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by
Robert, staff writer |
| DP Interviews / Film School Dropout |
The Film School Dropout Interviews...
Darla Crane
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| These
days, the world of XXX entertainment has very few true goddesses.
Someone who does fit that description, however, is Darla Crane.
A former superstarlet on the bondage scene, the buxom and
beautiful Darla is now a major player in adult films. A welcome
visual throwback to the days of naughty pin-up girls, Darla
is a red hot piece of “va-va-va-voom” eye candy
that you just don’t see every day. Plus, she has sex
on film! After a recent trip to the 2005 Adult Video News
Expo, Darla sat down and answered some questions that I had.
Here’s what went down: |
| The
Film School Dropout:
Tell me about your website, www.darlacrane.net.
What can your fans who haven’t become members yet expect
to see there when they sign-up? |
Darla
Crane : Well, my entire reason for even *doing*
a member site was to create a place where my fans could
sort of "connect" with me. I had done a standard
gallery site some years ago and even though it was all absolutely
free, people kept asking me to "Update! Update! Update!
And keep it free while you're at it!" That, combined
with watching my girlfriends run themselves ragged trying
to keep up with churning out enough image content for their
own sites, really turned me off to the idea of just throwing
another run-of-the-mill website onto the Internet. I ended
up letting the free site (which I never really liked all
that much) go and went for a couple of years with very little
web presence at all.
When
I decided it was time to commit to an official "me"
website, I toyed with all sorts of ideas, from running a
24-hour webcam in my bedroom to having a camera follow me
around as I went to work, shoots, etc. I gathered together
a small staff of wonderful, trustworthy guys (who know a
LOT more about running websites than I do) and what we came
up with was this sort of happy place where I can get crazy
in my WebCam Chat  shows,
where I can write about my real life and share all my wild
experiences in the XXX and fetish business, where I can
post my public appearance schedules and let fans know where
they can meet me, and where members can e-mail me and expect
a friendly response.
Of
course, members DO also want content they can download so
I also post all sorts of images in my Galleries. In the
Galleries you'll see anything from my vacation snaps to
pics of me having sex in my living room with Sean Michaels
and Lexington Steele after a party. It's all real and it's
all my life. I also have a Superheroines Gallery (a personal
fetish of mine) with pics of me and other ladies costumed
and doing sexy, superheroiney things, plus I have what I
call the "Manipulator's Gallery" which contains
graphic penetration pics of me, posed specifically so that
Photoshoppers can add in things like ropes, gags, chains...
anything that might be legally questionable for me to actually
shoot. (Bondage with any kind of bodily penetration is a
legal "gray area" in the US. Some choose to play
around with that but I do not.)
I
also offer a large and continually growing collection of
jumbo MPEGs of me and my girl and guy friends having sex,
playing bondage, spanking...all sorts of stuff! Perhaps
the best feature of my site is my WebCam Chat. I set up
a high quality camera and chat with members while taking
requests for poses or actions. One of my webguys mans the
camera and another does the typing for me so I am free to
use my entire body to entertain my chatters. I usually have
friends over during these WebCam Chats so sometimes I can
convince one of the guys to lend me his "equipment"
for the show. I also sometimes schedule special guests for
these WebCam Chats. Past guests have included such stars
as Ron Jeremy, Guy DeSilva, Jewell Marceau and Caroline
Pierce. I also have a huge collection of screengrabs from
these Chats in my WebCam Galleries so new members will find
out right off the bat what kind of outrageous stuff can
happen during a WebCam Chat! |
| The
Film School Dropout:
You were a big hit on the fetish film scene before taking
the leap into hardcore adult features. What led to you making
the transition? |
| Darla
Crane : It's funny...I so rarely get asked this question
that I guess most folks just felt it was a natural progression
for me. I always knew I wanted to do hardcore work but I'm
not the type to dash willy-nilly into anything. Everything
had to be perfect, and when it finally was, I dove right in!
