Pornstar Review: Sasha Grey

Sasha Grey is the stage name of an award winning American porn star, film and stage actor, writer, photographer, performance/transgressive artist and experimental musician. Along with straight hardcore movies, Sasha Grey tried herself in BDSM niche. Sasha Grey BDSM movies are truly extreme and gained lot of success.

Grey attended Highlands High in North Highlands, California where she held a 3.8 grade average but was later home schooled. Her restless upbringing drew her to adopt an interest in the arts, ranging from books, music, acting, writing, and experimental performance art, primarily theater, in which she first started at the age of 12 in 2000. In 2003 she joined the Actors Theater of Sacramento and took an acting class, which further inspired her newfound talents. In 2005, while still in high school she landed a role in the experimental (unreleased) film Love Thieves. She graduated high school a year early, and rather than attending her graduation ceremony she appeared in, yet another unreleased experimental film Unknown Pleasures (Grey also co-wrote and produced the film). While making her rounds in the world of experimental film, she bused tables and attended college, all while researching the adult industry.

In May of 2006 Grey moved to Los Angeles and started her career in adult films just after turning 18. Her first scene was an orgy with Rocco Siffredi for The Fashionistas 2 by John Stagliano. It has been said she shocked her fellow performer by requesting to be punched in the stomach during fellatio. Though Grey does not deny saying this, she emphasis the request was an exercise in improvisational fantasy. This resonates to what Grey once wrote in regards to herself as a person and as an artist: "I wanted to express my sexuality as a strong woman, to push my own boundaries and see which part of my psyche would take me to my next euphoric sexual experience." Nearly six months after entering the adult industry Grey was featured in the November 2006 edition of Los Angeles where she was flagged as a potential major star, perhaps the next Jenna Jameson making her one of the fastest rising stars in adult film history.

In December 2006 she interviewed on the syndicated entertainment industry news show The Insider. In February 2007 Grey appeared on The Tyra Banks Show to participate in the topic of teenagers in the sex industry. She later claimed through her own blog and YouTube that the televised interview represented her poorly and the show's staff changed her clothing and hairstyle to make her appear younger, which became the target of criticism by Tyra Banks for Grey's choice to go into adult film. On the show, Banks persisted with the theory that there had to be a "reason" related to abuse that caused Grey to make the choice of pornography (despite Grey's insistence that entering the adult industry was a calculated career choice). Banks described Grey's disposition as "...cold, distant and hard," although she thanked Grey for attending the show, Banks took the final stab when she said: "...And I hope you sit down with yourself one day and really...do some soul searching to really find out why you're in this industry." 

Without loosing a beat Grey retorted: "Oh, I know why I'm in here." Banks finalized her point with: "...there's something deeper." In an interview Grey stated: "Despite the controversy that surrounds this industry, I felt I could ultimately bring an enigmatic quality to it. I decided that if my instinct continued to push me toward the reality of this, and the dissatisfaction with my education continued, I would seize the opportunity on my own."

Less than a year after entering the industry (January 2007) Grey was the recipient of best three way sex scene, and best group scene at the prestigious AVN adult movie awards, the following May she was also presented with the best new Starlet award by the X Rated Critics Organization. She was then named Pet of The Month for July 2007 (the spread is considered to be a radical change for the magazine as it was photographed by fashion photographer Terry Richardson) and also appears in a 2008 re-print of Terryworld. Among other collaborations with Richardson she was also appears in Wives, Wheels, Weapons (a companion book to James Frey? Bright Shiny Morning). 

Sasha is also featured as part of the art work for The Smashing Pumpkins 2007 album Zeitgeist, and appears in their 2008 video "Superchrist". In 2007 she starred in (and suggested the title) for the movie Broken ,directed by Dave Navarro (Jane's Addiction). Grey was also featured in the music video for the song "Birthday Girl", by the Roots and has modeled for American Apparel and Richard Kern for Vice (magazine) Anti-fashion spread and appeared in a three part VBS program, "Shot by Kern". 

Grey contributed vocals to Lee "Scratch" Perry's 2008 album Repentance (2008 album), on the track "Pum Pum." Her appeal has reached many spectrums including the fine art world, as she has modeled for artists James Jean and David Choe, while also inspiring French artist Frederic Poincelet for countless sketches in his ongoing work with Frederic Magazine, in addition to a two page spread with the renound Liberation magazine in France. She is featured in the series PG Porn by James Gunn (filmmaker) (Slither), as well as a cameo role in Dick Rude's independent film Quit which demonstrates Grey's work outside of pornography, and stars in the upcoming Canadian low-budget black comedy/horror film Smash Cut from the Ottawa based Odessa/Zed Filmworks, where she plays a TV news personality who goes undercover as an actress in a horror film only to discover the killer of her older sister.

In 2008 she won female performer of the year at the 25th AVN awards (making her the youngest in AVN history to hold such an honor).

Sasha has expressed a strong interest in existentialism while posing the question "how many porn stars are existentialist?" She is one half of the experimental music/art project known as aTelecine. Their first (vinyl only) e.p, Vigillant Carpark, will be released November 2008 from New York based label Pendu Sound. Since 2006 she has been developing a documentary that illustrates her experience from the age of 18 to 21 Grey represents herself in the adult industry through her own agency L.A. Factory Girls, while The Spread Group manages her mainstream affairs.