Ask any female porn star if they’ve heard of Chi Chi LaRue (pronounced “she she”) and watch as they swoon in delight. Known for her women-friendly work, with a keen eye for spectacular art directing, and an ardent advocate of safe sex (you’ll never see a bareback film with her name on it), LaRue is more than your average drag queen.

Born Lawrence David Paciotti, Chi Chi LaRue hails from Minnesota but momentarily calls California home as she moved on to greener, and warmer, pastures. With each foot firmly rooted in both the straight and gay adult entertainment industries, LaRue successfully straddles those two distinct worlds and bridges a gap many have been unable to fill. SexHerald caught up with the charismatic director as she recounted tales of her life before her foray into the adult business and speculated on the future of her alter ego.

SexHerald: How did you get your start in directing? What made you interested in the world of adult films?

Chi Chi LaRue: I moved to Los Angeles in 1987. I was here for a couple of weeks and I got a job at Catalina Video doing sales, which was horribly boring. And, I found myself sticking my head into the editing room a lot and going through the books of pictures and being really interested in the production aspect, because I’m creative but I’m also a gay man who wants to look at all the dick. I was neglecting my sales; it was obvious I didn’t want to do that. I eventually got out of that and started working in the promotions department of Catalina and art directing the photo shoots. Being as bold as I am, I voiced my opinion on wanting to direct, and William Higgins actually gave me an opportunity to direct a dance/solo/jack-off thing called Hard Men. That was actually the first thing I ever directed. Then I quit Catalina and moved into another company called In Hand Video and started directing for them. The first video I directed was called Flexxx. And, this is my 20 th year; I’ll be celebrating my 20 th year in this business starting in 2007. I can’t believe it’s been that long.

So, I just progressed from there and started working for everybody—anybody that would have me. I was directing straight stuff, transsexual, bisexual and gay stuff for all the big companies, like Falcon and All Worlds, and, like I said, anybody that would write me a check.

SH: Well, now your days of chasing that extra buck are long gone, especially since you’ve established yourself in both the straight and gay adult industries.

LaRue: I love both. You know, working for Vivid was an amazing opportunity for me. Marci Hirsch, who is head of production there, brought me in to direct a girl-girl movie with Jenna Jameson. It turned out that the girls really, really liked working for me. We had a verbal contract that I wouldn’t work for any other straight companies, but that was when they were condom-mandatory. When they went to condom-optional, I had to quit working for them. I’ll now hopefully be directing for Wicked. They’re the only company left that’s condom-mandatory. They’ve got some great contract girls; a couple of them are really great friends that I’ve known for many years, like Julia Ann, Stormy and Jessica Drake. I love directing straight sex. Not only can I put my little “gay” spin on the straight sex, it inspires me to direct the gay sex.

SH: How does that actually work? How does that inspire you to direct gay sex?

LaRue: I am gay, I like working with the girls, it’s fun to dress them up. I’m very respectful of the women, but I can get really nasty sex without degrading the girls. And, I think that’s what women like about working for me. Just being on a straight set, I realize how much I love two men having sex together. And, that inspires me to go and work with gay movies. I try to get as raunchy and as dirty as I can get on the straight sex, as far as the actors will let me take them. They’re in control, on my set anyway. A lot of girls will do things for me that they won’t do for other directors because I’m not getting a sexual jolly out of making a girl take cum on the face. I’m doing it because it’s hot, it’s fun and the girls will say, ‘I’ll do it for you, Chi Chi.’ It’s wild because I never really thought I’d win an award at one of the straight award shows. But, this year I won Best Anal Scene at the big AVN Awards show, which was crazy. And, it was with a condom; the scene was with a condom. It just goes to show you that things can be hot and safe at the same time. That’s my stance on things anyway.

SH: So, what was your life like prior to entering the adult entertainment business?

LaRue: I was living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was part of a drag ensemble group called The Weather Gals. We entertained at the local gay club. We were in charge of shows every Sunday. We garnered a pretty good following; our shows were pretty packed. We even had our own award show called the Weather Gal awards where we gave awards to local drag queens for things like Best Dressed, Best Hair, Best Makeup, Cocktail Queen. That’s what I was doing and I was living by the skin of my teeth. And I was working at a pizza place, and I gained about 100 lbs. working at the pizza place. I’ve lost it since. I started working in an adult bookstore towards the end of my stay in Minneapolis. I’ve always been obsessed with porno. The very first porno I saw was Pretty Peaches, and it starred Sharon Kane. That was the first movie Sharon Kane had ever done. And now Sharon and I are best friends, which is really kind of weird.

I love Minnesota. I’ve been going back there a lot lately. My mom is getting up there in age, my dad died four years ago. My mom is 85 years old right now. I try to go home as often as I possibly can to see her. I’ve got a great sister, I’ve got an amazing nephew who’s exactly like me only straight and cute. I think about buying a house there or maybe moving back there at some point.

