Interview with Nica Noelle

I know I haven't updated this blog with much, if any, of my written work in the past month or so. For that, I apologize. But things like work, holidays, and general lack of motivation can get in the way of such things.

So while I have jumped back into writing my follow-up essay to "Ethics Part I," I have decided to start posting the interviews I've accumulated for the piece. It's occurred to me that so little of these interviews will actually go into the final essay because of length requirements (I have a 7,000 word cap in place). But they're all very interesting (in my opinion). I hope some of you will think so too.

First up is my interview with Nica Noelle. Enjoy. And please check back next week for another.








Danny: I realize that I don't know a whole lot about your past in sex work other than I'm aware you're a director and performer. Can you tell me a little bit about your background in both?


Nica: Well, I was a stripper for a long time - that's what I did when I was in my twenties. I didn't do porn back then, though. And I was actually completely out of the industry for a while; once I hit 30 and decided I should get a 'real life,' and hang up the platform shoes. But even though I became a successful journalist I still wanted to be tied to [the adult industry] in some way. I think once you're a part of this community it's really hard to feel completely separated from it. So I would write for industry magazines, like Exotic Dancer or Spread magazine, just to stay connected to my roots.

Ironically, it was my work as a mainstream journalist that ultimately led me back to the adult industry and ultimately to porn. I was doing an article for Spread, which is kind of a pro-sex work magazine. They wanted me to do a story on the experience of making a fetish video, so I had to find a way to do one. I wasn't comfortable performing with men, or even doing anything too hardcore, because I had no experience with that side of the business, really. So I decided to perform in a spanking video for TantrumTrainers.com. I thought getting a spanking would be relatively easy, but I had no idea what a spanking video means in the fetish community. Meaning, it's not the kind of spanking you get from your parents. And if they did spank you like that they'd probably end up in jail. But I did the video and wrote the article, and after it came out, I started getting other offers. I still wasn't ready to go into porn full time, but I had always been bisexual so I decided to do some girl/girl videos.


So I went to Girlfriend Films, and they started using me a lot. Within a month the owner asked me if I would start writing and directing for the studio because he needed a female front for the company; he needed "a shot in the arm," was how he put it. So my job, my mission, should I decide to accept it, was to build the brand and make the company big. For me it was the opportunity of a lifetime; something I realized I really wanted to do. So I left my mainstream job and took a huge pay cut and I took over the creative direction of Girlfriends Films.


Danny: So is Sweet Sinner a part of Girlfriend's Films?


Nica: No. I left there after a year or so and started Sweetheart and Sweet Sinner with Milehigh Media, a completely different company. Jon Blitt is the owner of Mile High Media and he is hands down the greatest person to work with in the entire industry. If I couldn't work with Jon I don't think I'd be doing this. He's my professional soulmate.


Danny: So Sweetheart and Sweet Sinner are kind of your creation?


Nica: Yeah, they're totally my creation, but I couldn't have done it without Jon and the Mile High Media family, who believed in me from the start and gave me free reign to build the studios. If they hadn't, I'd be behind a desk right now, surfing the Internet for porn on my 30 minute lunch break.


Danny: Can you tell me a little bit about the type of content you produce for Sweet Sinner and Sweetheart?


Nica: When I was at Girlfriend's, there were things I loved, such as the chance to do more authentic, intimate love scenes. The fact that you can be more emotional and intimate in girl/girl porn is why I've always preferred watching it, and why I never really liked the boy/girl stuff. But with Girlfriend's Films, I wasn't able to do everything I wanted because the owner and I had some creative differences.


So when we started Sweetheart, I wanted to really focus on creating tension between characters. I wanted to portray lots of inner conflict and mixed psychological elements leading up to the sex scenes. I like to see a lot of inner turmoil lead into the sex. I also like things to get a little bit creepy sometimes. Like forbidden desires, forbidden relationships. And that's become the hallmark for Sweetheart.

