Sasha Grey for Equal Payday
Sasha Grey
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Sasha Grey
Sasha Grey attending the AVN Awards Show at the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada on January 9, 2010
Born Marina Ann Hantzis[1]
March 14, 1988 (age 23)
North Highlands, California
Occupation Actress
Years active 2006–present
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[2]
Weight 110 lb (50 kg)[2]
Website
www.sashagrey.com
Sasha Grey (born Marina Ann Hantzis[1] on March 14, 1988) is an American former pornographic actress,[3][4] who has since turned to mainstream acting, modeling and music.[5][6] Later in her adult film career, she was profiled by several popular culture magazines and television programs.[7][8] She won several AVN Awards between 2007 and 2010, and has also been featured in music videos and advertising campaigns.[9][10]
After her feature film debut as the lead in Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, she shifted her focus to acting,[4] starring in the black comedy/horror film Smash Cut as April Carson, as well as having a supporting role in season 7 of HBO's Entourage. She has also appeared in independent films Quit, The Girl from the Naked Eye, Life, and Mark Pellington's I Melt With You. She is a member of aTelecine, an industrial noise band.[6][11]
Grey was born and raised in North Highlands, California, to a working class family. Her mother worked for the state of California and her father is a Greek American mechanic.[7] Her parents divorced when she was 5 and subsequently she was raised by her mother, who remarried in 2000. She's stated that while her parents do not like everything she does, they get along.[12]
Grey attended four high schools, among them Highlands High, before graduating, having been unhappy in each one,[7] though she graduated a year early at 17.[13] In late 2005, she attended junior college and took classes in film, dance, and acting.[7]
She waited tables at a steakhouse through March 2006 and saved $7,000 for a move to Los Angeles.[7]
[edit] Adult films
In May 2006 Grey moved to Los Angeles and started her career in adult films just after turning 18.[7] Originally she toyed with the name Anna Karina,[7] taken after the French New Wave actress, before deciding on her present name. The name "Sasha" was taken from Sascha Konietzko of the band KMFDM,[14] and "Grey" represents Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.[15] Her first scene was an orgy with Rocco Siffredi for The Fashionistas 2 by John Stagliano. Grey quickly made a name for herself in the business after she asked Siffredi to punch her in the stomach, however she later stated that she was improvising and it was taken out of context.[16] Less than 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.[7]
Less than a year after entering the industry, in January 2007, Grey was the recipient of awards for "Best Three Way Sex Scene" and "Best Group Scene" at the AVN Adult Movie Awards.[17] She was also nominated as "Best New Starlet", but lost to Naomi.[17] Grey was named Pet of The Month for July 2007[18] and was photographed by fashion photographer Terry Richardson.[19] In 2008, she became the youngest person to win the AVN "Female Performer of the Year" award[20] as well as "Best Oral Sex Scene" for a scene.[21]
In December 2006, Grey was interviewed on the syndicated entertainment industry news show The Insider. In February 2007, she appeared on The Tyra Banks Show, discussing teenagers in the sex industry. There was speculation that the show was heavily manipulated through editing, and did not include her defense of pornography as a career choice. The show was also criticized for twisting Grey's depiction to increase its dramatic value.[22][23] Grey was profiled in the Rolling Stone "Hot Issue" for the December 2008 edition.[24]
Grey formerly represented herself in the adult industry through her own agency, L.A. Factory Girls.[25] Grey has indicated particular appreciation for the work of Andrew Blake and Kimberly Kane.[26]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times described her pornographic career as "distinguished both by the extremity of what she is willing to do and an unusual degree of intellectual seriousness about doing it."[27]
In 2011, she was named by CNBC as one of the 12 most popular stars in porn.[28] CNBC noted that, while she is no longer acting in porn films, her current mainstream roles have kept interest in her earlier porn work high, and several companies continue to release compilations of her earlier work.
