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Jennifer James Interview

I visited her Memoirs of a Modern Day Geisha set Jan 30.

We talk by phone Friday morning, 2/10/06.

Jenn (around 45yo): "The idea was Drew Rosenfeld's at Hustler. He said to me, 'Take the idea and come back to me with a synopsis.' I went out and watched the movie. I came back with a story that was somewhat of a copy of the original movie with a respectful feeling of the culture and idea.

"The script was about 20 pages. We had some difficulty with the dialogue as we often do.

"Not many people in life get the luxury of being able to imagine a fantasy and then create it. I love making movies."

Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Jenn: "My family was in the [mainstream movie] business. I went on a few movie sets. I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I'd seen and I'd like to live in that world. This may not have been the form of the movie business that I'd originally imagined."

Luke: "What kind of crowd did you hang out with in highschool?"

Jenn: "I was not part of the in-crowd. I had a nice group of friends.

"I grew up on the East Coast and the West Coast. I had family in both places. My father married more than once."

Luke: "What kind of role did pornography play in your young life?"

Jenn: "None whatsoever. I had seen Behind the Green Door once but that was it.

"I fell into [porn around 1995]]. I was trying to get a regular project off the ground. It fell apart. Somebody suggested this. A friend of mine gave me a movie, Bobby Hollander's Leg Show. I remember looking at it and saying, 'Wow, I can do this.' I was a fringe-dweller for a few years, then worked on producing my first feature in 1997."

Jennifer's since shot about ten. "There are people out there who have made hundreds of movies and they just don't give a ---- anymore. I would rather make a handful of movies I care about and let them speak for themselves."

James has shot zero gonzos. "I like telling the story. I use the sex to tell the story. Anybody can shooting people f------, but to create a story that has a beginning, middle and end, growth of character, resolution of conflict... Then the sex has meaning."

Luke: "How meaningful do you think it is for the average viewer that the hardcore film has a story and a resolution of conflict?"

Jennifer: "Probably not at all. 'Please give me the remote so I can fast-forward through it. What is all this stupid dialogue? Why is it getting in the way of the sex? Who is this idiot director? I don't want to see her talking. Get her off the screen.'

"This is an opportunity to put your name on a movie. Why do we in this business rush towards mediocrity? Why just make a few extra bucks and cheat the talent? Why not make something better? Why not make a good f--- movie? Why by s----- when you can be Michael Ninn?

"For most people in our business, it's just a gig. Everything is just a gig."

Luke: "You also shoot music videos and documentaries?"

Jennifer: "A long time ago. I've been doing just porn for the last few years.

"I don't deal well with authority. I kept butting heads with record company executives. I walked away.

"I swore that I would never work in porn for a company or shoot s--- that I didn't want to shoot just to pay the rent. That's why I still care. Because I only shoot s--- I like, I don't hate it like everybody else does.

"I haven't thrown my movies together in two weeks. I wrote scripts. I found investors. I shot and edited the movie. I made distribution deals. I own a piece of these movies. I'm a small studio (Jennifer James Films). Most of those movies are still making money."

Luke: "What do you love and hate about the porn industry?"

Jenn: "Good question. I went on your site and looked at your stuff. You have an interesting take. You ask insightful questions. Your reputation proceeds you. You're a legend in this business and I can see why.

"I dislike the usury attitude. I dislike the debasement of women, the humiliation, the degradation. When I started, it wasn't about putting some guy's knee in a woman's face. It wasn't about how many chopsticks you could jam up somebody's rear end. It was about celebrating sexuality and freedom and telling a beautiful story. It seemed wonderful. Somewhere along the line the industry got highjacked by the extremists. Maybe the market is drawn to extreme violent product."

Luke: "Maybe you were naive at the beginning?"

Jenn: "Maybe I was naive and maybe I'm still naive. I can't figure out what swirlie [putting a woman's head in a toilet bowl and flushing it] has to do with jerking off.

