"The Center of the World" (a reference to pussy) is not only about sex but about the compelling intersection of technology, courtship and money that was unique to the Internet boom world of late-1990s California -- before the current "correction." The protagonist, Richard (Peter Sarsgaard), is a boy/man in his late 20s working 24/7 for a dot-com poised to go public. He hasn't dated in a couple of years when he meets Florence (Molly Parker), decides he likes her and finds out she not only is a drummer in a rock band but strips on the side. He is craving companionship, so he offers her $10K to go to Vegas with him for three nights.

After an initial rebuff, she boldly e-mails him an acceptance if he will follow her rules: separate rooms, no kissing, no penetration, and she'll strip for him every night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. only. He accepts, and the passion play begins. Florence tries to stick to her own strict rules, but starts to feel something for Richard. Richard knows that he has bought Flo but irrationally begins feeling they have a relationship. That's when things get ugly.

Wayne Wang talked to Salon in his minimally furnished office in San Francisco, high atop Chinatown/North Beach and with a clear view of a hotel of ill repute.

Do you see a lot of action at that hotel?

You see everything down there ...

How did you get the idea to do this Internet guy-meets-stripper story? Did you know guys like this?

I had some friends in the Internet world, but I talked to a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle who had done a story about a class for Internet guys who needed to learn how to flirt and meet people and learn manners. Through her I met some guys. I found one guy at Stanford who quit his last year of college, went through an IPO, had an apartment on [San Francisco's pricey] Telegraph Hill, went to Centerfolds [a lap-dancing bar on Broadway, the city's titty strip], dated a dancer and ended up living with her awhile. This movie is loosely based on him and other people.

Like a composite?

Yes. A lot of Asian kids were like this, too, but somehow that would have been a little stereotypical. Peter [who is Caucasian] is not as hopeless. He's not a total nerd. The main ingredient was that these guys spend a lot of time on their computers. These guys do work hard -- they work 24/7. But they have no life. They are all pretty young, just out of college, still into pizza and beer.

Was there one guy who was the prototype for Peter's character?

There was one guy who was really into Quake, which is like team war. He and his buddies would do this every day at 6 p.m. until the middle of the night. They became really good at it. I played it for about an hour. But I saw that your whole world becomes about this violence. I mean, look at the shootings at the school in San Diego. All of that kid's friends said he was normal. He was repressed, but these kids can have violence at their fingertips. It's scary to me how you can become isolated with your fantasies about people.

How do these guys learn about sex?

It's amazing how, during the heyday of the venture capital boom, people on the fringe but with money would take these kids to Boys Toys, which is a very fancy restaurant on Broadway, and they'd throw hundreds of dollars away on them. Everyone would be dressed in suits and they'd have dinner, and the girls stripped for them while they ate! It was like "Tom Jones" in 2000.

I myself went with six guys to the Mitchell Brothers [a famous strip club on the edge of San Francisco's Tenderloin]. I took Peter and Molly there. I was the pimp that time. I gave the girls a few hundred dollars and said, "Take them into a room."

Did they tell you what happened?

Peter was in shock -- and he is someone who is hard to shock. And Molly was completely red. They wouldn't tell me then what happened, but they told me later at the end of shooting. Molly said the girl went for her, which was good, because she got to be in the male position and to feel what it would be like. Peter never told me everything that happened.

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