don\u2019t talk to their parents anymore, and it\u2019s just, like, Really? My parents were raised in the fuckin\u2019 fifties. They obviously would have that heteronormative thing baked into them\u2014but they were always so unconditional with their love for me, and always supported me and my choices. So I think that definitely was a big factor. My queerness was definitely not easy for me, definitely confusing, definitely a lot of\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. I don\u2019t want to say bad experiences, but a lot of bumps in the road. But that was a really formative part of my journey. That\u2019s one thing that really bugged me about that movie \u201cBabygirl,\u201d \u2019cause I felt it was so sex-negative. I thought that scene where Nicole Kidman\u2019s crying like, I\u2019m a terrible person, what\u2019s wrong with me? I ruined my marriage. I was, like, You are figuring out who you are sexually, and it\u2019s not with your husband, so that\u2019s your journey, figure that out. Don\u2019t be, like, \u201cSex has destroyed me,\u201d basically.<\/p>\n

Another thing I want to talk to you about is your relationship to the end of the world, this sort of eros and thanatos thing. Obviously, nominatively, the \u201cTeen Apocalypse Trilogy\u201d is doing this. \u201cNow Apocalypse\u201d is doing this. But I feel like all your characters, especially as they come of age sexually, are constantly thinking about annihilation in a very particular way. In \u201cNowhere,\u201d James Duval\u2019s character, Dark, says, \u201cOur generation is going to witness the end of everything.\u201d I really believe that he believes that, and that that was the sense in the late nineties. When Elliot is defending Gen Z to Erika, he says a similar thing, that Gen Z\u2019s sexlessness has a relationship to apocalyptic despondence. Like, \u201cThings are so bad that we are afraid to give ourselves over to this thing,\u201d but in the nineties, your characters were, like, \u201cWe feel so bad that we are exclusively giving ourselves over to this thing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

It was all hedonism and nihilism. Like, Oh fuck it, let\u2019s just have sex.<\/p>\n

I feel like you\u2019re trying to get at something that changed in the culture, which is that this fixation on morbidity is now actually turning people away from sex. So what happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What happened!<\/p>\n

What happened?!<\/strong><\/p>\n

One thing I think that definitely happened is technology. When we made \u201cNowhere,\u201d back in the nineties, it was, like, these kids of various queerness, sexuality, bisexuality, whatever they are, just roaming free in the world, and now it\u2019s like Cooper talks about in the movie. There\u2019s just a sense with technology that everybody\u2019s being filmed, watched, surveilled; everything\u2019s being judged, everything\u2019s being criticized. You can\u2019t ask a girl to prom without worrying that somebody\u2019s going to post it. You can\u2019t get drunk at a party and throw up all over the place because someone\u2019s going to post it and you\u2019ll be humiliated. This fear and this paranoia is just not a healthy space to grow up in. I feel like so much of it is based on technology, beyond the fact that it\u2019s made people unable to communicate, unable to talk to each other, unable to go out and see your friends, you\u2019re all just texting each other. I think that\u2019s the biggest reason why people are so disconnected and so afraid.<\/p>\n

I want to talk about music. Despite the movies themselves being pop confections, your soundtracks always heavily pull from the underground\u2014including this new one, which, like all your movies, features the shoegaze band Slowdive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always have to have a Slowdive song!<\/p>\n

One song that is conspicuously not<\/em> on the soundtrack is \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d the George Michael song.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because we couldn\u2019t afford it! There\u2019s no Charli, either, because we can\u2019t afford it! We\u2019re an indie movie. Every movie I make, I\u2019ve never had piles and piles of money for the soundtrack. I remember when we first put Nine Inch Nails in \u201cDoom Generation,\u201d we had a screening for Trent [Reznor]. Perry Farrell [of Jane\u2019s Addiction] came, too. We had a private screening for them, and I was literally begging. And they felt like, Oh, this poor kid, this poor fucking fan, this little weird artsy movie. We\u2019ve always had to beg, borrow, and steal for our music.<\/p>\n

But the music in \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d just like the way the cast spans my career, the music does, too. That Pretenders song [\u201cBad Boys Get Spanked\u201d] was from when I was Elliot\u2019s age. I remember seeing the Pretenders in Santa Barbara on that tour. And then they\u2019re at the gallery show and that My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult song is playing. That song also feels so nineties\u2014so me at Club Fuck! when I was in my thirties.<\/p>\n

Does the title come from the George Michael song? It\u2019s such a campy, synthy, kind of not-actually-sexy song\u2014that feels maybe related to the tone of your movie.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, absolutely. And it doesn\u2019t really make sense as a sentence, you know what I mean? It\u2019s not, like, \u201cI want your dick.\u201d \u201cI want your sex<\/em>\u201d? Using sex as the noun in that way is weird. It\u2019s not, like, \u201cI want to have sex with you.\u201d It\u2019s catchy. And because the movie for me is a pop-culture movie, as a pop-culture reference, it\u2019s important to me. But when we were making the movie, people were, like, Gen Z doesn\u2019t even know who George Michael is, like, nobody knows this fucking song but you. And it\u2019s, like, that doesn\u2019t matter to me! When I saw it printed out the first time and then I saw the poster, I was just, like, That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

