Brief

When a struggling young actress faces possible homelessness, she decides to try out a new career path in escorting. It's a scary world and comes with its dangers, as well as a strict set of rules for the girls to follow lest they risk getting blacklisted from the industry. However, she soon starts to find the work rewarding and a way to achieve genuine human connection.

What We Liked

- This is a sweet, wholesome story hidden inside a lurid sexy 80s movie. It's a story of a sex worker that humanizes her but isn't afraid to shy away from the uglier realities of the industry.
- As a film, this would be a fun 80s period piece that benefits from a 2020s lens as we see this young woman struggle within a world that demands women be sexy but not too sexy and then demeans them for expecting something in return.
- As a television show, this would be the female workplace drama, luring viewers in with the promise of sex and prostitution and 80s fashion, but keeping them glued to their seats with the slow burn of the workplace drama and rewarding them with moments of human compassion and kindness.
- Key points: 80s period piece; Sexy; Based on a true story; Funny; Strong female protagonist.

Synopsis

Sephe is a young actress in the 1980s who, after a grueling series of auditions and waiting, gets into Juilliard's graduate program. While in the program, she lives in constant fear of getting ""cut"" for the first two years, and is only able to breathe easily when she's in her third year. However, that rest doesn't last too long as fourth years are given six minutes in which they perform in front of representatives from every agency and company. Sephe and a few others in her class are profiled by a young Rolling Stone journalist, Aaron Sorkin, the only person who seems to be in her corner. When she learns that she didn't get an offer from any of the talent agencies and her only option is with the traveling acting troupe that offers jobs to everyone in the class, she is heartbroken and confused. Aaron reaches out to them for her to find out what happened, and relays back to her a litany of responses that amount to the same: she's not pretty enough.

After a year with the acting troupe, Sephe is overwhelmed by student debt and past due bills and loses her waitressing job. Facing possible homelessness, she spots an ad looking for ""escorts."" She's nervous but soon finds herself in the office of a woman named Susan. Susan is strict and immediately doesn't like Sephe, but sends her out on a call with a few girls including Cait, who's worked at this for a while and helps to mentor Sephe. Sephe works for a while with Susan and things go well until Sephe is sent out on a job where she's unable to immediately call Susan and report back to her as they are required to do. Susan fires Sephe, devastating her. Sephe tries out prostituting with a few different companies but soon learns that Susan's was the best--many of these ""brothels"" are run by men instead of women, and one of them has a ""Zoo"" where the women are kept below the main room and has all the women sleep with their clients in the same rooms. She also tries out a phone sex job but finds that it's nowhere near as lucrative as traditional prostitution. She gets told that the biggest feature that makes her unattractive is her nose, and so she uses her health insurance to get a nose job.

Sephe gets rehired by Susan on a trial basis after one of the other girls requests her to accompany her on a job. Sephe meets up with an unnamed male friend from Juilliard who she plans to start a theatre company with. He's unhappy with her for getting a nose job, but she still opens up to him about her life and her current work situation, but focuses on the bright side--she's making enough as a prostitute to fund their theatre company. However, at a meeting with all their theatre friends, he outs her as a prostitute and says that he feels he can no longer work with her because of it, and invites anyone who wants to leave with him to follow him out. Some leave, but some stay, and they form a small theatre troupe. Sephe goes on a call with a man named Ray who attacks her with insults at first. Sephe is uncomfortable, but despite his cruelty and disgusting looks and smell, she's compassionate and kind to him, and he ends up crying to her and paying for her to spend time just talking to her. Sephe starts to learn how to use her empathy and brains to her advantage in this field--on a joint double escorting date with two rich men and a coworker, Vivian, the most beautiful woman Sephe has ever seen, Sephe is shocked when she gets chosen over Vivian because of her substance. At an event on a yacht, Sephe gets chosen to stay with a wealthy man for several days and has to put together a lego set for his son. Sephe continues to work as a prostitute and even spends Christmas Eve and Day with a lonely client, trying to find a human connection.

About The Author

The author is an actress who wrote this under the pseudonym Sephe Haven. She has chosen to divulge as little identifying information about herself in order to protect her ability to honestly recount her story. She works as a stand up comedian, actress, and writer.