Porn Valley- Pretty busy morning. We've got three current threads running this morning on adultfyi.com, and we just had a nice chat with Serenity. Serenity sounds like she's been pretty busy too- starting a family that is. Serenity's in her third trimester but won't say anything other than that. Serenity's also read Jenna Jameson's book for a review that she's writing for Las Vegas Weekly, but she won't say anything other than that, either. "Read the review," she laughs. We're dyin'. We're dyin.
Gene: How does it feel to be in the walker stage of your life with retirement.
Serenity: Oh God, you've put me over the hill!
Serenity says it's an exciting day because she's officially going foward. "But at the same time it's one of those reminiscing days," she sighs. "It's like people and how they feel about high school. They don't really want to stay there, but...they'll remember the good times."
When I bring up the Jenna book, Serenity belts out a sinister laugh. "You'll have to wait on that," she says. "It's done." Serenity, who was a contract girl for Wicked at the time Jameson was here, says, granted, Jenna didn't get as "entertaining" with some of the Wicked dish as might be expected. "I got a slight mention; I think Stephanie [Swift] got a slight mention and then when the herd of girls came on board there was a mention of that."
Nevertheless, Serenity says her review should be coming out next week. Asked if she liked the book, Serenity danced around the page edges. "It's more complicated than that," she tells me. "They asked me to do a review, like a 200-300 word review. After I put down the key points I did a word count and called up the editor. I haven't made complete sentences and I'm already at 800 words. I don't know how to chop this down. He was, okay, we'll make this an article then and bounce it to a thousand and four hundred words. Alright."
Serenity was asked when she was going to write her book because everyone else is. "Seems that way," she laughs. "I don't know about that." I suggest if, nothing else, she's the first ballerina who made good as a porn star. Serenity also makes the point that Chloe has done it as well, though Serenity did get into the business first.
Gene: I always remember saying to myself, boy, those ballet classes gave her [Serenity] those legs. Best legs ever in the adult business.
Serenity mentions that she still takes classes. I wonder if she's now feeling it in the knees and the ankles. She says no. At least, not yet. "If you train your muscles correctly, you really don't get the joint problems so much," she says. "However, you make that one mistake and you get that one twist, that one injury, you're doomed."
Gene: So you can engage in a fatal Swan Lake
Serenity: And really be in a walker. LOL! But I'm willing to risk it.
Serenity's no longer featuring so today's retirement announcement applies to her participation in adult movies. "I'm still going to work with my company Las Vegas Novelties," she says. "I'm still going to work with my website, www.serenity.net. If I do anything along the nudity lines it will be for my website. If mainstream things came along I would be open to the possibility of that kind of stuff."
Serenity was laughing about that because just this week she's received calls to that effect. "All of a sudden my e-mails are flooded with them," she says. "What's the irony of that?" I figured the call to do sleazy midnight movies for Cinemax and Showtime would be obvious, but Serenity say it's more for ads.
"One was for Revlon- another one was a makeup company, go figure," she says. "But that doesn't mean I would have had the job." One explanation could be the fact that when Serenity worked for the E! Channel, she was non-union but listed with the Television Actors Guild. "Somehow- I'm trying to figure this out- I'm listing with SAG but I don't know how that came about," she adds. "Somehow I got listed with all these things- where, when, how, how, but, hey, pick me!"
Gene: You took a lot of shit for first doing girl-girl scenes.
Serenity: Yeah
Gene: And a lot of pressure to do boy-girl?
Serenity: I don't think there necessarily was; people just assumed I wouldn't at that point. I think there was a lot of pressure to do boy-girl in the beginning, especially the first two years. I kind of held my ground and they were, like, whatever. As time went on I became comfortable with that idea and went to the next phase.
Gene: The first boy-girl wasn't that with Steve [her husband]?
Serenity: LOL! I don't know what the party line is for that. Yes, but, technically, no. It was one of those.
Gene: How did the whole Lucky's Girls thing come about.
Serenity: I was dancing in a club up in Maine of all places. Alexis DeVille was featuring up there. They came across me. They were cool and nice. They invited me out to L.A. I came to check out the scene and liked it. That was he beginning of it. I wasn't up there in Maine that long, really. It's beautiful up there but really cold.
Gene: Are you from that part of the country?
Serenity: I'm from everywhere!
Gene: That sounds like a professional wrestler: from parts unknown.
Serenity: I'm from everywhere east of the Mississippi. I was born in Missouri and I currently reside in Las Vegas, otherwise, everything east of the Mississippi.
Gene: I can understand your reasons for wanting to get out of Missouri.
