Ryan Connor at 32 is on her fifth husband. At that pace she stands to break the marital records of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Elizabeth Taylor combined. Connor was on the Sports Swami show Friday to talk about her company, Ryan Connor Productions; AIM, unions, four divorces and many other issues.
Swami asked how a Jehovah’s Witness girl got into porn. “Did your parents push you too much and make you wear that stupid little bonnet and the long dresses?” he asked. Connor politely suggested that Swami was thinking of the Amish. Connor grew up in Idaho and said she didn’t have her first orgasm until she was 23 and already on her third marriage. “I think I’ve been deprived,” she laughed. Connor said she hadn’t even jacked off until that point. Swami had to remind her that it was a family show. Of sorts. Swami mentioned that Kiki D’Aire started throwing out F-bombs last week on the show and sponsors got pulled off the air. “You can’t be too graphic,” Swami told Connor. “A Christian group listens to this show.”
By the inflection in her voice, Swami also got the impression that Connor didn’t like Mary Carey or the fact that she had run for governor. “I haven’t met her,” Connor said. “I just think that it’s a kind of farce.” Swami pointed out that the last time Connor did an interview with Luke Ford, Ford supposedly shredded her. Connor explained that she was on her fifth marriage. Asked why No. 5 was the lucky guy, Connor said, “He’s never lied to me. He has honor and integrity- something that I think is missing nowadays. And I actually like him.”
Connor described No. 5 as a producer on one of the films she did. “He does my website, my filming, my production; he works for my company.” Connor said they met on the set.
Swami also brought up an episode in which Connor supposedly left her child with an unfit person. “He literally took out the whip and beat your poor kid senselessly. The lid was screaming. People were calling. California wanted to throw you in jail.”
Connor explained by saying she was engaged to someone who would have been No. 5 but for that. “We lived together for quite some time. I thought it was safe to move my daughter in with him. I went to San Diego for seminar. She did something that warranted punishment but he overused that a little bit and hurt her.” Connor said the school found out and took her away and that her family got involved.
“My family’s Jehovah’s Witness. They found out I was in porn. Of course they said she’s in porn, she must be doing drugs and she’s filming at home. We can’t let our granddaughter be there.” Connor said her parents tried to take her daughter. “It ended fairly decently.” Connor said it took a year, she got her daughter back and it cost her about $30,000. “Me and my family are healing our wounds.” Connor said people ignorant of certain issues have preconceived notions. “And that rules the day. They’re not open, generally, to what could be or what it may be.” Of her folks, Connor said, “I think that they’re finally seeing that I’m the same person- I just have a job. I really, really like my job.”
Asked how her daughter handles the situation of her mother being in porn, Connor said fortunately, or unfortunately that she can get by with saying she does web design/consulting. “I don’t think most people at her school are the wiser,” said Connor. Connor also mentioned that her husband’s family also offers emotional support. “They’re awesome with it. My father-in-law is writing a script for me.”
Connor was also asked why she thinks she hasn’t gotten bigger in the business. Connor believes it’s her age. “I got into the industry three or four years ago and that was still pretty old. I think they’re looking for 19 year-olds…”
Swami suggested the word, exploit. Connor had to agree but said that wasn’t necessarily the word she was looking for. Connor then gave her vocal impression of a contract starlet bragging about her deal, noting, in aised, that the company is sitting back and raking it in. “And they’re [the contract girl] not the wiser.” Connor said it’s harder to bullshit an older girl and that if she had her druthers, she wouldn’t mind signing with Digital Playground, Tera Patrick’s old company. “But I didn’t say I liked her,” Connor said of Patrick. Swami said, personally, he had no room for the company because of past stonewallings. Connor said she would also consider VCA, Vivid and Wicked.
Connor said she was at the point in her career that if she had to do real hardcore scenes, it would be for her own company. “If I’m going to do something that’s real wild and real out there, it’s going to be me making the dime not somebody else,” she said. Connor also noted hat the industry tests both for HIV and STD’s. Swami asked if Sharon Mitchell is as big as she makes herself out to be. Connor said she didn’t like the fact that the performers have to get tested by AIM.
“I don’t necessarily agree with that- I’m kind of pissed off about it,” said Connor who’s all for getting tested, but not being told who she tests with. “I used to be tested by a doctor- somebody that can legally write me a prescription if I have something. Or knows what they’re looking for. Not somebody who only draws blood and sends it to a lab. I’m not there to see a phlebotomist. I’m there for treatment as well, if I have something. I want the best care possible.”
Connor said she was going to a particular clinic which, curiously, burned down. “Then right afterwards they lost their contract with the lab. They were able to send their tests to this lab beforehand and suddenly they burnt and all their records were burnt. How does that happen? Did somebody deal behind the scenes?”
Swami also touched on some interracial issues. “Lot of girls say you can’t work with African American performers because your career goes down [sic] south.” Connor said she’d like to see evidence of that. “I have yet to see it. I have a great fan base. I have done interracial. I have no problem with interracial.” It’s Connor’s opinion that girls who do well in the industry do so, not because of interracial avoidance, but because they have huge companies backing them that puts them “on every goddamn billboard from here to Timbukthree.”
Connor points to Jewel De’Nyle has having done well while doing interracial. Swami talked about De’Nyle’s feisty temperament. “She must be a redhead at heart,” said Connor. “She’s got a little temper.” But Connor was willing to concede that Jewel was also a very smart woman.
Of Jill Kelly, Serenity and De’Nyle, Connor was asked who she thought was the better businesswomen. “Not all three of them are owners of their own company,” she replied. “They might be part-owners. Or not. They may be a front person. That’s like asking three different people how they would run a company. Everybody’s going to have their different ideas. And each one of them might be successful. Jill, kudos to her, but I don’t think it’s necessarily her company. It’s not her money funding it. She can’t be the one making the final decisions because if it’s not her money, you have that person in consideration.” None of those girls are her models, Connor suggested. “I don’t agree with everything about each one of them. I take little bits and pieces and put together my own formulation.”
Asked if there should be an age limit on porn stars, Connor said, “If somebody can vote and go to war, goddamnit, they deserve the right to drink and do porn if they want to.” Connor said being able to put your life on the line for your country should be the ultimate determining factor. As a forinstance, Swami suggested that her age hurts Gauge who tends to party like crazy. By the same token, Connor said there were 28 year-old girls who are still dealing with those issues. And Connor certainly scoffed at Swami’s notion that there be background checks on performers to determine if they’re mentally stable.
Asked if she was for a union, Connor said she didn’t know what a union would do.