Sasha Grey and her Infamous Tyra Banks Show Interview

Tyra Banks at the 2012 Time 100 Gala by David Shankbone opposite Sasha Grey for Vice by Richard Kern, 2008

Sasha Grey entered the Adult industry in 2006, quickly becoming the biggest name in porn. She was only eighteen, but operated with a fiery passion towards her vision of reshaping the adult industry (a goal which came to fruition in just a few years). Despite her sharp wit and clear drive, Sasha drew the ire of the mainstream press. “You would not believe the lengths some teenagers are going to make money” proclaimed the eye-catching intro to Sasha’s most infamous interview. Mainstream celebrity host Tyra Banks invited the rising star onto her talk show with the promise that Sasha would have a chance to share her fascinating story. Instead, she was subject to a deceptively edited “psychological interrogation” designed to reduce her to nothing but a lost and confused child in the public eye. Now, Sasha sits down with XSIV Mag’s CEO Holly Randall to describe the harrowing ordeal.

Holly Randall Interviews Sasha Grey

Holly Randall interviews Sasha Grey for Holly Randall Unfiltered Podcast

Holly Randall: Okay so [in 2007] you're in porn, you're getting a lot of mainstream attention, and you end up on the Tyra Banks Show.

Sasha Grey: Yes. Somebody had read an article that I did and said “Oh we should get this girl on.” I had also done some other prime time, sort of, sensationalized interviews.

They spend time with you before. It's really psychological. It's incredibly psychological. 

HR: They get you to trust them? 

SG: No, they want information, as a good journalist would, but in this case, just to use it against you—to try and prepare themselves. They'll prepare themselves but you're not allowed to prepare. God forbid I would ever ask questions.

So I spent time with them before, leading up to [the Tyra Banks interview]. I think we shot some random b-roll footage for them to use. I came on set. They did a fake thing in their own wardrobe room where we filmed as if I was getting ready to go do a scene, with makeup artists that are not even in the business. 

The day of, everything was stalled. “You need to be there at 7:00 a.m.” 7:00 a.m.?  Not knowing the show doesn't film until, I don't remember, between 12:00 and 2:00. You know what I mean? Like, why is this necessary? Then, they isolate you. They isolated me.

HR: That sounds like an interrogation.

SG: It is like an interrogation. It’s a psychological interrogation, 100%. I had three people with me and they separated us. I came with a shirt where I’d done iron-on letters that said “tu va bien”: everything's all right. They said “Okay, we're going to wardrobe now.”  I said “Oh. I’m in my wardrobe. What do you mean?” 

“No, no. We have wardrobe for you” Then they take you to wardrobe. They dress me in a pinker than pink top, which is so not me. They put me in these really terrible jeans with hushpuppies. Hushpuppies are those really ugly brown ballet flats. They even made me take my earrings out. They straighten my hair and slicked it back so much to make me look young. This is the whole thing: ‘make her look as innocent as possible. Make her look confused.’ 

They straighten my hair and slicked it back so much to make me look young. This is the whole thing: ‘make her look as innocent as possible. Make her look confused.’ 

And this—I'd done some big interviews already. I had a distrust at this point, but I still didn't have the balls to stand up for myself. If this was today, that would never happen. And it has happened where people are like “You can't wear that” and I’m like “...Bye!” Or people want to dress me in certain things for photoshoots and I'm like “No, that's not me. I don't want to wear that.” 

So it's a complete psychological process. She [Tyra Banks] never came out and introduced herself beforehand. I don't know if that's normal on talk shows or not. I thought it was weird at the time. I still think it's weird. They separated me from the three people that I brought with me. The one funny thing is: I requested banana Laffy Taffy's. It was a joke and they actually did it. Oh, that was the one thing they did that was kind. 

I said “I'm not wearing these shoes.” I actually did say that. “I can't wear these shoes, these are terrible” and they said “Oh, the camera is not gonna see them, though, so it's no big deal.” Why did I believe this, you know? 

HR: I mean, because you want to inherently believe that people aren't full of shit.

SG: And these are wardrobe people, but then the producer’s standing by and looking at everything. I've been on other talk shows since then and it doesn't go down like this. Then, when we're actually filming, I look up and realize there's five cameras from from every angle. Of course they're gonna see the full thing, right?

“I can't wear these shoes, these are terrible” and they said “Oh, the camera is not gonna see them, though, so it's no big deal.”

HR: The hushpuppies!

SG: Yeah, the hushpuppies destroying my image! [both laugh] So, she comes out dressed like a school madam. The whole thing is set up, you know what I mean? Even if the public doesn't recognize these things, subconsciously they do. You're taking that in and that's going to affect the way you're viewing this thing. 

At certain points during the interview she was stumped! I stumped her! Multiple times. And she would say “I am so emotional right now. We're gonna have to pause and take a quick break.” And there's like 30 people in the background: producers, PAs, all these people, and they would run over and [feed Tyra lines]. And they did get me with one line. I don't remember what it was—if I went back and watched I would remember the moment. They feed you lines, right? They were trying to do that and I think something just might have snapped in me where I was like “Yeah I'm gonna use that one.”...But they told her what to say in reply. 

She comes out dressed like a school madam. The whole thing is set up, you know what I mean?

SG: So, I mean, all of these things are set up. Then, the end result, what do they do? They pair me up with this sort of non sex–positive feminist.

HR: We would call them a SWERF now: Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist.  

SG: Exactly. She, I think, did like four porn scenes and somehow had the authority to speak. I was 18 when I did the show and I think she was in her 30s at the time. And then they brought on a fifteen year old streetwalker prostitute. And this is a narrative that they try to tell: ‘We're all the same. We all come from the same background.  It's evil. It's bad. They're damaged.’ So, then, the older woman served as the person that was trying to warn me. The younger girl was just for a shock factor. So that was how the whole thing went down. I remember I did a YouTube vlog about it afterwards. The magic of editing: because they have five cameras all they have to do is cut to me listening and therefore I have no response to her question. The power of editing. For a lot of it I just looked silent but luckily one of the people that I brought there was Peter Warren.

HR: Peter Warren is an AVN…head editor or something like that?

SG: Yeah, and I think he had actually asked. I told him I was going on and he actually asked me “Can I shadow you?” or something like that. I was like “Yeah, why not?” Thankfully he was there, because he actually watched the entire thing as it went down and he wrote about it afterwards, just saying how twisted and manipulative the entire thing was. I did a vlog about it but, yeah.

It exists. It's there. It happened. What are you going to do? You know that old saying ‘there's no such thing as bad press?’ I do think there is, but in that case, would I do it again? Yes, I would still do it again. 

HR: Yeah?
SG: I would still do it again, yeah.

HR: Would you do anything differently?

SG: Oh, for sure like I said. I wouldn't have worn those hushpuppies. I wouldn't have said that line that they fed me.

HR: You don't member what it was?

SG: No, but it was something really reactionary, though, and that's just not my style typically. 

HR: That's gotta be so frustrating! And this is why so many people in the Adult industry are so wary of mainstream coverage, because they came in with an agenda.

SG: Oh, yeah!

HR: —and they really want you to fit into this preconceived notion that they have of you and the industry. They’ll find whatever way they can to make you look however they want you to look. It’s really irritating.

by A/E Welcome