Interview: Sasha Grey turns 21 in Vegas on Saturday
Only covering Las Vegas can I plan to run an interview with Marie Osmond one
morning, and instead wake up to offer you an interview with adult star Sasha
Grey. Osmond and I were supposed to meet last night, but she had to reschedule
due to a last-minute rehearsal put in for a new dancer at her show at Flamingo. We
are meeting tonight for the interview. So, I will have the Q&A with Osmond here for you
Monday. I strongly advise Marie Osmond fans to stop reading now!
Sasha Grey overnight has become perhaps the biggest crossover name in adult at this time. Seemingly out of nowhere Grey made Tera Patrick yesterday's news.
In addition to working in porn, Grey is the star of Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming film “The Girlfriend Experience” and will soon have her own reality show. She has appeared in too many mainstream magazines to name. And, even mainstream press are starting to take her celebrity seriously. This morning, for example, though you cannot tell from the online version, Las Vegas Review-Journal has a wrap on top of the newspaper’s front page that includes an entire interview with Grey.
The occasion for the Review-Journal interview and this interview is that for all her success Grey is only now turning 21. So, Grey will be playing celebrity host at Tao this Saturday night to celebrate her birthday. And, unlike Paris Hilton, who last weekend celebrated her birthday in Vegas a month late, Saturday is Grey's actual birthday. Keeping it real is a theme that runs through talking with Grey.
I interviewed her earlier this year for the Buffet, at the Adult Entertainment Expo/ AVN Awards at the Venetian. In that item I recapped my history, such as it was, with Sasha Grey. It mostly involved every source I had in adult calling to tell me I had to meet this teenager, who was 18 at the time, and that she was going to be the sort of star the likes of which the adult industry had never seen.
I should say I am in an interesting position when covering the adult film industry. My focus is only the adult conventions that pass through Vegas, of which there are now at least two annually. I refuse to
watch adult movies. I know too many of the people (I have been covering the conventions for a decade) who could be in them to risk a viewing. But I also don’t watch a lot of movies in the first place and have never
really seen a porn film as an adult. I have developed friendships with people who work various jobs in the adult industry. Indeed, a handful of my closest friends would include three people with
connections to the adult industry. But we rarely discuss their work. I am drawn to
them because of their individuality, and their openness to playing with ideas
combined with a willingness to sit outside the comforts of careers society
approves in order to doggedly pursue their own vision. And, in Las Vegas, a
porn star might be the closest thing to an artistic intellectual the town has
to offer. I enjoy the company of certain adult entertainers in much the same way
I liked arguing with academic theorists in graduate school. The analogy may seem
odd, but to the generation Sasha Grey belongs to, for better and worse, adult is
far less taboo, and this allows her, for one, to see herself as a performance
artist. Her porn is not so different to her than her other pursuits, which
include poetry and painting.
This is a long way to get at the point: I have been really aware of Sasha Grey’s rise in adult even as I had no clue what distinguished her from the hundreds of young women who make adult films. So, I was surprised at how outraged readers were when I ran that interview with her in January on the Buffet. Most of the comments are not on the blog because they were too laced with obscenity to post. And, many of the notes came from people who professed to be fans of adult movies. It was the movies that Sasha Grey chose to make that upset these readers so much. And, so the questions raised by those readers is where I started this phone interview with her this week:
Abowitz: In our last interview, I was overwhelmed by the visceral reaction and rage people had to you and the movies you make. They described some staggering things you have done on camera, all of which, I would say, fall into the category of things degrading to women in the extreme. Do you think that your films degrade women? Or, does the popularity of your films disturb you, the idea that so many people want to see these things done to you?
Grey: The last part of your question cut out [on the cellphone] so I will take the first part. I do not think what I do is degrading to women. What is degrading to one person is liberating and empowering to another such as myself. Everyone has a different perception of sex. Some people believe in God and some people don’t. At the end of the day, you can’t make it so black and white. It really comes down to a meeting of taste and what your personal opinions are.
