EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Sasha Grey, porn superstar and lead in new Soderbergh film, as you've never seen her before

Last Thursday evening, Sasha Grey, one of the world's most popular porn stars, joined me at Brandeis University for an exclusive interview after a screening of "The Girlfriend Experience," Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed new mainstream film in which she stars.

(The event marked the latest installment of the "Meet the Artist" screening and Q&A series on which Brandeis professor Alice Kelikian and I have collaborated, after visits over the last year by the likes of Alan Alda, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo, Mark Ruffalo and Michael Shannon.)

Early word of Grey's impending visit set the city of Boston abuzz, and -- as we learned via blogs, Twitter, talk radio and newspaper columns -- she is not someone who engenders mild feelings. Some said they had never before heard of or seen her; others said they had heard and seen a lot of her. Some said they vehemently disapproved of what she did for a living; others said they couldn't get enough of her work. Some were outraged that a prestigious university would invite her to visit its campus and that a respected publication would want to interview her; others -- especially the 300 students who managed to snag a ticket to the event -- were just plain happy that we did.

So, why did we? Well, to clear things up, for two main reasons: (1) "The Girlfriend Experience" is a significant film, and (2) Grey is, in her own way, a significant filmmaker. Allow me to elaborate...

* * *

"The Girlfriend Experience" is the 20th feature film directed by Soderbergh, one of the most admired and respected filmmakers working today. Before coming to Brandeis, it was test-screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January, had its official premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 28, and screened there again April 29, whereupon Variety called it a "fascinating study" and an "arthouse gem" that "finds the helmer in top, and truly topical, form."

Set in and shot during October 2008 in New York -- not long after the Eliot Spitzer scandal broke and the nation's economic collapse began -- it takes us into the world of a $2,000-an-hour escort (Grey) as she juggles personal and professional relationships; real and pretend emotions; and a lifestyle that is both extremely rewarding (financially) and extremely tolling (on the mind, body, and sometimes even the heart).

Twenty years ago, Soderbergh tackled a similar subject in "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989), which kick-started the indie movement. He went on to earn two best director Oscar nominations -- one for "Erin Brockovich" (2000), and the other, which he won, for directing "Traffic" (2000). These days, he splits his time between directing big commercial fare like the "Oceans 11" trilogy (2001, 2004 and 2007) and smaller passion projects like "Bubble" (2005), "Che" (2008), and this one, which was shot in just 16 days, was overseen by a crew of fewer than a dozen and stars a group of people who had never before appeared on camera -- with one notable exception.

* * *

Twenty-one-year-old Sasha Grey not only plays a woman who makes her living through sex; she is one. Grey has worked in porn for three years, starred in over 150 adult films and won last year's AVN Female Performer of the Year Award, the highest honor in adult entertainment. Consequently, she is probably as qualified as anyone to shed light on the inner workings of this least discussed but most consistently profitable sector of the film industry.

Sex has never been a bigger seller than it is today. Over 13,000 new X-rated DVDs will be released this year. Thousands of new porn sites will join the hundreds of thousands already accessible with just a few clicks of the mouse. And the adult entertainment industry overall will reportedly earn over $13 billion this year. (It's so big, in fact, that some representatives of it recently requested -- and I'm not making this up -- a federal bailout.)

That said, how often have you heard or seen it discussed in any meaningful way?

Our society has never been more open. These days, we openly discuss virtually everything. And yet the one subject that can still make us blush is sex, even though we are all the product of it, most of us know about it, many of us practice it, and lots of us -- clearly -- watch it.

I, for one, believe that the phenomenal popularity of adult entertainment is too big to ignore any longer, and that we might learn a lot about our society and ourselves by actually, dare I say, letting loose and talking about it. Fortunately, Grey agreed.

* * *

The resulting video, which can be seen at the top of this post, runs for roughly an hour. In it, I pose questions to Grey (about the film, her life and her opinions on matters both heavy and light) and then open the floor to Brandeis students, who have several questions of their own. It features some questionable language (the worst of it has been bleeped) and is not suitable for children or a workplace environment.