Serenity: I was an army brat at the beginning and that's where I stack up a lot of my frequent flyer miles. I was born right on an army base.
Gene: Being an army brat what were the reactions of your parents to you being a stripper?
Serenity: Let's go back to the reactions of my parents about me being a ballerina!
Gene: They took exception to that? I imagine maybe your father wanted you to be a tail gunner.
Serenity: I was very good with guns, actually. I was raised on C-rations and fatigues and guns. I was very good at my craft.
Gene: But can you pell the word, bivouac?
Serenity: No! LOL But I used to have a subscription to Men of Fortune...
Gene: Guns and Ammo...
Serenity: I was the eccentric one.
Gene: But the choice of being a ballerina isn't exactly the one where you try and talk your daughter down off the ceiling.
Serenity: It wasn't practical- the starving artist. Well, that's cute
Gene: But you gravitated towards that; usually you put your kids through that kicking and screaming.
Serenity: They had no intentions of sending me to ballet school, but when I was four and five I really got the itch to take dance classes. I called up the local studios and had them send information to my parents' address. That's how it kind of started. I kind of forced them.
Gene: So you were a strong-willed kid growing up.
Serenity: Oh yes. A little too much, actually.
Gene: And a tomboy.
Serenity: Absolutely. I wasn't a frilly girl at all. I didn't play with dolls. I still to this day have my matchbox cars set, my play guns and stuff...
Gene: And boxing gloves...
Serenity: LOL! I did beat up the boys but only because they beat up on the nerdy kids and that upset me.
Gene: You stood up for the underdog.
Serenity: Those were my dad's favorite stories- the fathers coming over, your daughter beat up my son!
Gene: With all of this going on in your gene pool when did you first have the itch to have sex.
Serenity: I was young and I don't like to go into that specifically. I think it was too young but at the time that's where I was. It wasn't a bad experience but it was disappointing actually. I really thought it was going to be better. But I think it was due to the circumstances being immature and being on the fly.
Gene: Did that set you off for awhile.
Serenity: I realized I enjoyed the things that led up to it more than the actual experience for the time period. I enjoyed the flirtation. I enjoyed the foreplay and making out. As far as getting all the way there, whatever. It wasn't that great.
Gene: How about the first time in front of a camera?
Serenity: It was really quite easy. But it wasn't planned out. My first movie was with Jennifer Ate for Wicked Pictures. That was filmed back in 1992. I was really excited about it because all of my favorite female porn stars were going to be there- Porsche Lynn, Jeanna Fine, P.J. Sparxx, Alexid DeVille and so forth. I really wasn't convinced that this is what I wanted to do. But at least I wanted to show up so I could get some autographs!!
Gene: That's pretty funny.
Serenity: Yeah, then we had an orgy and I was the centerpiece. The director told them to just go on me. I was, like, wow, this is really cool. I kind of stuck around after that movie and went on to my next one.
Gene: Was this wait and see on your part?
Serenity: I was just feeling it out. I loved watching porn movies, really loved watching adult movies. But I really wasn't sure what the work atmosphere was. There was that connotation. Even though I was interested in it and comfortable with the idea - I had been in theater so long- that wasn't the problem. It was like, what is the other stuff? Who am I going to have to deal with? What is the atmosphere going to be like? What are these other co-workers going to be like? When I found out that it was really a relaxed atmosphere, very friendly and very family-like- at least the people I was exposed to- it was a wonderful experience.
Gene: How did your Wicked contract come about?
Serenity: I had done one boy-girl movie then had gone back to girl-girl for awhile. A couple of years had passed and I decided I was ready to do boy-girl again. I was also ready to enter a more serious field of adult movies. I was ready to concentrate on being part of a project. I went to Steve Orenstein. I figured he's my friend, let me go to him first. Sure enough I got a contract and got to start on my adult film goal setting. It worked out really well. I tried out some horror movies which were really fun. I tried some drama. I explored some different sexual sides of myself while I was there. Then I tried some comedy. I won an award. Then I won another one and won another one. I kind of ran out of goals. What next?
Gene: It strikes me that you were very well suited to comedy.
Serenity: Jonathan Morgan kind of brought that out, I think. I have to say he's really one of the best actual directors. Not art director, not talent wrangler. He's one of the best actual directors. Working with him, he was able to bring out whatever that little je ne sais quoi thing is about comedy that there is. I didn't know if I could do it without him. He's really fabulous.
Gene: Las Vegas Novelties has really taken off. How did that get started?
Serenity: I ran out of goals and started a toy company!! LOL. I was trying to balance the toy company and Wicked at the same time. It was getting more and more difficult. That's when I went off and got a contract with Hollywood Video. They were a little more understanding of my time constraints.
