Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman reunited with director Gregg Araki and several of their costars for the Los Angeles premiere of I Want Your Sex.
The two leads posed together at the DGA Theater Complex on July 28, three days before the provocative comedy thriller begins its U.S. theatrical run.
The event followed the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Several Cast Members Joined Wilde and Hoffman
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Wilde attended the premiere in a black blazer layered over a cropped white shirt and matching white trousers. Hoffman chose a short-sleeved checked shirt with gray pants. Costars Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Margaret Cho and Daveed Diggs also walked the carpet, according to Just Jared.
Araki posed with Wilde and Hoffman in front of the film’s bright pink promotional display. Group photographs also brought the director together with Hoffman, Wilde, Diggs and Gooding.
Hoffman Plays Wilde’s Assistant and Sexual Muse
I Want Your Sex follows Elliot, played by Hoffman, after he lands a job working for Erika Tracy, a renowned artist and provocateur portrayed by Wilde. Elliot’s fantasies initially appear to come true when Erika asks him to become her sexual muse.
The arrangement soon draws him into a volatile world involving obsession, power, betrayal and murder, according to the official Magnolia Pictures synopsis. Wonders plays Elliot’s best friend and roommate. The ensemble also includes Gooding, Diggs, Cho, Charli xcx and Knoxville.
Araki co-wrote the screenplay with Karley Sciortino, whose original version of the project spent years in development before the filmmakers reshaped its central power dynamic.
Wilde Felt an Immediate Connection With Hoffman
The cast first presented the film to audiences at Sundance on January 23. During the post-screening discussion, Wilde said Erika and Elliot’s relationship needed enough emotional credibility to feel like more than a dominant-submissive arrangement.
“There had to be something that made you actually weirdly, in a teeny tiny way, root for them,” she said, according to the Sundance Film Festival. Wilde said that connection became easier to imagine as soon as she met Hoffman.
“The second I met Cooper, I was like, ‘Oh, I love you,’” she recalled. Hoffman admitted that he entered the audition process without expecting to receive the role.
He continued advancing through the casting process until he learned he had been selected to play Elliot. “I honestly didn’t think I’d get cast,” Hoffman said. “I just threw my hat in the ring and kept getting closer and closer.”
The Film Marks Araki’s Feature Return
I Want Your Sex is Araki’s first feature film since 2014’s White Bird in a Blizzard. His earlier work includes The Living End, The Doom Generation, Nowhere and Mysterious Skin. The filmmaker has described the new project as a playful but serious examination of sexuality, generational attitudes, power and the sometimes-blurred distinction between kink and exploitation.
Araki praised the cast at Sundance for immediately committing to the film’s explicit material, noting that some of its most demanding scenes were filmed during the first days of production. Wilde said she was drawn to his willingness to make the film without sanding away its unconventional qualities.
“I wish more people made movies like you,” she told Araki after the Sundance screening. “It just comes from the heart, and I want to be a part of something like that.” Magnolia Pictures will release I Want Your Sex in theaters on July 31. A streaming release date has not been announced.