Kay Brandt Interview: Cherie DeVille ‘Comes to Life’ in Dorcel’s Latest
Acclaimed director Kay Brandt chats about her latest directorial effort, 40 Years Old, Comes to Life. Boasting a juicy role for Cherie DeVille, it’s Brandt’s second collaboration with Marc Dorcel (following last year’s Climax). If the early sales numbers are any indication, 40 Years Old, Comes to Life seems destined to join Unfolding and Babystting the Baumgartners as perennial bestsellers.
How did this project come about?
I wrote the script in 2017, and then I got involved with other projects and the script went to the backburner. In January of 2019, I ended up pitching it to Allison, the former head of acquisitions for Dorcel, when we met in Las Vegas for AEE/AVN Awards. She liked the pitch and I sent her the script and after she returned to France she read it and loved it. It was Allison’s idea for me to direct the American orgy in Climax, and she wanted me to make that happen first, specifically for the 40th birthday celebrations. Her plan was for me to make Come to Life a few months after Climax and that’s exactly what happened.
They say life begins at 40. How much credence do you lend that idea, and do you think the movie embodies it?
I think that depends on how you see “life.” I’ve been living since I was born and so has everyone else on the planet that’s alive today. Yet, we wait for reasons, milestones, situations, to give us cause to “live.” When I turned 40 there was definitely a sense that everything I did had to have a greater purpose, more meaning, simply due to the middle-age approach. Saying goodbye to my thirties was bittersweet. Forties felt like climbing a hill – a ‘now or never’ momentum before getting to 50. Overall, I think that women who, for one reason or another, couldn’t embrace their full sexuality and sexual needs before 40, absolutely do in their 40s, if exploring their sexual desires to the fullest is important to them or a thing to be crossed off the bucket list.
Cherie is fantastic as the lead character and embodies the sexy maturity that I wanted for the movie. She’s vulnerable yet unafraid to step up into her personal power and demand that her fantasies be lived out. That’s true female empowerment.
Tell us about the casting of the movie.
I knew I wanted Cherie and Codey [Steele] for the lead roles. And they were so funny together. I’d never directed Ramon Nomar before and I had a good idea he would be a natural in the role I cast him in. Dorcel had a say in the casting, too, and India [Summer], Emily [Willis], and Elsa Jean were on their “wish list.” I love all of them. I’ve been directing India for 11 years, and I first directed Shyla 10 years ago. So, I was happy to have them in this cast. Elsa is someone I’ve always wanted to work with and this was our first opportunity, and I was really impressed with how natural she is with dialogue! Vanessa was the wild card – I was unfamiliar with her, but we all liked her pictures and felt confident she would fit right in, and she did. Jay and Will are two performers I’d worked with before and enjoy directing — they were both perfect in their roles as well.
The plot concerns a writer of romantic fiction. How much, if any, of Kay Brandt is in Cherie DeVille’s character?
Ha! I knew you’d ask that! And I guess that’s a natural question, and perhaps, conclusion. “Loosely based,” maybe? The only aspects of her character that are similar to me are the excessive day/night writing. As a professional writer, writing is an endless process that often makes me want to run really, really far away from my computer or note pad, because it’s a tedious job that requires an intense amount of focus and isolation. And, not everyone, especially a guy with a corporate job with set hours, an office, and co-workers to interact with, understands that working writers can’t always download their brains between the hours of 9 to 5 – especially novelists. Ideas and the inspiration to write them in fluid, coherent ways, often write in the “off hours.” I do my most focused writing sprints early in the morning when my mind is fresh and clear or later in the evening or late afternoons. I’m very comfortable with keeping the TV turned off in favor of writing into the late evening hours. But afternoons are the hardest times for me to sit with my thoughts and manuscripts and screenplays (and interviews!) because the distractions seem to pile up from 10 am to 3 pm. When you are your own boss in charge of your own schedule, it’s tough not to feel a little guilty about being out-of-sync with “normal” society. So, in the case of Cherie’s character, she struggles to find a mate who can hang with her need to work whenever inspiration (or deadlines!) strike. Oh, and the wine drinking — yes, that’s a “real-life” thing with me, too. Sometimes a glass of wine helps get the creative juices flowing.
What was the most surprising or serendipitous moment during the filming of the movie?
Dorcel flew a staff member from the main office in France to Los Angeles so he could film all of the behind-the-scenes footage and although it wasn’t serendipitous, it was still so cool to hear about their filmmaking process in France and how it differs from what we do here in California. For one thing, we don’t have chateaus on every block, so, inevitably our locations will look and feel different in the states rather than Europe. The point is, having a crew member that shared stories of the cultural differences, as well as style and approach, was really cool.
Cherie DeVille demonstrates great emotional range in the movie. How did you help her tap into that? Did you do numerous takes of the heavier dialogue scenes?
Cherie and I have great chemistry when we work together. She’s incredibly smart and fearless when it comes to taking on lead roles in my films. Our director-performer relationship has an unspoken quality to it. I feel like I paint a mental picture for her of what I envision for the scene, and then we talk about the complexities and deeper layers. She trusts me to guide her, and that alone lends itself to the naturalness in her acting. She’s not afraid to explore the range of emotions I usually require in my films and she absolutely knows when she’s hitting the right note with the dialogue and emotion – she can feel it and so can I. On more than one occasion working together she brought me to tears with her performance — in the right way — and that’s what hitting the right note is all about.
As far as takes, not usually too many for Cherie. She takes her dialogue seriously and if we do multiple takes it’s because she wants to do it over and try again. She brings her “A” game.
Does any scene in the movie stand out to you as the most memorable and/or satisfying?
The anal threesome with Codey and Ramon! That’s when her character says “fuck it – it’s all about me now” and jumps into the deep end of her desires by taking on her leading Alpha male character and this new character that she added to her work-in-progress to spice things up. It’s a scene of passion, lust, and contrast. And, did I say passion?
Cherie DeVille recently spoke to us about the intersection of porn and commerce. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsWuUWAyKgI] Do you ever find that the pressure for commercial viability restricts your creative voice?
No, not really. I mostly make content that doesn’t come across as questionable, and I rarely deal in taboo content. But, she’s correct, and it is what it is. Until someone comes along and invents or offers a credit card or process service just for the adult industry, then it will continue to be like this, I suppose.
Dana Vespoli once observed that porn does a better job than Hollywood at spotlighting movies directed by women. Do you agree, and if so, why do you think that is the case?
Oh, yes, definitely. That’s why I’ve continued to work in the adult industry — and I said it in the Adult Empire vlog you did with me last year, too. There simply aren’t enough opportunities for directors in mainstream, let alone women. I wasted years trying to get projects funded in mainstream before taking my first directing job in adult 11 years ago. And the few women I knew who actually made consistent money directing in mainstream had either received a very lucky break, or worked their ass off for years moving up the ranks, or, funded their own projects (which is what I did then). It’s stunning how many women are directors in adult film. In some ways, we’re outnumbering the men, which has only been over the past six years, really. Before then this was a male-dominated business, for sure.
What can you tell us about your next project(s)?
Sadly, COVID-19 has stopped production for months. And we’re still not totally sure how or when we’ll be up and running again, as far as making feature films. But I did direct a feature in January, The Lustful Wife, Vol 2 starring Joanna Angel this time around. It will be out in August or September and I can’t wait to show it off!
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