Prolific as The Girlfriend Experience director Steven Soderbergh might be, he'll probably never catch up with the resume of his film's 21-year-old star, Sasha Grey. Sure, Grey sort of cheated -- but 80+ movies is her advantage as one of the world's most in-demand porn actresses. And anyway, none of those carry the weight of Girlfriend, Grey's mainstream breakthrough coming to theaters next week.
The film features Grey as the New York 20-something Christine, who, in turn, masquerades professionally as the high-priced escort Chelsea. What follows is basically a story of connections made, broken and/or misapprehended, from a suspicious boyfriend to wealthy clients to exploiters in the sex trade and beyond. And everyone's on edge about the recession. Grey makes a striking subject for Soderbergh's minimalistic hi-def chill -- her quiet yearning peeking out periodically from below her flat silver eye shadow, her girlish smirk hammered into submission by the realities of her work. Scattered around an ultra-compact 77 minutes, her story fragments reveal a woman both achingly real and wholly counterfeit.
Both of which Grey knows something about from the adult-film industry, an ecosystem of fantasy, split personalities and even more institutionalized image-obsession than Hollywood's itself. We spoke about that (among other things) last month at the Tribeca Film Festival, where Soderbergh and Grey were on hand for Girlfriend's premiere.
I was reading your biographical information earlier. You're from Sacramento originally?
Uh-huh.
Coincidence! Me too. North Highlands area, right?
Yeah.
Did you go to Highlands High School?
Yeah, I did! Actually I went to four different high schools, but yeah.
Well, I went to Foothill, so thanks a million for letting us use your football stadium all those years we never had one.
You're welcome! Interesting.
Not really. But it does brings up one of the more interesting themes of The Girlfriend Experience: Identity. Am I interviewing Chelsea? Christine? Sasha Grey? Or the woman simply known as Sasha Grey?
No one's actually brought that up yet. I decided going into the film, and when doing press for it, to just be me. I don't think people are necessarily ready for me to be in character all the time as the character of a film I was in. And I don't think people would have necessarily understood it, not that I really give a shit. But that also takes a lot of commitment and energy to commit to something like that. Although I did pull from a lot of Method techniques during the shoot, when we were between scenes I did break character. I kind of meshed the two together.
Method techniques like what?
It's weird. I come from a theater background, and one of my teachers hated Method. But I was really into it, and I really admire people who are in character the entire time. What's so funny is that, do you remember that whole Christian Bale thing from a couple of months ago? Where he was yelling at the cinematographer? Everybody's making fun of him for yelling, and blah blah blah. But you know what I didn't hear anybody mention? He was in character when he was yelling at the guy! That's what shocked me. That's commitment. When you commit yourself to a character, you really don't know what's going to happen until that exact moment or that exact scene.
You've described yourself as a performance artist as much as a porn star. This film is also kind of experimental in nature. How did they connect for you?
Although it was experimental in nature, I did have a solidified idea of who this person was and what her boundaries are. So it's less about performance art -- it's pure performance. If that makes any sense.
Well, Chelsea says, "You are who they pay you to be." Is that a philosophy you uphold, too?
No. That's just Girlfriend Experience.
Isn't that the definition of screen acting in the end?
I guess if you break it down clinically. But if I didn't want to do a role, then I wouldn't do a role. It's a collaborative, bonding effort with a group of people. It's not just one person.
And yet much of Chelsea's experience involves alienation, despite the intimacy required by her job. Did you draw at all from similar emotions you've had in your porn career?
No. I mean, she's crying, but I'm not necessarily thinking about someone in who hurt my feelings in porn. A lot of people might do memory recall, where they think of a similar situation that they were in. Whereas I could be thinking of a dead bird I saw in the street when I was 5 years old and how that made me sad. The emotions that Chelsea portrayed aren't emotions that I could relate to from what's happened to me in adult films. I've never been in a relationship with my co-stars. I think the one time I cried on a set was out of pleasure. There's never been a situation where someone has "left me alone."
But there's a scene in the film where you see one of your clients with another escort, who's kind of portrayed as being on the way up. Do you relate to that in porn? That the Next Girl is always right behind you?
No. I think if you're true to yourself, that's all that matters. I'll get more jealous about an outfit somebody has than who they are. I know what makes me happy in life, and I'm pretty content with that. And I know that when the time comes, I'll stop performing: "There's enough girls now; it's time for the next generation to come along." But I don't think that time has come yet. Jealousy probably does exist, but it's a waste of time.
Still, you're diversifying. You have a mainstream movie opening soon. You're a businesswoman. You've mentioned wanting to network while visiting the Tribeca Film Festival. How are you taking advantage of this exposure?
That's always been my stronghold: I don't just do porn. I make music, I write, I do photography. It's all-encompassing, and I don't look at it as just, "This is my writing career, this is my adult career, this is my non-adult career." I look at it as one thing, and it's my life. It could be the sex philosophy book I'm working on, or my directorial debut, which should come out this month. I have a toy line -- an adult toy line, I should say -- that should be out this summer. But I don't look at festivals or conventions or things like that as huge personal opportunities. There's just so much chaos. I just hope that through all the mud, someone sees the film and enjoys it. And says, "Hey, maybe I'd like to cast her in something." That's the most exciting part.
Do you keep a journal like your character's in the film?
I wish I was that diligent. I write a lot about my personal experiences, but I do it in a different fashion. I don't come home and just start writing. It becomes so clinical. So I do it when I feel inspired.
What inspires you to write?
A bright, sunny fucking day? It's not just one thing. It could be if I had a good day, or it could be if I had a bad day. If I feel like I need to get something out that's been on my mind for a while, like something relating to the adult industry that I want to share with the public. I'll write it [to myself] first before I go and blog about it or talk about it publicly.
You're a cinephile, too, with a professed taste for the French New Wave and the Criterion Collection. What have you been watching lately?
Actually, I've been watching a lot of genre films. A lot of cult classics, stuff like that. Or indie films of the '80s -- a lot of Blue Underground stuff, or Anchor Bay. A lot of them are just films that were overlooked. They might not have the best production values, but the actors are really committed. Those are interesting. Pam Grier did a lot of blaxploitation films, but I remember reading an interview with her once where she was saying she was always committed. No matter how cheesy or stupid the role was, she was always 100% committed to what she was doing. But there's so much that's overlooked that doesn't fit into the Criterion Collection.
A lot of the good films that The Girlfriend Experience screened with at Tribeca could get overlooked, too. Among your business interests, would you ever consider giving those a proper release of some kind?
I wouldn't open up my own distribution house. That would just seem like a pain in the ass. But it is fun to find a gem or a jewel and be able to talk about it. Because people are interested in my interests. That makes a difference, too. You read that Nine Inch Nails was inspired by Throbbing Gristle, so you say, "Who's Throbbing Gristle? I need to check that out." And if I had a fan say, "You need to check this movie out; not that many people know about it"? Then I'll go check that out. And if I like that, I'll talk about it. I think that's a fun thing to do.
And we're talking at Tribeca, which is a pretty big deal. Are you nervous at all about this kind of introduction to being in mainstream cinema?
Not really. I like being able to experience it with a crowd. I don't really read reviews or care what critics have to say. But an audience is always fun because you hear the reactions: the gasps, the laughs. It's always interesting to know that what you thought was funny wasn't funny to someone else. ♦