Podcast: Director Ricky Greenwood Talks Dorcel’s ‘More’

Take an appealing concept, add in an all-star cast, combine it with the gravitas of a top studio, and you have almost every element of a porn classic. All that’s missing is a director with the style and savoir faire to wrangle the disparate elements into a cohesive whole. Ricky Greenwood, who took the industry by storm with his 2017 debut movie, Confessions of a Sinful Nun, brings a bright, confident verve to every blockbuster he directs. Although his biggest movies have always clicked with a huge range of audiences, he also never loses sight of the quirky, kinky side of porn. His directorial style, redolent with influences from pop cinema, invites comparisons to mainstream heavyweights like Quentin Tarantino and Nicolas Winding Refn. After wowing audiences with Climax #3 earlier this year, he is once again in the Dorcel fold with More, the company’s new blockbuster. In the latest episode of the Adult Empire Podcast, Greenwood joins us to give an inside look at the making of the movie.

He discusses his first experiences with the Dorcel brand, his early days in Quebec, his pre-More projects for Dorcel, the origins of More, his experiences shooting in Los Angeles, the style and look of More, the influence of Nicolas Refn and Drive, the cast of More, the challenges of shooting a movie set in a club, the realities of porn budgets, the moments in More he’s most proud of, the More trailer, his approach to directing actors, the pitfalls of overusing zoom in a movie, porn pet peeves, influences from mainstream and classic porn cinema, the vintage porn movie he’d love to remake, the porn sequel he’d love to shoot, the possibility of a Confessions of a Sinful Nun Vol. 3, the effect credit card processors have on porn, and his upcoming projects.

Listen to the podcast on your favorite platform, watch the video version below or on Adult Empire YouTube, and check out text highlights.

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Text excerpts:

The story of More

What were your first experiences with Dorcel?

I’m French-Canadian. So Dorcel was like what we were looking [at] when we were younger. French TV, their erotic movie will be Dorcel, most probably because most of them, English Vivid or Hustler, they were not probably dubbed in French, if they do their limited version of it. So I grew up with  French erotica. That was what you were looking at when you were a teenager, and you stay up until midnight or 1 a.m. And you can catch those movies. So that’s what I grew up with. So I’m a fan of Dorcel. Obviously, they were in Europe —  they’d be not really shooting in the U.S., or rarely shooting in the U.S.

How did you come to direct for Dorcel?

So I never really got in touch with them until I think it was my second AVN. The French Dorcel TV was at AVN interviewing people around. And they knew that I was speaking French. So they interviewed me for Dorcel TV. And from there, I became a very friend with [Dorcel group content manager] Paul-Jérôme [Renevier] and all those people that are there, and slowly [I did] small movies and bigger movie by the end of 2022.

What were some of your earlier projects for Dorcel?

I started with them with a series called 4 You. We call it a vignette, so it’s a short story. So basically it’s a 10-minute story and a sex scene. So I did that for them. I think the first one was Jane 4 You. And I think they were testing the water with me — how it is to work with me, can I respect the budget, you know, all those basic things that you will do with a director/producer that you will have to deal with. They gave me two or three of those. And after that, I directed for them a feature that was called One Night in Los Angeles with Emily Willis and Kenna James. So I did that movie that did very well for them. And I did a couple of 4 You again for them. And it came out another feature, Trouble, that was released recently. I think it was releasing in January on Adult Time. So like I did Trouble and also that movie did good. And from there, [Dorcel] asked me to do their movie Climax. So I did Climax #3 and from there I did their big blockbuster movie More.

What was your vision for More?

My vision was, okay, we’re doing a club. We’re doing nightlife. So I was let’s try to do something more like Drive or Nicholas Refn where they could see a lot of neon lighting, lighting the scene so that we would have a lot of fluorescent color, so bringing that element into it. And let’s create that younger type of club — not the sex club — but something that more like a younger generation of people will go there. And so we would try to build something that is a kind of a new way of doing stuff.

How did you cast the movie?

I got everybody that I wanted to get for this movie. The thing is, Europe, it’s a different market. So the main market, we try to develop the avid fanbase, but so we need to get actors that in France and Europe, they’re known. But we also want to have new faces that we can bring that we didn’t see normally on Dorcel that maybe people will find in love with. So I tried to pick people that they do act well — they are very strong performers — and that I think could be new to Dorcel and appeal to their fanbase.

Which More moments are you most proud of?

I liked how the laundromat [set] turned out. It was very cool. I like the big orgy at the end, the red room with all the guys on Victoria Voxxx. The pictures were great. I really liked that moment. I liked the scene with Derrick Pierce and Lilly Bell when they are in the bathroom in the stall. It was a tiny little place! I feel it’s dirty. I feel it’s raw. It’s something very cool. If you ever have had sex in a club, there’s this kind of like weird moment that I feel I really we nailed very well. So I think overall I’m really, really happy with the new look [of the movie].

Read Chase’s full rundown of More (including review, two-minute preview, and interview vids with star Lilly Bell) >>

Other Ricky Greenwood interview highlights

On the problem with using zoom in porn:

[In my shoots] you’re not allowed to have a zoom lens. You’re not allowed to have  a tripod. Everything is handheld. The reason why I don’t want to have zoom lenses is because with a zoom lens, you will sit on the chair and [when] you want to get the pussy [closeup], you will zoom in to get the pussy. Even if it’s not properly framed, it’s “okay” because you get the closeup. If you cannot zoom, you will have to pick up your camera and go get a closeup of the pussy. And since you move the camera and get close to everything, you will frame it properly because you have to redo it anyway, so now you’re forced to move and go get the angle. When you have a tripod and you just move around like this and zoom, in zoom out — you basically stay in the same place.

On the possibility of Confessions of a Sinful Nun Vol. 3:

I don’t think it will happen. The thing is, the credit card [processors] problem, they’re very, very into what we’re doing. [Learn more about credit card processors and porn in our interview with Cherie DeVille.] I think the second one was very good and [part three] was planned to happen, and the backlash from credit card people — “You pushed a bit too [much] against your religion and everything.” I think that slowed down the project a little bit. [Listen to the full interview to hear Greenwood’s concept for the Sinful Nun Vol. 3 storyline.]

On the porn sequel he’d love to direct:

It would be nice to do Pirates 3. I don’t know if people are interested to see that. But imagine taking all the big names of 2023 and creating this over -the-top crazy movie with everybody. It could be a good sample of porn in [the 2020s].

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Ricky Greenwood image courtesy artist’s Twitter account.

Full interview transcript coming soon!