SexHerald: The subject of your first Vivid Ed title is handjobs. Why did you want to take on that topic?

Penny Flame: Penny Flame’s Expert Guide To Hand Jobs. Well, Tristan Taormino actually came to me and said that she thought that that would be a good place to start. And I had never even . . . we had never even discussed me directing for Vivid. She said that the idea came to her one day when we were on the set of Chemistry 4, and I was actually giving one of the male performers a handjob. And he was like, “What the fuck are you doing with your hands? It’s amazing!” which is a huge compliment considering how many hands have been on his cock. It happened later on in the day with Adrianna Nicole as well. Tristan said that something lit up in her brain and that’s where it all came from. Chemistry 4 kind of spurred it all. So, I decided to do the handjob movie and it’s leading into a lot of really awesome things. I’m stoked.

SH: Did you always know you had this talent for handjobs?

Flame: Yes and no. Everybody’s got hands. I’ve had a couple of guys who have told me, “What the fuck are you doing? That’s amazing!” I just figured they hadn’t been the luckiest dudes on earth. I just got the shitty pick. [Laughs] I’m nasty like that. I like my hands. That’s how I get through crowds. I grope and fondle my way through large crowds. I use breasts and cocks as lever points to pull myself.

SH: You mentioned other awesome things coming up. Will you be directing other movies for Vivid Ed?

Flame: Yes. Later on this year, probably in the summer, we’ll be doing Penny Flame’s Expert Guide to Rough Sex. What’s really neat about it is Vivid doesn’t put out very rough things. They don’t allow slapping, they don’t allow spitting, and they don’t allow choking. There’s a lot of lines they cannot cross because in some of the states that they distribute, it’s probably considered not necessarily obscene, but more along the lines of degrading. The context in which regular gonzo performers has sex is going to be very different than what we’re going to be doing in an educational line. Obviously, first and foremost, it’s an educational video. That changes the entire format. For every one of these videos, we sit the talent down and we talk to them on a very personal level and [ask] what do you like about this, what don’t you like about this? How do you do this, what is the proper way to go through with this? Because we’re going to be doing that with the rough sex line, it’s really going to be more of an empowering thing for the women involved.

Stereotypically, rough sex in your standard gonzo film takes the power away from the woman and puts it solely in the hands of the man, which is why he’s able to beat the crap out of her or she just takes it. With this, we’ll really be allowing the woman to show that not only is it consensual, it is something she is asking for, and it’s being done in a way that she wants it done and has told him to do it to her. I’m stoked about it.

SH: That’s good to hear that you’re stoked about it. Other people don’t seem to be that way about their jobs.

Flame: Why dedicate your life to something if you don’t feel passionately about it? That’s kind of what we’re doing here. There’s no turning back once you get into this industry. You’re always going to be, as much as I hate to say it because it sounds bad, but you’re always going to be stuck with the stigma of being a porn director, or a porn performer, or even a porn writer. These are things we’re always going to be up against for the rest of our lives. If you don’t fucking love it, then why would you do that? I’m thrilled. Besides the fact that Vivid has always been incredibly supportive of my career and have allowed me to explore my sexuality and my acting abilities, I guess you could say. This is totally new territory for me. The Shane’s World stuff I was doing, they gave me a line about getting drunk… easy.

They gave me one movie where I could go crazy and do whatever I want. So it was funny; but with the Vivid thing, I’m excited. I think I’m as enthusiastic as I am because I really feel like we’re going to help people to relate and to have great, crazy sex. If it takes their relationships to a new level they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise, then we’re going to be able to do that on a very relatable basis. I want the female performers to not be intimidating. I want there to be real conversation between the partners and I want there to be real chemistry. The casting process is going to be really fun.

SH: What guys do you have in mind for this project that you feel can do exactly what the females ask them to do?

Flame: Derrick Pierce I absolutely adore. He’s a good friend of mine. I’m actually considering stealing him for myself. [Laughs] He’s such an articulate man, he’s incredibly bright and he has really interesting things to say, as far as this line goes. I’ve already spoken with him a little bit about it, and he’s totally into it. For him, he says it’s not about hurting the girl in any way. It’s about making her cum. And if that’s what makes her cum then that’s exactly what he wants to do. So that’s huge. That right there is pretty much everything we’re trying to illustrate with this. It’s not about necessarily being beat; it’s about orgasming all over the place. Another guy I have in mind is Manuel Ferrara. I would absolutely love to get him for this. My dream couple for one of the scenes is Belladonna and Manuel. It gives me chills just thinking about it.

SH: So you’re considering Belladonna. That’s a number-one seller right there.

Flame: And Manuel. Besides the number-one selling factor, I just want to watch them fuck. I want to perv out on it. I totally masturbated to them last night. [Laughs] It seems like it would be so hot. It would be mind blowing. I would dedicate an entire day to them fucking each other. Talking about it before, talking about it after, and then just fucking each other’s brains out. I think it would be so hot.

SH: With the Vivid Ed stuff, you think you’d want to move on and direct features for Vivid?

