Page 53 - AVN May 2018

Stormy Daniels—her legal name, her well-
Everyone in the U.S. knows everything about
developed ability to cut Twitter fools off at the
knees, and who her attorney is.
Within the world of porn specifically, people know
quite a bit about her too. She’s won many industry
awards (including AVN’s coveted Best New Starlet
Award in 2004), she’s a magnet for mainstream
attention, and she’s been a Wicked Girl since 2002.
One of the most overlooked aspects of Daniels’
storied, spectacle-laden career though is that she’s also
a director. That hasn’t changed—but her affiliation
with Wicked Pictures has.
Amid everything else happening in her life, Daniels’
sixteen-year performer/director contract relationship
with Wicked Pictures terminated this past January. In
its place: a director contract with Digital Playground
and performer contract with Digital Playground and
Brazzers.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Daniels
about her filmmaking work, her once seemingly
inextricable link to an iconic industry brand, and her
new path forward within another equally iconic space.
Here’s what she had to say.
Dr. Chauntelle: How did you end up being a
contract director at Wicked Pictures?
Stormy Daniels: During the first year I was with
Wicked [as a contract performer], I wrote a couple of
scripts. Brad Armstrong was having trouble writing a
script, and I said, “I can help you, I write.” He laughed
at me, which really, really pissed me off at the time.
Looking back, I understand where he was coming
from though. Since I’ve been a director for so many
years, I’ve gotten hundreds of scripts in the mail and
none of them have been shootable. They are all so
terrible. So, I’m sure he was chuckling at me based
on the fact that most people can’t write a good adult
movie script. But he read mine and loved it and bought
it and asked me if I could do some more. It grew from
there.
I also wrote scripts for Michael Raven and Jonathan
Morgan, who were the other contract directors for
Wicked at the time. But the problem with that was
that I have a photographic memory, so when I write
a script the movie actually plays in my head. Like,
it’s very specific and even though Brad, Jonathan and
Michael Raven are all fantastic directors and they
didn’t do anything wrong, it’s still going to be their
interpretation of what I’ve written. So, that was really
irritating, like “You’re ruining my vision” and “In my
mind she had on a purple shirt, and you just put her in
yellow? This whole thing is a disaster!”
So, you needed to actualize your vision and
directing was the natural next step?
Right. And this was back when money was no object
for the big companies, and I really just wanted to know
if—just one time—I could take something from my
head to paper to screen.
I was able to bluff the owner of Wicked into letting
me direct a movie. It was called One Night in Vegas
(2004), and I wrote it, of course, and it starred Kaylani
Lei.
I’m pretty detail-oriented—it goes with me being
a control freak—so I was pretty prepared production-
wise, and I have a really great crew. Most of them still
DIGITAL PLAYGROUND IS VERY DETAIL ORIENTED AND I
AM USED TO HAVING MORE CREATIVE FREEDOM,
SO I FELT A LITTLE CONFINED AT MOMENTS—
BUT THE FLIP SIDE OF THAT WAS THAT I ALSO FELT
A LITTLE BIT RELIEVED TO NOT HAVE TO MAKE EVERY
SINGLE DECISION.
work for me to this day. But I remember sitting in the
director’s chair the first day and leaning over to Jake
Jacobs—who still works for me and has worked for
me on every movie I’ve shot—and [saying], “OK, so
when do I call ‘action’?” and he was whispering in my
ear and coaching me. I totally had no idea what I was
doing!
Halfway through the first day, though, I remember
standing at the top of the staircase and directing
kind of a big scene because, of course, it was my
first movie and I had to complicate things. ... And I
remember standing on top of the stairs and people
are asking me what to do and I’m giving directions
and orders to talent and crew, and I had an epiphany.
I was just standing there and I had this moment, like,
“Oh my God, this is what I was meant to do.” And
then my very next thought was, “Muhahaha I’m the
puppet master, they must do what I say”—and I’ve
been drunk with power ever since that moment.
Well, you’re a diverse puppet master:
comedies, Westerns, that gruesome one where
the teen runaway dies in the end (Wanderlust,
2013). What do you like directing best?
I like the comedies and then my second favorite
is really dark and suspenseful. I have a really hard
time writing just a “normal” romance, which was
tough because I was the director for the Wicked
Passions line. My contract with Wicked was to direct
ten movies a year, and then it changed to five regular
Wicked movies and five Wicked Passions movies.
I struggled every time I had to write one of those
because you can’t be too much of anything—you can’t
be too dark, you can’t be too funny, you can’t be too
sad. It’s just, like, so plain.
Do you think they gave you the Passions ones
because you’re a lady, and ladies know a lot
about passion and romance?
Nobody else really did very many of them, but I
don’t think that it had anything to do with my vagina.
I think it had to do with the fact that I was the only
one that could get the scripts approved consistently. I
was punished for my good behavior.
So, what are some of your favorites?
Sleeping Around (2006)—I love that movie. I had
dinner with Randy Spears recently, and we talked
about that movie. I haven’t talked about that movie
in ten years, and we had [our friends] in stitches. We
were talking about when I jumped over the couch and
how I chased him with the dildo—it’s still one of my
favorites for sure. I like that one, and I like Divorcees
(2013) a lot. I felt like the dialogue was really real. It
wasn’t contrived or trying to paint a picture of how
nice divorced ladies should talk. I also like Switch
(2013) a lot, where me and Michael Vegas switch
bodies—he does a fantastic Stormy—and then, of
course, I love Wanted (2015) because I survived it.
But really, I’ve done so many, it’s hard for me to
pick. I’m really proud of the work that I’ve done.
...and yet, after all that, now you are with Digital
Playground and Brazzers?
Yes. Honestly, I thought that I would be at Wicked
forever—or, at least until there was no more Wicked
or I got hit by a car or fell of my horse too many times
and couldn’t function anymore. I don’t know, I just
never really imagined that I would be in the adult
business and not be with Wicked Pictures. The very
first porn set that I ever set foot on was a Wicked set,
my first boy-girl scene was for a Wicked movie and my
first feature and, I mean, I just never really thought I
would be anywhere else.
So, what happened?
Over the last couple years, obviously, money has
become tighter, budgets have gotten smaller, and the
work has gotten harder. I added it up one day and,
for the last couple years, I’ve been making minimum
wage if you break it down by the hours that I put in. It
was a labor of love, though, like when I did Wanted. So
many things went wrong on the set. ... My profit was
less than $700 when it was all said and done because
I put so much of my own money back in. I didn’t
care though because I loved it and I was so grateful
to finally do this movie that I’d tried to get done for
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