Steven Soderbergh’s new low-budget indie film, The Girlfriend Experience, has an unusual star: one of the p*rnography industry’s most in-demand female stars, Sasha Grey. In an interview with the LA Times, Soderbergh says that casting Sasha was like casting Brad Pitt – there would be more interest in the actor than in the film.

Still, he cops to a certain degree of exploitation. Soderbergh gave Grey the lead role in the film (which opens Friday) fully intending to milk her X-rated fame for all it is worth. “I was very much counting on the fact that the interest in her would be greater than the interest in the movie,” Soderbergh said. “We would be drafting off her notoriety rather than vice versa. I needed her. That’s no different than getting Brad Pitt to be in your movie, albeit in a different context.”

In that regard, it probably helps that Grey, 21, can be considered a porn star only by the same reductive logic that would characterize Kobe Bryant as merely a “basketball player.” The actress — real name Marina Ann Hantzis — is professionally distinguished by her take-no-prisoners attitude toward the hardest of hard-core sex scenes and consensual degradation. Aggressively staking a claim for herself in the industry from almost the moment she turned 18, Grey’s porn oeuvre extends to more than 150 films — “Sasha Grey’s Anatomy,” “House of Sex & Domination” and “Teenage Whores” (parts 2 and 3) being among the few titles printable in a family newspaper. For her ambitiousness, she took home the Adult Video News Awards’ female performer of the year in 2008, becoming the youngest person to win.

Moreover, Grey is establishing herself as a burgeoning multimedia mogul. She calls herself a “performance artist,” is filming a documentary, writing a graphic novel and a “sex philosophy” book and recently launched her own production company with the twin goals of changing the look of pornography and empowering women.

“Part of the reason I got into this business was to change it,” Grey said. “I can take my fantasies and ideas and deliver those to an audience. It’s all an extension of who I am.”

Dan Miller, editor in chief of AVN magazine, explained what separates Grey from her industry’s rank and file. “She brings it in her sex scenes,” he said. “She means business. Sasha’s been able to showcase a way of going about it, a fearlessness, that has resonated with adult critics and made producers take notice. She’s in the top 10 in-demand female performers.”

Over lunch in a Hollywood restaurant, picking at a salad she variously described as tasting “like ammonia” and later, wasabi, Grey made working with Soderbergh — the force behind the blockbuster “Ocean’s” franchise as well as more personal projects starring non-pro actors such as “Bubble” and the HBO series “K Street” — seem like no biggie. Never mind that, outside of adult films, she had never professionally acted (despite having studied theater from age 12 to 18). And that working from a bare-bones plot “outline,” she was responsible for improvising her own dialogue.

“Steven wanted a natural quality and for things to be spontaneous,” Grey said. “So it was about trying to find a way to bring my training into the film and also leaving room for this open-ended, never-ending surprise that came into each scene.”

[from LA Times]

As for Sasha, who is known in the industry as having a “ferocious” attitude and the gumption to do just about anything, the movie is just another step into the mainstream. She says that she got into the business “in order to change it” and she is in the middle of making a documentary, as well as writing a book on “sex philosophy.”

The plan going forward [for Sasha] is for her to act as her own manager, work exclusively for herself (rather than one of the big agencies that represent most porn performers) and even direct her own movies.

“All women have the right to be feminist whether you’re pro-porn or anti-porn,” she said. “But I think it’s definitely about continuing to put the control in women’s hands. And sending a positive message to our society that every girl in porn is not abused and cracked out.”

Grey continued: “I have this brand, I have my name. And I’m going to do what I want because people will buy it. People will enjoy it. So don’t tell me I have to follow this formula and sit inside the box. Because I don’t.”

[from LA Times]

It’s an interesting choice, casting someone from the adult film industry in a Soderbergh film. Soderbergh’s projects encompass a wide range (Ocean’s Eleven, Erin Brokovich, Solaris, K Street, and Traffic are just a few), and this adds just another dimension to his body of work.

Adult film stars are finding it easier these days to become mainstream. Jenna Jameson was one of the first to successfully cross over, and now with television like The Girls Next Door showing everything but the sex, you’ll be sure to see more cross-overs in the future.

Here’s the trailer for The Girlfriend Experience

Sasha Grey is shown on 5/9/09, 4/28/09, and 3/14/09. Credit: WENN.com