SexHerald: Congratulations on your recent AVN nominations. Of all your nominations, which do you want to win the most?

Randy Spears: The acting awards mean a lot to me because I worked so hard on that part of it. Someday, I’d like to win a directors award but that might be coming in the future.

SH: Before porn, you were actually a pretty successful mainstream actor. Can you mention some of the mainstream work you did before entering the adult industry?

Spears: I did a lot of television. After-school specials . . . I did a lot of those. I did quite a few feature films. Back in the day, I did a soap opera for a year as a regular character. TV commercials, I did some stuff like that. I did a lot of theater, too, back in my younger days as an actor both in New York and Los Angeles. I even did a little bit of theater work in Chicago. And how I got started . . . there was a, coincidentally, a union-writer’s strike that hit Hollywood in the 80s. I started to go hungry. I was doing some modeling for a jeans ad and I ran into a woman who gave me her card. And she said if I ever wanted to do some nude work, give me a call. I said thank you, I’ll take your card but that would ruin my career. But when you get hungry you start looking for options and I called her up. I did my first movie and they were surprised that I could act and perform, and my phone started ringing like crazy. The money and the offers were just too great to turn down. There was the fork in the road right there. I took the adult path.

SH: You think because of the current writers strike there could a future porn star out there going hungry who’s considering doing porn?

Spears: There very well could be. Very well could be. Being an actor is a tough life. You’re basically jobless after you wrap on a movie or your show. Then you’re back on the streets looking for another job. Every once in a while we see people who have dabbled over that side of the fence, and then they come over to us and say, “Hey, this is regular work. I can make some good money here and work a lot.” I’m sure there are some people that are probably sitting at home right now going, “Wow, maybe I should do some nude stuff to pay my bills.” I’m sure that’s happening somewhere.

SH: Did you have a plan where you said to yourself that you’d do porn for a certain amount of time and then return mainstream? How did you get sidetracked? Was it the money that you couldn’t resist?

Spears: It was regular work. The money was better. My plan was to do it until I was tired of it or until I formulated another plan to move on. That’s the reason why I started directing. I am getting older now, I can’t do this forever. The girls still like working with me but you don’t want to be that boxer in the ring that everybody’s going, “Oh no! We remember him when he was great.” I don’t want to feel that way. So, my plan was to eventually one day get out from in front of the camera and get behind the camera. Now I’m directing for Wicked, and I’m moving in that direction. I think I’ll probably do one more year in front of the camera then hang up my jockstrap by this time next year.

SH: Do you think you’ll miss performing?

Spears: When I hang it up, that’ll be it. I couldn’t take it a couple of years and then come back. I would be too old. You don’t want to be a 50-year-old actor in this business. These girls are 18, 19.

Moving on, moving back to do mainstream stuff… I certainly have some intentions of banging back around Hollywood and looking for an agent that would know what to do with me. Hopefully, they’ll think my acting skills are good enough to do mainstream stuff. But really the key is to find an agent who’s not afraid to say, “That’s Randy Spears. Look at his reel. This guy can act and he can definitely do a scene next to Tom Cruise.”

SH: Do you think some of that stigma is gone where if you’ve done porn and jump into mainstream you can find work in mainstream?

Spears: I think some of it is gone but certainly not all of it. I still, amazingly, run into situations where I’ll read for a major motion picture or a television spot and they’ll say, “You’re perfect for this. You did a great reading, we’d love to have you but we don’t know how our sponsors will react to you because of what you did or whatever.”

SH: Does that kill you, does it hurt?

Spears: It doesn’t hurt. It’s frustrating for sure because you’re sitting there knowing you can definitely do the job. Now there’s even a point to be made . . . put one of us on a soap opera now. The ratings may go through the roof because there’s porn stars in there. [Laughs] Who knows? I think mainstream doesn’t think there are any good actors in our profession; that we’re all just lousy. That’s not true. There are some of us who are professionals at this. We’re professional actors. I have, if you look at it this way, I have more on-screen time than any Hollywood actor in history. Maybe someday somebody will take note of that and go, “ Hey maybe I can market this guy.” Any agents looking for a challenge, contact Wicked Pictures. [Laughs] Plus I’m union as well if that helps. I belong to SAG and AFTRA.

