Porn Valley- I had a lengthy chat with Lisa Ann last week on the Sinsations 4 shoot for Dusk Till Dawn Entertainment, www.dusktilldawnentertainment.com. Lisa Ann got to play herself in the movie and was excited about that. But this isn’t the first time she’s done a project like this. She used to appear in softcore productions regularly when she first started in the business

“And I am quite a character so it was easy playing myself in Sinsations 4,” she laughs.

“Did you have to study up on yourself to get your mannerisms right?” I asked her.

“No but when I was packing wardrobe I was packing to be myself. So I can pack what I like,” she replies.

“If you’re dressing yourself how would you dress?”

“Sexy,” she says. “But comfortable sexy. Not too casual. I like to be dressed up. To me you can never be overdressed. My friends will call: what are you wearing? I’m wearing a dress. Well, I’m wearing jeans. That’s fine for you but that’s not fine for me. I went to LA Erotica in a dress and all my friends were, you’re going to be overdressed. There’s no such thing as being overdressed. And to show your fans and the people that you’re willing to make the effort to go to an event for them, that’s the way it should be. You’re creating an image- and what you want that image to be.”

Lisa Ann was dressed up, but there was no drama at Erotica LA.

“I’m a drama-free girl,” she laughs. “I keep it clean. It kind of comes to me but I really fend it off. But LA Erotica was great because it was my first one in, say, seven or eight years. It was very exciting to be walking in and have guys point- because I had just got back into the industry in December, ’05. I hadn’t shot a scene since 1997. So guys were flooding up to me: we’re so glad that you’re back! Thank you so much for doing more scenes. That was very exciting.”

Getting back in front of the camera was very exciting, she notes.

“The one thing that intimidated me is that I do a different style scene than is out there right now,” Lisa Ann observes. “Right now we’re in that choking, spitting, smacking, yelling, beating and degrading- I’m not going to do that. If I wanted to do that, I’d do that. I have nothing against it. It’s just not my forte. I’m more sensual. So when I’m working with some of the newer guys, they’re gonzo guys. They’re not used to working with a girl like me. They don’t want to kiss. They don’t want to touch. And that way I’d always be slowing down the scene: hey, what’s up with that five minutes of caressing at the beginning of the scene? And so that was a little adjustment for me. But what I decided was, I’m going to stay the way I am because that’s what my fan base loves about me.

“And now that I’ve stayed the way I am, I can see some directors- oh, there’s a demand out there for a scene where actually both people look like they’re enjoying it. They look like they’re into it. It’s real. It’s believable and it’s hot. I think a lot of younger girls are sitting on set watching my scene, oh, it’s different. I’m like, yeah, it’s real. In the industry people get burned out when they think they have to go further and further. Now it’s double anal and smacking. But they don’t realize they’re not the viewer. The viewer is middle America, the Unites States and all over the world, my civilian friends, they want to see two people that are enjoying it and look like they’re both in the moment. Sometimes the look on my face will be, wow, I can’t believe I’m getting paid for this. This is great. And they don’t see that in the harder scenes. They see, oh, is the girl comfortable with that? Was she okay with that? And it seems more like the men don’t like the women and the women don’t like the men. So I think there’s a lot of fans out there and viewers out there that want to see something they can sink they’re teeth into.”

“One of the first scenes you shot when you got back was for Juicy Juggs, www.defiancefilms.com,”

“I’m on the box- great movie,” she says. “Me and Scott Nails. The scene was fantastic. It was a fun scene and great to be back in front of the camera having sex again. And it’s even better being a little bit older because you’re close to your prime and in it more for the sex. And when the scene seems to be too short, you want more.

“I think I’ve come more into myself where’s it’s more in my mind and in my head so I have as many demands,” she continues. “When I’m driving to the set I know I’m putting together something other people are going to watch and enjoy. I know I’m going to enjoy it. I try to see if the cameraman and the people on the set are enjoying it. I’m pretty much self-satisfied in that, hey, look, I’m fucking on film again. This is pretty hot.”

For being drama-free, I ask Lisa Ann about the drama she had with LA Direct when she first came back.

