Olivia Wilde commands the screen as a dominatrix in I Want Your Sex, an erotic thriller from cult director Gregg Araki that explores BDSM culture and kink. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is unapologetically explicit, salacious but fun, and embraces sexuality in a way few mainstream films dare to attempt.
The movie draws comparisons to last year's Pillion, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, but with a more kitsch, retro aesthetic and a farcical murder investigation thrown into the mix.
A 13-year journey to the screen
Araki first read a speculative treatment of the script by writer Karley Sciortino around 2013. It was pitched to him as 'a kind of comic Fifty Shades of Grey'. The initial script featured a female sub and a male dom, based on a real-life relationship Sciortino had with an older editor when she was in her mid-twenties, which she described as 'a really core sexual coming-of-age moment for me'.
But after the #MeToo movement gained pace in Hollywood in 2017, Araki and Sciortino decided to rewrite the script, gender swapping the two main characters. The older dominant woman became Erika Tracy, played by Wilde, and the assistant became a submissive younger man, Elliot, played by Cooper Hoffman, the 23-year-old son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
'I didn't really want to have a woman getting dragged around by the hair, even in a consensual situation. I don't want to kink shame anybody, but it made me uncomfortable to have that image,' Araki said.
Olivia Wilde's star power fast-tracks financing
The film struggled to get financed for years, a common challenge for indie movies, particularly those that are 'controversial, risqué and kind of crazy', Araki admitted. But in 2025, things suddenly developed quickly, thanks to Araki's manager and the pull of Wilde's star power.
'My manager slipped it to Olivia's agent without telling me, and then she's like, "Oh, Olivia Wilde read it and really wants to meet." I was like, "Olivia Wilde! That's a f**king great idea,"' Araki recalled.
The pair met, with Araki immediately thinking she was 'fantastic and so fearless'. Wilde has since become a sex-positive beacon after her press tour for her foursome film The Invite. Araki told her that whoever did the movie 'just have to not give a s**t about what people are going to say'. He recalled her response: 'That's told me, I'm totally there.'
Financing came together remarkably fast. 'It was a Friday afternoon that I had the meeting with Olivia, and I said we're going to try to raise the money. She got attached, and then by Monday or Tuesday the movie was financed,' Araki revealed. 'It was like, get Olivia Wilde to be in your movie and it's easy!'
A buzzy cast and standout scenes
Wilde is joined by a cast including Hoffman, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs, Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho. Gooding, son of Oscar-nominated actor Cuba Gooding Jr., plays Zap, Elliot's trendy co-worker. He had previously worked with Wilde when she directed him in 2019's Booksmart, and called working with her as an actor 'a masterclass of nuance'.
One standout scene, teased in the trailer, involves Elliot dragging his best friend and roommate Apple (Wonders) to a threesome with Erika. Gooding described it as a 'visceral reaction' moment. 'I remember laughing at the threesome scene because of how ridiculous the circumstances have been, and – not to spoil anything – but [Wonders] is wearing something that is very silly and she has a really sad emotional moment in realising how she's being perceived,' he explained.
I Want Your Sex is in UK cinemas from today.
