Posted on 05/28/2004 5:25:59 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
A Mormon Girl Gets Her Start in the Adult Movie Business
Jan. 23 — When 20-year-old Michelle saw the handsome Spaniard who would later become her fiancé, she thought it was love at first sight.
[WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual acts that some readers may find offensive.]
"The day we met, he said, 'You're going to be the mother of my children. I love you,'" she remembers. "You know what I mean? I never had that before. I never had a guy be so in love with me."
The couple met on the set of a porn film in a rented house in Prague in July 2001.
Michelle, the daughter of a retired Air Force captain and former bishop in the Mormon Church, was an up-and-coming starlet in the adult video world. She had had some setbacks in her first year in the business, but believed her career was turning around with the Prague trip, which would be her first starring role. Her co-star, 28-year-old Nacho Vidal, was already a well-established star.
The director had told Michelle that Vidal liked her work, and when the pair saw each other they immediately fell into each other's arms, kissing from one side of the house to the other.
"There's nothing bad about you," she told him admiringly as they prepared for the shoot. "You don't know me very well" he replied with a grin.
But when the director finally got the pair to settle down to the business at hand — filming a sex scene — the tone changed. Without any prompting, Vidal got rough during the sex, slapping Michelle's face violently from side to side, and choking her. [Pleased to meet you/Hope you guessed my name]
Afterward, she looked shaken, her face reddened and her eyes watery. But she insisted she was OK. "I look torn up — can you tell?," she asked an ABCNEWS producer who was following her progress for Primetime. Laughing and wiping her eye, she turned away and said without conviction, "I took a beating today, and it was great."
'Belladonna' Is Born
Michelle had gotten her start in the business at 18, when she came to Los Angeles from her home in Utah to look for work as a nude photograph model. When she failed to get modeling work, her agent encouraged her to try porn. She refused at first. "I always hated porn. I thought it was the most disgusting thing in the world," she told Primetime, which followed her career for more than two years.
But she finally agreed. Taking the name Belladonna, like the poisonous flower, she found herself preparing for what she thought would be a simple boy-girl sex scene. She was shocked when the director told her he wanted her to do anal sex — something she says she had never even thought about before. Worried she'd have to go through with it if she wanted to work again, she let him talk her into it. "I was kind of scared. I didn't know if I could say no," she remembers. "I didn't know any better, you know?"
After the session, she was shattered. "I wasn't ready for anal sex.... It was painful. But I can hide it really well." She had just turned 18, the legal age for participation in sexually explicit films.
Michelle went on more shoots over the next few months. Then her agent sent her on a job where she would have sex with male actors in prison outfits — 12 of them. Once again, she tried to back out, telling the director it was "sick," but once again she was talked into it. She had sex — all kinds — with the 12 men. "It was really hard because I really felt like a piece of meat ... in a lion's cage, 12 lions.... I had to do a lot of things I can't imagine anyone wanting to do." She was paid $4,000.
Afterward, she says, she couldn't stop crying. She packed her bags and went home to her family in Utah.
Glimpse of the Big Time
But within a year, she was back, even agreeing to promote the prison movie that had so upset her.
She began to feel that her career was picking up. She got a small part in a movie for VCA, one of the "high end" companies that produce big-budget films, and hoped it might lead to a contract. On the shoot, she met porn legend Ron Jeremy, who was making a cameo, and began to feel like she was fitting in. "The first second I walk in, this girl grabs my breast, and I'm like, Wow, you know, that's like the best welcome ... 'cause then you feel like, Oh, someone likes me, you know?"
Another company considered giving her a contract, but at a meeting, the owner, veteran porn star Ona Zee, sensed that Michelle was not emotionally ready to become an adult star. "There's a part of me that wants to say to you, 'Run for the hills, girl, do something else, because you can be something better,'" she told her.
At the high-end companies — which produce a small proportion of the thousands of adult titles released each year — performers often have contracts and can make six figures by shooting just eight to 10 movies a year. They can pick their own partners and condoms are generally required. Shot on film with elaborate, sets, costumes and plots, the movies can have budgets up to $250,000.
But Michelle did not get a studio contract, and ended up taking a job with a company known for "gonzo" porn — sex-only, amateur-looking productions shot on video. The company, Elegant Angel, was making a film in Prague and offered her a starring role, which she hoped would show the big studios that she could carry a film.
Love Blossoms in Prague
She was thrilled at the attention Vidal gave her during the week in Prague — but wary. "It's weird to have a guy love you that much. That almost scares me because I have a hard time trusting men," she told Primetime, explaining that her first boyfriend cheated on her repeatedly and ultimately left her for a stripper. Privately, Vidal had told Primetime he could never be with just one woman, and would be happy if Michelle's attraction did not lead anywhere.
