Olivia Wilde says Gen Z is right to reject 'unrealistic' on-screen sex

Movieweb reports Olivia Wilde said she resonates with Generation Z's view that on-screen sex is often "unrealistic", pointing to a UCLA study that found 48.4% of people born 1997–2012 think there is "too much" sexual content. Wilde made the remarks while promoting her erotic comedy thriller I Want Your Sex.

Speaking to Variety, Wilde said the way sex has been portrayed "hasn't been particularly realistic" and welcomed a movement toward authenticity, adding: "We don't want to see inauthenticity anymore. We want to see real relationships, and we want to have something that feels more genuine." The film, directed by Gregg Araki, follows Cooper Hoffman’s artist's assistant Elliot and frames sexual encounters with awkwardness and tension rather than constant crescendos of pleasure.

I Want Your Sex, released January 23, 2026 with a 90-minute runtime, installed an on-set intimacy coordinator amid #MeToo-era concerns; Wilde described the coordinator as "the best in the business." The report notes intimacy coordinators have become standard over the last seven years but remain polarizing among performers, and whether they will gain widespread respect remains an open question.

Key Topics

Culture, Olivia Wilde, Intimacy Coordinators, Generation Z, Ucla, Gregg Araki