Naked ambition: 6 porn stars that tried to crossover into mainstream films

A surprisingly SFW look at bad girls who attempt to go good

Sasha Grey in The Girlfriend Experience
by Michael Carriere and Steven Hyden June 12, 2009

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With The Girlfriend Experience, the new film by Steven Soderbergh that opens today at The Oriental Theatre, adult film star Sasha Grey attempts one of the trickiest maneuvers in show business—the move from porn movie trashiness to art film respectability. (Then again, Grey already knows more than a few tricky maneuvers. Hey-o!) You can judge for yourself whether Grey’s acting chops will warrant future roles in mainstream films, but history shows that porn stars often have the odds stacked against them when they try spending more than five minutes on screen without doinking somebody. Decider looks back on how six other porn stars fared.

1. Jenna Jameson in Zombie Strippers! (2008)
After playing bit parts in mainstream-ish films like Porn ’N Chicken and Evil Breed: The Legend Of Samhain, Jameson scored a lead role in this horror-comedy co-starring Robert Englund of The Nightmare On Elm Street films.
Critical acclaim: Cinematical.com boldly called it “a rare non-pornographic performance.”
Inevitable nod toward the gutter: Jameson got into porn after working as a stripper in her late teens. While she was never a zombie stripper, this still seems like typecasting, even if the filmmakers claimed Zombie Strippers! was based on Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.


2. Traci Lords in Cry-Baby (1990)
Even in the porn world, Lords is a controversial figure, costing the industry millions of dollars after she was outed as an underage sex star—which necessitated the destruction of all those highly profitable and very kid-unfriendly movies she appeared in. But when she parlayed her tabloid fame into roles in mainstream films like John Waters’ Cry-Baby, Lords paved the way for other porn stars to cross over.
Critical acclaim: Lords is memorable for “exuding sex appeal and doing a fine job with the material,” according to DVDTalk.com.
Inevitable nod toward the gutter: In perhaps the most innocent movie ever made by Waters, Lords plays the town slut. 


3. Nina Hartley in Boogie Nights (1997)
Hartley spent more than a decade in the adult film industry before appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson's breakthrough film. Her performance as Little Bill's serially unfaithful porn-star spouse captured the excess—and desperation—of the late 1970s L.A. porn scene.
Critical acclaim: The Los Angeles Times said the movie was “expertly acted” by a “diverse and knowing cast” that includes (wait for it!) “real-life adult film star Nina Hartley.”
Inevitable nod toward the gutter: Hartley’s dramatic exit from Boogie Nights comes via a fatal gunshot wound while she’s banging a man who’s not her husband at a New Year’s Eve party.


4. Chasey Lain and Jill Kelly in He Got Game (1998)
This Spike Lee joint follows high school basketball phenom Jesus Shuttlesworth (played by former Milwaukee Bucks star Ray Allen) as he decides which college scholarship he should accept. Lain and Kelly appear as Buffy and Suzie respectively, two comely co-eds who sleep with Shuttlesworth in an attempt to get him to attend Tech University. Surprisingly, Shuttlesworth opts for a different school.
Critical acclaim: The nation's critics sadly overlooked both Lain and Kelly. Yet to this day, sports message board posters still marvel at Allen’s ability to handle a “2 on 1” scenario.
Inevitable nod toward the gutter: They got naked, fucked a guy, and left. In other words, it was a Wednesday.

5. Katie Morgan in Zack And Miri Make A Porno (2008)
It wasn’t much of a stretch when director Kevin Smith cast Morgan as a porn star, but she still managed to turn in a performance that was sexy, funny, and even sort of sweet. Not bad for a woman who got into the adult film industry to pay off her exorbitant legal fees. Morgan was arrested for transporting more than 100 pounds of marijuana from Mexico to the United States in 2000.
Critical acclaim: For her work in Zack And Miri, Morgan was named the Jenna Jameson Crossover Star Of The Year at the 2009 Adult Video News Awards.
Inevitable nod toward the gutter: Morgan followed up her acclaimed performance in Zack And Miri with Teen MILF 6, which was also pretty good.
 

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