She came back to Los Angeles by herself, so sore from the week's filming that she says she could hardly walk. But then she flew to Spain to visit Vidal, and their relationship seemed to be going places. She said he could keep having sex with other women, as long as he agreed to be "honest to me, loyal, and just respect me and tell me that I'm number one every day."
She even began hearing wedding bells, telling Primetime, "The second I get married, I won't having sex with men in this business any more."
Wedding Bells
By December 2001, Michelle and Vidal were engaged. As she proudly showed off her diamond ring, saying how pretty it was, Vidal joked in his Spanish accent, "I need to f—k so many girls for that ring."
The couple was in love, Michelle says, but they were fighting regularly. Vidal would sometimes get what he calls "Latino jealous" when he saw her talking to other men at clubs. Michelle told Primetime, "It's hard to be in a relationship with someone in porn."
By now, she was working steadily, even shooting for the same company she shot the prison gangbang for. "I guess now I've gotten past the whole feeling-bad-about-it thing. I'm like, 'OK, I did it and that was pretty damn rough of me' ... Like wow, you know?," she said with a laugh. "I can say that I've done pretty much everything there is to do, and I can walk away feeling a little proud about it, you know?"
The Primetime producers who had been following her noticed changes. At 18, she had said she would never use drugs, but now Primetime learned that she was sometimes high on marijuana during her scenes. She was working without condoms, though she said the risk of AIDS was never far from her mind — or her prayers. "The fans don't like to see condoms ... If I would have said I want to use condoms every time, I really wouldn't get any work," she explained. She contracted chlamydia, which can make you sterile.
And anal sex — which she had be talked into during her first shoot — was now her specialty. "Funny, isn't it? Something I didn't want to do and now I'm known best for it," she told Primetime. No longer a fresh face in the business, she found she had to agree to even riskier sex acts to earn the same money.
Ona Zee, the producer who had interviewed Michelle the previous year, noticed a difference, too. "I said to my husband, Our baby is all grown up and left home. She's no longer the adorable fresh-faced girl that I met ... Now she's really in the life ... Even in the pictures that I see of her, she's much harder, much tougher."
Behind the Smile
During interviews with Primetime, Michelle kept the happy smile she had always had — even when describing things that many people would find disturbing. However, her composure cracked when Diane Sawyer asked why she always smiled. Tears came to her eyes as she said, "Because I like to hide — hide everything, you know?" Then she began to cry, explaining that she hides her real emotions because she wants to show everyone how happy she is. "And I'm not happy ... I don't like myself at all," she said.
Michelle confessed she often felt physical revulsion during her scenes: "My whole entire body feels it when I'm doing it and ... I feel so — so gross." While pretending to be enjoying the sex, she said, she was in fact counting the minutes, telling herself, "Hey, I only have this much time left. Don't worry about it. Get the check. Gonna go deposit it in your bank." She admitted: "You get addicted to the money."
Like other performers Primetime spoke to, Michelle said that during shooting she often imagines herself outside her body. "I call it the 'other half,'" she said.
Bringing Home a Trophy
In January 2002, Michelle's Prague movie won an award at the Adult Video News awards in Las Vegas, considered the Oscars of the adult industry. Things were not going smoothly with Vidal that day — he complained that Michelle "don't do the ironing my clothes... I still 28 and I need my mother," and at the ceremony he openly checked out other women — but there were crowds of admiring fans for Michelle and she soaked up the attention.
After going on stage to pick the trophy, she was beaming, telling Primetime she had worked hard for it. "I think this is the very beginning of my career, like I've just begun," she said.
And at the 2003 AVN awards two weeks ago, Michelle was an even bigger winner, taking home awards for best supporting actress and three other categories.
I wondered how long it would be before you showed up? LoL, I am bitter because porn work for old, flabby white guys is so hard to come by.
I joined the Army thinking I was going to do this cool job, but when I got there they made me do all this nasty stuff, and I was even scared at times. The Army is Evil! Or maybe I should have just done some more research about what exactly happens in the Army before I joined and not just believe the recruiter.
But at least in my case I didn't go crying about what happened. I learned to live it, learned to love it. If she doesn't love her job, quit whining, the door's right there!
Look at Ron Jeremy he's still employed
Ditto for anal sex.
They are not innocent, they chose their occupation. The woman in the story went right back after her interveiw. They have the right to make their own choices and to accept full responsibility for their actions. They aren't infringing on anyone else's right's, so they are entitled to be left alone.
