SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Some of the jobs we take in our 20s turn out to be learning experiences, like when a gentle, fresh-faced young man named Elliot lands a gig as an assistant to the celebrity pop artist Erika Tracy, and Erika quickly puts Elliot to work.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I WANT YOUR SEX")
MARGARET CHO: (As Detective Zola) Your relationship with your employer was primarily sexual in nature?
OLIVIA WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) You're a sexual astronaut, just exploring the outer limits of experience.
PFEIFFER: Erika, played by Olivia Wilde, keeps Elliot as her sexual muse. Elliot is played by Cooper Hoffman. The two of them have a dominant-submissive relationship with Elliot as the sub, and he is into it. That's the premise of the new comedy from filmmaker Gregg Araki called "I Want Your Sex."
GREGG ARAKI: My one-liner is, it's a sex-positive love letter to Gen Z.
PFEIFFER: Gregg Araki is known for making films about young people exploring their sexuality, and his movies are often quite explicit. This one is very much so. It's also his first movie in 12 years. When I spoke with him and actor Cooper Hoffman, he said, this film is largely a reaction to all the media coverage about why Gen Z seems to be having less sex than previous generations.
ARAKI: Like Erika Tracy, my work is, you know, based on sex, sexuality. It's provocative. A lot of the things that Erika says in the movie are actually quotations of things I've said about sex and art.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I WANT YOUR SEX")
COOPER HOFFMAN: (As Elliot) It's complicated.
WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) Complicated? Gen Z is all about FOMO, and yet you're willing to miss out on the sexual prime of your life.
ARAKI: When she said - has that line about, you know, your generation is all about FOMO, but you're not worried about missing out on the sexual prime of your life - that was, you know, kind of my reaction. You know, the thing about the movie to me is, I want it to be, like, a fun, entertaining ride. I just want to provoke conversation. So I encourage people to see the movie, have a good time, and then go out with your friends afterwards and, you know, argue about it and get into the debate, you know, and pick a side and, like, go for it because I just really want to open that conversation.
PFEIFFER: Cooper, your character in the movie actually discusses some of this - his own anxiety and the idea that if - you know, if nothing is private anymore - am I on camera? If I mess up...
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: Is it embarrassing?
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: Cooper, in real life, you're 23 years old, is that right?
HOFFMAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PFEIFFER: So how much does this land with you? How much does it reflect your own view of the world?
HOFFMAN: Yeah, sure. I have some fear about it, but also, like, I think that I kind of - a little bit like how you don't think you're going to die today. Like, I just don't think I'm going to be recorded. Like, I just don't - I live in kind of a nice, ignorant bliss about it, maybe. But also so much of my life growing up was recorded. And, you know, like, we would have - because of my dad, we'd have paparazzi outside of my house all the time. Like, my entire childhood felt like it was being recorded. And...
PFEIFFER: We should note here, for people who don't know, your dad is Philip Seymour Hoffman, the late...
HOFFMAN: Yes.
PFEIFFER: ...Actor.
HOFFMAN: Yes. But I think that, like, being afraid is something I much more feel attached to - of, like, this kind of fear around, you know, the world but also this thing that is such a part of growing up and figuring yourself out. And there's so much info about it now, and there's so much ideas about it and ideals and what's right and wrong and, you know, what's weird and cringy and, like, all these things that, like, there's no freedom to, like, kind of explore what you like or don't like with someone that you love or have just met for a night 'cause there's too much judgment around it. And I think, you know, what Gregg does really well is kind of removes that judgment and goes, no, like, you can be this. You can be this free. You can be this open.
ARAKI: One thing that I noticed in my sort of research (laughter) for when I was developing the film was, you know, I would talk to people, you know, whose kids were the Gen Z kids who had never dated, never had a boyfriend or girlfriend, never - you know, don't go out. And there was this real anxiety about making a mistake, you know, and...
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
ARAKI: ...And feeling scrutinized and judged.
PFEIFFER: A mistake in a relationship.
ARAKI: Yeah, a mistake in - just in life.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I WANT YOUR SEX")
WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) Being outside your comfort zone is the whole f***ing point. And that's...
HOFFMAN: (As Elliot) Yeah.
WILDE: (As Erika Tracy) How else do you learn from your mistakes and grow?
