Page 98 - AVN May 2018

FEATURE |
(Continued from page 48)
Tommy Pistol gets his comeuppance in the Pure Taboo story “The Weight of Infidelity,” which was released outside of the site’s pay wall on April 20.
FEATURE | By Dan Miller
it’s not for the primary sake of making sales. It’s
for what I feel is a very important scene to expose
to the industry, to expose to our fellow performers,
to expose to our fellow producers, to industry
supporters and fans. And I think that burying it
within our update schedule for our members only is
not the way I want to release this. People can come
and check us out and if they want to join they can
join like they always can. But that’s not the reason
why we’re releasing it. We’re releasing it because I
think it’s something that’s the first of its kind and
I hope that it’s the start of encouraging others to
challenge the status quo of what adult content could
be, which is very much part of Pure Taboo’s message.
At our heart that is what we try to do.
So this is a perfect example. Why hide it just
because it cost us a little money? It’s not just about
that. Long tail it’s not about that.
AW: I like that it encourages the industry to be
more inclusive as well. More inclusive of different
body types, ethnicities, sexualities. Everything.
Obviously we are focused on body type in this one,
but I think the industry can always do more to be
more inclusive with the casts they choose and even
crews. It’s just a way of thinking about how we
should constantly be thinking about ways we can be
a better industry.
BM: And I think it’s funny because word is already
getting out about what we’ve done and I’ve had a
couple of producers, female producers coincidentally,
who’ve reached out to me, to say, “Thank you for
doing this. I’ve tried to do this type of thing and I
haven’t been able to,” or “I really appreciate that you
guys are exploring weight shaming or this subject
and getting it out.” So even before we’ve released it
you know, within our fairly small-town community,
you can see that it does resonate with people. And
that to me is exactly why we wanted to do it in the
first place and I think why it’s important to allow
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people to see it as in itself a socially critical piece. I
think that is important to get out there.
AW: I guess I really encourage everyone to watch
this. Even if they think it’s not going to be their
thing they should just have a look and just see.
Because a lot of the times even I’ve found with my
sexuality, exploring it through pornography, there
have been times when I thought I’m not going to be
into something and suddenly it’s turning me on and
the thing that I enjoy most. So I think it’s important
for people to watch it even just for the message.
But I think they’re going to find it sexy, too. I think
the sex scenes are really powerful and I loved my
moments with Karla. That was really on a personal
note—I really wanted to have sex with Karla, so it
was great.
BM: And she really wanted to have sex with Angela
so there was a lot of chemistry. But yeah, even fans
of girl/girl content. Even from a sex perspective it
has a little bit of something for everybody in there in
terms of taste and dynamics and stuff. It really is an
interesting piece and it is a very sexy piece, especially
the connection between the two women that’s
developed. Especially that over time there was a real
raw sensuality and emotion to that.
And I know having spent many years talking to
lesbian content fans that chemistry is the most
important thing and it certainly was evident between
Tommy and Karla. And it was evident between
Tommy and Angela. There’s a lot of chemistry going
on in the scene.
AW: But the girl/girl scene, the chemistry was
really complex, which I liked. When you’re cheated
on, obviously it’s a devastating feeling, but there’s
also this thing that not many people talk about.
You’re often turned on by the fact that you’ve been
cheated on. You want to suppress that feeling
because of your devastation. And so during the girl/
girl scene I kind of work through my emotions. It’s a
fantasy sequence so I am working through my emotions
and my anger at Karla even though she shouldn’t be the
source of my anger because it’s Tommy’s character John
that has done this to me.
But there’s this lust for her and thinking that her
body is amazing because she’s beautiful … I’m turned
on by the fact that she’s fucked my husband and I’m
just turned on by her body. But then I’m also angry.
I’m angry at the situation. I’m angry at him. I’m angry
at her. I work through my anger and my lust in this
dream sequence and end up coming out the other end,
obviously, keeping my anger toward John. And Karen
and I team up to get our revenge. So I think the sex
scene talks about something we don’t talk about often.
Nobody is talking about how hot it is to be cheated on
because no one wants to admit that that’s got a sexual
pull to it.
BM: The scene between Karla and Angela, I was crying
behind the scenes. Just because it gets really real.
And I’m known for crying on the set when it gets to
that point. Ask our cast. But I was in tears by the end
of it because it is so complicated and it hits a nerve
where you are in that position that Angie the character’s
position is in, it really does thwart you. Everybody’s
been in a position where they’ve been burned by
someone before. You can tap into that and it does draw
out a lot of mixed feelings. Watching it play out live I
was very moved by how powerful and raw it was and
seeing these two actresses get to that extremely raw
place, it was very powerful.
AVN: What about the cliffhanger at the end? How do
you want people to respond to that?
BM: Here’s my thing: I know what I can show and I
know what I can’t show. But I know what I can leave you
thinking and no censor’s going to stop me from what
you’re left with in your own imagination. So we like to
infer things at the end of our episodes. And generally the
things that we’re inferring are things that we couldn’t
really show on screen, but your imagination is going to
do a far better job of playing out the next part of that
story by yourself. I like to leave you writing the second
chapter.
AW: The thing with art is once you put it out there you
have no control over how people interpret it, so people
may come to their own conclusions. But I think we made
it pretty clear what we wanted to say. And so much of
the story—well, the entire story is about consumption,
restricting consumption and so the ending also has its
own take on consumption and obviously it’s not really
touched on in adult but food in and of itself is very, very
intimate. You’re putting something inside your body
that becomes part of you. I feel like food and sex are very
much connected in that way. They’re similar. We use
sex to connect with people and we use sex to bond, and
when we have sex we’re transgressing the bounds of our
body and someone is going inside of you.
And just like with food we use food to connect with
people. Food says a lot about us. It says a lot about
our culture. It says a lot about how we grew up. It’s
comforting just as sex is comforting. Obviously, the
ending also is connected to consumption.
BM: And to taboo and definitely a darker side of taboo.
It’s a pretty powerful message that Tommy’s character
will not be manipulating women anymore.