* * *

Special thanks: Arianne Ayers, Lucy Krivitsky, Martin Wendel (Magnolia Pictures); Donna Daniels, Elena Zilberman (Donna Daniels PR); Liz Owens (Allied Advertising); Prof. Alice Kelikian, Dona DeLorenzo, Lorna Miles, Dennis Nealon, Max Pearlstein, Chris Anderson, John Quackenbush, Rob Trombino, Edward Callahan, Jenna Berger, AJ Lawrence, Ben Strassfeld, Prof. Steven Burg (Brandeis University); Lora Victorio, Dr. Harvey Kliman (Post-Production)

Photo: Sasha Grey in "The Girlfriend Experience." Courtesy: Magnolia Pictures

Comments

[Kriegs]

I feel fortunate to have attended the Brandeis screening followed by the MASTERFUL Q&A session Scott Feinberg conducted with Sasha Grey. I admit that I was skeptical about the intellectual validity for screening this movie and hosting Grey at Brandeis. However, the film is a gem, tastefully revealing the "supply and demand" aspect of the thriving porn business.
As for Sasha Grey, in the Q&A she commanded audience respect and came across as a serious, thoughtful, creative actress and student of film, with an ambitious personal agenda to direct her own movies and write about her craft. She will never be in need of a government bailout!

[A Fan]

I have yet to see the movie, and I am not sure how she comes across on the screen, but this interview has made me a fan of Sasha Grey-what an interesting character!

[That's Right]

Thanks for the info on this. The movie seems most uninteresting so I won't waste my time watching it. As to this porn "star" that I never heard of before, well, need I say what the name is (many names, actually) for someone who gets paid for sex? She betrays women.

[tremblay]

sounds like I would see this movie and not because of Ms. Grey but the deception that goes on everyday that are the same people that critisize the industry and want to keep their "dirty" little secret under the covers.

[Dean Treadway]

Sasha is definitely an intelligent commentator on her work; not having seen the movie, I would expect the thinking-person's quality she exudes will make it to the screen as well; that Soderburgh is the director is just the proverbial icing. Terrific interview, Scott.

[T.Holly]

Congratulations on whitewashing Sasha Grey's porn work.

Jeff Wells posted your interview under the heading The Loneliness of Porn and says, "no porn star has ever walked away from it intact," so I watched, and to hear Sasha Grey sell Sasha Grey you'd think she were promoting a nude cooking show. The irony is that Sasha will be just fine and get out very well from porn because she's doing Fear Factor The Sex Edition while simultaneously putting down the free stuff for the little people with the compassion of an ass master. The devil's in the details, of which she gives none, except that soon, she'll have her own line out. There, that's her plan.

Shouldn't every PR piece on Sasha Grey for The Girlfriend Experience discuss her porn work? Doesn't every PR opportunity include clips and discussion of what they've done and who they've worked with in the past? Why is Sasha being treated differently? Because the publications and the journalists can't deal with the reality and don't know how to report or write about it.

Sasha Grey is a self promotion super star, and her acting in GFE is not an unmitigated success (from Brian Orndorf) and OMG, he actually names two prior works by title, that's earth shattering:

...they’ve come to intently study Grey. A hotly fetishized adult film star, Grey is embryonic in appearance, MAC-ready pretty, and woefully inexperienced with subtle communications of gut-rot drama. While Grey is supposed to be playing a vain shell of a women, her flat line readings and robotic body movement break the lurid spell early on, making scenes of her discontent useless and moments of domestic combat with Santos unbearable. To bust Grey for her porn heritage is an easy layup of criticism (with credits such as “Barely Legal 62” and “Strap Attack 6,” it’s hard to take her seriously), but watching her unnatural, zombified performance isn’t easy, raising interesting questions about the exact nature of her casting. For looks? Street cred? Permissive behavior? The “Boogie Nights” days of struggling actors turning to adult film is long over, leaving Grey’s teeth-grindingly amateurish performance an unnecessary evil.

[matt]

Soderbergh is fantastic. Great film. Can't wait to see it again on VOD. Glad its being released that way so every one can see it. Very interesting topic...

[Clearsky54]

I do not care what this girl does for a living. I am saddened that a 21-year old girl has spent 3 years making 150 movies. It's her business I suppose; I don't want to get into that. What I find disturbing is this: "AVN Female Performer of the Year Award, the highest honor in adult entertainment. " -- the highest "honor"? There is "honor" in showing your holes to the world? What is honorable about that? It is disgusting and sick. If she wants to spread her legs in front of a camera, that's her business. To "honor" her for doing so is a tragedy.

[Ken]

Evidently, Feinberg missed Rolling Stone's sizable May 14th piece "The Dirtiest Girl in the World" on Sasha... where it said, with the saturation of free porn nowadays, that "no one believes AVN's estimate that the business is worth $13 billion."