SH: So, is there anyone “special” in your life right now either at Minneapolis or Los Angeles?

LaRue: There’s not. And, I would hate it if there was somebody in my bed. Ick, I don’t like to sleep with anybody. I don’t even like to have a dog, a cat or fish, anything sleeping next to me. I sometimes think to myself that maybe I would like to have a boyfriend, but God it would be an awful, awful, awful thing for that person. That person would have to be a very strong person to have me as a boyfriend. Because I would be very jealous, I would go on the road, I want to do what I want to do but that person would have to not do anything. So, I don’t want to do that to me or to anyone else.

SH: Going back to your drag queen days, you’ve heard the saying: Not all gay men are drag queens but all drag queens are gay. Why did you decide to be one?

LaRue: I don’t know if all drag queens are gay. There’s various levels of cross dressing, of drag-dom, of transgender-ish, -ism. There’s what I call the hetero-vestites, which are the men that get off in dressing up like women, and they’re straight. I’m a down-and-dirty drag queen. Everything in life is “drag.” If you’re into leather, that’s drag. If you’re into dressing up like a cowboy, that’s drag. If you’re into dressing up like a club kid, that’s drag. If you’re a lipstick lesbian, that’s your drag. If you like to wear a flannel shirt and shave your head, that’s your drag. Drag is drag; drag is what it is; drag is what you are. Everybody’s got their “drag,” and sometimes it can be a drag. [laughs] It’s a long hard process; it’s uncomfortable. I have to tear the hair off my face and then slap all that makeup on and glue on eyelashes and earrings and pantyhose and panties and shoes and wigs. It takes a lot to make yourself look as cheap as I do. [laughs]

SH: Such a painful process, yet you still do it year after year. Why?

LaRue: Well, you know what? I’ve carved myself a niche, I’ve dug myself a hole and now I gotta jump in it. It is what it is. I’ve been doing it [drag] for almost 30 years. I’ve built a character and I’ve made myself successful with my drag. That’s helped make my porn successful and the porn has helped make the drag successful. Couldn’t give her up, but I think I’m going to give her up at 50, though. I think Chi Chi is going to go away at 50, which is in four years. We’ll see. I’m going to build a big, giant bonfire; wigs, clothes, heels, earrings, everything into that fire. [laughs]

SH: What’s new with your production company, Channel 1 Releasing, these days?

LaRue: We’ve been going for six years; we have Live and Raw, a live website that we do every day. I have my subsidiary of Channel 1, which is Rascal. My company just acquired All Worlds Video. That’s really exciting. That makes Channel 1 the largest gay adult entertainment company in the world, which is amazing.

We’re wonderful but we’re not as established as someone like Falcon or Colt. I mean, Falcon has over 30 years in the business. What I’m happy about is that in the very short time we’ve been going, we’ve established ourselves as one of the major players in the industry. It’s something I should have done a very long time ago. I should have started my own company a long time ago.

SH: What prevented you from doing so?

LaRue: I was afraid. I was secure in working for the companies that I was working for. It was easy, and I knew exactly where my money was coming from. I didn’t have to spend any of my own money. I knew that I was getting paid a certain amount of money from certain companies every month. And, I was coasting with that. I made some amazing movies for Falcon and All Worlds, and now I’m part-owner of those movies—not the Falcon movies, the All Worlds’. So, that’s pretty great. It’s a fast rise to being one of the top studios in the business.

SH: You’re obviously a strong supporter of the condom-mandatory policy. What do you have to say about the bareback genre that exists in the gay adult industry?

LaRue: I hate it. It’s plain and simple. I don’t support it. I don’t agree with it. I scream it from the highest heights as often as I can that it’s wrong. We need to be not only making movies for people to jack-off to, we need to send a little bit of a message to our gay brothers and sisters, our community, that watch this movie, they’re having hot sex but they’re also wearing a condom, and they’re not exchanging bodily fluids; no cum in the mouth and no fucking without a condom.

SH: Is there a personal reason why you feel so strongly about implementing the condom-mandatory policy?

LaRue: The personal reason is just that it’s morally correct and that it’s my job as someone who has the opportunity to do this to present it to people that way. I’ve had a lot of friends die; I’ve seen a lot of people wither away… There’s a lot of stuff plaguing us, and we have to help each other to give positive images out there. I really don’t care what people think of us as adult entertainment workers—people that are in the movies, people that make the movies—but, for the most part we’re really good people, and us that are doing the safe sex and are portraying it safely and the way it should be done in the privacy of your own home, or in a sex club, or in the back alley by a dumpster. Carry a condom with you, it’s really easy

SH: If it’s just that simple, why do you think people still refuse to use condoms?

LaRue: Oh, because everyone thinks they’re invincible at the moment. I don’t know. If I had the answer to that, I could rule the world possibly.