Sasha Grey as Chelsea in The Girlfriend Experience

What’s a little intimacy worth? High-end call girl Chelsea charges a pretty penny for her signature chit-chat and hand-holding (and, you know, banging) in The Girlfriend Experience, Steven Soderbergh’s new semi-improvised digital film. But he isn’t peddling porn, despite casting bona fide adult-film star Sasha Grey as the enigmatic escort—there’s more brooding than boffing here. We talked with the director about his first Tribeca Film Festival appearance, food and, duh, prostitution.

Time Out New York: How did you approach how much sex to show in the film? I was surprised at how little actual sex is in it.
Steven Soderbergh: No matter what level [of prostitute], whether you’re talking about someone on the street or you’re talking about someone who’s in Chelsea’s stratum, the constant there is the fact that there is sex. And so, for me, if you take that out of the equation, you can compare what she does that other people don’t do. I mean, she’s intimately familiar with your personal life and she’ll make out with you for two hours.

And how did you get hooked up with Sasha Grey?
I’d read about her—did you see the Los Angeles Magazine article on her? It ran a couple of years ago. The way she spoke and the whole portrait of her suggested someone who was not typical for that industry. So I filed that away in the back of my mind. It wasn’t that I needed somebody that could perform sex in front of a camera; what I needed was someone who felt in command in a sexual situation. And I think that’s a tricky thing to fake.

You’ve worked with both amateur and professional actors—where was her experience?
I thought she was really successful inverting her relationship with the camera. Because if you see any of the porn work she’s done—any of the what I would call “more gonzo” stuff, not her Pirates of the Carribean movie that they did, which got like 30 Adult Video Nominations, by the way. So if you look at the more gonzo stuff she does, she’s hyperaware of the camera and plays to the camera, you know what I mean? It’s constantly doing a kind of mind meld with the camera. And I was thinking, Wow, is she going to be able to completely flip that and basically pretend that it doesn’t exist at all? And as it turns out, yeah, she could without a problem.

What’s with all the scenes at restaurants? EU, Craftsteak, Zaitzeff: I was starving by the end of this movie.
Well, one because I like specificity. I wanted you to be aware, if possible, all the time of money. I wanted you to think, like, Wow, I wonder what a meal costs there? Because this is someone who has made the acquisition of money the center of her life. I like seeing the places and thinking, Oh, I could go there. I could walk by there if I wanted.

And someone like her could be at the next table.
Well, yeah, that’s how all this started. I was having a drink with [writers] Brian [Koppelman] and David [Levien] at a hotel bar in midtown, and there was this woman on the other side of the room that I thought was sticking out in a way. Not that she shouldn’t be there—she was very well turned out. She didn’t seem engaged by the surroundings. And I said to Brian and David, “Look at that woman at the other end of the bar. What am I picking up on? Why is she sort of separate from what’s going on?” and they both went, “Oh, GFE.” They started telling me about this specific type of escort. Paying a surcharge for intimacy, I think, was to me, interesting.

Are the problems that Chelsea encounters any different from issues at any other job?
No. I mean, it really comes down to what your attitude is about sex. Whether you think this is a sacred act or whether you think it’s something more analogous to food, which is something that’s kind of natural, and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on what your tastes are. I don’t view it as something so sacred that I should be allowed to dictate its terms to other people. There’s not a lot of difference to me between what she’s doing and what [her personal-trainer boyfriend] is doing—they’re both in a personal-service industry.

Have America’s ideas and attitudes about sex changed significantly since Sex, Lies, and Videotape?
No, I think the hypocrisy is still intact. We’re still upset about [sex], while at the same time it’s everywhere and is a huge economic engine. It’s going to take us a long time to unwind these hang-ups.

Do you consider Chelsea a victim?
No.

Do you think prostitution should be legal?
Uh, yeah.

What would you say to somebody who says she’s been roped into this life and doesn’t know what else to do?
Well, there are people for whom that is true. That’s not the case with Chelsea any more than it is with Sasha in the adult-film industry. But, yeah, I think whatever agreement two people want to come to about whatever is really none of my business. I don’t know what the difference is between that and what I’m doing for Sony Pictures right now.

Whoa, what are you doing for Sony Pictures right now?
[Directing] Moneyball.

The Girlfriend Experience premieres Wed 29 at 8pm at SVA Theater (333 W 23rd St between Eighth and Ninth Aves) as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

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