Page 45 - AVN June 2018

“THEY ASKED ME MANY TIMES IF I WAS GONNA MAKE
A PARODY, AND THE TRUTH IS THAT I ALMOST DIDN’T. ...
I REALLY DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. I
MEAN, HOW DO YOU PARODY A PARODY?”
—AXEL BRAUN ON ‘DEADPOOL XXX’
of Axel, he said, involve “my dad teaching me Krav
Maga in Italy when I was like 2 years old. For some
reason he was obsessed with making sure I knew
how to disarm and subdue somebody who had a gun
pointed at my face. Did I mention I was 2? My first
memories of Lasse are from when I was 3 and he
came to visit. We played for hours, I was chasing him
around my dad’s house and shooting him with a squirt
gun and by dinner time he was so exhausted and wet
that he passed out on the couch before the food was
ready and didn’t wake up until 7 a.m.”
Rikki said he always knew about the family
business. “My dad was very open about his work, and
Lasse was a regular guest on talk shows in Italy, so it
was kinda impossible not to know,” he said.
“I think the passion for movies is somehow
genetic,” Rikki mused. “My dad and my grandpa were
always huge movie buffs. In the ’90s they would go
to matinees together every morning and watch two
movies back to back, then one movie at home every
night. And my dad owned a chain of video stores in
Italy, so I had access to just about every movie ever
made. … After I graduated high school I felt film
school was the most natural path for me. Meanwhile,
I began helping my dad as a production assistant,
then worked my way up to camera operator, assistant
director and video editor. I did that for four years, and
one day he just sat me down and out of the blue told
me, ‘I think you’re ready to direct,’ which was quite a
shock for me. But here I am and I love it!”
Rikki’s biggest challenge was not disappointing
his father. “Exposed was a script he had written for
himself, and the fact that he gave it to me created a
fantastic amount of pressure. Turned out to be an
amazing experience … at the end of Day One on set,
he hugged me and told me I did great and that he was
impressed and very proud of me. He is really not the
kind of guy who gives out compliments easily, so that
was pretty much the most amazing moment ever.”
Since then, Rikki has gone on to direct several
all-sex movies for Wicked Pictures. “I am honestly
still so stoked to see my name and Wicked in the
same sentence—being able to shoot for them is a
dream come true! I can’t really pick a favorite, but I
think that for a director the appreciation for the final
result is always blended with the memories of the
experience, so I’d say Blondage and Super Naturals are
the two that stand out for me.”
In Europe, Rikki writes and directs for Le Iene, an
Italian comedy/satire TV show. “Every couple months
I come to L.A. to shoot for Wicked. I am actually
under lifetime contract with my dad for anything adult
related and he lends me to them. Seriously.”
Rikki also believes another adult feature is in the
cards. “I love shooting features. I am co-writing one
with my dad as we speak, which is pretty exciting.”
And in terms of his future overall, Rikki joked, “I’ve
got two sets of very big shoes to fill, so right now
my main goal is to not embarrass my dad ... or make
grandpa roll in his grave.”
But Is It Art?
As he gets closer to hitting the three-decade mark
in the business, coming up next year, Axel Braun
continues to take his work seriously—as any actor or
crew member on his movies can attest to, given the
long hours and notoriously close attention to detail.
But when speaking to the director, it seems he doesn’t
take himself as seriously as others might expect.
“I didn’t get into porn because I wanted to bang
the girls. I got into this because the doors were open
for me because of my father, because I went to film
school and I saw an opportunity to make movies. It
was interesting and it was part of my family’s legacy
and it was just like, I didn’t really want to—it just
happened.”
And now that he’s here, Braun wants to do the best
work he can. “I think it’s important to still approach
this business and adult filmmaking as something that
is of consequence and is not just to make something
quick and cheap.”
But as he emphasizes more than once, “I never
made the mistake of considering myself an artist—I
understand the narrative that some people are
propagating that we are all artists; I disagree. If you
ask me, Picasso was an artist. Michelangelo was artist.
If you want to talk about directors, David Lynch is
an artist. Jean Cocteau is an artist. Terrence Malick
is an artist. I think that at best we’re entertainers,
and there’s nothing wrong with that. The issue that I
have with the mantra we’re all artists is that it creates
unrealistic expectations in the performers, in people
who all of a sudden feel like they’re different than
something other that what they are. The world doesn’t
see us as artists.”
He said he understands “the thought behind it—
trying to legitimize what we do,” but he’s realistic
about how much respect the outside world will grant
to him. “I’m in a privileged position because what I do
is a little more talked about in mainstream media; it’s
a little more highbrow than most. But the bottom line
is we are not perceived as [artists].”
How about Lasse—did he think of himself as an
artist? “Absolutely not,” Axel asserted. “He saw
himself as a revolutionary, never as an artist. There’s a
difference in taking your product seriously and taking
yourself seriously. He took the product very seriously;
he wanted to make sure that it was the best quality he
could give and he wanted to make sure that he had the
shots that he wanted, he had the productions that he
wanted, he had everything—he followed every step of
the way. … But he never took himself seriously.”
And that’s certainly a distinction that Lasse’s son
hastens to embrace. Despite the mainstream notice
he’s orchestrated, the industry acclaim he’s enjoyed
and the many awards he’s won, the director spoke
quite articulately about his understanding that success
can be fleeting. “Appreciate and be grateful and
humble when people put you on the pedestal—know
that eventually they will detest you for the very reason
why they put you on the pedestal in the first place.”
Laughing at himself as much as anything, he said with
a smirk, “I’m such a wise older man right now.”
FATHER FIGURE Lasse Braun got his start in porn in 1961, and then brought son Axel into the business in the 1990s.
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