I'm glad I watched this interview, which is 180 degrees better than the impression I gathered after reading the RS piece. I had admired the girl, then I read RS's article and thought Sasha was pretty much an ugly personality, had lost almost all respect for her. But Sasha truly shined here. No filter. She's growing by the day and is exponentially more enjoyable than Tyra Banks (youtube) brought out of her in that hit and run talk show piece. She's going to be a refreshing new break-thru mainstream star if she keeps up the enjoyable candor, continues to smile & grow ... and loses the facades I saw in Tyra's and Rolling Stone's pieces. Bravo -- I was impressed!

[kay]

The performance art component is just rubbish. This is a little girl who just wants to be famous and is going about it the easiest way. (Also paints, makes music, wants to be a film maker... when's the fragrance coming out, little girl?)

Silly men just get tickled about talking to a porn star who knows who Hunter S Thompson and Sartre are. It's like watching as a commenter noted above, someone promoting a nude cooking show.

"Where will men learn how to satisfy women"... A question from a viewer, indeed. But Sasha Grey wouldn't know. Ladies certainly don't want a knuckle sandwich with their sex. She wants to experiment in a safe forum. Indeed. She looks like if she didn't have the protection of a camera crew, she'd be snapped like a twig. And maybe she was - maybe that's what brought her to this type of self loathing porn.

Her post feminism ideals are heroic, but ladies are in bad bad shape if she is seen as a spokesperson for feminine sexuality. When we see an interview of Sasha Grey, we should see her porn right next to it so we can see exactly where she's coming from. She is a fame whore in the truest sense.

A "hot" girl, sitting on a stage, who ****s for a living in an environment protected and created by men is not in any way... ANY way a spokes person for feminine sexuality. I'll take Jenna Jamison (plastic surgery and all) and Tracie Lords if we are listening to porn stars yammer, please.

[THE_TRUTH]

No decent person should support this movie. Steven Soderbergh has given a major leading role in this movie to Sasha Grey, who is a young sex worker whose tragic story of sexual abuse and exploitation was spotlighted on the Tyra show over a year ago, when she appeared with her pimp, and it is a much-watched interview on Youtube. I dare anyone to watch it and not have your heart broken by her pain and self-delusion. Just enter her name in youtube search and it is the first video. By giving this poor girl such a role in a mainstream movie by a top director, it helps the pimps who tell these girls that the porn is an entryway to the legitimate Hollywood stardom and fame that they seek. And Soderbergh knew this when he cast her in the movie, he knew that she planned on continuing her prostitution, and he heard all the protest from anti-exploitation groups. There were plenty of real actresses that could have played that role. But it was more important to him to bring attention to his new movie and make more money. And I find that to be shameful and disgusting. I was a big fan of his all the way from his first movie, but I will never support anything he does again. Don't give him your money. Peace.

[T.Holly]

Cole Abaius of Film School Rejects has a well observed piece called Sasha Grey: 15 Minutes With a Porn Star very much worth reading. Google it.

[T.Hansen]

THE_TRUTH,

Congratulations on learning how to copy and paste. If you're going to comment on every article about this girl, be specific to the content of the piece. Be part of the discussion and it won't seem so preachy.

BTW, I disagree with you. That Tyra Banks piece is sensationalist garbage. She's making money by scaring suburban mothers just like Sasha is looking for money by having sex on film.

[Azahhhhhhh]

Just find it interesting that a website dedicated to awards shows doesn't include the AVN Awards.

[Guy]

She's a 21-year old mallrat trying her best to act smart and worldly. I like how she calls herself an "artist." And her defensive reaction when asked to "clarify" it. It's official. The word "artist" is a completely meaningless non sequitur. Like "awesome."

[Sarah]

watever shes hot

[Kevin]

Sasha Grey is boring as porn stars go, and I'm stunned she's considered an attraction.

That she has no self respect and allows herself to be humiliated on film does not make her a Star...Sandra Romain is a Porn Star!

Having said that, I think all of Greys sensibilities have been sufficiently deadened by her vocation (and God knows what else) for her to pass herself off as composed, so good for her.

[ObamaBringsMorals]

She's a 'pornstitute' and 'acting' when you are in 'Strap On Part 17"? Please. How pathetic is it when the film industry caters to such nonsensical pandering to the press. They're bad enough already with using actors piss poor behavior to promote their films and I didn't think they could really stoop much lower. No wonder the industry is just disappearing before our eyes.

[Kim]

Why do you say the call girl's job is so 'physically tolling'? It's not that hard - just have a decent face and body.

Also, many men can't pay $2,000 per hour so the customers shown here are not average; 'rich and powerful' is another common fantasy attraction in these hooker films.