“That’s not my drama- that’s LA Direct drama,” she laughs. “The LA Direct situation was more of me just standing my grounds. When you meet new people and you’re in new business situations, you’re always testing boundaries and a lot of people are more likely to quit and walk away than they are to say no, this is my boundary. There were some instances where Derek wanted someone to move into my house. Those are my boundaries and my decisions to make. So the war that everyone saw wasn’t a war. It was Derek trying to be demanding with me and me saying I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with here. I do think a little bit differently. If you’d like me to do something for you, you can ask and I can think about it. But no one tells me what to do. I didn’t get into this industry and work so hard to have other people tell me what to do. I got into this industry because of the freedom and the world we live in. If it was Derek’s house and I was living in it, then I would say, okay, someone has to go in with me because he said so. But it’s my house.”

I asked Lisa Ann about Jason Sinclair, Belladonna’s brother, who she was involved with for awhile.

“It’s a boy from my roster- 1983,” she says. Lisa Ann assigns birth dates to her boy toys.

“He’s on the injured reserve list right now,” she notes. “He could get off the bench but we’re not sure right now. I’ve benched him for a little while.” Asked how 1983 wound up on injured reserve, Lisa Ann says some times things get more serious than the other person is ready for.

“It’s like when Kobe takes the ball and he’s a ball hog,” she explains. “You can’t have a ball hog. Sometimes you have to take them off the floor and let someone else play. I can’t have a ball hog. No one wants Lisa Ann held back by 1983. I let him, no, hey, you’re not a team player right now.”

Does that mean she’s turning into a Mrs. Robinson, she’s asked.

“Heidi Fleiss they call me,” she laughs. “Because I run these bachelor parties in Los Angeles at some very elite hotels. We regularly do them and the men that run them call me Heidi Fleiss.” Lisa Ann had also run a day spa in Orange County for four years.

“It was a great learning experience for me,” she says. “I bought it when it was going out of business and I raised it up and did well selling it. It was a very exciting adventure. I miss the business a lot when I was doing it. I also will admit to everyone out there that it’s a lot of work having your own business. And it’s much more fun being a porn star. I’m not involved with it any more but I still do some consulting for it and for some other spas in the area. They watched me build that business up and they’ll call me and I’ll charge them for some consulting time. I’ll come in and I’ll look over their books, their systems, how they’re training and what product lines they’re selling. And I’ll help them boost their profit a bit, control their staff and run a more successful business.”

“What kind of educational background do you have to be a spa expert?”

“I’m willing to read and learn,” she answers. “I take a lot of seminars. I’ve never gone to college but I am self-taught and I’m willing to listen to what people have to offer and take that information and use it.”

When Lisa Ann first got into the porn business, the female performers were a lot more glamorous, she feels. And they had style.

“100%- everywhere we went- we looked at it, like, if I’m getting into my car and going to a set I want to look hot- I want to look hot for that director when I show up. I want to look hot when I leave. I should look hot for every signing I do. We were queens of going to the day spas. We took care of ourselves and really lived a strong, good quality of life. We worked out.”

With today’s women maintaining the shooting schedules they do, Lisa Ann feels they don’t have the energy, maybe, or the desire to be as stylish or be inclined to spend their money on clothes.

“When you’re bringing a wardrobe to set, you don’t want to shoot in it twice,” she says. “You want everybody to see everything fresh. You don’t want that lingerie to have been shot 15 times last month.”

Attitude is another thing, she says, that differentiates yesterday’s and today’s porn star.

“The attitudes have gotten bigger,” she says. “The girls think they’re more famous. Actually we were more famous because there were less girls in the business and we had bigger name recognition. Now the girls think they’re somebody special. I always say to the girls, just remember. Remember when you were in high school and the girl who had three boyfriends in one year was a slut. Just remember you’re a porn star and you’re in the vision of most peoples’ eyes as a slut, too. So carry that idea that you’re something so special with a grain of salt. It’s good to have confidence but to go on a set and have a director and not respect him and his business; and not be patient and not do your job well and not be on time, and double-booking yourself and doing all these things that takes away from everybody else’s time- that’s where the attitude gets wrong.”

It was my impression that porn stars way back when were more accessible and easier to talk to. Lisa Ann agrees with that.

“We loved doing interviews,” she said. “Now I call girls all day long- you want to do an interview for this- no, I really don’t have the time. We did interviews every set. There’s a big difference today but there’s also a larger volume of girls than there was then. So it’s the numbers game that we’re playing.”