I was at a point in my life where most of the people I was
having sex with OFF camera were XXX stars so it just made
sense. And I've had such a fun time of it! |
| The
Film School Dropout:
What is the one thing that you know now about the world of
pornography that you wish you would have known when you first
got started in the business? |
| Darla
Crane : I actually educated myself pretty thoroughly
before I entered porn so I didn't really have any surprises
that weren't happy ones. I guess I could say that I wish I
had known how friendly, sweet and dear most of the people
in the XXX world actually are. |
| The
Film School Dropout:
Have you ever been asked to do something in a film that you
simply refused to do? If so, what was it? |
| Darla
Crane : I've always been pretty specific about what
companies I want to work for, who I want to work with and
what I want do on camera. I simply do what I like to do in
my real life! People have been extremely respectful of me
and I've never really been asked to do anything that I didn't
want to do. |
| The
Film School Dropout:
Why do you think there is such a stigma against adult entertainment
in this country, when it is so widely embraced in other cultures?
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Darla
Crane : Is it really all that embraced by other
cultures? I mean, Britain has only recently been able to
import XXX stuff, hasn't it? And Canada has an extreme problem
with any kind of fetish material. I was in Spain, in a porn
shop, and there were those little booths you can go into
and watch videos by the minute. You could rent a video of
a girl having sex with a dog but you couldn't have two people
sit in the same booth at the same time.
Certainly,
there will be prudes and misguided souls wherever you go
but I live in Southern California and am, thankfully, a
bit less affected by the stigma you mention. And thanks
to the last presidential election we XXX-ers now have a
nice, easy, red and blue color-coded map to tell us which
states like us and which don't. LOL! |
| The
Film School Dropout:
How did the HIV scare of April, 2004 change the adult film
industry as we now know it? |
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| Darla
Crane : Well
gosh, I don't think I'm qualified to speak for the entire
adult film industry!
Some
of my friends decided to leave the business at that time,
others decided to go "condom-only" and for others,
it didn't really affect their work habits that much. We
were all quite shocked and saddened that members of our
community had been afflicted.
The
main problem for most was the lack of income, as most companies
went on voluntary hiatus until the quarantine lists were
cleared. (Pornstars aren't exactly known for employing savings
accounts, I guess.) The fetish industry did benefit from
the hardcore quarantine because girls who wouldn't normally
take bondage, tickling or foot fetish work suddenly needed
the cash. I also produce bondage videos and my phone was
ringing off the hook with ladies looking for work.
People
outside of XXX really don't understand that it's a very
small percentage of performers doing the high risk kind
of work that leaves you especially vulnerable to infection.
Most of us are very careful about things like testing, no-lists,
private-life practices, etc. When you consider the copious
amount of sex being had every day in this business and compare
it to the actual number of infections that have occurred
in the past ten years...well, it appears that you're actually
safer in the XXX world than you are in the real one.
Things
are pretty much back to normal, now. Some companies insist
on PCR-DNA testing every two weeks instead of every thirty
days (as it was in the past) and a few people have given
up performing for behind-the-camera work...but that's about
it. |
| The
Film School Dropout:
Whose book would you rather read: Jenna Jameson’s or
Traci Lords’, and why? |
| Darla
Crane :Good heavens, who has time to read? Seriously,
when I was an office worker who did fetish films on the side,
I used to tear through two or three books a week. These days,
I'm lucky if I can find a spare half-hour to spend with a
book.
I probably wouldn't read Jenna or Traci's
books but if I must choose, I guess I'd say Jenna's. She's
a very nice girl and completely embraces her life as a pornstar.
I like that she's proud of what she does.