Flame: I would love to! It’s funny you ask. I recently tried my hand at writing scripts. I just finished my very first one. The working title of it is For Getting Love. I’m so new behind the camera in this context. Like with the Shane’s World stuff, even though I was directing it, I was still in front of the camera the whole time. Being behind the camera is going to be such a new thing for me that I’m not confident enough. I feel like after a few of the Vivid Ed things go down that I will definitely be more confident than anything. Of course, the videographers are everything. If I got to keep the video guys that I have now I would be set. I wouldn’t even need to think because they know the shot, and all I would have to be like is, “Yes, I like that. No, I don’t like that. A little bit darker, please.”[Laughs] But I would love to direct features one day.

SH: You’re still going to continue on as a performer?

Flame: There’s no other way to have promiscuous safe sex in California unless you’re performing in porn. [Laughs]

SH: So, we have many more years of seeing you naked in front of the camera.

Flame: Pretty much. I told my agent when he starts booking me for MILF films is when we’ll have a problem. I’m going to perform until people are emailing me telling me to get off the fucking silver screen, Penny Flame! [Laughs]

SH: What do you credit for your longevity and popularity in porn?

Flame: I think a large reason of why people like me is because I like my job. You always get back what you put out. I try to remain as happy as humanly possible, as positive as humanly possible. It’s not even that I’m trying to be this way; it’s just that I feel better about myself. As far as longevity goes, I’ve really taken my time getting into this business. For instance, I didn’t even consider myself as a career porn star until January of this year. A career to me is something you go to college for, and then you start working it when you’re 23, work through your retirement, then you quit. That’s a career. I always thought of this as more of a hobby. I never take myself too seriously.

Like I said, it was just this year that I actually started to consider this as a potential career. One thing I’ve always been afraid of is, once I reached my plateau as far as performing sexually goes—like I don’t do anal. I can’t step up on my career like that. I’m not going to do a 50-man fucking bukkake gangbang. I can’t take my career that way. I always kind of worried, “Well, what am I going to do after I hit my maximum sexual plateau?” The answer came under the wings of Tristan Taormino.

I think the longevity… a lot of girls get into the business and they give it all up. In the first two months, she’s doing four-man anal creampies fucking gangbangs. Where do you go from there? For the first year, year and a half, I didn’t even use toys. I wouldn’t even let anyone else in a picture with me. I didn’t even want people to know I was doing pictures. It was all very on the low. I was in the business for four years before I did hardcore with guys. That’s huge. There are a couple of girls that I know that are like that. Monique Alexander is a perfect example. She took her sweetass time. We’ve been friends since we both got into the business. Same with Sunny Leone. When you allow yourself to space your career out, and when you really think about what it is that you’re doing, I think you’re kind of guaranteed a place in people’s hearts because you make them want it. You’re not going to buy the fucking cow if you can get the milk for free. I’ve been charging for my milk the whole time. [Laughs]

SH: So for any girl, or guy, entering porn, just enjoy what you do. Is that key in order to have longevity in this business?

Flame: Yes, you have to. Because it comes out in your scenes, it comes out in the way you treat people on the set; it comes out in the way you live your life. I know some girls who have nightmares about the shit that they’re doing. They’ve gotten to that point in their life where they’re like, “Why did I do this?” “Why did I do this?” “Why did I do this?” It affects the way that they act towards other people because they don’t feel good about themselves. We, as human beings, have a tendency to emote what we feel about ourselves onto other people. I think a huge thing to being successful in this business is to make sure that every step you take is one you want to take. Every scene you do is one you had a great time doing. If you didn’t, don’t do it again. If you find yourself doing something that you’re not enjoying, stop!

SH: You didn’t consider yourself a porn star until this January. In your opinion, what makes a girl a porn star?

Flame: First comes the longevity, and I think you have to have a certain respect for your work. That’s probably the biggest. A lot of girls do it because they want to make ridiculous amounts of money and because they want to be porn stars. That’s not necessarily what it is. Every girl that I know that I consider a porn star is just a sexual creature. Savannah Samson, for instance. The woman oozes sex appeal. It really takes a special kind of woman to do that, and to have a fan base and to have a following. You have to be dedicated to your profession. I always thought of it as a hobby because I always thought that I would have to go back to real life. Then I realized in January this is my real life. [Laughs] Time to embrace the now and realize that this is my life, this is the way I’m living, and that this is a very large part of who I am. That’s something I didn’t really think about before. A lot of girls don’t. They just think, “Money, money, money.” It’s certainly not first and foremost on my mind.

SH: Where do you see yourself in the future, personally and professionally?

Flame: Professionally, I think I’ll still be here. I’ll be directing. I’d love to still be directing. If I keep my ass in shape, I’ll probably still be performing but it will probably be for a very select few [studios]. But I would like to focus on directing. I feel as though that’s where my future really is. If this Vivid Ed thing goes, which I have a feeling it will, I would love to do a couple’s sex therapy. That way people are incredibly open, as far as sex and relationships goes, and everybody here is in therapy so, why not? I’d really like to take a more professional approach to the way we can relate to each other, both sexually and intellectually. Personally, I don’t know. I feel like the way I start planning who I am is the day I’ll start feeling contrived. I don’t ever want to know what’s going to happen tomorrow because I think that really takes away from the excitement that is life.