Page 58 - AVN August 2018

FEATURE |
“I’M A WHATEVER-IT-TAKES
KIND OF GUY.”
—GREG LANSKY
FEATURE | LANSKY
Tori Black, the only two-time winner of the AVN Female Performer of the Year award, showed no fear in her December 2017 Vixen Angel shoot.
it special. So when they saw that they were like, ‘OK, there’s something about this guy.’
“So they give me more work and by mid-2007 I was directing for most of their stuff. By 2008
I had my own production company and I was handling 80 percent of their stuff. By 2009, 90
percent.”
RK taught him to think bigger.
“Their vision was like every site needs to be a home run,” Lansky continues. “Every site needs to
be a brand. Every site needs to be changing the game.”
STEPPING UP
Lansky remembers the moment in 2013 like it was yesterday.
“I was driving on Hollywood Boulevard and I look at my wife, Jenn, and I was like, ‘I really
want to do my own thing.’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, I think it’s time for you to do it,’” he says.
“And we’re at the light. And I was just like, ‘It’s the worst time possible. No one wants to lend
money and there’s so much piracy. I talked to so many investors. No one wants to invest money.’
And then she grabbed my hand and she’s like, ‘Everything you touch turns into gold. Just do it.’
And that’s a true story. That’s exactly how it happened. I can visualize it.”
It turns out Lansky had already bought the domain for Blacked and had shot a few scenes. He
also happened to meet Steve Matthysen and Mike Miller through a mutual friend when they asked
Lansky if he could do a promo photo shoot for PornTube.
Lansky says at first he told them he was too swamped, but they kept talking.
“And these guys were really persistent,” he continues. “I was like, ‘OK, fine, I’ll do it. I’m telling
you it’s going to cost you a lot of money because I’m very expensive.’ I said something along
those lines and they’re like, ‘Fine, fine. We really want you to take photos of Riley Reid and Dani
Daniels.’”
Lansky went all out for the assignment—he even made personalized PornTube gear for it without
anyone asking.
“It was a really cool little photo shoot I did for them,” Lansky says. “I didn’t think of them as
partners. I thought of them as maybe down the road we could work together so again I wanted to
nail it. So I prepared.
“I went above and beyond and they were impressed. They were like, ‘What the fuck, this is the
best shit that someone’s ever done for us. What are you doing now?’
“I remember this conversation vividly. … I’m like, well, ‘As a matter of fact I’m launching my
own paysite. And they were like, ‘Can you share [what it is] with us?’ And I’m like, ‘Well that’s a
little confidential.’ So I shared stuff and the conversation goes on. And they’re like, ‘We want to
partner with you.’ Smart move on their part. I gotta give it to them.”
The trio inked their deal during the Phoenix Forum in March 2014—and two months later,
Blacked was born.
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
Lansky’s ascent has given him perspective. When he was still a
rookie shooter trying to make a name for himself at the 2007
AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, Lansky walked the show
floor trying to find directing gigs.
“Everybody turned me down, and you know what the funny part
is? I’m not going to say the name of this person but I went to this
booth. And this is a funny story of how life goes through a cycle
and I feel that—and I don’t mean to get too philosophical. Life is
really a matter of what you put your mind to,” Lansky explains.
“And I feel like sometimes humiliation can be something that
puts you down or you can transform it into a driving force.”
Armed once again with his directing reel on a laptop, Lansky was
told to “come back later” more times than he could count as he
tried to sell himself at the big studio booths.
“Some people were very nice about it and some people didn’t
give me a meeting. But one guy makes me wait for about two
hours. I’m not kidding,” Lansky says.
When he finally got 10 minutes with this studio exec, he says he
received an assurance that he would get a movie.
“I was so happy. And the guy shakes my hand, he looks me in
the eyes and he says, ‘We’ve got a deal. When you come back to
L.A. call me back one week after AVN.’”
Lansky called the guy a week later but his secretary told him he
wasn’t available.
“And this goes on for a week,” Lansky says. “This is a funny
lesson. And I’m just trying to get an answer out of this guy. A week
later I call again for the sixth time. Again, the guy doesn’t even
pick up the phone for me. The secretary is like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s
no point in calling again. He’s not interested in doing a movie. So
yeah, just don’t call again.’ And I’m just like, I was devastated by
this.
“The fact that he had his secretary tell me that he was going to
break his word made it sort of even more painful.
“Ten years later, this guy’s asking for a job—the same guy.”
Lansky says the exec who gave him the runaround a decade ago
texted him, pitching himself for a position.
“It’s funny how in the moment you have all this resentment, you
feel humiliated. But then when you’re put in a position of power
yourself you look at it and you’re like, ‘Would I do that, too?’ I
didn’t. I just never replied to his text. And I consider sometimes
that no reply is a reply,” Lansky says.
Now after being only the second person in porn history to win
the AVN Director of the Year award three consecutive times (2016-
18), he says he has switched his focus.
“I’m not trying to be Director of the Year a fourth, fifth and
sixth. I won it three times in a row. It’s fantastic, I’m very grateful
for that. But my focus now is on mentoring other directors and
expanding my company, which is a lot harder than doing it myself,”
Lansky says.
“I don’t physically do a lot of it anymore myself. If you look at
a lot of the work it says ‘By Greg Lansky.’ The reason why we said
that is because it’s by me and my name is kind of a staple in this
industry. So yeah, the branding is me, the cast is me, a lot of the art
direction is me.”
As we move to his minimalist office, furnished with a sleek black
leather couch and chairs, we run into the AVN Award-winning
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