Sweetheart Video was a huge success right away, partially because I already had a big fan base from Girlfriend's Films. So when I started my new studio a lot of my fans came with me. We just hit the ground running. So from there, Jon said to me, “What would you think about doing this with boy/girl?” And I said, “You know, I really can't stand boy/girl porn. It's just so awful. I could only do it if I could do it my way.” Luckily, Jon thought that was a great idea. He said "Let's do it."


So we created Sweet Sinner. The sex we shoot is very raw and real. There's also an element of internal conflict, the lure of a forbidden relationship leading up to an explosive sex scene. It's not always high romance with candlelight and flowers -- the sex gets raw and intense. In porn you usually have the raw, rough, gonzo stuff or you have the romantic, vanilla, kind of boring stuff, but Sweet Sinner doesn't stick to just one formula. Sex in real life isn't formula, and sex on film shouldn't be either. So that's the niche we've kind of claimed for ourselves.


Danny: One of the things that stuck out to me, last I worked on your set, was that you handed me a binder that had some quotes and emails sent to you by customers. Can you tell me a little bit about this?


Nica: A lot of the people writing to me who are watching Sweet Sinner are giving it a chance because they hope I might be able to show them something different. Because they abandoned boy/girl porn for the same reasons that I didn't watch boy/girl porn: it looks tacky, it looks uncomfortable, there's no intimacy. It looks like the people barely know each other, much less like each other. Nobody's really into the sex very much at all. It's very orchestrated and cold.


And so they have ideas, now that they're watching Sweet Sinner and seeing what's possible. They have some criticisms about the way the guys behave, for one thing. They don't want to see the guys opening up for the camera, they don't want to hear the trash talking all throughout the scene. There are certain camera angles they want to see and others they don't want to see. They don't want the clinical close-up shots of genitals. They want to see bodies touching each other and the couple looking into each other's eyes. They want to see real kissing. They become connoisseurs of erotic imagery, in a way. They are very detailed and particular about what they want. And that's just so encouraging to me.


Danny: With your ideology behind this work, and what your customers want, have you established any rules, any sexual or physical acts, that can or cannot be performed on your set?


Nica: Yeah, I would say so. We break them sometimes. But my general rules are -- well, one that springs to mind is that we don't like reverse cowgirl. I tell the performers that if you can't look into each other's eyes, it's not an ideal position. Sometimes, of course, we do doggy style. Certain people like to see that. But I always tell the guy, “Get as close to the girl's body as you can when you're doing doggy. I don't want your hands behind your back when you're doing it. You've got to be touching her. I want you to be able to lean in and kiss her." So there's rules like that. No pile driver. We try to stay away from anything that looks like an acrobatic act that has nothing to do with intimacy, or even comfort.


We don't fuck on train tracks or on gravel at construction sites. We usually try to stick to beds. So rules would be along the lines of anything that might detract from the intimacy and passion, from the realism.



Danny: So how do you typically go about finding talent for your productions?


Nica: Word of mouth is really big for me. If I trust somebody to do what I need them to do, if they're a good performer I've worked with them a bunch of times and they come to me and say, “Hey, you would love 'so-and-so.' He or she is perfect for your stuff,” I'll pay a lot of attention to that. Because they know I'm looking for something specific.


And you know, strangely enough, I look at photographs and at videos of people and try to mine some impressions. I'm often surprised at how much I can discern just by watching someone for a minute or two. Even if its' some lame gonzo scene, usually I can see the performer's potential. It's just a sense you get after watching so many performers.


Danny: Last time I was on your set, I remember being interviewed immediately post-sex. Is this something that's typical in most of your productions?


Nica: I have to always walk the balance of doing exactly what I want and fulfilling the obligations of a public that has come to expect "behind the scenes" interviews or other "extras." So that part is purely a business thing. Personally, I don't like to film anything I haven't given a great deal of thought to. Even if it's an interview where the answers aren't scripted, I like to prepare for it, and do it in a thoughtful fashion. I like to have some kind of point. So "behind the scenes" footage is pretty close to the bane of my existence.


