The topic of sexual addiction may tantalize in its raciness—some New Yorkers caught an eventful eyeful when Steve McQueen was shooting a hotel sex scene for his film Shame—but for whatever reason, it’s a topic that has proved too much to handle for most audiences. Shame, despite its award season buzz, never became a big audience movie, and HBO’s drama series Tell Me You Love Me, which was not about sexual addiction but was as explicit in its discussion and depiction of sexuality as Shame or any other like work of cinema, never made it past its first season. With Stuart Blumberg’s new dramedy Thanks for Sharing, headed up in the acting department by Mark Ruffalo, Gwenyth Paltrow, Josh Gad, and Tim Robbins, sexual addiction is getting a less visceral handling—but one no less serious or important.
Composer Christopher Lennertz was chosen to rise to the task of scoring the movie, out September 20th. In the interview below, organized by Lennertz’ label Milan, he describes the motivations of the music as well as the techniques used in scoring the film. “I could tell from the film that it was supposed to be somber and serious but also hopeful,” Lennertz says in the interview. His introspective and intimate compositions for the movie certainly reflect such an outlook.