Sasha Grey on Holly Randall Unfiltered!
You know that I love and am excited about all of my guests, but I ain’t gonna lie— this one is very special, because she’s a big name and I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get her on the show. She’s no longer in the adult industry, but when she was she made a huge impact. I am of course, talking about Sasha Grey. Sasha was known for not only her intense hardcore scenes, but the incredible intelligence and sense of creative artistry that she brought to her career. For me, Sasha is interesting for many reasons, but the one that I often think about is how young she was when she started in porn— just 18. And on this show we’ve had so many conversations about whether or not people get into porn too young, if the minimum age should be raised, etc. But Sasha proves that you cannot judge all 18-year-olds the same: she was incredibly mature for her age, and she came into the industry with a mission and a plan to change people’s perspectives on pornography. And to be honest, I think she achieved her goal. Sasha is one of those first examples of a woman who comes into this line of work with a true sense of what she’s getting into— she’s weighed the pros and the cons, and she has decided that this is the medium she wants to express herself through, that her sexuality is a powerful force in her life and she knows she can capitalize on it. And sure, the public always wants to shame a woman for monetizing her sexuality— because it’s supposed to be some tender prize that we use to negotiate our age-old place in society’s gender role structure, right? We can’t possibly claim it, call it our own, and do whatever the hell we want with it, right? Well Sasha did. And then, when she had done everything she sought out to do in the adult industry, she moved on to other things. Her career as a successful pornstar gave her the freedom and the means to explore the many other interests she has: writing, photography, acting, music— art in general. And she moved into the mainstream creative sphere without a remorse, she never went on to bash the adult industry, begging society for forgiveness for having made such a tragic mistake of having been a pornstar, so that she could have the public’s permission to move into a different career. The pitied and tragic victim of a predatory industry, redeemed by reinforcing the stereotype that porn preyed on a naive young girl. So I was curious to see how the Sasha Grey of today views her time in the adult industry, and I’m happy to say she doesn’t regret any of it. Time has not changed her perspective on the power of female sexuality, and the rights of women to do whatever the hell they want with it. Though she is no longer in porn in any way, shape or form, Sasha is still a champion of our industry. And that makes me terribly proud to have had the privilege of working with— and now sitting down to talk to— such a woman.