"Now, with the violence and the blood and the gore, who's jerking off to that? If you've got sex in a slasher movie, who's jerking off to that?

"It's not what you do so much as how you do it. Maybe this business need some naiveness? I would like our industry to do business in a more honorable way. That's a stupidly naive thing to say.

"I love the sex and the fantasy. I like most of the people. I like making movies."

Luke: "What motivates girls to become porn performers?"

Jenn: "Most of the girls share similar childhoods to mine -- from strict formal homes, sexually-repressed homes, very religious homes. When you do that to children, it's like stepping on a balloon. It's going to pop out somewhere. Some of them really like sex."

Luke: "How has being in porn affected your life?"

Jenn: "It certainly does change one's social life. Maybe 30-40% of my social life [is through porn].

"Most of the people in my family ignore it. I'm the black sheep of the family. I'm not invited to Thanksgiving dinner. I still speak to my family. It works better if I speak to them on the telephone. I'm sure you've experienced a bit of that."

Luke: "How has it affected your love life?"

Jenn: "It's been a great asset. Because I'm not looking to marry somebody, I'm not looking for that whole Leave it to Beaver thing. 'If you're in the porn industry, you must've learned something looking through the camera all those times.'"

Luke: "I talked to your publicist and she said: 'Jennifer does not prefer to speak about her sex change in detail. It's a private part of her life and she doesn't like to go too deeply into the whys and whens. She will give you some great quotes as to how she feels about people that want to make an issue out of it though.'"

Jenn: "You quoted her exactly. I know that's exactly what she said.

"I knew you would want to ask about that. I knew somebody cares. It's a non-issue to me.

"A long time ago, it occurred to me that I could make a living as a hooker, which I did. But it was presented to me by my family that it didn't make a difference if I was making a living as a hooker with a dick or without a dick. You're still a hooker."

Around 1980, Jennifer had her penis removed and underwent a sex change.

Jenn: "The real challenge would be to make it in the real world with a real 9-5 job, pay your rent, with a real mortgage, car payments... All the stuff that real people do but a lot of people in our business don't bother with.

"The challenge to make it in the real world had to be about what I was doing, not what I was. You don't maintain a job in the real world by what you are, but by what you do."

Luke: "How many people in the industry try to make an issue out of it?"

Jenn: "Most people leave me along about it. I have been a woman over 25-years. Gee, you want to talk about something that happened a quarter century ago? Who were you a quarter century ago?

"It's not that I'm trying to avoid it, to hide and pretend anything. OK, we've been there and done that. Can we move on and talk about what I want to talk about, which is my movies."

Luke: "How long did you work as a hooker and how did that affect you?"

Jenn: "For a few years. I did real well. I worked with services. I made a considerable amount of money."

Luke: "Did you save any of it?"

Jenn: "No. None of us girls ever do."

Luke: "How many of your friends in the trade came to tragic ends?"

Jenn: "Almost all of them. I don't know a single one of them that got off the streets. All the girls I knew were killed by boyfriends, killed by johns, drug overdoses."

Luke: "What do you attribute your making it out to?"

Jenn: "Blind stubborness. I had help from an uncle who was more understanding than the rest of my family. I probably still wouldn't be alive if he hadn't stepped in. He put a roof over my head and got me off the streets."

Luke: "So how do you feel about the trade knowing that almost all your friends died in it?"

Jenn: "It's a tough business."

Luke: "It kills people."

Jenn: "Yeah."

Luke: "When you look back on your life, which time and place was the happiest?"

Jenn: "The late eighties, way after I worked as a hooker. I was real successful. I had made some money with money and I was buying and selling properties and living independently. I didn't have to worry about paying the rent. I was able to quit cigarettes and do all those things you want to do if you have the time and money.

"In the real estate crash of 1991, I basically lost everything.

"I wrote a book that never went anywhere. It was a comedy book of personal thoughts about life in Los Angeles in the eighties."

