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A boundary-breaking multitalented artist
AFP/Jason Merritt Her DJ activities completely fill up her schedule and Sasha Grey says that every day she experiences or sees something new that enriches her life â as an artist, a performer and a human being
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AFP/Jason Merritt
Her DJ activities completely fill up her schedule and Sasha Grey says that every day she experiences or sees something new that enriches her life ' as an artist, a performer and a human being.
'No days are typical, man. I'm on this tour through Asia and Australia and in the past week and a half, I have been through Manila, Hong Kong and now I am here on a ship in the middle of Malaysia and Singapore,' she said during an interview on board the Royal Caribbean's
Voyager Of The Sea cruise ship, which hosted the recent It's The Ship trance music festival.
By taking a role behind the turntables, she has also found another side to herself, which she considers to be more fun.
'Growing up, I was very, very introverted. So the idea of going out to a club or going out to places like this, that would frighten the sh*t out of me,' she says.
'The great thing about DJ-ing and performing is like I can say no to acting projects that maybe I don't think better me as an actress and that kinda put me in a box. So, it is nice to be a little bit pickier and also enjoy so many different cultures that also make me a better, more rounded actress.'
Grey's journey as an artist began in 2006, when she took the bold move of going into the porn industry just two months after turning 18.
During Grey's time in porn, she became well known as a performer who gave her all in scenes and dared to push the boundaries.
Just one year after entering the highly competitive and tough industry, Grey received recognition for her performance, winning the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) New Starlet of The Year Award in 2007.
A year later, Grey won the Female Performer of The Year award at the Adult Video Network (AVN) award show, the most prestigious event in the adult business industry. She was also the youngest female in history to win the award.
Grey's success in porn did not stop people from questioning her career choice at that time, as they thought she could model or become a mainstream film actress instead.
Speculation was rife that the porn industry abused and violated Grey from her youthful innocence despite her continuous defense of the industry and her career choice.
In 2007, there was speculation that an episode of The Tyra Banks Show that featured Grey was heavily manipulated through editing and allegedly did not include her defense of pornography. The show was also criticized for allegedly twisting Grey's depiction to increase its dramatic value.
When Grey was at the peak of her porn career ' some even considered her the next Jenna Jameson, the first multimillion dollar porn star ' she suddenly moved away to take roles in mainstream movies.
In 2009, Grey played Chelsea, an escort paid to act as her clients' girlfriend, in Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's film The Girlfriend Experience.
She also appeared in the seventh season of the HBO show Entourage, where she played a fictionalized version of herself.
While still being active in porn and playing several roles in mainstream films, Grey also launched several projects in music, a path which would become her latest career choice.
Grey began an industrial music collaboration, called ATelecine, with Pablo St. Francis back in 2008. They later expanded, adding Anthony D' Juan and Ian Cinnamon.
Their first extended recording, A Vigilant Carpark, was released in 2009 by New York label Pendu Sound on 7-inch vinyl only. Grey also contributed vocals to the British experimental band Current 93's album Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain.
Grey's experiments in music would later see her become a full time disc jockey, touring all over the world entertaining people with her remixes and singles.
Grey started to learn how to become a DJ about four years ago, and she said it was really a pleasant experience that enabled her to become a more complete artist.
'I was in an experimental band, then people started looking at me to DJ. It was sort of strange,' Grey said.
'So I just bought a good mixer and start practicing that way and in the beginning, I made some mistakes because I was playing music that I thought people that enjoyed my band would like and I learned a lot in a short period of time and now, I've seen that my audience is much broader than the audience that just like the band.'
She found it inspiring to see that people actually paid
attention.
'So now I'm still sort of still discovering what I want to take in music. I don't want to forget my roots, experimental music, at all and so I would like to collaborate with a few friends.'
Grey also published a monograph Neü Sex, which took her four years to complete.
In the monograph, she was no longer in front of the camera, but behind it ' turning the lens on the wild world she lives in.
Whatever project she is working on ' whether acting, making music or writing books ' she takes it very seriously.
Grey will always need 100 percent passion in what she does and she must not let boredom prevent her from progressing as an artist.
'People tell me that the minute you get bored of something, or don't enjoy something, stop doing it,' Grey says. 'That is a very difficult idea to absorb, especially when you're so young, especially when things are moving so fast and there are so many different people around you, encouraging you or trying to bring you down, conversely, but I think that's something that I'm always trying to think about.'
