Generation Z are completely on the money when it comes to on-screen sex, says Olivia Wilde. Per a recent UCLA study, as many as 48.4% of this demographic (born between 1997 and 2012) think there’s “too much” sexual content present across entertainment mediums, and now the actress-cum-filmmaker has told Variety that she resonates with their thoughts. While promoting her new erotic comedy thriller I Want Your Sex, which sounds exactly like this year’s flipped answer to Babygirl, Wilde reflected:
“I think Gen Z is pretty smart… the way that sex has been portrayed in film for a long time hasn’t been particularly realistic. Therefore, there’s been this movement now towards authenticity, which is really good. So I choose to interpret that statistic maybe as Gen Z saying, ‘We don’t want to see inauthenticity anymore. We want to see real relationships, and we want to have something that feels more genuine.’ So I like that.
“This movie is an incredibly irreverent, playful take on showing this part of the sexual revolution of a young person. The whole idea is to try things, live your life, experiment, fall on your face and get back up. Sex is used as a metaphor for something that’s really applicable to everybody’s experience.”
I Want Your Sex, directed by Greg Arraki, puts the bedroom action into full tilt as Cooper Hoffman’s artist’s assistant Elliot becomes the latest pet project of renowned provocateur Erika (played by Wilde). Their dynamic is not so steeped in tirelessly-used crescendos of pleasure, but awkwardness and tension instead, as these experiences in the real world often are. In light of the #MeToo movement, I Want Your Sex became the latest movie to install an on-set intimacy coordinator into the crew, who Wilde described as “the best in the business.” This allowed the cast to feel safe in a steamy environment, even though the tone pushes against its neatly sexualized predecessors.
Intimacy Coordinators are Polarizing Hollywood
For the last seven years or so, intimacy coordinators have been standardized across Hollywood and the entertainment industry at large, but in the minds of many performers, they’re stifling tangible connection. One such star is Nightmare Alley‘s Toni Collette, who’s apparently rejected their relevance in various jobs — going as far as to deny them any input on her sex scenes. This happened on the HBO true-crime series The Staircase, in which she shared intimate moments with Colin Firth as Kathleen Peterson and her husband Michael.
“I have felt so connected and safe with my creative partners that the intimacy coordinator felt like they were encroaching upon the process, and I’ve denied them access to the actual scene because I didn’t feel like I needed them.”
In HBO’s The Idol, intimacy coordinators were even openly mocked during one scene where Lily-Rose Depp’s popstar Jocelyn is told that she can’t disrobe for a photoshoot. The reason? “In the general human rights structure of it all.” Her manager proceeds to throw the crew member into a closet and pay somebody $5,000 to make sure he doesn’t stick his nose in again.
Then there’s Sean Bean and Gwyneth Paltrow’s frustrating experiences, which do nothing for the job’s reputation. Will intimacy coordinators ever be given widespread respect?
- Release Date
-
January 23, 2026
- Runtime
-
90 minutes
- Director
-
Gregg Araki
- Writers
-
Karley Sciortino, Gregg Araki
- Producers
-
Seth Caplan, Teddy Schwarzman, Gregg Araki, Karley Sciortino, Michael Heimler
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