Luke: "What do you like to do in your spare time?"

Jenn: "I like to walk on the beach and play with my cats."

Luke: "Have you ever had a drug or alcohol problem?"

Jenn: "Not really. I had a problem with pain pills a long time ago after a car crash.

"The problem with being me, Luke, is that I have so many things against me, I can not afford to have many more. So many people don't like me just because of what I am and what they think I am. I've got a guaranteed problem just to start with so I try to avoid starting more problems.

"As strange as I am, there are people in our business who are stranger than I am."

Luke: "What do you tell strangers who ask what you do for a living?"

Jenn: "I'm so old and feeble, I don't care anymore. I just tell them, 'I make porn movies.' I get mixed reactions. For some people, you might as well be Julia Roberts. You're the coolest thing on the planet. For other people, you just became radioactive. You just turned into a big pile of toxic waste. Let's get as far away from you as possible."

Luke: "How often does that hurt your feelings?"

Jenn: "Not too much anymore. Once you've been through the life I've been through, you've had your feelings hurt quite a few times. It still hurts but once you've been slapped a few times, it doesn't hurt as much."

Luke: "Which of your movies do you consider your best?"

Jenn: "The best movie I ever did has still not been released -- Phantom of the Porn Stage."

Luke: "How much would it mean to you if they win an AVN award?"

Jenn: "It would mean a lot to me. I know it's not cool to say that. It's just a hunk of acrylic. It probably has a lot to do with how much advertising you bought and how many people think you're wonderful. In my case, there aren't a lot of people who think I'm wonderful. I don't buy a lot of advertising.

"It's the most honorary thing our industry gives."

Luke: "Everyone wants to be recognized for their good work."

Jenn: "It is about the work. That's what I choose to talk about rather than to talk about myself. I know that's what you wanted to talk about. People ask me what it's like and I say, 'It's like being born with a club-foot. If I had been born with a club foot, all through childhood, I would've been trying to figure out a way to get the money together to fix the club foot. Once it was fixed, it still wouldn't be perfect. I'd still walk with a limp. I'd say, 'Can we get past the club foot thing now and talk about something else?' Even if you came up to him and said, 'Wow, you've got an orthopedic shoe and look at how well you're doing with your club foot.' Even though you're complementing him, he'd feel, 'Couldn't we just not talk about the club foot for a while?'

"That's what the sex change thing is like for me. I was born with a handicap. I did the best I could to fix it as best as I can. I'm just trying to get through my life as best as I can. I'm just trying to pay my rent and make my movies."

Luke: "Do you have any grander goals?"

Jenn: "A trip into space would be nice."

Luke: "Why don't you want to get married?"

Jenn: "I think men are biologically wired to cheat."

Luke: "You don't want to get married because you're afraid he'll cheat on you?"

Jenn: "No. If I got married, it would have to be an open relationship."

Luke: "Because you would need to play around?"

Jenn: "And I wouldn't want to be wondering if he was playing around. I'm not a jealous person. Marriage then become a piece of paper."

Luke: "What if the person wanted to be in an exclusive relationship with you?"

Jenn: "I don't do monogamy with guys."

Luke: "What's the longest relationship you've had?"

Jenn: "Twenty three years [they lived together for most of that time]. I was with a girl who was an ex-French Vogue model. I met her a few years after I had the [sex-change] surgery in New York. We were together until she passed away six months ago from breast and liver cancer. The last seven years, she's been very sick, with diabetes. She almost died. She was basically bedridden. For the past seven years, I've been taking care of her. I couldn't afford to hire a nurse. I was making porn in the day and taking care of her at night."

Luke: "Do you seek a relationship with a man or a woman?"

Jenn: "It might be too soon for a relationship with a woman.

"Emotionally, it is easier for me to have a relationship with a woman. I understand that thinking."

Luke: "If you were to make a movie about your life, what would you call it?"

Jenn: "Adventures in Fantasyland. I think the porn industry is fantasyland."