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| The
Film School Dropout:
You carried-out a really impressive Betty Paige impersonation
in THE REINCARNATION OF BETTY PAIGE. Is Betty one of your
real-life idols? |
Darla
Crane : Thanks! I'd been doing Bettie for years,
actually, at conventions, parties, events, etc. I was actually
dubbed "The Bettie Page of the 90's" in some publication
or other (Bizarre? Skin Two? I can't remember.) I've always
loved Bettie. One of my prized possessions is a copy of
the book "Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend"
that was presented to me by Bettie's attorney at the time.
He had given her some 8x10's of me impersonating her so
inside the book she wrote a little note specifically to
me!
I
was surprised when Charlie Biggs approached me about doing
the "Reincarnation" movie. He actually wanted
me to dye my hair black until I assured him I could provide
a very accurate wig. LOL! I was given a lot of freedom on
that project and basically got to pick and choose my costars.
I'm really happy with that movie. |
| The
Film School Dropout:
I read on a website that you had to take out your tongue piercing
because it shattered two of your teeth. Ouch! How exactly
did that happen? |
| Darla
Crane : I got the tongue piercing at a time when
I was working in a very straitlaced office environment so
I asked the piercer to place the bar as far back as possible
to reduce its visibility. Unfortunately, I have a small tongue
so that left the jewelry right in the line of fire of my regular
chewing pattern. I broke a chunk off of a molar on one side
while eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes. The other, I cracked
down the middle, which, fortunately, didn't require fixing
for a few years. I started taking the barbell out to eat but
eventually tongue piercings became so overdone by *everyone*
that I just left it out for good and the hole closed right
up. |
 The
Film School Dropout:
What kind of body piercings do you have today?
Darla Crane : Well, I had my nipples done
for a couple of years but the damned things never
healed and they'd get infected if even *I* touched them. I
tried switching from rings to barbells but nothing worked.
I really wanted my breasts to be involved in my sex life again
so I took those piercings out, too. I still have my ears done,
of course. I've had them pierced since I was nine. I thought
very briefly about stretching them to accommodate small grommets
but eventually decided against it.
The
Film School Dropout:
The last I heard, you had at least three tattoos. How many
do you have now, what are they, and where are they on your
body?
Darla
Crane : I have four. My favorites are the stylized
band around my left ankle and the tribal heart on my lower
back. I also have a stylized bat silhouette on my right shoulder
(that was my first tattoo ever and a mistake) and a fading
faerie on my right bicep that I plan to have covered over
sometime soon with a simple black design to tie in with the
"heart" motif of my back and ankle tats.
The
Film School Dropout:
Have you ever seen the adult film industry portrayed accurately
in a mainstream movie? If so, which one got it right?
Darla Crane : I haven't come across anything on film
that relates to what I've seen of the adult industry. I like
"Boogie Nights" because all the actors give such
amazing performances that they save an otherwise silly script...but
that is a story about the era before mine. I liked Val Kilmer
in "Wonderland" (I like Val Kilmer in just about
anything) but again, that was all before my time.
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I *was* happy that the docu-movie "Porn
Star" was made about my friend Ron Jeremy...even if
I think the director maybe didn't love his subject quite
as much as he should have. Ron is an icon and deserves the
best.
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| The
Film School Dropout:
For anyone who isn’t familiar with your work, what is
the one film of yours that you would most highly recommend,
and why? |
| Darla
Crane : The ONE film? How could I? I mean, there's
such a wild selection! If you're into crazy anal sex, check
out any of my Seymore Butts movies. If you like interracial,
there's my work with Lexington Steele, Sean Michaels, Jack
Napier, Boz... If you want to see me covered in cum, my Rodney
Moore appearances should do it for you. If you like big-budget
features, check out my Vivid movies. I'm also very proud of
my work for Jill Kelly Productions, Big Top Video, Silver
Star, Wildlife, Elegant Angel... geez, the list goes on and
on and that's not even mentioning my fetish work. But my very
favorite stuff is on my own little website! |
| The
Film School Dropout:
And finally, what can the world expect from Darla Crane in
2005? |
| Darla
Crane : More of the same, I guess. ;> |
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