Out writer-director Gregg Araki—avatar of the New Queer Cinema movement of the early '90s—is back in theaters (and On Demand) this week with Kaboom, his first film since 2007's stoner comedy Smiley Face.
Araki's latest—the tale of Smith, a disaffected, ambisexual college student (Thomas Dekker) delving into mysterious occurrences on campus (in between copious bouts of sex with various partners male and female)—is as audacious, funny and darkly energetic as the movies that brought him initial fame as an outlaw indie filmmaker. As Kaboom reveals, at 51, Araki hasn't settled down creatively one whit (although his technique has most assuredly matured) and this über-queer artist remains a lively, outspoken proponent for Our People.
Windy City Times: Kaboom is like the return of New Queer Cinema 20 years on, right?
Gregg Araki: [Laughs] Oh, is that what it is?
WCT: Well, you yourself have said this harkens back to The Living End, Doom Generation, your college experience, etc. And once again you're leading the charge here—the idea of sexual labels being much more fluid has certainly changed in 20 years which you acknowledge right off the bat when Smith says that his sexual preference is "undeclared." You have said there should be no labels, that there's just "attraction and desire." Can you talk about that?
GA: It's a theme that I've been very interested in. Some of my earlier movies, particularly Doom Generation and Nowhere, were rooted in this idea—that sexuality is a gray area and, for a lot of people, it's about experience and not so much about labels and categories. I don't want to discount the importance of identity politics. The more sophisticated answer that I've sort of learned to give [laughs] on this particular press tour is that when I find that I'm talking about sexuality it depends on who you're talking to, you know?
WCT: Yes.
GA: I mean if you're talking to a Sarah Palin Republican, obviously it's important to come out and say, "I'm gay" and be confrontational about it, but I feel if like you're talking to a sophisticated audience that is "on our side" [laughs] at that point you're able to open up questions of what is gay, what is straight and what is the need for naming what people experience.
I think there's obviously a huge importance to coming out and, particularly for young gay people, to have positive models and gay pride and a sense of community and all of that. But at the same time, it is very much like the character London talks about in the movie: "It's not the black and white"—particularly, for this younger generation. A lot of the younger people that I know—those that are the same age as those of the cast in the movie (early 20s)—that's very much their experience. Their sexuality is just a really important part of growing up and those experiences whether they be gay, straight or otherwise or somewhere in the middle are all a very significant step in their evolution. It's those steps that make you the person that you're going to be. That's a major theme of the movie in a way for me: These sexual experiences are not there to be judged.
WCT: Another issue here is labeling and the need for people to do that. Liberal or conservative, it's so ingrained—Are you gay? Are you straight? And I get that. I'm always wanting to tout "out" filmmakers like yourself and proudly proclaim movies like Kaboom as great examples of "queer cinema." Do you have a problem with that?
GA: I don't have a problem with it—depending on who I'm talking to. I do consider myself predominantly gay although I've had major relationships in my life with women and again, it depends on who I'm talking to. If it's a case where it's important to be black and white about it, I can be black and white about it. But if I'm talking to someone who is more open minded I think there's room to raise questions. I do think its human experience and there's room for the mystery and the exception.
WCT: What about the specific label "queer movie?"
GA: We won the first Queer Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival and, for me, that was a huge honor. It was an incredible, surreal experience to be in Cannes in the first place and the Queer Palm was the cherry on top of the sundae for me. I think it's both. I made the film for the outsider kids that are growing up out there in some sort of little hostile small town.
WCT: There's a lot of 'em.
GA: There are. And one of the things that inspired me to make this after the last few movies was that I run into these younger people that are fans of my earlier movies—in particular Nowhere—and they come up to me at festivals and tell me how important the movie was to them and how it got them through a really tough time. Because they grew up in Kentucky or North Dakota or some other God-forsaken place and it was my movie that helped them. And as a filmmaker, that's sort of the highest compliment anyone could ever pay you. So I wanted to make Kaboom for the next generation, though I'm certainly not artistically in the same place and I certainly see life in a very different way now. The film is obviously not going to be Nowhere II but it incorporates a lot of those themes.
WCT: You have this way of presenting the younger generation that seems very real, very unforced. What's the secret?
GA: This is one of the most amazing casts I've ever worked with. They're part of this new generation of actors that really are about doing work that is creative and challenging and that pushes the envelope as opposed to doing the same old formula crap that's out there for young actors. They were all excited to take the risk; to walk the plank with me.
WCT: How many takes did you shoot of the young actor trying to give himself a blow job?
GA: [Laughs] Not many! We didn't have the budget or the time to do many retakes. Whenever you shoot any sort of sex or nude scenes it's just really, really important to make the set feel super, super safe and comfortable. So it's closed and no one's there but the camera man, the sound person, it's really like a safe place and I always make a point to tell all the actors individually that they have my ear.
WCT: How does the "young queer director"—the label that has followed you around for 20 years—go forward as you are now middle-aged? Are you yearning to do something in a different direction?
GA: I'm still a young queer director! [Laughs] My thing as a director is really that it's important to continue to grow and to make all different kinds of movies. One of my pet peeves is directors who make the same movie over and over again. I feel like it's important to stretch and grow. The films that I'm working on now are all sort of different.
WCT: Anything specific you can talk about?
GA: It depends on which one gets the money first. [Laughs]
WCT: Let's circle back to that "label" thing one more time. A batch of queer directors in the past year or so have advised gay actors to stay in the closet if they want to become leading men in Hollywood. What are your thoughts on that?
GA: My thoughts are really that, especially for actors who are completely in the public eye, [is that] it's completely their decision. I feel that it's up to them. It would be awesome, obviously, if there was a Robert Pattinson or somebody like that that would come out and say, "I'm gay" and there would be some trail blazed in that way, and I do think that's going to happen in our lifetime.
But I just think it's a very private matter and it is loaded and it is true that if you're Tom Cruise or something, you're in a really difficult position because the audience that you're appealing to is not sophisticated, not educated and not really enlightened. So, when you're on a mass global level like that, it's a tricky situation. But I guarantee you somebody's going to do it. Somebody of this generation.
WCT: They're going to see Kaboom and say, "Fuck it, I'm coming out."
GA: [Laughs hard] That would be great; that would be great.
