From www.losangeles.decider.com- It makes sense that L.A.—home to the illustrious San Fernando Valley—plays host to the nation’s largest adult convention, known as Erotica L.A.
It might come as a surprise to the uninitiated that this annual three-day bacchanal has more in store for attendees than simply snapping photos of buxom porn stars. Running through Sunday, the convention will feature more than 300 booths, panel discussions, burlesque shows, an “extreme car display,” male dance revues, and “how to” workshops, including one particularly titillating session titled “Porn Stars Reveal: Sex Tip, Seminar Tricks, And Bloopers.”
On the eve of the convention (which Decider will be attending, Tweeting live, and recapping on Monday), one of the reigning queens of the adult world, porn star/director and businesswoman Belladonna, chats about popping balloons with her feet, what a newbie might expect at the convention, and what she thinks of fellow porn star Sasha Grey’s Girlfriend Experience.
Decider: Your publicist said you were shooting a foot fetish film today?
Belladonna: Yes. The movie that I just shot is actually called Party Of Feet, and it’s, well, an all-girl party of feet. [Laughs.] Yesterday, I took 10 girls, including myself, for a two-and-a-half-hour session at a salon where they all got their feet pampered, and then today we filmed an orgy of sex and feet. It was beautiful women, lots of chemistry, and balloons, too, since we had foot games.
D: Foot games?
B: Yes. One is where the girls were popping the balloons with their feet. Another was having feather boas in between their toes and just pulling them around. We did foot wars, where they press their feet up against another girl’s feet to see who can push the other one away the fastest. We painted each bottom of each girl’s feet and had them put their footprints on this huge poster board that will be auctioned off for charity. I can’t tell you how much fun we had on this movie. It was amazing. I really love being able to just give girls a great time and have everyone walk away feeling good, no matter what they did.
D: Wow. You were also in this?
B: I tied up a girl’s feet just using my feet. [Laughs.] It was neat to see everyone’s different ideas of what each girl could do with their feet and how they were going to use them.
D: This weekend is Erotica L.A. Will you be there all three days?
B: I love Erotica L.A. I love going to see my fans. This is the main event that I get to see everybody that’s out here. I’m going to sign every single day at the Evil Angel booth. I only take an hour for a break because I want to see everybody. If I miss anybody, I’ll be really sad because I made it a point to be there the entire day. Also, on Saturday, there’s an auction, and I have five amazing items that I’m auctioning off. One of them includes the Belladonna Mobile, which is my Scion xB wrapped with my Belladonna logo. It’s so much fun. I can’t wait.
D: For someone who hasn’t been to a sexpo before, can you set the scene and describe what they might see?
B: Of course. Keep in mind that it’s in a convention center, so it’s really big. When you first walk in the doors at Erotica L.A., you’ve got to just look around and really see it. Take a deep breath. Then, get your guide out because that’s going to help you. What’s great is there are so many different girls there to just say hello and take pictures with you. I don’t charge for my pictures, and I give a lot of freebies out like dog tags, lanyards, and 8-by-10s. Most of the girls are really friendly and down-to-earth and happy to see people who enjoy them there.
D: What do you make of fellow porn star Sasha Grey being the lead in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience? Would you want to do something like that?
B: Personally, I don’t think I would want to do something that’s so similar to what I do already. I think Sasha Grey was very lucky in getting that role because it could’ve been anybody. It’s awesome for our industry that we have a girl that got lucky and got that much exposure. It just helps our industry become that much more acceptable. But I would want a role that isn’t sexually related at all because it’s not challenging for me to do something like [The Girlfriend Experience]. I do that every day. I want to do something that’s really going to challenge me—that I don’t get the opportunity to do very often. That might be something that people aren’t willing to risk on a girl who’s been in porn for 10 years. But I think the right director could get it out of me.
D: So you would be up for more mainstream work?
B: I would love the opportunity to do an independent film. It’s not necessarily a goal of mine—I don’t think I’ll ever want to be completely out of the adult industry—but I just like having new experiences. If I could do that, it’d be great. If not, I’m not going die. That’s for sure.