Gene: That Hollywood Video-thing is definitely a trivia question.
Serenity: I only made one film for them. Bless 'em, but I realized I only had so much time in a day.
Gene: Now you get to do neat shit like go to New Zealand. Were you running around the hallways in rubber outfits? That's the impression I got from listening to Kylie Ireland's show.
Serenity: LOL It's crazy. Then my favorite is sitting down and talking electronics with people. In the middle of the conversation I'm like, ooh, wow.
Gene: Do you personally try out all the toys before you market them?
Serenity: Not all of them. I still don't do anal.
Gene: To this day?
Serenity: I leave that up to my anal girls.
Gene: You've never done it?
Serenity: It's not that I've never. I tried it a couple of times. I'm always open for suggestions. I've tried, but it just doesn't fit. It just doesn't happen. I stick with what feels good.
Gene: It's the world's loss, I guess. In those rare instances when you gave it shot, you knew right then and there it wasn't going to happen.
Serenity: But I was, like, try to relax, try to relax.
Gene: Ever try alcohol and lots of it?
Serenity: Yeah, I tried that, and it came up really quick. Alcohol came out! It was bad. I'm just really tight.
Gene: Were you anything of a partyer during all of those trade shows?
Serenity: Yes, in my own way. Maybe not as drastic as what some people would think...
Gene: What made you decide on making Las Vegas your address.
Serenity: Since I moved out west from Maine I've always lived here. When I had gone to L.A. to check out the scene, the traffic and it was just so sprawling. But in Vegas there was something that was really neat. It was like a town but still was a city. The people that live here knew each other even if it was by degrees. Like I know someone who knows someone, who... It was a friendly atmosphere because of that. It works out really well when you want to go to a concert!
Gene: So you were commuting the whole time?
Serenity: Yes. I would either fly or drive down that morning, shoot a movie and drive back that evening. I would try to book things together to come down for a few days and stay at a hotel. And because I was flying all over the country, it was pretty chaotic so I didn't even notice. An extra commute to L.A. was nothing at all.
Gene: You were quoted in the Las Vegas Weekly abouit condoms during the HIV thing. Then with the pending Cal/OSHA regulations have you gathered more thoughts on the subject since then?
Serenity: I've always stuck to my guns about using condoms. It always made me feel more comfortable and more responsible to the fans. But that was my personal choice.
Gene: And you took a ration of shit for that.
Serenity: I did. In fact I was told that by being a condom-only girl, I would never have a contract. I was told I would never get anywhere and win awards.
Gene: And look how right all these people were.
Serenity: LOL. You just got to love it. But it really didn't matter because I felt more comfortable. I could sleep at night and I didn't sweat so much over my tests. This last outbreak was really kind of devastating. It took its casualties again. It's unfortunate because it is a dangerous field to be involved with. There are occupational hazards. But there is a balance because you still desire the aesthetics of a good video. But with OSHA stepping in, hands are going to be tied.
Gene: There will be the inevitable talk among people in this business about migrating to Las Vegas.
Serenity: The Las Vegas papers interviewed me about this. Are all the porn things going to come here? It's OSHA. It's national, it's like the IRS. It's Cal/OSHA that's dealing with it right now because it's in their state but this is national. It's going to raise one thing after another. The industry is going to have to take the bull by the horns and learn to deal with this problem. It's not going to be fun but what are you going to do?
Gene: Less stuff you have to be concerned with, now...
Serenity: Making toys
Gene: Getting ready for the Christmas rush...What do you do today you're first official day of retirement?
Serenity: First I'll deal with the questions and the e-mails. I'm already getting a flood of e-mails which is really wonderful. I put a bunch of individual thank-yous on my website, www.serenity.net, to people that were special to me along the years. One of the other things that deals with my retirement phase is going through my closet. I'm selling my stuff. I have every outfit that I ever wore in every movie, shoes and that. I'm working on moving forward with the company and my website and get my family started.
Gene: Spit it out.
Serenity: I'm in my third trimester and I'm very excited.
Gene: Boy or a girl.
Serenity: I'm not going to get into it.
Gene: I know, we're waiting for the book review....
Serenity: It's just one of those things. I'm trying to protect the innocent. But I'm very happy about it. I'm looking forward to talking to you about the book. But I want you to read the review first.
Gene: I hate to admit it, but I read the book in one sitting.
Serenity: I did too. Steve's like your half way through? It's really not that challenging, I said.
Gene: But it was the crossword puzzles in the back that really stumped me.
