When last we interviewed Julie Simone, she was primarily known as a fetish model and actress. She'd done a bit of directing for Harmony Productions and Gwen Media, but she was mostly a familiar face in front of the camera, not the chick directing from behind it. Now, she's one of the industry's fastest-rising figures, a shameless fetishist who's directed a shelf or two worth of decadent and dangerous erotica. Working both as domme and director in many of these titles, she showcases her love for pervy play as well as her interest in pushing artistic limits.
Whether she's focusing on intense female-on-female BDSM, as in the Vicious Vixens series with Aiden Starr, or her own smoking fetish, as with the Smoking Interviews series, or exploring her own dark side with the recently released Audition, Simone is sure to challenge and arouse the viewer like no other director out there.
We took a few moments to chat with Simone about her career, and particularly
her most recent title, Audition.
Eros Zine: You were primarily known as a model and actress until
2006 -- that's when you started directing in earnest.
Julie Simone: Yes -- mostly before that I was selling videos to
companies that I'd directed; I'd directed two for Harmony and two
for Gwen Media, but not with the energy that I have this past year.
Eros Zine: You're doing about one title a month now?
Julie Simone: That's about right.
Eros Zine: Most of your BDSM output is female-on-female; is that likely to continue?
Julie Simone: Well, actually I have a new DVD I just released, with master Liam, Gia Paloma and myself, plus Krissy and Lystra. It's boy-girl and SM -- and girl girl. I think that's something that's really underrepresented, just because it's harder to do with all the stupid laws around bondage and penetration. So I made an SM video.
Julie Simone: I went into it knowing that I might not be able to release it -- it's a rape scene. We abduct Gia and rape her repeatedly. [laughs] So it's an actual rape scene. She comes in for an audition; the scene she's reading is a rape scene, so I'm making her read the rape scene while she's being raped.
Eros Zine: What made you want to do Audition, which by all accounts is the edgiest film you've done yet?
Julie Simone: It was a video that needed to be made. You rarely see good power exchange BDSM with sex by lifestyle players. I also wanted to challenge certain ideas. We're taught that being turned on by violence is wrong, yet there are all these horror movies coming out that are basically torture porn. Since they're in the "horror" genre, it's somehow ok. I figured if we're going to show rape or violence, let's show every single part of it, including the penetration. Gia was amazing in the video and I think this is my best work to date. It's the first time I had a composer that I could work with on the sound design, which is a big part of this video.
Eros Zine: There's been this flirtation between BDSM and porn; your background is obviously pretty heavy in the BDSM. And yet I see a lot of mainstream porn movies that will have the tools of fetish, but there's no real clear power exchange. I'm curious what you think of that.
Julie Simone: I really don't pay attention to what other people are doing. But the problem with mainstream porn doing BDSM is that they're using porn people rather than BDSM people. You're not going to get a real scene from people who don't understand the psychology -- who have never done a scene in real life, they don't know what they're doing. It just won't have the chemistry.
Julie Simone: That's why when I did Audition, I didn't get a porn star. I got a lifestyle SM player as the male dom. Which is risky, because he might not be able to perform -- but at least the SM would be real.
Eros Zine: Well a lot of SM players who do the party scene they are performing in front of a huge crowd….
Julie Simone: But performing at a party is different than performing with a bunch of hot lights and four people looking at you saying "Come on, get it up, Motherfucker!" It's really hard to feel dominant when people are looking at you like that -- because you're no longer in control. I imagine it's got to be hard having a female director, for a male dominant, as well.
Eros Zine: Let's turn the clock back a bit to The Jogger -- was that the first video you did?
Julie Simone: I think it was the second.
Eros Zine: The Jogger was clearly an explicit male-female non-consensual fantasy. When you started doing mainstream porn, or porn that might be mainstream depending on distribution, did you have a problem watering down your fantasies or what you're interested in, in a sense?
Julie Simone: I guess I didn't really think about it. When I started shooting porn, it wasn't bondage, it wasn't SM -- it was smoking, which is something I'm very into, which is also something I hadn't seen mixed with porn.
Julie Simone: Nobody was going to buy a video of me and my friends hanging out smoking; there's got to be something else, and the sex was the something.
Eros Zine: Are you a smoker?
