Podcast: Stormy Daniels & Barrett Blade on Adam & Eve’s ‘Redemption’

Never let it be said that Stormy Daniels and Barrett Blade are all hat and no cattle.

Daniels and Blade star in Redemption, a new blockbuster set on a horse ranch, and the practical, hard-working ethos of their film characters is a reflection of their own drive to succeed. (Indeed, much of the movie was shot in and around Blade’s own horse ranch in Florida.) In the new episode of Adult Empire’s podcast, Daniels and Blade discuss the creative process behind this Adam & Eve Western.

Daniels and Blade cover the origins of the project, the connections to Wanted, Blade’s multiple behind-the-scenes roles, the couple’s working relationship, their characters’ connection to Yellowstone‘s Beth and Rip, their opinions of Yellowstone, casting the movie, the “feature curse,” the challenges of finding an actor for the villain role, the movie’s dialogue, the atmosphere on set, the meaning behind the title Redemption, the possibility of a sequel, the movie’s hottest sex scenes, the challenges of being a director/star, directing sex scenes, Daniels’s intimidating presence on set, the music of Redemption, their upcoming mainstream horror project, and Daniels’s Peacock documentary (set to debut next year).

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Text excerpts:

What was the origin of the project?

Stormy Daniels
I was approached by Adam & Eve to direct a feature for them. Of course, I said yes. I’ve only worked with them in the past when I did a co-production with Wicked Pictures. They were the co-producers of Wanted back in 2017. And so I said, “Yes, absolutely, I would love to work with you guys. You know, did you have something in mind?’ And of course, they said, “Oh, can you do it another Wanted? We’d love that.” And I was like, “Oh my God, you’ve got be kidding me. Because it was the most horrific shoot that I’ve ever endured.” Barrett, it is one of the rare ones he wasn’t on with me.

But when we filmed Wanted, literally everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong on that shoot. My horse drowned in a flood back home. We had a set burned down, we got robbed, everybody had heat exhaustion. Penny Pax lied about being able to ride a horse and threw my whole thing into chaos. I mean, it was just, there was the infamous scene with poor Anikka [Albrite] and Allie Hazes and the leeches, like straight out of Stand by Me. Poor Anikka had a leech on her. But I’m telling you, when I say everything that could go wrong during the filming Unwanted went wrong, it was absolutely true.

So of course, they said, “Oh, can you do another Wanted?” The other big problem with that is that Wanted had such a huge budget. It was almost a $200,000 budget, and that’s just not what we’re working with these days in the adult business, thanks to websites and piracy. So it’s like how do you make something even close to that without the finances that we had, and it was, like I said, a co-production. So I said, “Well, I can probably do something, but it has to be modern day because what puts the original movie into such big numbers was the wardrobe and the the set design.” I mean, everything was accurate for the period in the 1800s. It was from the wardrobe to the saddles on the horses to the even the guns were the right time period. And that just makes everything more expensive. I looked at the budget for Wanted, and the horses alone were $24,000. Just the horses.

One of the good things about doing a modern day is if you have to go somewhere, you don’t have to get on your horse. You can get in your truck and drive. So I said, “Yes, I can do it, but it will have to be modern day.” And everybody’s into Yellowstone these days. And let’s just capitalize on that and write on that. So I did base Redemption on Wanted. It is the sequel, but it is set modern day, my character and Redemption is the fifth great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of my character in Wanted, which brought up a whole other problem. Where do you find talent in the adult business that can act, perform, possibly ride a horse that wasn’t already in Wanted. So we struggled with that a little bit as well. But I think that we did a really good job with what we had to work with. You know, one of the things that I learned from being in the adult businesses is to make a small amount of money looks like a whole lot of money.

And luckily now I have Barrett with me behind camera and he just brought a whole fresh set of eyes. I have to say this is the first time in my entire career that I wasn’t also the DP. Because normally, yes, I have amazing cinematographers on all of my shoots, but I’ve always also been the DP so that was a little difficult for me.

Were there any disagreements about the creative direction of the project?

Barrett Blade

Well, we’re married. Pretty much anybody when you have too strong creative people — I mean, that’s how you get your best product that has gone through your ups and downs, your fights, your ins, your outs. And then you come to your happy place and everybody wins. So, I mean, it’s movie magic, it’s how it goes. If everything went perfectly smooth, it probably would be negative for the project.

How much of your own personalities are in the characters you play in Redemption?

