Casey Calvert Interview: ‘Addicted to Reality’
Casey Calvert made her name as a performer, but she’s gathering even greater prestige for her work as a director. Lust Cinema movies like Going Up and Primary earned the attention of audiences and critics for their thoughtful, incisive storylines and passionate chemistry. Although many directors revel in heavily stylized porn scenarios, Calvert emphasizes believability above all else. Her self-described “addition to reality” is a compulsion akin to the one her fans feel when they see a Calvert movie in the new release lists. Earlier this year, she became a directorial free agent. This wildly talented star delves into life as a porn director in the latest Adult Empire interview.
Adult Empire: In the AVN piece about your departure from Lust Cinema, you said, “[My Lust Cinema movies] are much more like little indie films than porn, and doing that work has been an incredible experience.” Tell us a little bit about the indie-film aesthetic you created there.
Casey Calvert: I don’t know if I created the aesthetic. I think Erika herself did that. I just leaned into a combination of what she does so well and my own personal style. I always really appreciated the subtlety and realism of the mumblecore aesthetic, and my movies have been very inspired by that. I also find that this is a style of acting many adult performers are very good at. They spend a lot of time on camera being a version of themselves, and that translates well to the style of low-key drama I tend to write.
I’m addicted to reality. Or maybe, believability. The minute something becomes too stylized or too over-the-top, I don’t like it. We shot a very surreal dream sequence for Going Up and it was incredibly difficult for me to wrap my brain around.
Because of this, motivating sex scenes is one of the biggest things I struggle with. Hot-guy-meets-hot-girl-and-they’re-hot-so-he-sticks-it-in-her-butt just doesn’t work for me. I want to believe these characters are having sex.
I also want to believe the sex they’re having. I prefer working with performers who want to work together, and telling them to just fuck. No opening up for the camera, no C-light, no runtime we have to hit. Do what you want to do. It breaks their brains sometimes, especially if they’ve been in the industry for a decade. But I like that.
Compare and contrast the experience of being a free agent porn versus that of being under contract.
Being under contract was great because I had more time to focus on pre-production and writing and building the movie. It’s a great luxury to have that time.
Being a free agent means getting to make a wider variety of movies. I’m currently doing at least five features for five different companies this year, and each requires an entirely different set of directorial and storytelling muscles, so I’m getting to exercise those.
Could you envision yourself signing a directorial contract with another company, or do you think you’ll remain a free agent?
I’m really enjoying being a free agent right now. I won’t say never, if the right opportunity came along, I’d definitely consider it. But, for right now, being a free agent makes a lot of sense for me.
Similarly, would you ever want to oversee a team of directors in a “Casey Calvert Cinema”-type brand, in the way Erika Lust does, or is your vision too singular for that type of group approach?
My vision is definitely not too singular for that type of approach. In fact, I think it would be amazing to have a brand similar to Lust and empower other directors to make the kinds of films they want to make. What’s keeping me from doing that are logistic and business/financial hurdles, not creativity.
What’s the single best piece of filmmaking advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from friends and peers over the years. They’ve taught me to trust my own voice when writing and not be so married to the very dry format of screenwriting. They’ve taught me not to try to make other people’s movies. I might envy someone else’s style and tone, but if I try to emulate it, I’m going to fail.
But probably the most useful piece of advice I’ve gotten is to always buy time with my budget. Big, fancy locations and expensive wardrobe might make an individual moment on screen shine, but nothing will make the overall movie better than having time to do another take. To massage the lighting and photography. To work on the performances. Time is how you get it right.
It’s sometimes said that working with limitations can push you in creative directions you might otherwise have explored. Do you think that’s true?
I absolutely agree with this sentiment.
What are some examples in your own directorial filmography?
Making porn features is just micro-budget filmmaking in so many different capacities. We’re limited by budget, time, the number of available actors, etc. It forces us to write to our financial capabilities to an extent, and often, in climbing over those hurdles you stumble onto something better.
In season three of Primary, there’s an entire plotline about one character’s book being made into a movie and he hates the adaptation. I can tell you from experience that authentically representing a mainstream film set is hard, especially on our budgets. We originally wanted them to be filming on a soundstage on a backlot, but there was simply no way to make that work with our budget.
At some point we struck on the idea that we could afford an old west town, and that led to the storyline that, in adapting his book, the producers had turned his novel into a western. That accommodation to budget changed the entire storyline in the best possible way.
You’ve penned numerous op-eds about the industry over the years. If asked to write a new opinion piece on the current state of the industry, what topic would you most want to explore?
I would vent my frustration about all the forms of passive censorship we deal with as sex workers on a day-to-day basis. The constant discrimination of social media platforms who are fine with mainstream celebrities appearing fully nude, but shadowban me for wearing a T-shirt that says “fuck.”
The ever-increasing anti-sexwork bias of companies like OnlyFans who pornstrapped themselves into existence, and now want to TOS every adult content creator off the site with the death of a thousand cuts.
