Page 30 - AVN Januray 2017

WHO’S WHO
(Continued from page 26)
WE HAVE OUR VERY LOYAL BASE. THOSE
WHO LIKE IT REALLY LIKE IT. THERE ARE
VERY FEW PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY WHO
STILL DO WHAT WE DO WITH FEATURES.
—WICKED PICTURES CONTRACT DIRECTOR BRAD ARMSTRONG
INTERVIEW | By Sharan Street
‘I love it.’ ...
“I think that takes either bravery or self-confidence—
the willingness to go the extra mile for the part,” he
added. “She was fantastic in the role as my wife. I
just watched the rough cut for the sex, and that was
cool. And yes, she’s definitely far away from porno,
as is the scene. It was a different kind of sex. It’s not
for everybody, but the people who are buying Wicked
products aren’t everybody.”
Having directed his first feature for the adult studio
in 1995, Armstrong’s name is tightly tied to Wicked,
but he actually got his start as a performer and has
worked for many other studios, most significantly Vivid
Entertainment. So how did a nice boy from Toronto end
up in a crazy business like this?
It all started when Armstrong decided to become
a male stripper. “I fancied myself in high school as
something of a ladies’ man,” he said with a self-
deprecating tone. “And I heard about this amateur night
thing [at a bar]. I decided to go up there and shake my
ass.”
Though only 17, he entered the contest and won—and
ended up staying at the bar for a couple of years until he
actually reached legal drinking age (19 in Canada). And
then he decided to go pro.
One thing led to another, as it often does in adult
entertainment. “They had a Men of Canada issue for
Playgirl and they used a bunch of the male strippers who
worked for our agency. And then they shot another one
of me—just a solo one.” Armstrong took that issue of
the magazine to a club in Toronto where adult star Erica
30 | AVN.com | 1.17
Boyer was dancing and he showed it to her. “Hey, look,
I’m a model,” he told her. “Do you think you can help me
get some work down in L.A.?”
Armstrong recalled, “She looked me up and down
and said, ‘Yeah.’ And then we fucked that whole week.
And then we came down here and she introduced me
to [photographers] Suze Randall and Earl Miller and
all those guys and we shot for them and that was the
beginning. And so no Erica Boyer, there’s no Brad
Armstrong.”
Boyer was the first person who helped his adult career,
but she wasn’t the last. And she is far from the only
major female star Armstrong would spend quality time
with off camera.
Another adult performer who influenced Armstrong’s
career was Mark Davis, who was also working as a
male dancer up in Toronto. Through that connection,
Armstrong found himself getting deeper into porn.
“In 1993, I think, I had sold my house up in Canada—I
put myself through college and bought a house being
a little dick dancer—and I was coming down [to the
United States] doing magazines all the time. I did three
porns and didn’t really love it, but I really liked doing
the magazines. And Mark Davis said, ‘Hey, P.T. [Vivid
director Paul Thomas] needs a bunch of party extras,
come on down.’ It was a big mansion and a party scene
and they actually used real champagne and a lot of the
girls were getting drunk and shit. And Dyanna Lauren
at the same time was one of the stripper extras for the
party—she hadn’t done any porn yet.”
Armstrong ended up in bed with a few of the guests—
including Lauren—and then they began seeing
each other. “I took some of the money from the
house sale and we made our own movie.” Titled
Checkmate, it was “like a big chess game,” he
recalled, where taking a piece would lead to sex.
“Shortly after, Vivid signed Dyanna and they
bought my first movie,” he said. Lauren was his
“first in-porno girlfriend. We rented a Jim South
house.”
His next big encounter turned out to be
the most significant. Armstrong met Steve
Orenstein in a bar and told the Wicked honcho
that he’d just sold a movie to Vivid.
Soon Armstrong was working for both
companies, and then both offered him a
contract. The decision to go with Wicked set
Armstrong’s course for the next two decades.
“It’s those little stepping stones all my life,” he
mused.
One of those stones along the way was
famed former adult star Jenna Jameson, whom
Armstrong married. “We looked at it like we
were both up-and-coming—I was an up-and-
coming director and she was up-and-coming
talent, and we would be a power couple. But
once we were married she started believing her
own press and it was a fucking nightmare.”
At various points in his narrative, Armstrong
checked dates with Rick Rodney, the lighting
man who has been with him for more than 15
years.
“You were with Stephanie Swift. I remember
that,” Rodney said.
“That’s what I go by—girlfriends,”
Armstrong joked.
That’s because, as he notes, his relationships
tended to be fairly short—aside from his
current one with Wicked Pictures contract star
Jessica Drake, AVN’s reigning Mainstream Star
of the Year. “Jessica’s the only girl I’ve been
with longer than two years,” he stated. The
epitome of the power couple, the two have
worked together in more than 35 movies.
Over his two decades at Wicked, the porn
world has changed dramatically. There are
fewer big features, smaller crews, more modest
budgets. But story-driven porn still survives at
Wicked.
“We have our very loyal base,” Armstrong
said. “Those who like it really like it. There
are very few people in the industry who still
do what we do with features. So it’s not like
you can just go anywhere and get it. If you’re
a feature guy or a story-driven couple that
likes that kind of movie you’re coming to us or
you’re coming to one or two other companies.”
As he mentally surveyed the porn landscape,
Armstrong said, “Everybody else who did what
we do left that market ... we’re kind of the last
man standing.”
There is, however, a woman who Armstrong
considers to be formidable competition: Jacky
St. James, the New Sensations/Digital Sin
director who just signed on to make movies for
Mile High Media. “She’s the only one in this
market telling an A-to-Z story.”
Find out more about Armstrong’s A-to-Z
stories at Wicked.com and Wickedb2b.com.
Above, Brad Armstrong as a vengeful man of God in the
Wicked Pictures movie The Preacher’s Daughter.