Danny: What are some of the questions you ask in these interviews?


Nica: The staple questions are usually, “What was different about this shoot from what you usually do?” Did you enjoy it? What were the things that surprised you about working with the other person or what were your favorite parts of the scene? Ridiculous, insipid questions that rarely yield anything close to a compelling answer. We try to ask things that lead back into a discussion about our unique philosophy. People do have strong reactions to working for us; either they're not comfortable with the level of intimacy, or they absolutely go crazy, and say, “I just want to work with you guys and nobody else. I don't want to go back to doing the other kind of porn when I can do this.”


Danny: Have you ever had instances where performers didn't want to work with each other?


Nica: I try to find out beforehand whether someone has a problem with their costar, because I never want to put people together who don't want to be together. But sometimes, at the last minute, somebody cancels and we have to get a replacement. Because at that point, we can't cancel the whole day or the whole shoot over that one cancellation. So we'll book someone we might not have had a chance to talk to. And sometimes when we do that, the costar for the scene will say, “Oh, I did a scene with that person once before and it wasn't very good," or something along those lines. Or "I hear that person's an asshole" or "I know he/she doesn't like me." That's happened a couple times. There are a lot of performers in this business but it's still a surprisingly small world. People get mad at each other, or form ideas about each other that aren't always affectionate.


My general rule, though, is whomever has the issue is the one who loses the scene. And I don't care if it's the hot girl of the moment who everyone wants to shoot or some new guy nobody's ever heard of. If a performer comes to me and says, “I don't want to work with so-and-so," but their costar is perfectly willing to do it and behave in a professional manner... the person with the problem is the one who gets replaced. I'm not gonna have anyone pulling rank, being a diva and depriving someone else of a job. If you don't like your costar, then YOU bow out.


Danny: If a consumer goes out and wants to buy a Sweetheart or Sweet Sinner film, is there any indication on the box cover or website that they're purchasing something different than what you would call typical porn?


Nica: Well, that's where we're trying to get up to speed lately: on our "branding." A lot of people don't even know we're out there offering this type of film experience, and we're trying to change that. Mile High has been around for thirty years, and they're not overly concerned with the bells and whistles; with snazzy marketing campaigns. They're more "slow-and-steady wins the race." Make quality films, do your best, and people will notice you. But I think we have our slogan on our website which is, “Real sex, real passion, real orgasms.” That's our tenet. And hopefully that gets the message across a little bit. We also try to put pictures on our box covers that depict something a little more romantic and interesting. But at the end of the day, you have to watch it to really understand. It's hard to explain to people what we're doing until they watch it.


Danny: But do you think that once people watch this, consumers will get the idea that performers are doing this of their own free will, they're willing participants, etc...


Nica: Yeah, I think so. Just due to the amount of engagement on various levels. There's a lot of kissing and looking into each other's eyes. Body language is very important. That's why I tell people not to open up to the camera, not to TURN AWAY from each other. Because even if you have a good shot of the dick going into the pussy, if the body language is all wrong, what have you really got? A shot of a penis going into a vagina? You can find that anywhere.

The type of audience I try to reach with our stuff is one looking for the body language to be correct. I mean, they can see there's hardcore sex happening, they can see the shots of explicit sex. We don't cut that out. But we don't need to orchestrate the whole scene around that one gynecological shot. Trying to get a clean, unencumbered shot of penetration for the entire length of the scene really ruins the body language. Because where are the guy's hands now? They're behind his back. So they won't block the shot of the dick going in.

The guys are so used to the cameras not even being on their face, of just being filmed from the torso down, that they don't even think about giving facial reactions; facial responses. So I have to tell the guys to look engaged, I have to remind them "the camera's on your face." If you're a guy, you're not just a cock in my movies. Throughout the whole scene, the camera is on you, so don't drop out psychologically. Don't disconnect. You have to be present, mind and body.