I recently wrote an op-ed piece to a college newspaper in response to something that paper wrote about me. A fan sent it to me. I usually don’t respond to stuff, because I don’t have the time. But this struck a nerve with me. A student wrote this whole story on how she thinks I am being forced to perform the acts I perform or I am just mimicking things. And, that triggered something in me and I just really felt obligated to write something to speak out against that.
Abowitz: Why is that? Is it important that to you that people know you are choosing to do whatever scenes viewers find degrading, and, in fact, to you they would be degrading if you were being forced to do them, but it is liberating because you are not?
Grey: Yes, I make the movies I want to make. I enjoy what I am doing. The things I do on camera, I also do in my personal life. I am a firm believer in that. You need to be comfortable with those things on your own so you are not just doing it for an audience or for a camera. But there is also a side of me that knows I am doing this for consumers so I have to appeal to everybody. And, so there are other films I am in that are more couple-friendly. But what is couple-friendly? To one couple what can be really romantic can seem to another couple really extreme.
Abowitz: Well, considering how extreme your work is seen are you surprised at how popular your films have become?
Grey: I am surprised at how popular my work has become and it happening very early in my career. It was really bizarre for me and I really did not know quite how to take it. But I don’t think it is just my performances. I think it is also because I am so outspoken. I think those two things go together.
Abowitz: Could that be why that article got you upset? To you the things that others see as degrading in your films are balanced by your public presentation of yourself as someone very aware of what you do, and also very much in charge of your world. The article upset you by attacking one of those pillars.
Grey: Exactly. It is rooted down to who you are as a person and your interests. And, I want that to carry to my audience. I consider myself a performance artist. There are other performers who just like hard-core sex. I know people sometimes hate me talking about my performances and my goals. And, I used to not be comfortable with it. But I enjoy doing it now. I think that it is important and not just for women but for men as well to understand.
Abowitz: Well, are you surprised that even without much of your crossover work even having been released yet you have been invited to host a party at a major nightclub on the Las Vegas Strip?
Grey: No, I am not surprised. Mostly, because I have had other offers before from people who did not know I was not 21 yet.
Abowitz: Will you be gambling and drinking?
Grey: Yes. I want to play blackjack and craps.
Photo: Sarah Gerke
"What is degrading to one person is liberating and empowering to another such as myself."
I'm sure it is.
"The things I do on camera, I also do in my personal life."
Including allowing Dick Nasty and Rod Fantana to finger-cuff you?
Posted by: SNH | March 13, 2009 at 04:14 PM
I was directed to your story by a friend who knows I am a fan of Sasha Grey, and enthusiastically clicked through to your piece. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the second paragraph as the author's poor grammar and sentence structure made it impossible to read:
"Sasha Grey overnight has become perhaps the biggest crossover name in adult at this time. Seemingly out of nowhere Grey made Tera Patrick yesterday's news."
Did a gang of angry commas kill your puppy when you were a kid. They aren't so bad. Learn to use them, you won't be sorry, and neither will we.
I realize that newspapers need to cut corners to make ends meet in this economic environment, but there must be at least one copy editor still on staff at the LA Times.
"This is a long way to get at the point: I have been really aware of Sasha Grey’s rise in adult even as I had no clue what distinguished her from the hundreds of young women who make adult films." Note to author - you are not James Joyce.
Posted by: English Major | March 13, 2009 at 04:22 PM
Sasha nailed it. Although her performances are really good, it is nearly impossible to be outstanding within the limitations of the form. She is not just outspoken, but obviously intelligent with a clear philosophical point of view that she walks, not just talks. She and a number of female performers (she also got that right) are, no doubt, globally famous thanks to the Internet and high speed access. Maybe as well-known as mainstream stars, but porn is still so unacceptable in many societies that it must be kept as secret as an illicit affair. Sasha's generation may change that. It never ceases to amaze me how acceptable the genre has already become and that much of the material remains mindless and passionless. I hope that Sasha and her contemporaries change that and she can achieve success in mainstream and adult concurrently. Makes things interesting!
