“For my film portrait of Sasha Grey, I wanted to focus on her expressive and psychological transformation into a cinematic actor, separate from the cues that have associated Sasha with her previous career as a performance artist working within the adult film world.” –Richard Phillips Shot on location at the John Lautner Chemosphere House off Mulholland Drive, the film showcases Sasha as a perpetually evolving figure. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick (“Basic Instinct,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Wall Street,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) dressed Sasha for the part in an array of lingerie and military inspired garments to highlight the dual nature of her masculine / feminine persona. Looking over the roadside from the vantage point of one the most legendary residences in modern and cinematic history, Sasha reflects on her relationship to the San Fernando Valley landscape- the location of some of her most noted adult performances. Back inside the circular vortex of the Chemosphere, Sasha's inner dialogue projects an equally diaristic and imaginary self-portrait that pushes beyond the extremes of her past filmography and into her new future. “Sasha Grey,” along with Phillip’s first short film, “Lindsay Lohan,” will be included in "Commercial Break," presented by the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Venice, Italy, June 1 - 5, 2011, concurrent with the 54th international exhibition of the Venice Biennale. SASHA GREY A Richard Phillips Film Directed by: Richard Phillips and Taylor Steele Director of Photography: Todd Heater Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick Creative Director: Dominic Sidhu Art Director: Kyra Griffin Editor: Haines Hall Color mastering: Pascal Dangin for Boxmotion Music: Chelsea Wolfe About Richard Phillips Phillips’ strikingly distinctive paintings are drawn from found imagery that deal with the marketability of man, his wishes, ideas, actions, identity, sexuality, politics, and desires. Images he translates into drawings and then paintings executed through a traditional process. In doing so, he makes use of the iconic quality of pictures, which the media and art use daily – each according to its own agenda. Perhaps more so than any other contemporary painter of his kind, Phillips’ imagery has achieved a level of pop recognition outside of the artworld with fashion, media and film collaborations, including Gossip Girl, MAC Cosmetics, The Art Production Fund, Visionaire, and a recent guest judge appearance on Bravo’s new TV series “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist”. Phillips’ most recent exhibition, Most Wanted at White Cube in London, features ten larger than life celebrity portraits set against red carpet step and repeat backdrops. Born in Massachusetts in 1962, Richard Phillips lives and works in New York City. He has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe including Gagosian Gallery, New York; the Kunsthalle Zürich; Le Consortium in Dijon; Max Hetzler, Berlin; and White Cube in London.