I get letters and emails every day that say, “I've never seen porn movies where the man and the woman have their arms wrapped around each other,” and I think that's got to be a positive thing for people to see, because a lot of damage has been done by depicting such cold, impersonal sex. It's a strange thing to say, but the public does watch porn and say, “Well, this is the way professionals fuck, so I'm gonna fuck like this too.” They don't realize that the porn stars are fucking like this because the director's telling them to move their hands out of the way and open up for the camera. They don't realize that this is not really the way you have sex. So I think it's very positive to show people actually making love, and touching each other and looking at each other.


Danny: What are your thoughts on condom use in productions?


Nica: I would certainly not be opposed to using condoms. I have some concerns based on some issues people have raised. I haven't researched the issues enough or heard enough debate on it. But if condoms were mandatory there's some concern that companies will say, “Let's move out of LA and shoot somewhere else so we don't have to use condoms.” Because the conventional wisdom is that fans don't want to see condoms and if given the choice, they will choose a video that does not show condoms. Because they want to see the fantasy, and condoms ruin the fantasy. I have no idea whether this is true, but this is what many people seem to think.


So there's this notion that if we decided to go condom-only, there will be companies that will say, “We're not gonna do that. We're gonna shoot somewhere else.” And then all the standards we've tried to implement with testing are going to be compromised. So people will just start doing everything outside of the community we've worked so hard to build. The standards currently in place with regards to testing will fall apart. This is the argument I've heard. Again, I don't know if that's entirely valid. But that would definitely give me concern, if that outcome were a possibility.


I do think tests should be more frequent. I simply don't see how that could possibly be anything but good.


Daniel: What do you think would be a good testing window? To cut it in half, or more frequent than that?


Nica: This becomes a very difficult and complicated question. It's very difficult to answer because every questions leads into a hundred other questions. Personally, and this is purely from an ideological perspective, I think there's too much porn being made. I think it's damaging when people are working every single day. It's too extreme of a job to be doing that often. And the health risks go up if you're having sex with that many different people every single day, year after year. We all know this. This isn't a controversial position to take.


But I understand why people need to work every day. They want, or need, to make a lot of money. Both money and sex are addictive, and put them together and you've got the ultimate temptation. But at the end of the day, I think the industry needs to be structured differently so that people can be healthier, and so they can ultimately make more money and sustain their lifestyles. Not to mention do projects that are more meaningful.

In an ideal world, less porn would be made, and performers would make more money per film, so they wouldn't necessarily have to work every day. I think it would be great if a performer could work a few times a month and make the money they deserve to make. Because performing for the camera is a demanding job. It's also a job that comes with a lot of stigma. It's a job you have to be very, very brave to do. And you should be compensated for that burden, and for everything you have to withstand as a performer. There is a great deal of joy in our work, but that joy is negated by an incredible amount of stigma and pressure.


Performers should enjoy more respect from society, and they should approach their art in a way that promotes that respect. The mentality needs to change on both sides - the public's mentality toward us, and our mentality toward ourselves and our art. Then it will be easier to keep people healthy, happy and safe.


Danny: What is your policy with drugs and alcohol on set?


Nica: I'm very anti-drug. I personally don't do drugs of any kind. One time someone lit up a marijuana cigarette on set and I got very upset. It happens very, very rarely that somebody shows up and I think they're "on something." Most people I know won't work with anybody that seems impaired, drunk, stoned, or what have you. They'll actually come to me and say, “I think so-and-so's on something,” or, “I'm not comfortable.” The idea that everyone's showing up high as a kite in porn and we're all drugged out of our minds -- it's so untrue. People like that are pushed out of the industry because they self-destruct, and nobody wants to work with them. Then once they can't get work they try to get on Celebrity Rehab or write memoirs about their life as a tragic porn star, and in my opinion it's very disingenuous. These people are just con artists working a new con. They're drug addicts who would have been drug addicts no matter what industry they were in, but they came to porn hoping to be accommodated, hoping to indulge and be indulged. Then when they're not accommodated, they blame their behavior on the industry. It actually makes me furious.


