SexHerald: Did you expect to receive so much attention before you entered the business?

Sasha Grey: No, I did not expect it to happen so soon. It would have been something I planned on pursuing, but it actually came to me before I even had the chance to go out there and make those opportunities happen for myself. Those opportunities actually presented themselves to me, which I’m very fortunate for. I really didn’t expect it so early on but I do credit that towards the first film I ever did (Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge).

SH: You do give it all in your scenes. How many films have you done?

Grey: Around 80 give or take. I do try to give it all but there have been a few times in the past where I would get direction from the director and it was completely the opposite of how I perform. And I’ve seen some of those scenes, and I’ve gotten feedback from my fans, and they’re completely crap. They were bad scenes because I didn’t perform the way Sasha Grey performs. So, I’ve really learned how to stick to my own and say something when somebody wants you to perform a certain way. I stand up for myself because I know what my fans like. There have been a few times when they tell me to tone it down or don’t talk, or don’t spit. And I’ve submitted to those directors, and then when I saw the scenes, they were crap. Even when the scene isn’t rough because some people aren’t into that, I still want to make it an intense scene and make it good and make it dirty.

SH: You’re also very vocal in your scenes. Are you that way in your personal life?

Grey: Yes, I am actually. I’m loud as hell.

SH: Do you feel that adds to the sexual experience?

Grey: For me, it’s a turn on. I know when before I got in the business, it was something rare that I saw, but now I do see more people doing it here and there. But for me it really turns me on, and it’s a way to add to the intensity of the scene for me, and I think it shocks some of the people that I perform with, which also adds excitement.

SH: Do you also like it when your partners get loud and rough as well?

Grey: The guys usually don’t get too loud. Rough, yes. I would like that—get loud. I like a power struggle, I guess you could say. I like to be dominant and submissive. I’m a switch so I like a little bit of both.

SH: What have been the negative and positive experiences you’ve encountered since entering the business?

Grey:I think the most negative things would have probably been on set, just issues with people on set like timing issues, or somebody being rude, out of line. Someone blaming their erection problem on you, miscommunication. I did a scene once, and the girl stopped the scene I don’t know how many times. She stopped the scene about four times, and it was a really short scene, and before it started I told her that this is how I do my scenes, “Are you OK with a rough scene?” She said yes and I said, “Is there anything you don’t want?” And she said, “Don’t bruise me,” and that’s all she said. So then she goes ahead and she can’t even handle the scene, and it wasn’t even that rough. So miscommunication is a big thing for me because I feel that, especially in this business, you shouldn’t get yourself into something you can’t handle, and say something. I don’t mind if you don’t like a rough scene, I understand that. But you should tell me that up front because it makes it difficult to have a good scene from there. It’s usually just really small things, people have attitudes. Either that or judgment from other people but you have to take everything with a grain of salt. I really don’t let that get in the way of what I do and how I do that.

Positives, so many good things have happen to me since I’ve entered the business. Lately I’ve been getting a lot of mainstream attention, and that’s been really good for me on both levels, in porn and in mainstream. I’ve learned a lot about myself sexually as a woman, and I’ve learned how to inspire people, women especially, and change people, change the way people think about the world and the world around them, not just in a sexual sense, but all together as a whole. It’s amazing when you put hard work into something, you get a lot out of it. Even if it’s not monetary value or even if it’s just a word, even if it’s something somebody said to you, that means a lot. It means you’re doing it right. I also appreciate sex a lot more at home than I used to. I can also encourage women to be sexually liberated and not feel ashamed of what dirty thoughts they may have.

SH: What do you make of all the mainstream media attention you’ve been receiving?

Grey: Like I said earlier, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Regardless of how people on television want to judge me or victimize me, smart people know how TV is done. They know that it’s edited. They know that those people want to make you look like a victim for ratings. It’s always about ratings, and I understand that. But even if I said one or two words, and I changed three or four people’s minds about society and the world around them, and themselves as a sexual being, I’m still making a difference, I’m still going to get fans. And I know I’m not going to change minds that don’t want to be changed. You have to learn to accept that no matter what field of business you’re in. Although some of the people try to be judgmental and try to victimize me, when I was in that audience of the Tyra Banks Show, the very next day a girl emailed me who was in the audience and thought I did great. Keep doing what you’re doing, etc. That’s one person I inspired right there. And I’m sure there are a few more. Those who care about what I have to say will listen, and those who don’t that’s OK.

SH: Was the industry what you expected it to be like when you entered it back in June?

Grey: In a general sense yes, but there were also a lot of things I learned, just small things about this business that you can’t really learn unless you’re up close there, in it. But for the most part yeah, it is.

SH: I understand you researched the business a year before entering it. What was it about the business that intrigued or excited you about it?

Grey: I was watching a lot of porn at the time and I saw something that I could change and I could do it in a sex-positive way. I could do it all at the same time, pushing my own boundaries as a sexual being and pushing other people’s boundaries as well. Even if it’s just a few small things, I’m still changing, I’m still making a difference and I’m learning more about myself and exposing my thoughts, my beliefs to society, to the world around me.

SH: In other interviews, a lot is said about how well educated and articulate you are and your interests in the arts and literature. Besides that, and besides doing porn, do you feel like an average, everyday, normal 18-year-old? Do you feel like a kid?

Grey: No, I don’t feel like a kid. This business forces you to become mature at a faster pace than you would as a regular 18-year-old outside of the business. If you really choose not to go with that, you’re going to fail and you’re going to be squeezed like a piece of fruit and thrown out the window and they’re going to find another girl, because that’s how this business works. And I’m not claiming to know everything because I’m still learning. I’ll learn something new every day. But I think it definitely forces you to grow up and think about your life, think about what you do, and think about how you’re going to make a positive change.

SH: Why do you feel a lot of girls who enter porn at your age don’t do their homework? Other girls your age burn out quickly. Do you think they get into the business for the wrong reasons, or really don’t care about how to make the business work for them?

Grey: There’s a lot of answers to that question. I believe there are a few young women who understand what they’re doing. But for the most part, that cliché is really true. They get in this business for money, for sex, or for attention because they want to be famous. And I think that’s what they’re after and they’re not aware of the fact of what I said, it will squeeze you out like a piece of fruit. Even if you don’t do your research before you get in you’ll learn it pretty quickly. It’s hard not to pick up how to, I guess you could say survive in this business. I think they’re chasing something because they don’t know what they want out of life or they’re lost. They have no hope, they have no dreams, and they have no aspirations. Once you’re stuck in a certain place, usually you just stay there and not do anything about it, and live your life how you’re living it day by day. There’s a lot more than that I think. There’s so many reasons.

SH: Do you have any porn mentors who have given you really good advice?

Grey: Belladonna of course. She’s told me a lot of valuable things about this business. And I really look up to Nina Hartley. I never met her but I think she’s a wonderful, brilliant woman.

SH: What attracts you to writers such as William Burroughs or filmmakers such as John Cassavetes? What draws you to artists like that?

Grey: People that think outside the box, and they’re not afraid of what society will say or think about them. I guess you could say Burroughs was because he was a gay man and married to a woman and had a kid, but if you read in the sub-text, he was obviously gay. He’s writing about homosexual things. They’re both people who were way ahead of their time. Cassavetes, he would go out, no permit, no lights, just go out and shoot a film no matter what it took. He didn’t wait for somebody to say go. He took that opportunity himself. He didn’t wait for it to come to him. I think that’s very inspiring, and he made great films that people could relate to but that people could never mimic or imitate.