ARAKI: When Erika says, being young is all about making mistakes - that's what being young is for. You know, I mean, that's the time when you're just sort of making your way through life, and it's confusing, and you do the wrong thing, and it explodes in your face, and then you deal with the consequences. I mean, that's so much what growing up is. So there's a lot of factors that make it complicated. It's just...
HOFFMAN: You guys are making us sound so unfun right now.
(LAUGHTER)
HOFFMAN: Jesus Christ, guys. Like, we're not a bunch of virgins. Like, we're all...
(LAUGHTER)
HOFFMAN: We're figuring...
ARAKI: Yeah, Cooper.
HOFFMAN: ...Ourselves out. Let us do...
ARAKI: Cooper's out there, like, you know, living the life. I also think that it's...
HOFFMAN: (Laughter).
ARAKI: Because I do think it's - as an actor, your whole life is rejection. You know what I mean? So they're not afraid of rejection in the way that a lot of, for instance, you know, the kids of my contemporaries...
PFEIFFER: That's interesting.
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
ARAKI: ...Are.
PFEIFFER: Cooper, this role you play is really exhibitionist. I mean, you went for it. You were willing to be naked and in scenes that you're - are degrading. I mean, even if I were an actor, I could not have been so uninhibited. Do you...
HOFFMAN: Degrade - it's not degrading.
PFEIFFER: Well...
(LAUGHTER)
HOFFMAN: I knew Gregg - I knew Gregg's ears perked up at that.
(LAUGHTER)
HOFFMAN: I - well, it's not degrading, but it is dominating.
PFEIFFER: True.
HOFFMAN: It's in an - a, you know - yeah.
PFEIFFER: It's an S&M environment in which you're the...
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: ...Submissive one, right?
HOFFMAN: Yeah, exactly.
PFEIFFER: So did you go through a mental process of having to overcome any discomfort or embarrassment? Or did you just have no reservations because you are an actor and saying yes took no hesitation?
HOFFMAN: You just got to fully commit. You don't really have a choice. You've signed up. You've got the part. They're paying you. You have to go and do the job, you know.
PFEIFFER: But you could have said, no, I won't do that role.
HOFFMAN: Yeah. I - that was never going to happen. I mean, you know, like, it's Gregg. It's a really good script. It's Olivia Wilde. I'd be a really dumb person to not take that on. I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to do anything like this again. And, you know, this is a script and a part that only comes around every so often, and I would be dumb to not jump at that opportunity.
PFEIFFER: You know, our country, as you know, has taken a pretty hard-right turn in recent years, coming straight down from the federal government. How much, Gregg, is your movie a response to that?
ARAKI: I mean, very much. The tone of the movie, to me, is, you know - it's, of all my movies, one of the most kind of fun, pop, joyful movies I've ever made. I really wanted to put something into the world that was full of this kind of queer joy. And...
PFEIFFER: And your past films can be pretty bleak and dark.
ARAKI: Yeah, I've had things where - you know, kind of gnarly stuff going on. And honestly, for me as a moviegoer, because the world is such a kind of nightmarish hellscape, particularly America, I really wanted to put something in the world that was kind of positive. As a moviegoer, I really can't really watch things right now that are too dark or too dystopian.
HOFFMAN: Yeah.
ARAKI: So the sort of underlying message or subtext of the movie that is very sex positive and very - in a way, to me, it's kind of reassuring a little bit. The idea of sort of putting something positive into the world was very important...
PFEIFFER: Yeah.
ARAKI: ...To me with this movie.
HOFFMAN: I think the movie comes with a lot of empathy and a lot of grace. And I think that it's really funny, so laugh as hard as you want to laugh or get angry as you want to get, but at least acknowledge the fact that it's, like, fighting for some sort of empathy and understanding to a really, what feels like, rigid world. But, you know, that's - it's a - I hope people just have a fun time. I like watching a fun movie, and I think that that's what this is.
PFEIFFER: That is Cooper Hoffman. He's the lead actor of the new movie "I Want Your Sex," and with him is Gregg Araki, the filmmaker of that movie. Gregg and Cooper, thank you so much.
HOFFMAN: Thank you for having us.
ARAKI: Thank you for - thank you.
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