The standard in the industry is that you don't show up to work impaired. You don't treat your business that way. I was surprised at how strict performers are about not wanting to work with people who aren't sober. It's considered a huge turn off to do a scene with someone who's drunk or high.


Danny: Do you think someone under the influence of alcohol or marijuana can still be acting with informed consent when they do a scene?

Nica: I think you absolutely need to be sober to make these decisions. Along the same lines, once someone arrives on set we never ask them to do more than what they've already agreed to do. I think that should be a rule: you never change what you expect of somebody once they arrive on set. If someone's going to have sex on camera, you want to make sure they're in a position to consent to that, and that their judgment isn't impaired. And your judgment can be impaired by drugs, by alcohol, or by someone saying "I know we said you were going to do a vaginal scene but now we need an anal" when they're already on set and counting on the money. My point is, it's not just drugs or alcohol; you can also coerce someone to do something they wouldn't normally do by changing the terms at the last minute and essentially leaving them no choice. That should never, ever be allowed.


Danny: It seems that Sweetheart and Sweet Sinner aren't structured around rough sex scenarios, but do you ever participate in rough sex in your personal life?

Nica: Yeah, I have. And we have gone there to some degree in Sweetheart and Sweet Sinner. That's not what we always want to depict, but there are times when that's appropriate for a scene. Everything's not always lovey-dovey, rainbows and flowers.


Sex in real life is not always one thing. You can have different types of sex even with the same partner. So there's a large spectrum of dynamics we try to show. As long as the intimacy and passion are not compromised, then I don't have any problem depicting something more extreme.


In my personal life, I love the BDSM dynamic. Not the accouterments of floggers or being tied up or ball gags - I don't need all of that. But just the physical experience of rough sex, or of being dominated. I've discovered that I like some really extreme things. I also discovered that those things can be incredibly romantic, even though they're rarely depicted that way in adult films.

I think I would have saved myself a lot of trouble in relationships if I'd known I was looking for that kind of dynamic in bed. I think sometimes I would date jerks because I didn't realize I was looking for something specific, sexually. What I mean is, if you're looking for someone who can dominate or humiliate you in the bedroom, you might get stuck with someone who humiliates you all the time. Because you don't know how to discern between a jerk and a dominant sexual partner. For instance, I always thought I was just into lovey-dovey intimacy and kissing, but I discovered through participating in porn that I also like very extreme sex. And it was such a surprise to me to learn you can have both at the same time. For some reason we're taught that you can only go to one place or the other, when really you can go so many places. You SHOULD go so many places. Sex is our last bastion of animal behavior; the one act where we can still be wild with each other. So do it. Make it count.


Danny: So when you're talking about rougher sex, and being put in a subserviant position, what do you feel about being called a cunt, bitch, slut, or any other derogatory term? Are there places where this is appropriate or do you think these always come off as demeaning?

I don't like to show it in the movies. I don't really think that adds anything at this point. All it does is go for that shock value. We don't need to go there, unless it develops organically between the performers, and I'm not sure it can right now because it's so overdone that it's almost the default setting. It's become cliche.

Daniel: Have you ever performed in a scene that would be considered rough where you felt like you were being degraded or taken advantage of?


Nica: No. I've never had those feelings. Even the time I did the spanking video. That was really rough, on a physical level. Kelly Payne, the mistress, stopped shooting the video because I was starting to bleed, and I was getting welts. She said "We can't go any further, and please don't look in the mirror." But I just felt great. I've heard people say “I've started to cry” or that “It was very emotionally difficult” when they had spankings that intense, or BDSM experiences. But it's never been emotionally difficult for me.

The only thing that bothered me once - this wasn't a degrading thing, but crazy people unnerve me a little bit. There was this woman I didn't want to hire because I heard she had a drug problem. But another person who was in charge at the studio I used to work with wanted to use her. So I had to go along.

