Traci Lords was the first to address the irony of co-starring in the movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno. She plays a small town local participating in the title characters’ amateur erotica endeavor.
“I thought it’s kind of perfect that my life has come full circle in that way, that two decades ago I was a teenage porn star and now I’m a mom and I’m doing this,” said Lords. “And wouldn’t it be fabulous to have good hair and makeup? Can I trade in my sweats and my shirt with throwup on it for a second? I want to be glamorous.”
Lords shot the film two and a half months after having her son. It made her nervous about the film’s revealing scenes. “I remember going to the fitting and looking at the designer and saying, ‘I swear I’m gonna lose weight.’ He’s like, ‘You look fine.’ The dress was very small. It was the Star Whores outfit that I was really afraid of. Mind you, I tried that outfit on seven weeks after I had the baby, so I was very intimidated by the goldness of it and the smallness of it. I was at Trashy Lingerie and there’s a lot of light in there when you get in there, and it’s a three way mirror and I was like, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ And it was all okay.”
It must be a testament to Smith that he wooed her to his film so soon after childbirth. “It was really great that in taking the movie, because I didn’t plan on going back to work right away, but I was dying to work with Kevin. I never thought it would be on something called Zack and Miri Make a Porno. What? So I went and I read the script at his house and I was prepared to say no. I thought I have the perfect out. I just had a kid. No one is going to blame me if I say I just can’t do this right now. But it made me laugh out loud and it made me just literally cry. It was just funny.”
And the script itself eased her concerns about the title. “Yeah, the title terrified me. It scares everybody. The word porno scares everyone. I get that. I totally get that and I was the same way. But I really think that this is the best film he’s ever done. I think it’s really funny and I think the raunchiest thing about the movie in my opinion is that word at the end of the title. It is a very grownup funny movie.”
Zack and Miri Make a Porno opens to theaters on October 31st.