Posted by: maduceone | March 13, 2009 at 10:41 PM
I stopped reading. I mean, really . . . umm, not everybody cares about porn star/actresses. I agree with the other commentor. This reads like an oversexed 16 year old wrote it, and I didn't even get into the interview. Gee, I was going to interview Marie Osmond, but now I get to talk to a porn star! pant . . . pant. Gosh, I may have justify this, umm, really Mom, I don't watch porn, really! Give all us LATimes readers a break, and get a day job. In a word, your writing STINKS!
Posted by: casinocon | March 14, 2009 at 12:41 PM
I'm a 49 yo male that loves the baby sitter fantasy she did. 4 guys give her what she wants and we're (most MEN!) ecstatic there are women out there who love this. Check out Maria Ozawa (Japanese/Canadian) who is a petite beauty with a classic Japanese demeanor who doesn't do scenes... she does gang rape scenes that are unbelievable but she does a lot of them. At first I thought she must be weird but now I think she just likes INTENSE sex. Whoa. Not my taste but she has the right to chose. Go Sasha!
Posted by: Dudelookslikeagaybee | March 14, 2009 at 08:22 PM
Interesting. The porn star is more articulate and a deeper thinker than the journalist.
Posted by: Timber | March 15, 2009 at 04:34 AM
What on earth is going on with this story? I understand this is a family paper, but still, what has everyone up in arms? Fictional murder or rape? The LAT can report clearly and concisely on the Extreme Associates conviction, but here we dance around the issue in this stream-of-consciousness "article?"
The wikipedia article mentions nothing controversial about this woman, except that fact that she is a porn star. Her life doesn't sound much more risque than an episode of Californication. Do her films violate something on the Cambria list? Is this two girls one cup, or one guy one cup? Or is it simply the fact that any article about any porn star will get the some set of LAT readers fired up?
Anyway, hopefully in the future you can be a little more clear.
Posted by: CC | March 15, 2009 at 08:19 PM
At the end of the day, 99.9% of porn fans don't buy her videos for the "artistic values", so it's just an easy rationalization to pretend this psychic poison is a form of artistic expression.
The business isn't on the "artistic value", it's on producing addictive perversity, and I'm sure she's pretty aware of that.
Posted by: Eduardo Torres | March 16, 2009 at 09:53 AM
Who are you trying to fool Abowitz??
Do you have any concept of the fact that the porn industry is corrupt & literally finances the child & adult sex slave trade?? That one cannot buy a porn without it financing the child porn industry??
Shouldn't these be things that people who are sexualy aware & rebellious be talking about??
& are you unaware that if one is to be blunt & superficial that there are young girls- who are not only eons ahead of sasha grey in the beauty dept, anyone with eyes sees beautiful young girls in the world- but centuries & if not light years ahead of grey in the creativity, sexual awareness & talent dept?? Should we relegate young beautiful girls or not so beautiful yet still beautiful girls who are brilliant to doing something as antequated & mundane in order to get ahead???
This is exactly why- grey's fame is undeserved & a sign of the past bush era times & she knows it-- she is a fraud & a sycophant pseudo sexual persona- aping for fame & mainstream priviliges in another corrupt industry & that is media saturation & hollywood- does she know a single thing about these vital subjects are you & her even able- to discuss them.
Why don't you present her for the ordinary no talent person she is- a sex worker who uses sex to make money & garner attention- she has no authority or awareness of real sexual issues globally intimate or otherwise, has done nothing to improve the lot of her fellow sex workers or the lives of prostitutes- she is absolutely not the exception & that would be Ciccolina-- Grey does not have one fifth the IQ of Ciccolina..These days anything goes & anyone will watch anyone do anything for money- whether it's her & her shockingly fraudulent & idiotic 'sexual knowledge' or some depressed & overweight 500 pound man making an extra buck on the net performing for males.
Besides where is her male nemesis the 19 yr old hard core porn boy being put in soderbergh movies?? where is HE?? Why don't we applaud boys who uselessly exploit themselves & decrease the intelligence & logic & awareness of people..? Anyone all these bad musicians ego sell out types behind her cause reveal themselves as not particularly bright.