She was older; in her forties, I think. Very emotionally fragile. She would break down in tears a lot. She wasn't getting a lot of work and then overnight she'd developed the ability to "squirt," but she was basically pissing on people. I didn't know this until I was worked with her and she pissed on me. It was just yellow and smelly piss. That was tough for me to deal with - being pissed on by this obviously unstable woman. Believe me, I have plenty of fantasies about being pissed on by dominant lovers who are humiliating me, but that was not the way I wanted it to go down.

It wasn't that I felt humiliated by her, or taken advantage of. I just felt gross that I had worked with someone who probably shouldn't even be working, and that she'd behaved in a way that was very inappropriate. That bothered me a lot, and I had a very hard time getting past that scene. That illustrated for me that yeah, you can be traumatized here by people who aren't acting right.

The other side of that is when I worked with Ginger Lynn. She asked me if I had any limits, and I said, “No," so she fucked me with a frozen cucumber. She's really hardcore! If you tell her, “You can do anything you want,” you better mean it. But I love that about her. I loved the scene we did together. It's all about feeling comfortable with your partner, and the dynamic you have with them.


Danny: Is there a way to verbalize how you make people feel safe on your set?


Nica: We ask people to talk about what they're comfortable with or not before the scene. Even if it's “I don't like when people lick me on the face,” or some other personal preference. It doesn't even have to be a safety thing; it can just be likes and dislikes. Because generally our scenes are not kink scenes where you need to think about what you're getting into.


There was a scene, though, where a popular male performer worked for us. He's a romantic guy, a fairly vanilla performer, and I'm his favorite director. He knew his script, he knew his character, he knew the scenes he was going to be in. He was playing a cad who was going to meet a woman who would turn the tables on him and make him feel like an object.

So I got a female dominatrix performer for the role opposite the male lead. And I said to him, “[Female performer] is a fetish performer and she can go there, so really make sure you talk about limits.” And he was saying, “Aw, it will be fun.” But after the scene he was almost in tears because he felt so humiliated by her. He said to me, “I just didn't expect that on your set.” And I said, “That's why I told you to talk to her.” But I realized his thinking had been, “Nica's version of hardcore will still be so soft.” And so he wasn't prepared.

Performers are used to studios that just do one thing, stay within one set of boundaries, that they don't expect the leeway we give them to find what turns them on and let the scene develop organically.


Danny: Do you believe it's your responsibility to facilitate conversations about these things with performers who work for you?


Nica: To some extent. But I also feel that I'm working with professionals who should know certain things. If I'm working with a performer that's new to the industry I'm more likely to say, “Let me take you under my wing and make sure you know what's going on.” But if I'm working with people who have been around a long time, I obviously take on less of that role.


Sometimes performers I've booked for a scene together will say, “Oh, we've worked together five times already,” and they don't need any kind of "head's up" from each other. They know each other really well. So there's a whole spectrum of different experiences people can have before they come to my set. I can't spend hours trying to make sure I cover every single possible item that might cause them some discomfort or pause for thought, or what have you. We cover the basics, but it's up to you to know why you've agreed to be in this project, and what your personal limits are.

That said, I do give little talks before the scenes. Yesterday, I was working with a female performer for the first time, so I told her, “Your costar is going to be very intimate with you. He's going to be kissing you a lot. He's going to be holding you a lot. He's not being creepy. He's not in love with you.”


I started doing that because I realize sometimes the girls think, “Geez, this guy is really getting into it!” So I make sure to let them know this is what we've asked for. And I will ask them, "Are you comfortable with that?” Because it's not always the rough stuff that might unnerve people. It might be the feeling that someone's invading their personal space or getting intimate with them in a way they don't expect.


Danny: Do you believe there are any sexual acts that should not be performed on camera, other than illegal activities?


