Page 35 - AVN February 2018

The thing that’s most striking
when on a Jacky St. James set is
the attention to detail by both
herself and her crew—and how
that sometimes conflicts with her
desire to get difficult shots.
Take, for instance, the small
cage that’s been positioned at the
end of a long hallway. Katrina Jade, who’s playing the
role of Livia, a former dominant who’s now exploring
what it feels like to submit—in this case to veteran
actor Toni Ribas—has been put in the cage, and when
Toni unlatches it, she’s supposed to crawl behind
him into the living room. St. James’ (and the crew’s)
problem? How to shoot Katrina’s crawl, being led on a
leash by Toni, without one or both of the cameramen
accidentally getting one or the other’s foot in the shot
as they track the pair’s slow progress to the couch
where the sex will be taking place.
Thankfully, St. James is an old hand at this, and
she’s always up for such a challenge, so after a couple
of retakes, she’s satisfied and can get on with shooting
the coupling.
Darker Side of Desire 2 is the sequel to St. James’
highly rated first volume from Sweet Sinner, a Mile
High Media studio, which has been nominated for
several AVN Awards, and as this is written, it’s
unknown how it will fare at the show, but St. James is
hopeful that at least the current production will find as
much favor with critics as did the first.
Darker Side of Desire 2 has Gia Paige as the main
protagonist, a grad student who’s been dating “vanilla
POWER PLAY
Jacky St. James explores the darker side for Sweet Sinner
guys,” as she puts it, while beginning to miss
“the days when life was exciting and unexpected,”
so she decides to write her master’s thesis on
“kink,” and in the process, she interviews several
women who’ve experimented with different sexual
lifestyles, including cosplay and pure masochism.
Finally, Gia decides to re-enter the lifestyle—but we
won’t reveal which style she chooses.
“My role is somebody who used to be in a
dominant/submissive relationship with somebody
but who has since given up on that and is kind
of cheating into the idea of maybe going back,”
Gia said. “I do like playing these roles, because
I’ve never played with that kind of stuff before,
the dom/sub type stuff, so it’s really exciting. It’s
not something I’ve done in my personal life but
working with it, I’ve grown pretty comfortable with
it and actually like it. It’s intriguing to try different
things and to find out about yourself and your
sexuality.”
And in a sense, that’s the same reason St. James
wrote it, what with several of her recent BDSM-
oriented features such as her Emma Marx series for
New Sensations having scored both critical acclaim
and several awards. But she had a surprising
admission.
the “complete opposite” of Gia’s character; someone
who’s “a little bit more rough around the edges, tattooed
and edgy,” while Toni Ribas “has a reputation for being
good at domming women”—and their sex scene proves
they were a perfect match.
After Toni leads Katrina, clad only in sheer black
pantyhose with the ass cut out, over to a wooden-framed
couch, he draws her upright and kisses the back of her
neck before easing her down on her knees where she
takes out his cock and sucks on it, her eyes always fixed
on his.
In short order, Toni’s clothes come off and the pair
kiss before Katrina mounts him cowgirl style, bouncing
with wild abandon. More kissing follows until she lies
back on the couch and raises her legs so he can penetrate
her fully. Soon, though, Katrina’s on her feet and Toni is
taking her horsie style, which segues into doggie style
back on the couch, then more missionary before the
muscular stud cums right on her labia.
The feature—which was due to be released by Sweet
Sinner on February 7, just ahead of Valentine’s Day—also
includes a scene with Giselle Palmer and Tyler Knight,
where the busty blonde role-plays a cat, and then Aidra
Fox performs her masochistic duties for Steve Holmes—
and does such a good job of telling Gia about it that Gia
seeks out Steve herself!
I ALWAYS CAST FIRST, WHICH IS A LITTLE
DIFFERENT, BUT THEN I CAN WRITE TO THE
STRENGTH OF THE PERFORMER.
—JACKY ST. JAMES
“I don’t understand the BDSM lifestyle in terms
of it being sexually arousing, so when I first wrote
my first Emma, and then of course eventually the first
Darker Side of Desire, Scott Taylor at New Sensations
wanted me to read Fifty Shades of Grey to find out why
it was such a big deal, and I hated the book but I
totally got why it was popular,” she said. “So that’s
when I started writing BDSM scripts and I had to do a
lot of research because I was like, ‘I don’t understand
why this is a turn-on.’ But for me, it was like trying
to educate myself by talking to a lot of people in the
lifestyle and figuring out, ‘Why is this so hot?’ And I
get it now. I mean, it’s not something I practice but I
totally understand now why people find it sexy—and
it is sexy.”
As a director and screenwriter, St. James always
decides first whom she wants in the cast before
sitting down at the keyboard.
“I always cast first, which is a little different, but
then I can write to the strength of the performer,”
she explained. “Gia is such a good actress, I can write
anything for her and I know she can do it. She was
in the first one, but in terms of my process, I find the
people I like and then I figure out, okay, if the scene
is, let’s say, BDSM, how can I make this work? And
so, usually I’ll build around the lead character; like,
okay, Gia’s very much an ingenue so I’ll build around
this sort of lost ingenue character, and then I figure
out what supporting types would make that character
interesting.”
With that in mind, St. James cast Katrina Jade as
Gia Paige (below left) returns from the first volume of The Darker Side of Desire 2,
joined by new cast member Katrina Jade (top left).
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