Q: How did you approach this role?
Sasha Grey: I go into everything with a very serious approach and I asked Steven a lot of questions. Who reminded me to keep my personality and confidence in the film but at the same time I was playing a character, so it was a way to fuse those two things together. So I met him a year or a year-and-a-half before we started shooting, and I went home that day and got on the internet and started researching escorts and escorting. It’s actually hard to find information on the individual women in that world, and I thought about trying to hire one and interviewing them, but I felt weird so I never did. Then about two weeks before we started shooting the film the casting director took Steven and I to different blogs written by escorts, so that really helped me a lot to get intto their daily lives, and how they feel about what they do, and their doing it anonymously…so they really write how they really feel. And the day I got to New York, the casting director introduced me to two real life GFE’s, so it really got me into that world with them, and we did three hour interviews with them for my character bio. And Steven said yes to everything, but he encouraged me to keep that natural quality and approach to the film. It’s also why there wasn’t a final script.
Q: Did you work out back story for your character?
Grey: When I got to the hotel that night, it was constant for me and it didn’t stop until the film ended.
Q: Was this a natural progression for you into mainstream films?
Grey: No I had legit experience from the time I was 12 to 18 but I strongly discourage anyone who says they want to get into adult films to do mainstream films (laughs), because no matter if you’re working in adult films or mainstream you have to be happy with that. It wasn’t something I planned on and it came together in an unorthodox way.
Q: What is is like when Steven Soderbergh calls you and says I want to put you in my movie?
Grey: I flipped out. I ‘m a huge fan. I said I’m never throwing this phone away. So that was hilarious and I met him a few days later at Warner Brothers for 45 minutes and that was pretty much it.
Q: So, you’re not looking to get out of the adult film industry?
Grey: Not at the moment. I’m trying to do both at the same time. I think the climate’s right. Since day one of being in the adult industry I’ve been challenging stereotypes…“She’s abused, she’s on drugs, she has a pimp.”
Q: So, you’re on a quest to find the perfect left-handed guitar (Grey is also a musician and music fan). How’s that going?
Grey: I just re-string. I do it old-school. And it makes a different sound because the strings don’t fit perfectly when you play.
Q: How is your own filmmaking going?
Grey: In the past three weeks I’ve approached it in a more serious fashion. It’s less about when I get a free moment and more about creating the standard professional environment that I’m paid to make and the people I work with. I have four movies in the can and when I get home next week I’ll be shooting my directorial debut. It’s interesting, and I think for me it goes back to creativity and wanting to make an audience see more.
Q: Do you see yourself incorporating your writing, music and filmmaking all as one?
Grey: Definitely I don’t set a boundary between anything I pride myself on and I’m passionate about. And if I didn’t have passion, I wouldn’t want to live.
I’m a no BS person, and women are afraid to stand up for themselves,and I had a great grandfather who said ” Don’t let anyone ever push you around just because you’re a girl”. I’ve lived by that whether it be professionally or personally. I have a really cool fanbase, and my fans respect me.
Q: Were you intimidated at all about having to improvise most of this movie?
Grey: Yeah, we didn’t get the outline until the night before and that went hand in hand with what Steven wanted, with that natural quality and the unknown-feel to each scene we shot, so yeah, looking at the outline and thinking, “Ok, how’s that exactly going to work out?” but also asking questions non-stop without ruining Steven’s style of filmmaking.
Q: Tell us more about your music?
Grey: Atelecine. It’s experimental in the truest sense in that it has no form or function. It’s just when I get the time. I never even intended to put out an album or a song…it was just material that I collected from 2005 to 2007 . I decided that people might enjoy it, so we did a 300 copy limited edition and it sold out the first week. Our next project is probably going to be with Dais, a small Brooklyn based label, and it’s going to be a 10-inch full-length album this time, and I know this is weird but like comparing it with my adult work and no boundaries, this world really truly has no boundaries. It’s not something I care about selling, it’s not my main source of income, so it’s really just for me.
“The Girlfriend Experience ” opens today. Enjoy the trailer below.
Tags: adult film star, Atelecine, AVN, Bowie, Current 93, experimental., music, porn, Sabbath, Sasha Grey, trailer
