Page 57 - AVN April 2013

Feat_Wicked2.04.13 3/20/13 3:08 PM Page 57
If you spoke to anyone I grew up with and asked who’s least likely to wind
up owning an adult movie studio, it’s gonna be me. It’s one of those
things that you fall into this business and it takes you where it takes you.
—Steve Orenstein
”
They designed our logo, but a lot more than that. Brad was doing more than
just art; he was conceptualizing thoughts and asking, ‘How are we going to
present this?’ as well. ‘How do we make it a big deal?’ The overall branding.
We’d have a lot of long conversations back then, because it was easier to do that
back then, and they probably pushed me along the way a lot more than any-
body back then. And Brad/Cynthia are actually still doing things for us today.”
So it was the Willises who first brought Jenna Jameson to Orenstein’s
attention.
“Jenna was going through personal stuff at the time, and dropped out of the
business for a period of time, and then I get a call again from Cynthia Willis,
who says, ‘She’s back, better than before; you’ve really got to meet this girl,’”
Orenstein said. “Back in those days, there were different phases you go through.
What type of girl and what look of girl you think was in the business, and then
you get this sweet, innocent-looking girl, what’s she doing here? You know,
there was this whole mystique about her. ... So Chasey leaves in January; I sign
Jenna in February, because when I met her I knew she had something very
special. To sign a girl, she needs the ‘it’ factor, and Jenna certainly had ‘it.’ So I
hired Joy King within weeks of hiring Jenna, signing Jenna. I knew Joy, was
friends with Joy, and I was trying to figure out how to afford her, so I told Joy,
‘I just hired this girl, and I want you to do the PR.’”
Jenna quickly became the face of Wicked.
Another longtime Wicked director is Jonathan Morgan,
“I had people I do business with say, ‘Look; your life is bigger than Jenna
Jameson. Stop talking so much about Jenna Jameson,’ but it was what we were
doing,” Orenstein explained. “Wicked was still finding its way, and there’s no
doubt that Jenna’s explosion benefited us, but our goal and our job was to make
her explode. Back then, we were making 24 movies and she was in nine of
them. She certainly was our focus.”
But not the company’s, or Orenstein’s, sole focus.
“Brad Armstrong was our first exclusive director, and it was probably late ’97
or so he was exclusive to us,” he recounted. “ He came up to me at a conven-
tion pitching himself and wanting to direct, and shot a movie here or there—I
think the first movie he shot for us was Wildcats—and for a while he shot for
us, and also other companies like Vivid and Metro, partnered up with Greg
Steele for Wicked One and Conquest—the latter in partnership with Adam &
Eve—for us in ’95 and ’96. We shot out on a pirate ship—this was before
[Digital Playground/Adam & Eve’s] Pirates existed, and at a time when there
weren’t all these digital effects; you had to shoot what went on the screen.
“Brad has had a great effect on the company,” he added. “He’s created things
for the company that go beyond just the movies he’s done. He’s pointed out
quite a few actresses over the years; he’s an accomplished art director, which I
think is where he starts more from before directing. He’s an amazing talent. It’s
going on—could be 16, 17 years with him, maybe longer. … Certainly Brad
has been more part of the company than just what he’s directing. He’s been
involved in a lot of other things along the way and a lot of other decisions and a
lot of input as to where we are.”
who has been with the company “13 years or so,”
Orenstein said, as he talked about what Morgan has
brought to the table. “Jonathan’s always been extremely
passionate about what he does. With Jonathan, he’
s on
both sides of it. There’s not much in the middle with
Jonathan. There’s comedy and there’s dark projects. Crazed,
with Serenity, another contract star, was one of those dark
projects; he’s done several of those along the way—and
then there could be Double Feature, which might be the
most awards we’ve won for any movie ever, which was 12,
from AVN. It totally cleaned up.”
But even directors who’ve only directed once for Wicked
have made their mark.
“Michael Zen came on for one movie, which was a
milestone for us, Blue Movie, Wicked’s first shot-on-film
movie,” Orenstein said. “There are so many things you’re
proud of over the years, and one of them is, we were
always shooting on video. There were other companies that
had campaigns out there about how many of their features
were shot on film because shooting on film was a big deal.
So we shot the one movie, Blue Movie, on film, and won
the award for Best Film that year. I wanted to do an ad,
‘One Film, One Win,’ but I didn’t. Jenna won, the movie
won, editing won, a sex scene won, Jenna won acting in
that same year for Wicked One.”
Another male director who worked for Wicked almost
exclusively between 2003 and his retirement in 2010 was
Michael Raven, also the recipient of several awards—but
Orenstein is also justly proud of the women who’ve taken
the reins behind the camera: Stormy Daniels and Jessica
Drake.
“Stormy, who’s been under contract with us since 2004,
started writing scripts very early on for other directors, and
started directing for herself early on, and really, it’s her
passion, the writing and the directing,” he said. “Today,
she doesn’t have a job directing for us because she’s a
contract star; she has a job directing for us because she’
s
done great things as a director.”
>>
T Th he e
W Wi ic ck ke ed d O On ne es s
As the studio turned 20, it had four contract
stars on its roster, three of whom—Stormy
Daniels, Jessica Drake and Kaylani Lei—have been
with the company for close to half that time
(though Lei took a break in 2005). The newest,
Samantha Saint, started last year. Below is a list
of past contract girls, in order of their start dates.
Chasey Lain (1993-1995)
Jenna Jameson (1995-2000)
Serenity (1996-2001)
Missy (1997-1999)
Stephanie Swift (1997-2002)
Temptress (1998-2000)
Alexa Rae (1999-2001)
Devinn Lane (2000-2005)
Sydnee Steele (2001-2003)
Julia Ann (2001-2004, 2006-2007)
Keri Sable (2005)
Carmen Hart (2005-2007)
Kirsten Price (2005-2011)
Mikayla Mendez (2008-2009)
Alektra Blue (2008-2013)
Lupe Fuentes (2010-2011)
Team Wicked Below,
Samantha Saint, Alektra
Blue, Kaylani Lei, Brad
Armstrong, Jessica Drake
and Stormy Daniels at the
opening party for AEE 2013
at Chateau. Above, a 2007
photo of Lei, Carmen Hart,
Drake, Julia Ann, Kirsten
Price and Daniels.
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