Nica: Yeah. I guess there's some serious concern about anal cream pies. Because that seems to be a very, very high risk situation there. I'm hearing a lot of talk about that. That we wouldn't see these instances of HIV positive tests if we did away with the anal cream pies.


I don't know that I think that there's anything that shouldn't be shown on general principle, other than to depict someone who's not in a position to consent. Obviously, no children or animals, ever. But even beyond that you have to be careful about what you show, because there's the whole question of "Do we really want people jerking off to images of women being raped?" Yet, rape fantasies are so common for both men and women, and are not at all indicative of an actual desire to rape or be raped. But the desire to see it depicted and to jerk off to it can be there, even if you would never in a million years want to participate in a rape. We're still not quite clear on where to draw the lines between fantasy and mental illness/deviancy.


In general, I think erotic films should be a safe place to explore certain forbidden ideas and images. I know that's sort of a scary notion, maybe because porn seems to be made up of people who are very greedy and shady. People who are not artists or at all thoughtful or emotional about their work.


There's a whole mentality associated with porn that I think makes people very nervous: that these are very dumb people, that they're sleazy, and out to make a quick buck. And that element exists, definitely. But if you're talking about real artists - because I think there are real artists in the adult industry, behind the camera and in front of it- you should be able to explore almost anything. It should be a neutral zone where you can see different things and explore them, so they don't fester inside of you. But then the question becomes, what if seeing them depicted isn't enough after a while? What if your fantasy grows and you want to experience something forbidden for real? And when people raise that, I do wonder why we don't seem anywhere near as worried about the violence in films and television. I don't understand at all why we think that sex is the evil force that will push us all over the edge. Sex might actually be the thing that can save us.

Danny: Can you think off the top of your head what some standards might be that would designate a professional set as opposed to an amateur one?


Nica: Obviously, anyone can decide they're going to shoot a video and put it up on the internet. But as far as the adult industry goes, I'd say established companies that aren't just Joe Blow with a camcorder in his bedroom. And for those of us doing this professionally, I think we should all get together and agree on standards. As I said before, I think we should have a union. I think performers should have health care, and insurance, and all these things should be thought of and provided. You know, there's a performer who got breast cancer, and her only income was from performing, and basically overnight she wasn't able to perform anymore. There's just nothing in place to assist someone like that. There's no retirement funding. None of these things are in place, and they should be. We should be taking care of each other.


If we're waiting for society to give us respect, to not stigmatize us, to recognize us as contributing members of the community, we're going to be waiting a long time. I think we need to start internally. There are a lot of people in this business who are very knowledgeable and resourceful, and who make a lot of money. If we really wanted to get together and change things, we could.

Danny: Do you think that typical boy/girl porn, or porn that shows rough sex or violence towards women- do you think they should be held to higher standards in terms of explicitly stating consent?


Nica: That's a tough question. I would want to think long and hard about saying somebody else's porn shouldn't be depicted but mine should. Yet, I feel there are a lot of people in this industry who don't give much thought or care to what they put out. They don't care about depicting sex in beautiful way, in an artful way, in a meaningful way, or any of those things. And of course, that's distasteful to me on many levels, and I wish they would go away, and I don't think it's helpful to anybody that they're here. But they are here and I can't say they don't have a right to be if there are people buying their product and enjoying it. What can I say? This is America.

That aside, I do believe people want quality for their money. If you're gonna spend twenty five bucks on a movie, do you want one that looks like it was thrown together by someone who doesn't give a shit; who doesn't even care if the performers are enjoying having sex? Or do you want something that looks like the producer really cared about his or her film, and where the relationships seem authentic?

So it's important for those of us who care to go the extra mile and really think about what we're creating. And to try and depict sex in a real way. Not in watered-down way. Not in a shocking way. But something that portrays what sex really is. I truly believe human beings are in a search for truth and authenticity. Sometimes we want a distraction or some artifice, but ultimately our souls are nourished by what's real and true. I'm going to keep striving to provide that to my audience, and continue to seek authenticity in unlikely places.