Maybe you remember Sasha Grey from such XXX hits as the Fashionistas series. Or maybe you remember her for her award wins for Best Anal, Oral, and Group Sex Scenes. While you might cherish those tokens of the past, in recent years, Grey’s career has taken a newly divergent route.
While after only about five years in the industry, Grey retired to explore more diverse, creative career options. However, it was actually a mere three years into her hardcore career when she first directed her own dirty movie, The Birthday Party (2009). And that was just the beginning.
In that same prime year, Sasha’s name went buzzing around indie movie giants like the Sundance and Tribecca Film Festivals for her depiction of a high-class escort in Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience (2009). Media onlookers took notice of the pornographic novice sensation turned artisan, independent film actress. In a 2009 Rolling Stone interview (see photo at right), writer Vanessa Grigoriadis concurred that, “[Grey] definitely has higher aspirations, far larger than porn,” and that she was, “The smartest person I’ve ever met in [the porn] industry.”
In addition to all these driving endeavors, Sasha recorded several experimental music albums with her band aTelecine, and has deejayed at parties across the world. And wait, there’s still more.
In her year of retirement, 2011, Grey released a monographic book of photos, capturing her experiences in the industry from her perspective, giving life to the unknown moments in time surrounding the “…video that would be seen by thousands of people.” As one could imagine, the book met some harsh reviews, though many sources also found the idea quite profound. The Village Voice assured, “The book is an intimate look at what it’s like to be Sasha Grey.” And it seems hard denying an appreciation for the rawness presented in some photos, like the one above, of her after a shoot. She is obviously comfortable in the graphic way she expresses her sexuality, but she’s also okay with admitting it gets messy. And again, there is something seductive about showing the world the typically unseen moments. Beauty in the honesty.
Grey met more controversy that year for reading aloud to Los Angeles school children after parents got wind of her past life. After lady talk show hosts on “The View” asked her if she thought she could move past the stigma associated with her name, she, poised and auspicious, responded with, “I think so. I mean I feel there was a lot of sanctimonious media firestorms thrown at me, however I’ve always gone after what I want, and I will continue to do that.”
Sasha did just that, continuing to use any and all expression of her experiences as the voice for her art forms. And that’s when she published an erotic fiction novel, The Juliette
Society. In this 2013 photo from her personal Instagram account, she boasts a new image, a seemingly grownup entrepreneur, touring Europe to promote her debut novel, yet still leaving room for fun. This year she has also starred in a FunnyorDie.com skit depicting the role of a sex hotline worker, turning to the ridicule and stigma, and sticking that tongue we all know so well right in their faces.
While we can commend Sasha for her newfound mainstream success (enter applause here), there’s no harm in taking travels down memory lane every now and again. Visit us at SugarDVD.com where 192 titles pop up under Miss Grey’s name.
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