The truly sexually aware, 'risque' REALISTIC & those who open the 'taboo' are talking about precisely all the issues I point out which are SORELY lacking in this interview & this pathetic 'girls' so called sexual liberty.
Not a singe beautiful & brilliant 19 yr old in her right mind- would ever- ever work for the adult industry or lower her talent to something as medieval & antiquated as having sex for money, especially--- now. After all it is 2009 not 1402, Sasha would fit right in in the third world, let her move there to prove her " sexual revolution" it already happened here- there are much more intelligent & complex & brutal issues on the plate as of late..
& don't forget your intelligent, modern & post modern , media savvy sexually aware public- we are not idiots we know better than to celebrate pure dumbing down of the entirety of all human sexual potential & awareness & the potential of those young men & women in the world - who have better things to do with their looks and brains then to whore stupidity & unoriginality to the masses & call it 'new'...
We voted for Obama for change but also to THINK.
Sasha grey's Bush era is DYING hope she vanishes with it, or learns how to do things with a sense of consciousness, responsibility , modernity & true innovation instead of being a knock off of a 14th century sex worker in a 14th century world where sex, is still, ignorant & in the gutter.
Posted by: Dick | March 17, 2009 at 04:34 AM
Fellow Las Vegas resident Criss Angel was attempting to pick up Sasha Gray at the club. She turned him down. Poor guy cannot get any breaks.
Posted by: Rikki | March 17, 2009 at 08:25 AM
We voted for Obama for change but also to THINK.
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Then you voted for the wrong guy.
Obama is at best Clinton & Carter reloaded.
And whats with keeping of all guys Robert Gates as Head of DOD?
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p.s.: interested to know that Grey is working on a porn actor/actress union?
Posted by: Prometheus | March 19, 2009 at 05:39 AM
Wow, you people commenting are lame.
Posted by: Tad | March 20, 2009 at 07:39 AM
For real???? Who is Sasha Grey? I've never heard of her. And neither does my bf who watches porn. Some mainstream success. Can you interview someone who is actually smart and doing somthing to better themselves and others and not a pseudo intellectual? The sexual revolution has already been done....pass
Posted by: MaryJane | March 23, 2009 at 09:01 PM
It's a bit absurd to say that Sasha has 1/5 the IQ of Ciccolina. I'm not sure that either has ever been tested... and I'm not sure that there's much validity in aptitude testing, as a psychologist... but even if we had those numbers, would it matter? But I get your point. "Sasha is stupid." Have you ever met her. She's an engaging conversationalist who can speak authoritatively on philosophy, art film, photography, great literature, aesthetics, etc. I never found that to be the case with Ciccolina... or even Jeff Koons, for that matter. My gut tells me that if you actually administered one of those tests... say, the Stanford Binet.... Sasha would score somewhere north of 150... probably up around 160-180. If you haven't met her... or if you're unable to engage her at her own level of intelligence (which is entirely the case; some people are too unintelligent to understand someone else's brilliance)... you probably ought to reserve judgment.
Posted by: HB Scone | March 30, 2009 at 08:09 AM
I am not completely sure why we would even discuss the intelligence of Sasha Grey..to me it seems more like discussing the ability of a soccer player to write poems ,considering that soccer players do it also partially for the money and fame ..so is it soccer immoral too ?and all sports ?maybe music too ?..
We can only judge her sexual acts and she actually got talent in them ..like a guitar player's talent ..so why shouldn't she be payed just like a musician ?only cuz she plays the sexual instruments ?
actually you HAVE to maker her stupid in order that your whole reasoning may be correct ,to pre-suppose the stupidity of someone isn't the most elevated way to reason .
There are some porn sites for example (not the typical ones ) who are actually run by people who had a deep study in human sexuality .
And after all porn doesn't have to be artistic or intellectual in order to be enjoyed ..some stupidity is required and actually healthy and a part of the human balance .
Posted by: Joseph | October 02, 2009 at 05:41 PM