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.
Why is it so hard for you to believe?
Hatre to break it to you, but there ARE women out there who are just as lusty, and just as sexually voracious as men. That's why they are in the porn business.
Nina Hartley is another one...she's been making porn vids for over 25 years, and has become quite wealthy because of it. She runs her own production company now, and also directs videos as well as continuing to star in them. She's put out a series of "Video Sex Guides" for people to learn new things from. Oh, and she also dances in strip clubs for the fun of it.
Don't you think that in all that time, if she really didn't like it, she might have left, or at least retired?
In interviews, she has said that she grew up, though being raised as a "nice Jewish girl", with an almost insatiable curiosity about, and later desire for, sex. It continues to this day.
Is this not as worthy of pity as a case of suicide? The only difference between the two is that the family must watch while the invidual destroys themself.
Remember why Christ was unique. He had mercy and love for the righteous and the unrighteous. He had mercy on the adultress who was doomed to die. That has never been a common quality among men.
JMHO
I knew you would make that argument about the movie. You are so predictable. I watched a video of a movie being made. Different from watching Houston's movie.
Because someone states something emphatically they can't be lying? I THINK YOU ARE THE NICEST GUY I HAVE EVER COMMUNICATED WITH (said emphatically). I must be telling the truth.
Houston would be physically numb after about the tenth guy. Because she said over and over again how much she enjoyed it, she was telling the truth? Liberals lie over and over again and emphatically, does that mean you believe them? She was lying!
If you saw the video of Michelle and her friends, you would see that they had to be coerced or persuaded.
No. Other than excerpts shown in programs like I watched the other night, I have never seen a pornographic film. And I don't care to.
Whether one can imagine something or not has nothing to do with whether or not something is evil. I can't imagine ever climbing Mount Everest but I wouldn't say to do so was evil.
Sorry. My swampland isn't in the Glades.
I had no idea. Thanks for splainin' it. However, those women are rare. Believe me she didn't enjoy having sex with that many men. It would be physically impossible.
You sure possess a wealth of knowledge about the porn industry, which well explains your opinion about the posted article.
Such things are abhorrent of themselves and are always punished by man and God. A 'law' makes it no more evil. While a Government cannot prevent either rape or murder, it can give a person the Freedom to defend against such crime and the process to punish the evildoers.
Out of curiosity, is the above your creation, or is it part of a creed or philosophy that you adhere to and can identify?
Yeah, it's called The Constitution. I swore upon God to defend that creed three times now....
You should at least spell the words in your tagline correctly.
"Yeah, it's called The Constitution."
That would be the Constitution that prevailed during the 150 years porn and prostitution and abortion were illegal? Yes?
Are you saying that the sex has to be sweet and gentle for the woman to enjoy it?
About Ben Franklin.
"As for pornography, Internet or otherwise, Ben would be tolerant. He wrote what might be called porn in Puritan times, for example a tale of sex and woe told from a woman's point of view, and an essay on choosing older women as mistresses. He also would probably welcome that other bane of the Internet: Viagra ads. In 1780s Paris he was a septuagenarian celebrity pursued by beautiful women. But, according to Isaacson, Ben never consummated any relationships."
-----000-----
"became the only Founding Father to have signed all five documents that established American independence: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, and the Constitution of the United States of America."
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Tolerant? So what? The FF had laws against these things. That one of them would 'tolerate' such behavior means nothing in the context of what laws we ought to have.
That would be the Constitution that prevailed during the 150 years porn and prostitution and abortion were illegal? Yes?
Porn and prostitution and abortion have never been constitutionally 'illegal'.
Neither fed, state or local governments have ever been granted the constitutional power to outright prohibit such activities.
-- Instead, - state & local governments have the power to ~reasonably~ regulate such behaviors, providing these laws do not violate any of our basic individual rights to life, liberty or property.
Can you understand the principle involved?
-- It assures us of personal freedom as well as the rule of law based on community standards under local control.
Okay, it was a joke. The point being that just because something is legal that does not mean it's moral, unless of course, you subscribe to the Marge Simpson school of ethos.
Besides, porn doesn't do anymore damage than guns. You are blaming the tool for being misused.
An interesting argument. Guns can be used for good -- self defense, for example. What "good" can pornography be used for? As for harm, we both probably agree on the harm that the 'misuse' of guns can cause, up to and including the death of innocent people. What harm does the 'misuse' of pornography cause, in your opinion?
An interesting argument.
He isn't really making a argument. Its a statement of fact, - [you want a prohibition on porn], and a conclusion about why you're so confused about the issue.
Guns can be used for good -- self defense, for example. What "good" can pornography be used for?
Ask any soldier/sailor, deprived of female companionship. - Can ~you~ see the 'good' in that? - I'd bet not.
As for harm, we both probably agree on the harm that the 'misuse' of guns can cause, up to and including the death of innocent people.
What harm does the 'misuse' of pornography cause, in your opinion?
Self abuse can blind you, as everybody knows. Or didn't your momma tell you?
Benjamin Franklin was a subtly clever, witty, person. He would certainly NOT approve of pornography. It would be too raw, vulgar and in your face for him.
That should be beautiful women.
I hate to break it to you, but there are many people who are NOT religious who want to see pornography heavily regulated or outlawed entirely.
TOUGH STOUGH wrote:
"-- there are many people who are NOT religious who want to see pornography heavily regulated or outlawed entirely."
Why?
Reread the thread. A whole host of reasons have been given.
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