SH: Do you feel jaded, just a little bit, after so many years in adult or are you still grateful that you can still do this, be a top performer in this business?

Spears: I’m still totally gratefully for the opportunity to be working. I’m grateful to still be needed and wanted, and still have people like Wicked Pictures think that I’m of value to this industry and to their company. Jaded? I guess you can’t help it a little bit. If you worked in a candy shop, you probably would not like candy as much as you did before you worked in the candy shop. But I absolutely love sex; otherwise, I would be in the wrong business. I completely enjoy what I do. I love women, all types of women. I’m having a ball. And these guys still give me great parts as an actor. I still get to spread my wings and be challenged, and I get some really great roles. Just coming from an artistic standpoint as an actor, I get to play all kinds of great characters. When you put those two together, loving sex and hot girls, and still loving being able to be an actor, it’s really been great and I’m still having a great time.

SH: Why do you feel you still remain at the top of your game? Is there a secret to your success?

Spears: I think the reason is because I’ve built a reputation over the years of being a solid performer. They know what they’re going to get when they hire me. What they get is Randy Spears showing up to the set, serious about his job and they know that I’m going to work hard and give 100 percent, every time. That sets their mind at ease when they cast me in a lead; they know that I’m going to give them the best performance that I can. I think they’re appreciative these days of people that show up and have that attitude. There’s very few of us left, as far as male actors. The new kids on the block, they come in and actually whine about being on a feature set for more than a few hours of their day. I always laugh at them and say, “We pay you for [being here] all day. That’s your day rate. That means, you’re here until we’re done with you.” You’re not doing gonzo when you work for Wicked. You’re not in there and out in an hour. This is a movie. There’s some downtime, so bring a book! [Laughs]

SH: Whom would you consider some of the most beautiful women you have ever worked with? Can you mention a few names?

Spears: There’s been so many and that’s almost an unfair question. The original Savannah from Vivid. She was so beautiful. Tori Welles, Ginger Lynn, Racquel Darrian. And of course all of the Wicked girls. They’re spectacularly beautiful. Stormy Daniels, Kirsten Price, Carmen Hart, Julia Ann . . . there’s so many that it’s hard to say because I’ll leave 50 of them out. I’ll actually have to sit down and remember them all. Samantha Strong, when she was brand new, was an absolutely beautiful girl. My first wife, Danielle Rogers, is uniquely beautiful.

SH: Maybe this would be an easier question. Were there any women you wanted to work with but, for whatever reason, you missed your chance working with them?

Spears: Yeah, I never worked with Traci Lords. I missed her. Other than that, not really. Some of the older gals . . . Rhonda Jo Petty, I missed her. I never worked with Kay Parker, I never got to work with Christy Canyon. I missed her as well. We laugh about that now when I see her. One great regret, I never got to work with Hannah Harper who I absolutely adore. I think she was one of the most beautiful women on the planet. The guys over at Sin City just kind of cock blocked me from her. [Laughs] I always wondered why. But you can’t work with all of them. I sure tried.

SH: Any girls from today you’d like to work with?

Spears: Yeah, there’s a couple of girls. Some of the Digital Playground girls. I never worked with Jesse Jane over there, who I think is just a doll. I love her. A couple of the new Vivid girls I haven’t had the chance to work with, but it’s because I’m under contract with Wicked. So I can only work as a performer in Wicked Pictures. I don’t get a chance to work with Vivid or Digital, or any of those companies anymore.

SH: Having worked and performed with so many beautiful women, has that gotten old or do you still get excited by it?

Spears: No, no, no. Absolutely not. I love having sex with hot women. Who wouldn’t? [Laughs] That’s never going to change either no matter how old I get.

SH: Whenever I interview the girls and ask them who they like working with, they always mention Randy Spears. Obviously, you’re one of the most requested males. Is that a big ego boost for you, and why do you feel the girls constantly request working with you?

