Amanda Goff to have life story as escort made into eight-part series

The “controversial story” of Amanda Goff – who, for more than a decade, was better known as Australia’s most high-profile escort, Samantha X – has been optioned and acquired by boutique film production house, Mondo Studio films.

Goff revealed earlier this year in an exclusive interview with Stellar magazine that she was “hanging up the stilettos” for good in favour of her “traditional and conservative” roots, in a bid to reclaim her life.

Now the Sydneysider’s “story of high-end escorting, addiction and recent bipolar diagnosis” will be explored through a “largely fictionalised” eight-part TV dramedy, co-created with screenwriter and director Ruth Borgobello and screenwriter and author Lisa Portolan.

The announcement of the series, which will merge humour and tragedy and “flip the lens of the sex industry towards female desire and identity”, comes amid Goff’s move to shed her alter-ego and reclaim her original identity.

“I owe a lot to the sex industry – but it’s time that I come out as Amanda Goff. I don’t recognise the woman I was back then,” she said.

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“The thing is, we all have the power to change and be the person we want to be. I hope that my own very public journey inspires others to think it’s never too late.”

Borgobello said she was “proud to be telling such a powerful story”, adding “this is a moment for women to be heard”.

“It makes total sense why I created the character Samantha,” the 48-year-old, who made national headlines in 2014 when she revealed she’d left her job as a journalist to become a full-time escort, told Stellar in July.

Considering her childhood, she added, “from an early age I could dissociate and compartmentalise parts of my life”. “Creating Samantha was a way of dealing with certain trauma in my life,” Goff said.

“Samantha was a strong, powerful character, and Amanda was and is a bit of an introvert – very traditional and conservative. Before going to work as Samantha, I would literally say, ‘Showtime’,” Goff recalled.

“I felt invincible as Samantha.”

The mother-of-two also shared that 18 months ago, she was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder – which, similar to bipolar I, is a mental condition associated with moods cycling between highs and lows over time, though the “up” moods never reach full mania.

Goff said that while the diagnosis doesn’t fully explain why she decided to become an escort, it allowed her to understand how she was able to live with the two aspects of herself – and come to the decision to walk away from escorting.

“Samantha saved me. I owe a lot to her,” she said.

“I know she helped lots of people and I’m still a big advocate of the adult industry. But I’m doing so much work on myself now that I don’t need Samantha anymore.

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“Her once strong character is fading and it’s time to start a new chapter as Amanda. That’s who I am and that’s who I want to be.”

She added that “it has been an absolute honour to help women with self-confidence and self-discovery, and I am also extremely privileged to have given men a safe space to open up”.

“But I’ve spent the past decade making other people happy, and now it’s time for me,” Goff said. “Who knows what the future holds? But whatever it is, it’s Amanda’s.”

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