At 66, Gregg Araki Is Still Indie Film’s Youthful Rebel

Gregg Araki‘s “I Want Your Sex” is one of the most purely exuberant movies of 2026 so far, a film as giddy with the pleasures of filmmaking as any of the movies Araki made as an up-and-coming indie auteur in the 1990s, making confrontational films like “The Living End,” “The Doom Generation,” and “Nowhere.” If the movie exudes the same level of scrappy energy and visual imagination as those films, it’s probably because Araki has never really abandoned his DIY sensibility.

“‘I Want Your Sex‘ was the fewest days I’ve ever had on any movie, including movies like ‘Kaboom’ and ‘Doom Generation’ and ‘Mysterious Skin,'” Araki told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “They were tiny budgets and small crews, but we had more days than we had on this.” Araki, who has honed his craft on the swift schedules of both low-budget movies and episodic television, says there’s something to be gained from having the momentum that comes with never being able to slow down.

“I love to work that way,” Araki said. “I get bored easily, and I feel like the actors get bored, and they get cold. I personally think as a director that [moving fast] really helps the performances.” On “I Want Your Sex,” Araki shot with two cameras for the first time on one of his features, having fallen in love with the practice while working in television. “It’s part of the way I visualize a scene now. As an editor, having two cameras is this amazing tool because you always have a perfect cut. The hair is exactly the same, the gesture…it’s so freeing.”

 At 66, Araki exudes as much youthful energy as he did when he was a twentysomething upstart, but he’s clearly enjoying his newfound status as an elder statesman of independent film. “Rick Linklater and I were talking about that,” Araki said. “If you stick around for long enough, all of a sudden you’re respected. Honestly, I’m so grateful and amazed that I’ve been able to be around for as long as I have been and make the movies I’ve made.”

Several of those movies, like the “Teen Apocalypse” trilogy and the haunting “Mysterious Skin,” have recently been making the rounds in new restorations, in revival houses and museums as well as at home thanks to labels like Criterion. Looking back at the work and seeing its effect on a new generation of filmmakers and fans, Araki has no regrets. “Because of the way I work and because I’m in the indie world, I’ve never made a movie that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t like that movie,’ or ‘That was a movie I did for money.’ Everything I’ve done has always been the most personal thing that I’m working on right now.”

Araki describes all of his movies up to and including “I Want Your Sex” as “clear Polaroid snapshots” of who he was when he made them. “This is what I’m thinking about, this is what I’m feeling,” Araki said, noting that the bleakness of “The Doom Generation” is the complete opposite of what he was trying to evoke with “I Want Your Sex.” “I always called ‘Doom Generation’ my Nine Inch Nails movie. It was so angry and nihilistic. With this movie, I’m older. I’m in a very good place.”

While Araki is in a good place, he feels the world is in a terrible place, and that movies can be an antidote to the nightmare. “I personally can’t watch things that are too dark or dystopian right now,” he said. With “I Want Your Sex,” he hopes he’s struck the right balance between thoughtful and fun. “It’s not an empty popcorn movie. This movie has its moments of darkness, and it’s certainly provocative and controversial like all my movies. But I wanted to do something that was fun and full of queer joy for this moment. I wanted to make this pop, bright, fun thing that has a lot on its mind.”

“I Want Your Sex” is now in theaters from Magnolia Pictures.

To hear the entire conversation with Gregg Araki and make sure you don’t miss a single episode of Filmmaker Toolkit, subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.