A star is porn

Reporting from the red carpet, one wag informs that Sasha Grey is “all old-school class in a long black dress and a string of pearls hanging down her chest.”

Like any woman who has acted since age 12, she is fulfilling a lifelong dream: sashaying into a film awards show, cameras flashing, reporters barking, adoring fans cheering at the announcement of the six-time nominee’s arrival.

But Grey is not attending the Emmys, the Oscars or even those crappy People’s Choice Awards. She’s at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for the January 12 Adult Video News Awards. Like a starlet overwhelmed by the attention at an Academy Awards ceremony, Grey will say of all six of her latest AVN nominations, “It’s wonderful, it’s nice to receive that recognition.”

According to the Internet Movie Database, she can be recognized in 85 adult films and videos over the past two years. Titles include The Girl Next Door 2, Gang Bang My Face and her latest, Flower’s Squirt Shower 5.

And she’s not even old enough to order a drink in a bar. Sasha Grey is all of 19. Nineteen! She doesn’t turn 20 until March 15.

How in the hell did she get here?

Born in Gary, Ind., but raised here, Grey attended North Highlands High School. She maintained a 3.8 grade-point average through her junior year. Sacramento is part big city, surrounded by a whole lot more small town, North Highlands being solidly in the latter category. Way more. The only area folks lower on the rung than those in North Highlands call Rio Linda home.

Grey never wanted out of Sacramento per se, but she did want to avoid becoming what she calls “the North Highlands stereotype: a 19-year-old with a kid, another one on the way and living my life waiting for the next weekend to come.”

She always wanted to become an actress, and at 18, she found a way to avoid the North Highlands stereotype and make acting her profession. She just had to tweak her aspirations. Way more.

“I saw the women in porn and I just thought I could be a great performer,” said Grey, dodgy on the age she was and context in which she first saw those women. But she was quite clear on how she charted her rise in porn. During her first semester at Sacramento City College, while tackling a full course load and a full-time job, she watched every adult movie and read every adult publication she could get her hands on.

“About two weeks after my 18th birthday, I had a friend take some nude pictures of me, and I wrote a bio and a mission statement and sent the electronic package out to several different agencies in L.A.,” she explained.

Shortly thereafter, Grey moved to Los Angeles, found an agent and was performing in Fashionistas Safado: Part 2 with John “Buttman” Stagliano. That led to more films, more offers, and the rest, as they say, is porn history.

But her new job presented a problem: how to keep it a secret from her family. Though they lived hundreds of miles away, Grey figured they would find out. She decided to tell her family “before someone else did.”

“If I wanted respect, I had to do it myself,” said Grey, who described her mother as being disheartened and her sister as not understanding but ultimately accepting her career choice. She was more cagey when it came to her father. Grey’s parents are divorced because, as she described it, “My mother works for the state while my father lives off the state—so obviously, they are no longer married.”

On her own relationships, Grey said she is currently in one with a man, but does not see her day job as an insurmountable object in maintaining it, although there are challenges.

“The first few months were difficult because it’s all new. You’re learning how to communicate. You’re working on your sex career and your sex at home.” It took some adaptation on both sides, but Grey said once her boyfriend visited her at the set, saw it was a job and not an all-out-orgy, things went a lot smoother. “We communicate, and I think that’s important in any relationship, whether you’re in porn or not.”

Before the AVN envelopes were opened, Grey spent half a week pressing the flesh with drooling fanboys, industry execs and the pornographic press at Sin City’s four-day Adult Entertainment Expo. Her strong eyes were covered in heavy makeup. One day’s outfit—black miniskirt, fishnets and teasingly zipped down leather top—were subtle considering her surroundings.

Everything seemed to come naturally to her, whether it was posing for pictures or talking up the press. Her confidence and matter-of-fact humor instantly turned her from a celluloid sexual object into a just another woman you might bump into at Galleria at Roseville.

By the end of the AVN Awards ceremony, she had walked away with two statuettes, for Female Performer of the Year and Best Oral Sex Scene (for Babysitters). It’s her willingness to “push boundaries” that she believes brings her the accolades. “I think it is important to me in my life,” she said matter-of-factly.

Grey offers that she is known for performing rough sex—no big deal because “I’ve been into S&M before I ever got into the business, so naturally I was drawn toward that. It’s a natural high for me.” It’s not uncommon for her to compare her life as a porn star to that of an athlete. “I consider what I do performance art, and not a lot of people view it that way … and it does take a toll on your body.”

She attributes part of her success to her work ethic and approach to her performances. “I meditate before each shoot. I never phone it in. … I talk to my co-stars, find out what they’re comfortable with and let them know what I’m comfortable with.”

Grey’s obviously comfortable enough that she now looks ahead to marketing herself. “I do want to build a brand, a name for myself,” she said. “I just finished writing a feature script that will be directed in the next few months. … What I really want to do is control my product.”

She is helming a documentary examining her career from when she first entered the business at 18 until she turns 21 and eventually would like to transition to behind the camera full time.

Just another girl from North Highlands.