Spring Break
Grey brings 'Experience' to Brandeis
by Sarah Bayer
Arts Editor
Arts | 5/19/09
Posted online at 2:23 PM EST on 5/18/09
The difference goes beyond appearances. After all, how likely is it that an 18-year-old contemplating pornography as a career would not only consider the stage name Anna Karina (after a French New Wave actress) but also discard it for being disrespectful? Instead, she created the pseudonym Sasha Grey by combining the name of the lead singer of the band KMFDM with an oblique reference to the Kinsey scale of sexual orientation.
Grey entered the pornography industry the same way most kids pick a college-after painstaking research and reflection. She spent seven months watching porn movies before deciding she could bring something new to the business. "I saw a blank canvas that needed to be painted," she says. "I took some photos and wrote this little mission statement and sent them to different adult agencies." She signed with the first agent who responded and moved from her family's home in northern California to Los Angeles.
Grey approaches her adult film roles with the same discipline as her initial decision to enter the business. "I don't just check into set and say, 'Okay, let's f---,'" she says. "I like to be prepared in all aspects, mind and body. I even do an affirmation à la Raging Bull."
She believes that in order to survive, the porn industry must push beyond basic depictions of penetration. "You can get that for free, so why would you buy that?" she asked the Wasserman audience. "You can go film your neighbors having sex, and it will look exactly the same."
Instead, she advocates adult films as a healthy way to explore sexuality. "Your deepest, darkest secrets, they don't have to be secrets," she says. "We should all feel comfortable to explore them and talk about them openly, because we use sex to sell everything these days."
Upon arriving in L.A., Grey immediately developed a reputation for performing unusual sexual acts onscreen. Asked to discuss her first experience on an adult film set, she shook her head and smiled before answering. "First off, it was an orgy scene. Yes, I did deep-throat [co-star] Rocco [Siffredi]. Did I ask him to punch me in the stomach? Not in that context. ... That was an exercise in improvisational fantasy."
Grey entered the pornography industry the same way most kids pick a college-after painstaking research and reflection. She spent seven months watching porn movies before deciding she could bring something new to the business. "I saw a blank canvas that needed to be painted," she says. "I took some photos and wrote this little mission statement and sent them to different adult agencies." She signed with the first agent who responded and moved from her family's home in northern California to Los Angeles.
Grey approaches her adult film roles with the same discipline as her initial decision to enter the business. "I don't just check into set and say, 'Okay, let's f---,'" she says. "I like to be prepared in all aspects, mind and body. I even do an affirmation à la Raging Bull."
She believes that in order to survive, the porn industry must push beyond basic depictions of penetration. "You can get that for free, so why would you buy that?" she asked the Wasserman audience. "You can go film your neighbors having sex, and it will look exactly the same."
Instead, she advocates adult films as a healthy way to explore sexuality. "Your deepest, darkest secrets, they don't have to be secrets," she says. "We should all feel comfortable to explore them and talk about them openly, because we use sex to sell everything these days."
Upon arriving in L.A., Grey immediately developed a reputation for performing unusual sexual acts onscreen. Asked to discuss her first experience on an adult film set, she shook her head and smiled before answering. "First off, it was an orgy scene. Yes, I did deep-throat [co-star] Rocco [Siffredi]. Did I ask him to punch me in the stomach? Not in that context. ... That was an exercise in improvisational fantasy."
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