Grey filmed her last pornographic film at age 21, although she did not announce her retirement for some time after, realizing that many of her fans still believed her to be an active performer in the industry.[29] On April 8, 2011, she officially announced her retirement from adult films on Facebook.[30]
[edit] Modeling
A modeling photo of Grey
Grey was featured in the artwork for The Smashing Pumpkins 2007 album Zeitgeist,[9] and appears in their music video for "Superchrist". Grey was also featured in the music video for the song "Birthday Girl"[31] by The Roots.
She has modeled for French fashion designer Max Azria's ready to wear line Manoukian,[32][33] Italian footwear brand Forfex for an international campaign,[10] and American Apparel. She's modeled for Richard Kern as a part of Vice magazine's anti-fashion layout, and appeared in a three-part VBS program, "Shot by Kern".[34] She also appeared in Taschen’s 25th anniversary reprint of Terry Richardson’s Terryworld.[35] Among other collaborations with Richardson, she has also appeared in Wives, Wheels, Weapons, a companion book to James Frey's Bright Shiny Morning. She has also modeled for artists James Jean, Frédéric Poincelet,[36] Zak Smith,[37] and David Choe.[38]
In January 2010, Grey appeared nude in an ad campaign for PETA advocating animal birth control.[39]
Grey has appeared in Playboy Magazine twice, once for a December 2009 pictorial, as well as the cover feature in October 2010.[4][40][41]
[edit] Acting
Grey appeared in an episode of James Gunn's PG Porn with James Gunn,[42] as well as a cameo role[43] in Dick Rude's independent film Quit, and stars in[44] the 2009 Canadian low-budget black comedy/horror film Smash Cut from the Ottawa-based Odessa/Zed Filmworks. She plays a TV news personality who goes undercover as an actress in a horror film production, only to discover her older sister's murderer.
In March 2010, Grey was cast as an anti-sex Christian in the horror film Hallows, directed by Richard O'Sullivan.[45]
Grey played the lead role, "Chelsea", an escort girl who is paid to act as the clients' girlfriend, in Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's film The Girlfriend Experience.[46][47] Soderbergh cast her after reading the article[7] profiling her in Los Angeles magazine, commenting that "She's kind of a new breed, I think. She doesn't really fit the typical mold of someone who goes into the adult film business...I'd never heard anybody talk about the business the way that she talked about it."[48] In having Grey prepare for her role in The Girlfriend Experience, Soderbergh asked her to watch Godard's Vivre sa vie and Pierrot le fou.[49] Vivre sa vie concerns prostitution, while the relationship portrayed in Pierrot le fou was suggested as a model for the dynamic between Chelsea and her boyfriend and clients.[26] Grey and Soderbergh also interviewed two escorts, and borrowed character traits and behavior from them.[26] Critics had mixed assessments of Grey's performance.[50][51][52][53]
Grey was cast for the seventh season of the HBO show Entourage, where she played a fictionalized version of herself. Her character was Vincent Chase's new girlfriend in a multi-episode arc.[54]
Grey co-starred alongside Thomas Jane, Carla Gugino, Jeremy Piven, and Rob Lowe in the thriller I Melt With You which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011.[55] She then starred in the lead role in the Indonesian film Shrouded Corpse Bathing While Hip-Shaking. The film premiered in Indonesia on April 28, 2011.[56] That same year, she appeared in Eminem's music video for "Space Bound", released on June 27, 2011. Grey plays the role of Eminem's girlfriend, whom Eminem strangles only to realize she is just a figment of his imagination.[57] She subsequently starred in the lead role in the French film Life, which was released on DVD in France on August 10, 2011, and voiced the character Viola in the 2011 video game Saints Row: The Third, which was released in November 2011.
