Page 26 - AVN January 2016

COMING ATTRACTION | | By Dan Miller
Going ‘Hard’ Samantha Bentley and Misha Cross star in Stagliano’s first all-girl film
WHO’S WHO
Cross want to let the viewers
Samantha Bentley and Misha
decide how they feel about the
unconventional conclusion to
their epic two-part feature.
“We’re not going to give away the
end, but it is a twist,” Cross said.
“We didn’t want it to be a happy
ending,” Bentley teased. “We didn’t
want it to be all peaches and cream.”
The two headlining stars, who are
best friends in real life, also wrote the
screenplay for Hard in Love, the all-girl
production directed by Evil Angel
founder John “Buttman” Stagliano
that hit the streets on May 18 in a
four-hour, double-disc set. The second
part is scheduled to drop in another
double-disc package on June 6, when
the haunting romantic drama will come
to what they say is a “disturbing” close.
“We kind of combined his gonzo
perspective—because he’s really
amazing at showing women’s bodies—
with our psychotic love story,” Cross
said.
“It’s romantic but in the most
twisted, fucked-up way possible
with really good, gonzo hardcore sex
scenes,” Bentley suggested.
The collaboration is significant on
several levels, not the least of which
is both performers have world-class
talent.
The Warsaw, Poland-based Cross
is the reigning AVN Foreign Female
Performer of the Year now in her fourth
year in adult, while the London-born
26 | AVN.com | 6.16
Hard in Love Misha Cross (middle) and Samantha Bentley (far right) also co-wrote the screenplay for the Evil Angel movie.
Bentley won the 2015 AVN Award for Best Sex Scene in a
Foreign Shot Production for her threeway with Henessy and
Rocco Siffredi in Rocco’s Perfect Slaves 2. Also known for her
repeat appearances on HBO’s Game of Thrones, Bentley is in
her fifth year in porn.
Stagliano, meanwhile, took the helm of a girl/girl feature
for the first time in his AVN Hall of Fame career that spans
33-plus years and more than 200 films. But what makes
Hard in Love uniquely personal is the theme of the movie was
largely fueled by Bentley and Cross’ complex emotional bond
off camera.
“It’s our story,” Bentley told AVN. “We poured our heart
into this—blood, sweat and tears went into this movie,
literally. So far the feedback has been phenomenal and we
want that to continue because we don’t want John to be like,
‘why did I give these girls so much power?’
“It’s our baby. Obviously, we’ve never written a movie
before and to have one so big for our first one—something
that is John’s feature—it’s nerve wracking. We don’t want to
let him down.”
They have nothing to worry about there, Stagliano assured.
“They were more equipped to write this story than I am;
they’re girls,” he said with a laugh. “They were good at
coming up with some interesting dynamics. I made sure the
script had some moments in it where the girls could really
perform. They’re in strong, emotional lesbian relationships
and we’re using rough sex to help tell the story that’s
happening.”
At first they thought they’d shoot it in America. “But it
didn’t work out that way,” Cross said. “Then we got an email
from John that he is still really interested in shooting this
material because he thinks it’s going to be something new
and groundbreaking, especially for him because he has never
shot a girl/girl movie before.
“So he was so focused on it that he decided to come to
Europe and shoot it with us with European performers.”
Stagliano even gave his leading ladies the opportunity to
pick the rest of the cast. Their choices were Angel Long,
Nikita Bellucci, Jessie Volt and Henessy. Proxy Paige also
performs in Part 1, while Tiffany Doll and Nataly Gold join
the cast in Part 2.
“I think also we chose these girls because we kind of fancy
them,” Cross said. “This is what I felt like when choosing
the girls. Like OK, I always wanted to shoot with this girl. I
love this girl … I’m not choosing just because your scenes are
great, I’m choosing you because I kind of fancy you.”
Bentley added, “Because there’s nothing worse than
turning up on set with a girl that doesn’t want to lick your
pussy.”
Cross and Bentley perform one sex scene together in Part I
and two more in Part II. Cross said that while they set out to
perform decidedly graphic sex, it was important to also show
“the feminine, psychological side of our relationship.”
“We didn’t want to just focus on sex scenes,” she said.
Bentley reasoned, “And that is what John is very good at.
But we know the reason why he wanted to shoot this movie
was because she and I have a connection that is in some
ways fucked up and very intense, and I guess we took the
connection that we have in real life and magnified it. We
made it enormous and stretched out of control.”
Cross echoed the sentiment. “I think this is what inspired
him because he wanted to shoot something real,” Cross said.
“He saw this connection between me and Sam. He didn’t
want another movie that was like, ‘now you’re going to have
a sex scene with this girl, and now you’re going to do this and
that …’ He wanted to show emotions and real ones.”
Stagliano called Hard in Love “the best stuff I’ve ever shot in
some ways.”
Calling Stagliano “the godfather of gonzo,” Bentley
admitted “for us, doing this movie with John was such a huge
deal.”
“We will always be in awe of John,” Bentley said. “He’s
done so much for both of us. So it was like an honor and a
pleasure to do this movie with him.”