Visa and Mastercard and their stranglehold on the industry. It’s intractable and capricious censorship of who can post what, a situation that’s been true for so long that many newer performers think we have the compliance rules we have because it’s the law. No, babe, it’s fucking Mastercard.
I could go on and on.
Your work with Kink.com has been very popular on Adult Empire. Tell us a little bit about the experience of working with that famous brand.
I’m actually sitting in the kink.com green room working on this interview! When I first started doing porn, kink.com was the one site I wanted to work with most, and over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to do some of my best work for them. I’m incredibly proud of Derelict and Diary of a Madman, both directed by John Paul the Pope. And, now I’m directing Everything Butt and Whipped Ass, and that’s been the most fun.
Dorcel’s More won Adult Empire’s 2023 VOD Presentation of the Year award. What was it like working with Ricky Greenwood on that particular project?
I love working with Ricky, and the critical acclaim for More makes me really happy. Ricky always gives me a ton of room to play, both as an actor and a sex performer. He’s super-collaborative and always open to ideas. The result in More is maybe the hottest g/g/g scene I’ve ever done (my scene with Kira Noir and Emma Rose).
Also, Dorcel is just an incredible company to work for across the board. They really want their talent to have a great experience on set, and they give their directors the time and the tools to make that happen.
You’ve done so many great things in the industry. Is there something you’ve done that sticks out in your mind as your greatest success?
There have been so many high points, but if you make me choose one, winning movie of the year for Going Up was pretty incredible. Going onstage with all my friends who worked so damned hard on that series was unforgettable.
Talk about directing for Lust Cinema. Do you have a film you are most proud of?
I think I’m most proud of Primary, which is kind of a cheat of an answer, since it’s not a film, but three six episode seasons. I can trace my growth as a writer and director so clearly from season 1 to season 3, as well as the growth of my actors (Primary has the same main cast for all three seasons), and that’s pretty fucking cool. I’m also really proud of Apricity, a little featurette I shot with a tiny crew and incredibly committed actors (Victoria Voxxx and Christian Wilde) in the snow. Apricity was a filmmaking experiment, and I really love how it turned out.
What are the pros and cons of being a director? How about the pros and cons of being a performer?
Occasionally, as a performer, there’s a project that requires a lot of work and a lot of prep (Bree Mills’ Birth which I just wrapped is a prime example of this), but usually, you show up, do the scene, take a check, and go home. Performing is great and being a slut is still very fun for me, but, in a sense, it’s often like it never happened.
Directing and writing is honestly a lot more fun. You have a whole movie to invest in, cast, and create from scratch. But it is so much more work. If most performing is a commitment to a day, making a movie is a commitment of months. With writing, casting, pre-production, shooting, and then editing and finishing, a small movie is a three-month commitment. And, in adult, you end up with several projects overlapping. Well worth it, but EXHUASTING.
As a director, what do you do to make performers feel comfortable on set?
As a director, from the very beginning, it’s been important to me to foster the kind of environment on set that I want as a performer. I want my actors to have everything they need to succeed in the job I’m asking them to do. That means getting them the script and information about their character as early as possible. It means hiring an actual caterer and not just feeding people pizza. It means pairing people together for sex scenes who have actual chemistry. It’s just about creating an environment where people feel respected, comfortable, and creative.
You appeared in an Adult Empire Films movie Untamed – Tell us about working with Holly Randall and your experience in general.
Holly Randall is one of my favorite people to work with. We shot Untamed years ago, I think it might have been the first time Holly directed me. I remember it being such a fun day, the location was stunning, and I always loved working with Logan Pierce.
Now that you are a free agent do you have any studios in mind that you’d like to direct for?
I’ve been really lucky that several companies approached me about directing, and I’ve got projects coming this year from just about everyone I would want to direct for. I’m really only focusing on features, though. I’m only directing scenes for Kink because that company holds a special place in my heart (and those scenes are so much fun).
As a performer, is there anything you haven’t done on camera yet, that you’re willing to do?
I’ve actually been really lucky that I had the opportunity to complete my on-camera bucket list years ago. That being said, it’s always so fun when directors or fans come to me with new ideas. Even if it’s something relatively simple like putting vanilla pudding in my butt (just did that for the first time the other day), I love doing new things.
Tell your fans what they can look forward to seeing from you soon.
Oh man, there’s actually a lot. I’m directing a feature for Girlsway and a feature for Digital Playground this spring. I’ll be shooting a Dorcel feature this fall. And Last Splash, a super fun pool party movie I directed for Lust Cinema, comes out in June.
For fans of mine as a performer, I’m starring in the Adult Time blockbuster movie coming out this summer, directed by Bree Mills. I’ll also have new scenes coming out with Adult Time every month now that I’m an Adult Time ambassador. Plus, I’m always shooting and releasing new content for my fan sites – clickcasey.com and xocasey.com!
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