" It is clear that Paul is talking about governemnt and earthly authorities. "
Not to me, else the 'toon, sodom insane, hitler, mao, stalin and the rest of hell's inhabitant's would fit there. those folks weren't put here to punish folks either. They chose to do that on their own.
"Calling for government to do the things that God himself has said that government should do, is not calling for government to replace Him. "
No one needs a govm't to follow God's command to leave people alone. They need one to protect folks from those that won't.
"he also commanded kings and rulers to give to the poor. ... we the people are the rulers of America."
The command is for voluntary action. Somehow I don't feel like any kind of king, or ruler when they threaten to shoot me at a seat belt checkpoint unless I obey them.
"The Bible never says Jonah was afraid for his life. It simply says he fled."
There's only one reason to flee.
"There are people who would love for Christians to be silent who continually throw that "do not judge" verse in our face. It can only mean the kind of judging that Jonah did in Jonah chapter 4."
That's right, but Jonah still did not coerce anyone.
I guess taking money for an act that is known to carry a risk of death and that is less noble than saving lives or protecting citizenry is evil and whoring.
Dale Earnhardt was a whore? Blasphemy!
Then why didn't God just leave us under King George? Our founding fathers certainly thought Providence was at hand. I think God desires for government to be good, just as he desires for man to be good. But the greater problem is man. Government is a reflection of man. If God could get all men to repent and follow him, government would be good.
That is advice you ought to give yourself. Where did I say that the industry ought to be banned? I just said she was someone's daughter in response to some very tacky posts. This was a sick kid who was eighteen getting involved with some really sick people.
To permit something to be legal is not to "support" it; I'm against drunkenness even in the privacy of one's home, but I don't want it criminalized.
That is a horrible picture of her. She is not bad looking at all certainly not as bad as that picture.
Yes, your attempt at a flame is pitiful.
wow, that's the first time I have heard cold analytical logic called a problem.
You really are full of yourself if you call your posts "cold analytical logic". They are a joke.
Humans have animal natures and spiritual natures. Porn feeds the animal nature which is insatiable. Eventually the porn viewer will act out his/her increasing fantasies. Ted Bundy was addicted to porn. Not every porn viewer is that twisted but abusers, rapists, etc. all have unhealthy views towards the opposite sex, usually encouraged by porn.
At this point I have no opinion whether porn should be illegal or not, but it offers nothing positive to society.
The exact same line of 'reasoning' is used by those that wish to ban 'hate speech' and guns.
Go back and read post 292 for a list of some of the innocents who are harmed by Porn even though they didn't have anything to do with it.
Not to me, else the 'toon, sodom insane, hitler, mao, stalin and the rest of hell's inhabitant's would fit there.
Government's are ordained by God for the purpose of good, not the individuals or all of their choices. God has told various rulers if they didn't change their ways He would remove them from office. And God removed Saddam and Hitler, King George, etc. But if you are going to withhold taxes from an earthly government, you better be sure your case is just, like our founding fathers did in the Declaration of Independence.
The command is for voluntary action.
There is a command to us individually and it doesn't say if you want to or if you fill like it. It says do it. There is also a command to governments.
Somehow I don't feel like any kind of king, or ruler when they threaten to shoot me at a seat belt checkpoint unless I obey them.
You should when you vote to put people into office. Why did they threaten to shoot you? If they were within the law you shouldn't have had a problem obeying them.
That's right, but Jonah still did not coerce anyone.
No, not unless you consider telling them "repent or be destroyed in 40 days" coercion. But I brought up Jonah to illustrate the difference between "Judging" vs what the world would like to think the Bible means when it says not to judge. I didn't bring up Jonah as an example of how to administer government.
There's only one reason to flee.
That's not why Jonah said he fled. Jonah had no reason to fear Ninevah. Jonah was God's prophet. Jonah carried a much bigger stick. I can't be sure that Jonah wasn't afraid, but scripture never says he was and does give another reason for fleeing.
Actually I bet if it is it isn't too much more dangerous.
Care to tell adults that there are other jobs they're too young to take, mom?
Well sweet cheeks if it involves just turned eighteen year old girls being turned over to perverts like you, yes. I think the age ought to be 21. But hey, if you can't get your thrills watching a 21 year old - go to Guatemala. Instead of an 18 year who looks 16 you can get yourself a genuine 14 year old!
I enjoy porn. Does that make me a bad person and if so, why?
Do you have an opinion whether drunkenness in the privacy of one's home should be illegal or not?
Bump for later read.
when you prove yourself somewhat better mentally armed than a retarded bonobo you will receive a hotter flame.
I think there are limits to how gnarley-looking a dude can be and still snag primo roles.
Personally, I think that the whole idea of having a guy particpate is pretty disgusting. I know it's called the "sex" industry, but still.
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