From http://www.thetimes.co.za/Mikayla Mendez . . . Ah, I hear you say, but can she cook and sew?

IN today’s celebrity culture, it is refreshing to meet an entertainer who has no plans to adopt African orphans, who probably won’t be meeting heads of state anytime soon, and who doesn’t proselytise for weird religions, but who just gets on with the business of being an entertainer.

And so it is with Mikayla Mendez — star of such films as Zipless, Chop Shop Chicas and What Girls Like.

There are others — about 200 more, in fact — but those titles should give some idea as to what type of film we’re talking about here. As does her presence at Sexpo, the big cheesy health, sexuality and lifestyle exhibition held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre last weekend.

She was brought to South Africa by a chain of adult stores, and flogged as one of Sexpo’s highlights.

Of which there are, um, quite a few.

But unlike, let’s say, Arianna Starr, holder of the Miss Nude Australia title, or her local counterpart, Bella Anderson, or Tracey Simmonds, the UK’s Miss Pole Dance, Mendez is not dressed for work (usually nothing more than some interesting tattoos) when she meets the public.

She is very chatty — which is a good thing for journalism.

“I’ve been in adult movies for about five years. Yes, it is a profession, and yes, it is very glamorous.”

Of course it is, dear. But, I wonder, how long can you do it? Isn’t this a rather rough business?

“It varies on what you do,” she replies. “There is some extreme stuff, which I don’t do. I’ve been in it for quite a while, which I’m very grateful for. I did girl-girl work only for three years. And then I decided to work with boys and I’ve been doing that for two years. You can extend your career by a few years by being careful. Like, I don’t do anal, and I don’t do more than one guy at a time.”

Whoops. A bit of an over-share there, but do you get approached for advice on how to break into the business?

“Oh, all the time! Guys mostly! They say they want to get into the industry and, ‘Can you help me?’ and stuff like that. And they think it’s a lot easier than it is. They think, ‘Oh, well, I can do that!’ But, you know, it’s not as easy for a guy as it is for a girl.”

Guys can’t fake it?

“It’s impossible!”

Do girls get anything out of it? Do they fake it?

“Oh, there is pleasure, of course! You know, there has to be to do it. I love my job! Fortunately, I get to choose my partners, so there’s that attraction. When you have a performer you’re really attracted to, there is that sexual . . . attraction! But there’s a lot of interruptions when you’re filming, you know? The stop and go of a production? But, it all depends, a scene can take a couple of hours and that doesn’t necessarily mean two hours of straight sex! There can be things between and, you know, all kinds of things can happen. Makeup can be retouched.

“Like, when we do a film, we start out doing hair and make-up, the pretty girls will do the stills photographs that you see on the covers [of DVDs], then we’ll go through the scenes and we do dialogue, all that stuff, and there are the different positions and then it can be softcore and then we go to hardcore.”

For the dialogue, the straight acting, do you get any drama coaching?

“We have directors, who are pretty experienced. They tell us exactly what they want from us. You know, like they’ll say, ‘No, I want you to do it like this!’ And then, you know, we do put a lot of effort into that because we want to seem realistic and so people won’t think, ‘Well, you know, they’re not real actors.’ You know, I put my heart in it, trying to make it real.”

I see you work a lot with actor-turned-director Randy Spears. He’s been around forever, hasn’t he? Quite the old warhorse, in fact.

“He is! And, believe it or not, he is an an older man! I don’t know his exact age, but I love working with him! Oh, he’s like my husband on camera.”

He must have a great job.

“He absolutely loves his job! He’s great! There’s that attraction — that sexual attraction! And he’s able to perform [every time]. No problem!”

Of course not.