Julie Simone: I smoke when I drink; I'm not a regular smoker. I just like to play with it. I just have a really strong oral fixation and that's just another instrument that I can put in my mouth.
Eros Zine: I finally quit smoking after 20 years, and watching Smoking Interviews, all I could think was, "I want a fucking cigarette."
Julie Simone: (laughs)
Eros Zine: With Vicious Vixens, you're doing stuff that is really, seriously SM. Is that a problem with your distributor?
Julie Simone: Well, the problem was in the beginning she didn't really understand how to market it, because I was her first fetish line. She'd say "People are calling, and they're asking, 'is there sex in it?'" And I'd say "Well, there's forced orgasms, and as far as I'm concerned, that's sex." Working with Aiden has helped, because I'd never done any strap-on stuff in my videos, and now it's a requirement. (Laughs.) We did it in Penetrating Lena and people went crazy for it. I noticed, it was really popular, and so I did my first-ever strap-on scene as a top, and I said, "Wow, this is really fun." (Laughs.) So now, it's forever. (Laughs.)
Eros Zine: Is it easier getting it out there if there's girl-girl SM?
Julie Simone: As long as there's sex in it, people seem to be happy. If it's too heavy, it makes some people nervous. But given that my distributor is a lesbian distributor, given that there's girls having sex makes it an easier sell for her and for the people she deals with.
We had a single-tail scene in Disciplining Dana. We did an asshole caning. I'm into really heavy play, personally; I'm tired of doing lame videos where it's like "Look, we're flogging!" Flogging can be really heavy and it can be really enjoyable, but it can also be really boring. I'm at the point where I'm doing what I like, and if people buy it, great, but if they don't like it, that's their problem.
Eros Zine: Flogging is a perfect example. Having watched a lot of flogging scenes, I know it's often extremely boring to watch, but it a lot of fun to do. I hate flogging scenes in porn; it's like watching paint dry. Do you see your future titles going in a particular direction in terms of SM or fetish or sex?
Julie Simone: I really don't know -- I kind of just do what I'm feeling at the moment.
I want to keep Smoking Interviews going, though. It's hard to find models in LA who smoke, though. I'm not interested in shooting alt girls. It didn't used to be so hard. I'm from the East Coast everybody smokes. In LA people are like, "I can't have smoke anywhere near me!"
Eros Zine: Is there another installment coming soon?
Julie Simone: I shot #3 in February and will be editing it next. It starts Gia Paloma, Smoking Mary Jane, yours truly, Naudia Nyce, Buster Good, Swiss Balls, and Johnny Sins. This installment is the most fetishistic of the series with a naughty nurse, foot worship, girl-girl strap on sex, cast mummification, CBT/femmedomme, anal sex with a bunny, double penetration and heavy machinery! I'm really really excited about this one. In the previous installments I was trying to do flat lighting and make them look more "normal". For this one I was more true to myself and my style and lit the way I like to light with shadows and color...
Eros Zine: What do you think of the differentiation between fetish and SM?
Julie Simone: "Fetish," I think, is more of an elitist term. Latex is very elitist. Certain fetishists, they use the word fetish so they can feel like they're intellectuals, that they're somehow better and more sophisticated, whereas BDSM people are looked upon as gutter trash by the media, I think. That's usually how they're presented.
Eros Zine: That they're doing something sick, whereas with "fetish" you're just dressing up, and that's OK.
Julie Simone: Yeah -- it's more like a fashion show. Whereas, I consider myself a fetishists, but not for the visual aspect, but because there are certain things I'm really into. Like I'm really into feet. I'll be the one at the party looking at everybody's pedicure and giving people foot massages -- hardcore foot fetish. (Laughs.)
Eros Zine: Do you think you'll do a specific foot fetish video any time soon?
Julie Simone: No, I try to have elements of the various fetishes I'm into in each of my videos, because I think that's more interesting. When you focus on one fetish, you're kind of limiting yourself. The reason I did it with Smoking Interviews is because I hadn't seen much of it.
Eros Zine: What's next for the Vicious Vixens series?
Julie Simone: "Breaking Berlin." My work is getting harder and more violent for some reason. (smiles)
Eros Zine: Thanks, Julie! Readers can find out more about Julie Simone at JulieSimone.com.
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