[edit] Music
In 2008, Grey began an industrial music collaboration, called aTelecine, with Pablo St. Francis.[6] Their first EP, aVigillant Carpark, was released by New York label Pendu Sound in 7 inch vinyl only. They have since added members, Anthony D' Juan and Ian C.[11] She also contributed vocals to the Current 93 album Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain.[58] Narnack Records lists her as a guest artist on Repentance,[59] the 54th studio album by Grammy-winning[59][60] reggae icon[59] Lee "Scratch" Perry, though Perry himself has denied her involvement.[61] She also regularly performs as a DJ in the USA and Canada.[62] aTelecine released their first LP ...And Six Dark Hours Pass, in 2010, and in November 2010 followed it up with the LP A Cassette Tape Culture.[63] She has also been featured in Eminem's music video for "Space Bound".[64]
aTelecine's first album, The Falcon and the Pod, was released on August 9, 2011. The album is the band's first full length release, and the first of a planned trilogy.[65][66]
[edit] Books
Grey's first photo book, Neü Sex, was released on March 29, 2011.[67][68][69]
[edit] Personal life
Since 2006, she has been developing an autobiographical documentary, illustrating her experiences from the age of 18 to 21.[70]
She was reported in a Rolling Stone interview in 2009 as being engaged to filmmaker Ian Cinnamon.[71]
In February 2010, Grey stated in a PETA interview that she supported animal birth control.[72]
Grey identifies as bisexual.[73]
[edit] Controversies
In November 2011 Grey participated in the Guest Reading Program at Emerson Elementary School in Compton, California. Although her involvement in such activity was first denied by school officials, it was uncovered later on that in fact Grey had read books to children and that her name did not appear on the guests list as Sasha Grey, but as her real name Marina Hantzis. Some parents were upset that a former pornographic actress would read to their children as part of an education program; Grey responded to the controversy: "I believe education is a universal right. I committed to this program with the understanding that people would have their own opinions about what I have done, who I am and what I represent."[74][75][76] Grey also appeared on the American talk show The View where she defended her involvement and also explained that one of the reasons why she became a pornographic actress was "to stop the stigma and stop the stereotypes against the adult film industry".[77]
[edit] Partial filmography
Year Film Role Notes
2006 Sasha Grey Superslut Herself Produced by Suze Randall; also featuring Hillary Scott, Annette Schwarz, and Karlie Montana[78]
2007 Homo Erectus Cavegirl
2008 Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge Maria
2009 The Girlfriend Experience Chelsea/ Christine Brown
2009 James Gunn's PG Porn Tricia Scrotey 1 episode of web series
2009 Smash Cut April Carson
2009 9to5 – Days in Porn Herself Documentary about the porn industry
2010 Quit Mini Mart Clerk No.2
2010 Malice in Lalaland Malice
2010 The Girl from the Naked Eye Lena Post-production
2010 Entourage Herself 6 episodes
2011 I Melt With You Raven Post-production
2011 Saints Row: The Third Viola DeWynter Voice, Video Game
[edit] Awards
2007 AVN Award for Best Three-Way Sex Scene – Fuck Slaves (with Sandra Romain and Manuel Ferrara)[17]
2007 AVN Award for Best Group Sex Scene (Video) – Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge[17]
2007 XRCO Award for Best New Starlet[79]
2007 Adultcon Top 20 Adult Actresses[80]
2008 AVN Award for Best Oral Sex Scene, Video – Babysitters[81]
2008 AVN Award for Female Performer of the Year[81]
2008 XRCO Award for Female Performer of the Year[82]
2009 XRCO Award for Mainstream Adult Favorite[83]
2009 Genesis Number One Pornstar of The Year[84]
2010 AVN Award for Best Anal Sex Scene – Anal Cavity Search 6[85]
2010 AVN Award for Best Oral Sex Scene – Throat: A Cautionary Tale[85]
2010 AVN Award for The Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year[85]
2010 XBIZ Award for Crossover Star of the Year[86]
2010 XRCO Award for Mainstream Adult Media Favorite[87]
2010 F.A.M.E. Award – Favorite Oral Starlet[88]