Spears: First of all, I’d like to think that I don’t have an ego. I’m just appreciative. Secondly, I think it’s because, again they know what they’re going to get with me. They get a man that can do the job, that treats them with respect and is polite to them, but still carries that little dirty edge so they can have some fun in there. I make them feel beautiful about themselves and I make them feel relaxed. I think they feel from me that they know that they’re in good hands and that they know that I’m a professional and that I’ll guide them through the scene, and help them look really great on camera. When they’re acting next to me, I think they know that, again, they’re working with a professional and that it may boost their game. Kind of like playing tennis with somebody who’s really good. It makes you better playing with them. But more than anything, I think they feel just comfortable with me because I treat them with respect.

SH: When it comes to gonzo versus features, you have the features guys such as yourself, Evan Stone, Stephen St. Croix, Barret Blade, etc. Then you have the gonzo guys. Why didn’t you do more gonzo in the past? Is there a stigma where if you’re known as a feature guy, if you do a gonzo, you may not be taken seriously as a feature guy?

Spears: Not necessarily. I think there’s a very distinct and separation between gonzo guys and feature guys. For me, there’s enough feature work that I didn’t have to do gonzo. So the feature companies were always calling me for work, so it kept me busy. I did do gonzo, I have done some, certainly. I have no problem with that. But I think the newer generation of guys that have come into our business, they’re not real good actors. Nor do they want to be. I’ve touched on that before. They’re actually irritated of the fact that they have to come in and spend 19 hours on a set when they’re used to going in for almost the same pay, going in, knocking out a gonzo scene, and be in and out of there in two hours. They have the rest of their day open.

SH: Is that why you feel that the feature guys are a dying breed as you said in a previous interview?

Spears: There’s nobody coming in to replace the Stephen St. Croix or the Randy Spears. We’ve got a few guys that have filtered in and have shown an interest in working hard on features. Tommy Gunn is a good example. But there’s tons of guys who do gonzo stuff, but there’s not tons of us that want to do the features that actually can. We are a dying breed. The combination of being able to fuck and act, that separates the guy coming in off the street. He’s just horny and wants to fuck hot chicks. There’s an art to what we do. Being able to become a character and still perform sexually. I’m now being a director and casting for movies for features, I scratch my head and sit there and go, “Who am I going to get to play this part? Who can play this part and say these 35 pages of dialogue?” not a lot of guys. Just a handful of us, that’s it.

SH: How do you personally feel about gonzo? Do you watch gonzo yourself?

Spears: I actually don’t watch a lot of porno, period. I watch the stuff that we do at Wicked, of course. I watch some of the competition. I keep an eye out on what Paul Thomas does over at Vivid, and some of the bigger directors in regard to their feature stuff because that’s just more interesting to me to view. Some of the gonzo stuff is downright repulsive. I really find myself scratching my head going, “What is this, a competition to see who can shock the audience better?” Nine guys fucking a chick in the ass then sticking her in a goddamn garbage bin out in the alley after they’re done with her, is not erotic to me at all. But that’s just me. There will always be a market for the quadruple anal scene, but that’s not the world I live in. There’s nothing wrong with that. If that’s their expression of their art, then so be it. To me, I think it’s way more difficult to tell an interesting story, mixed in with erotic sex, than to just have a little handheld camera in your hand and have some girl gagging on nine guys’ dicks. I can shoot that with my head in my ass.

SH: I’m sure people ask you all the time how much has the business changed in the 20 years you’ve been in the industry. In your opinion, what hasn’t changed? What’s still the same?

Spears: We still don’t have a union. The actors still get paid a day rate. There’s no real organization as far as residuals or unionizing, or anything like that. And I always thought that was kind of interesting that nobody ever developed that back years ago, when there was just a small handful of us guys in the business total. We talked about unionizing the men because that would have gained us an awful lot of control. Without the men, you have nothing. But I would have liked to have seen some more people make a little bit more money on the backend of projects, but you know what, I’m compensated completely fairly and very happy with my situation at Wicked. My boss is absolutely generous. But that’s probably it. It hasn’t changed and I don’t think it ever will change.

SH: I’m sure guys also always ask you how they can get into the business. Let’s say I’m a performer. I found a way to get in and I’ve done a few scenes. My question to you is, how can I achieve longevity in this business? How can I make a career out of this and earn a decent living? What advice would you give to those guys?

Spears: Be on time, be professional, be able to get your dick hard whenever they needed to be, and be able to cum on command. Treat everybody with respect and stay away from dope. Those are the best pieces of advice I can give any guy coming into the business.