According to Lisa Ann, her favorite guy back then and still is, is Mark Davis.

“And I still love working with Mark, he’s great.”

We talked about her second time around in the business and things that now come as a shock to her.

“I think what shocked me is how much the girls are working in the hardcore business and the lack of the girls that really want to go out there and be features,” she says.

“When I got into the industry most the girls had the idea, okay, we’re going to build a name for ourselves then we’re going to market ourselves. We’re going to do some movies, some bookstore signings, some feature dance appearances and we’re going to have a whole gamut of ways for us to make money and keep ourselves valuable. You don’t stay valuable if you’ve shot 300 movies in your first year in the business because you’re shot out. So that’s what one of the things I talk to talent about- hey. diversify your lifestyle a little bit. Let’s get you to know the movie companies you’re shooting for. Go in and introduce yourself. Pick up your products yourself. Meet the owners- talk to them about signings. Tell them when you’re dancing in a city, ask them if they have a bookstore that you can do a signing at. Try and do things that aren’t just doing scenes. Because I think it can affect a girl’s social life working five or six days a week. I’m sure her need for sex on her private time isn’t as great. So I’m sure she puts her personal life to the back burner. You have to have balance and have a little bit of everything going on.”

On her present schedule, Lisa Ann shoots about one hardcore scene a week. Sometimes two.

“I still work for Derek one day a week helping the girls with dancing and the Rouge event that we have every other Tuesday night,” she says. “I help him with different things there. Then I’m dancing every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I work for the Spearmint Rhinos a lot. I’ll be traveling to Florida. I’ll be going to the east coast to work for the Foxy Lady chain. I’ll be going to work for the Platinum Plus in the Carolinas. So I get myself really out there.”

If Lisa Ann was ever to marry a porn guy, I ask her which one would it be.

“If I were to marry a porn guy it would be James Deen,” she replies. “Because he’s 20 years old and that’s hot. 1986!” However, her stable of men isn’t exclusive to California, she notes.

“I try to keep between 10 and 20 going all the time,” she says. “So I can do different things and I can travel and get away for a day or two to go to Arizona and see somebody. Go to San Fran and see somebody and just have fun.”

If she were Queen of the porn industry and had the opportunity to change anything in porn, Lisa Ann would change the legal age to 21.

“The only reason being,” she says, “because at 21 you’re a lot firmer to stand up to the people in the industry. Not necessarily I don’t believe that 18 year olds can handle it. They can handle it but at 18 when a guy has you on set for a boy-girl and two guys show up and now you’re doing a d.p. and you didn’t even know what a d.p. is, that’s the rest of your life and you remember that experience. That’s not just making X-amount of dollars that day. To me that’s a really big deal. I waited until I was 21- I knew I wanted to do it at 18, but I wanted to be sure that I wanted to do it. I wanted to be sure about how my life was going to change because of it. I wanted to meet a lot of porn stars first. I wanted to get to know what I was up against and I wanted to be sure that wouldn’t give in to drugs and that I would do the right thing with my money.

“And I also think I would manage the girls’ lifestyles and time and money- it’s said to see how many girls and guys- guys are just as bad- they’re in this industry for 5, 10 years and still live in a fucking apartment. What’s that all about? Buy something. Do something with your money. Make it worth it. Show up every day and make it worth it. Everyone else does. You’ve got someone working at Starbucks and that person makes X-amount of dollars a year. They have a car and a house. Wow. How did they do it?

“And I would also regulate- when I saw a girl losing weight and the signs were there that she was doing drugs- I would have some sort of mentor available that would go in and see where her head was at at that moment.” Lisa Ann says she’s faced that situation many times where she would have to bring someone down off the ceiling.

“I enjoy it,” she says. “I bring them over my house, then I talk with them and let them know, long term, how this is going to have an effect, the risk versus the rewards. What’s the point right now of throwing it all away when you still have your whole life to live after porn? If you don’t make something of it now, it’s pretty hard to step back into the real world.

“I feel like I’m making a difference and that makes me feel really good,” she continues. “Maybe I don’t completely straighten them out, but I at least get into their head enough so when they hit that wall, they know I’m there.”