Araki Used AI to Kill Freeway Noise in 'I Want Your Sex'
SkimNews Take
AI's path into creative workflows may bypass the headline controversies by proving indispensable for unglamorous technical tasks first, normalizing the technology even among its loudest skeptics before any boundary dispute over replacing actors or writers ever arises.
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- Gregg Araki used AI post-production tools to remove loud freeway noise from a mini golf course scene in 'I Want Your Sex,' resulting in clean audio with audible crickets—something he called 'literally insane'
- Araki said he is 'not a big supporter' of AI replacing actors and writers, but credited AI post-production tools with revolutionizing effects and editing access for indie, lower-budget filmmakers
- 'I Want Your Sex' marks Araki's first feature in more than a decade, co-written with Karley Sciortino and starring Olivia Wilde as dominatrix Erika Tracy with Cooper Hoffman as her submissive assistant Elliot
- Araki contrasted today's filmmaker-friendly technology—sensitive cameras, iPhones, and software—with the technical struggles of his early work and Rick Linklater's 'Slacker' era, when filmmaking required being 'a crazy obsessive person'
- Araki described Hollywood as 'kind of like the Titanic' with old formulas no longer working, while expressing optimism that indie films like 'Obsession' are delivering 'shocks to the system' to the IP-driven industry
Why it matters: A director publicly endorsing AI for specific post-production tasks while explicitly opposing its use to replace creative talent draws a line in the ongoing Hollywood AI debate. Araki's freeway-noise example illustrates that the technology in question is enhanced audio cleanup rather than generative replacement—distinguishing tools from the actor/writer replacement fight that fueled the 2023 strikes.