Stormy Daniels

I based Braxton a lot on Barrett. Well, I dress [Barrett] to look like [Yellowstone character] Rip [Wheeler]. That’s writer’s freedom to live out your own fantasy. I definitely styled him like Rip from from Yellowstone. But to be quite honest, before what gave me the idea to go the Yellowstone route with these characters is before I even spoke to Adam & Eve, before this project was even on the table whatsoever, we had so many people tell us that we reminded them of Rip and Beth [Dutton from Yellowstone]. His aunt actually is the one that asked me “Have you two watched Yellowstone?” And I was like, “No, I’ve actually never seen it.” She’s like, “Oh, my god, you have to sit down right now and watch it because you and Barrett are just Rip and Beth.” And I was like, “Oh, my god, this is pretty cool.” So I did format the characters a little bit after that, but I think that you are a lot like Rip, but I’ve definitely got the temper that Beth has.

Were you Yellowstone fans?

Stormy Daniels
I had just never seen it [until it was recommended to me]. He had been watching it the whole time, and I just started the first one, I guess about a year ago.

Barrett Blade
We probably watched it for different reasons. You [Stormy] watch it for the characters. I watched it for the cinematography. It’s really well shot project. And I think it’s beautifully shot, especially as it gets later on in the seasons. And they upgrade some of the technology, but to me that that’s what drove me and is just how well it’s shot. The characters develop based off that.

How did you cast the movie?

Stormy Daniels

I initially wrote the lead character that’s played by Laney — and this is one of those like happy accidents — I initially wrote that for Anna Claire Clouds, because she had done such a phenomenal job in Hysteria for me and I knew that she really knew how to ride horses. I believe she’s barrel raced before so after people not being honest about their riding abilities, I knew that Anna was actually a very good equestrian. And she’s beautiful and can act, and she’s got the blond hair and blue eyes. I need somebody to pass as my daughter.

So I originally wrote that for her. And she was unable to do it. And we went through a couple of other actresses and the other big problem was not only do I need somebody who was the right age, could act, wasn’t scared of horses, that I could actually trust to get on a plane and flight to location, because we shot a lot of this in Florida. And that narrows down the talent pool quite a bit. And so Barrett actually recommended Laney Grey, he had shot her a few times and worked with her as talent. This is where I had to put the crazy way because I was like, “Wait, you you actually had sex with her? She’s not staying in my house. Oh, hell no!” And he’s like, “Trust me, Stormy. It’s fine.”

And she was absolutely fucking phenomenal. Hands down the best actress I have ever shot. She blew me away. Not just with her acting and her sex performances, but her attitude. She got bit by fire ants! She is such an amazing performer that I’ve actually cast her in the lead of the horror movie that Barrett and I are shooting in October for mainstream. I’ve directed a lot of really talented actresses in my career, having done so many features for Wicked and having access to the best contract girls in the business. And she’s the best actress I’ve ever directed hands down.

And then I had directed Will [Pounder] before so I knew he was great. Obviously I’ve directed Barrett a bunch as well. I knew he’s a phenomenal actor. Jay Romero, I have to give credit to Barrett because I had never met either one of them until they showed up here, Laney and Jay. I had never directed them. And they were just both fucking amazing great chemistry. Aiden Ashley, I had worked with before. She was a very last minute replacement because that was supposed to be Katie Morgan. She was supposed to play my sister. I know Katie’s amazing. Evan [Stone] was supposed to shoot BTS for me into a non-sex role. And they got COVID the day before they were supposed to get on their plane. So Aiden kind of saved the day.

The movie is about the trials and tribulations of family. Was there a family-type atmosphere on set?

Barrett Blade

Well, everybody lived and stayed in the house. It did help. I mean, we had some of the crew that was staying at Airbnb, but all the main characters stayed at our house. So we don’t want to give the movie away, but, you know, one of them plays her daughter. So they had had a nice motherly vibe going on. So yeah, it really did.

Will there be a sequel?

Stormy Daniels

So I know that they like to do that. So I left it a little bit open if they wanted to go that route. If Adam & Eve wanted to —  like I said, this was the first thing I ever directed for them. So they may never hire me again. But I did leave it to where so it wouldn’t necessarily be a Western, it would focus on probably them getting married and just be a cute little [story]. I always leave my scripts open because just like in real life, nothing is ever really over.

Was there any particular passionate moment that you were proud of as a filmmaker?

Stormy Daniels

Personally my favorite scene was the Will Pounder and Laney Grey scene. I thought that Laney and Will and the barn where he stayed in character and he looked fucking amazing. He was able to pick her up and and I just thought it was a really really hot scene and I liked the way — because she has two sex scenes in the movie — I really liked that we see a difference. And how she was with one of her partners and one with the other. So that was pretty cool.

Me and Barrett’s sex scene — it was a pickup scene actually. And we didn’t even have a cameraman for that one. So he had to do all of it. That’s why it’s all basically shot from far away. It was shot about a month after the movie. We didn’t have a cameraman so literally he shot camera on his own sex scene, basically.

• Download and listen to this interview on your preferred podcast platform: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Libsyn

Full interview transcript coming soon!

Buy Redemption at Adultempire.com!

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