It\u2019s also a little bit nostalgic, in the sense of, like, when I was growing up, sex was different. The repression and the fucking puritanical weird shit going on in Trump America, that stuff was there. There was always that puritanical contingent, but it was Madonna\u2019s heyday. Prince, George Michael, all of them. Everything was so queer-coded, there was just this level of queer.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Flamboyance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flamboyance, or just this fun energy around sex and sexuality. And that\u2019s kind of why, for me, the title makes sense even if Gen Z doesn\u2019t know what the song is. It\u2019s harkening back to that age of innocence, in terms of playing with sex and sexuality, and the door cracking open. I was so fortunate to be born when I was born. That was the time I was having all these adventures. I remember when Prince came out, that album \u201cControversy\u201d was so huge, because it was this level of the public being, like, Am I gay? Am I straight? The culture was opening up in a way. It\u2019s now the opposite.<\/p>\n

The matrix of pop-culture references is also so clear in the casting. Especially because Johnny Knoxville is sort of the peak of feral American masculinity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But with queer subtext, like, Oh, my God.<\/p>\n

\u201cJackass\u201d is the most homoerotic thing we have.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There have been papers written about \u201cJackass\u201d and its fucking queerness.<\/p>\n

And how did Charli get involved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charli was a fan. I guess the \u201cBrat\u201d album art is based on \u201cSmiley Face.\u201d They were, like, Charli\u2019s a big fan, she wants to meet you, da da da\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. so I had a general meeting with her. She was great, super cool, but this is early, when she first started acting. She\u2019s, like, \u201cWhat are you working on?\u201d I said, \u201cWell, I have this movie\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d But I said to her agent, \u201cShe has to self-tape like everybody else.\u201d I\u2019d never seen her act before! So, she self-taped, and she was fantastic. I love the fact that she\u2019s playing somebody who is completely a million miles from the real Charli. Charli\u2019s so sweet, and she\u2019s such a hard worker, and just to play this real nasty, kind of mean character who\u2019s so uptight\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. and we were just so lucky to get her because she was on the \u201cSweat\u201d tour when we were filming.<\/p>\n

Johnny\u2019s somebody I\u2019ve known for years through John Waters. I saw him at a dinner party, and I was, like, \u201cOh, hey, I\u2019m doing this movie. I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019re interested, but they can shoot you in one day. It\u2019s in L.A. You just have to show up.\u201d He was, like, \u201cSure! I would love to be in a Gregg Araki movie!\u201d Fucking cool.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d is about to open on seven hundred screens across the country. What is your wish for the movie as it is unleashed on the masses?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We just had a screening in San Francisco, at Frameline, and it was in the Castro Theatre, and it was fucking nuts. People were screaming and yelling. It was pandemonium. The idea that people can enjoy it like that in a theatre and laugh with other people and talk back to the screen, whatever they want to do, that\u2019s the kind of movie I want it to be. You know, I\u2019m really excited about being in theatres, but I do feel like it\u2019s a movie you could stream. I purposely chose the title because I think it\u2019d be a great tile on a Netflix or HBO homepage. Like, \u201c\u00a0\u2018I Want Your Sex\u2019?! Click!<\/em>\u201d\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more Poems Edgar Allan Poe Wrote While Lost in a Corn Maze<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holden Seidlitz interviews Gregg Araki, the director of \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d about whether Gen Z is having enough sex, casting Charli XCX and Johnny Knoxville, and the importance of \u201cweird, scary, confusing experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-new-yorker-interview"],"yoast_head":"\nGregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Holden Seidlitz interviews Gregg Araki, the director of \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d about whether Gen Z is having enough sex, casting Charli XCX and Johnny Knoxville, and the importance of \u201cweird, scary, confusing experiences.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-26T11:36:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"28 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"headline\":\"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-26T11:36:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092\"},\"wordCount\":5546,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"The New Yorker Interview\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092\",\"name\":\"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken - City Relocation News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-26T11:36:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=1092#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"City Relocation News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken - City Relocation News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken - City Relocation News","og_description":"Holden Seidlitz interviews Gregg Araki, the director of \u201cI Want Your Sex,\u201d about whether Gen Z is having enough sex, casting Charli XCX and Johnny Knoxville, and the importance of \u201cweird, scary, confusing experiences.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092","og_site_name":"City Relocation News","article_published_time":"2026-07-26T11:36:25+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"28 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4"},"headline":"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken","datePublished":"2026-07-26T11:36:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092"},"wordCount":5546,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp","articleSection":["The New Yorker Interview"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092","name":"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken - City Relocation News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp","datePublished":"2026-07-26T11:36:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e294b560daeda588f47289883cf90b51.webp","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=1092#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gregg Araki Thinks It\u2019s Good to Get Your Heart Broken"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/","name":"City Relocation News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}