The Girlfriend Experience

Thanks to ever-resourceful glimmer for the lead to this Village Voice interview with Stephen Soderbergh about The Girlfriend Experience, starring “sleepy-eyed adult film starlet Sasha Grey” and xxxploring his latest xxxperiment in cinematic xxxpression: “structured improv.” But don’t expect Happy-Ending-Go-Lucky because those who’ve seen it at Sundance say there’s not as much sex as we might xxxpect, xxxactly 20 years after Sex, Lies and Videotape. Two decades later, Soderbergh has evolved from videotape to HD video. Lies are out, naked truthiness is in:

VV: In this volatile time, are we all going to have to whore ourselves out sooner or later?

SS: Oh, I thought we already were [laughs]. I guess it depends on what your definition is. Mine is doing something you would not ordinarily do for money. I don’t see any difference between what Sasha’s doing in the movie and what I do for Warner Bros. The character in the movie is doing what she wants to for money, and so am I.

And this, regarding, er, method acting:

VV: What will audiences find most unexpected about Sasha Grey’s performance, and will she break the stigma of porn stars going legit?

SS: We’ve built the whole movie around her and played to her personality, so I think people will be surprised at just how comfortable and normal she seems on-screen‚Äîwhat an unmannered performance she gives. It’s hard for me to tell what this will mean for her, because she’s not someone you can just plug into a generic role. If you’re not taking advantage of who she is, then you’re not really using her well.

Shot in 16 days for a budget of $1.7 mil, The Girlfriend Experience looks to be one of the more intimate films on the Soderbergh Scale of Cold to Cool to Chill.