| Interview by Hardcore Gossip
HCG: I remember
day one with you.
Briana Banks: You were there.
HCG: You came in as Mirage, for those who don’t know.
Briana Banks: I came in as Mirage in 1999. I was 19. I did my first movie.
HCG: I hired you for that movie.
Briana Banks: Yes. You hired me for that movie and I remember I was so
nervous that I was shaking. I mean I literally had never had
sex with the lights on before and all these people were staring
at me and I was shaking.
HCG: It was for DANE and we were shooting some impossible day
like seven scenes and two crews and everyone was tired but when
you walked onto set everyone stopped working and walked over
to watch your scene. That was worse for you, since you felt
that way, and since you now know that usually that doesn’t
really happen on set.
Briana Banks: Yeah. I remember I was thinking at least it is in a room
and then I remember everyone was looking through the window.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the scene and
I had no idea what I was doing. They were all, like, okay do
a 69 and I had no idea what they were talking about. I didn’t
know what any of the positions were or what they meant so they
had to keep stopping to explain everything to me. Cowgirl? What’s
a cowgirl? I was completely naïve. I didn’t even
know what a BJ was, that it meant blow job.
HCG: You were relatively naïve then?
Briana Banks: I was completely naïve.
HCG: When did you lose your virginity?
Briana Banks: I was 17 and I had only been with three guys before I got
into the business.
HCG: And then at 19 your stumbled into porn? Why?
Briana Banks: Actually I had custody of my little sister and I needed
the money to get into a new apartment and, believe it or not,
I had just lost my job, got into a car accident, and got evicted,
all in the same week. I saw an ad in the paper that said I could
make a thousand dollars in a day, so I called and there I was.
I walked on set and I saw these naked people doing it, I almost
turned around and walked right back to the car. I was scared
and finally I got the guts to walk back up.
HCG: So where are you from?
Briana Banks: I was born in Munich Germany.
HCG: And you have a parent that still lives out there and one
here in the States?
Briana Banks: Yeah. My dad still lives out there and my mother lives
in California.
HCG: Are you a dual citizen?
Briana Banks: No. I chose U.S. citizenship when I turned 18.
HCG: Were you really secretly sexual when you were growing
up or was there just the shy girl?
Briana Banks: I was voted Most Shy girl in high school actually. I had
one close friend that I hung out with. I never talked to guys
and guys never talked to me. I wore big baggy jeans and huge
t-shirts. I was a total tomboy and I wore baseball hats. You
would think I was a dude if I didn’t have long hair.
HCG: So you were a late bloomer?
Briana Banks: Completely.
HCG: So then you did this movie and you were thinking that
you were only going to do one movie so you could get the money
you needed and put everything back in order in your life at
that time?
Briana Banks: Exactly. I did the one movie and I lied to everyone that
I knew and said that I did a swimsuit catalogue or something
or a gym catalogue. I got the thousand dollars to get the studio
apartment but then I found myself thinking, well now I need
a little more money to furnish this apartment.
HCG: Right. We have all been there.
Briana Banks: So I made around two or three movies and then everybody
I know from junior high school on saw the first movie I did,
which was University Coeds. They all saw it at the Hustler store
and then everybody started calling me and telling me about it.
And I thought to myself, screw it. If everybody knows anyway
than I might as well change my name and just go for it.
HCG: And your first scene was with a kinder, gentler Brandon
Iron?
Briana Banks: Yeah. I’ve worked with Brandon Iron three times and
I was Mirage all three times, including the first ever time
on film. I remember seeing the size of his penis and thinking,
it’s never going to fit. I had never seen anything that
big in my life.
HCG: Right.
Briana Banks: But he was very nice. He said “if I hurt you at all
just grab my thighs” so I grabbed him about eight or nine
times during the scene and he slowed down, but I made it through
the scene. I was bowlegged afterwards, but I made it.
HCG: I remember people just lining up near the bedroom window
and drinking beer and watching your scene. It was pretty hick.
Briana Banks: I didn’t make any noise during the scene at all.
HCG: No. You really didn’t.
Briana Banks: I remember them saying make noise and I didn’t know
how. I didn’t know how to make noise because I had never
made noise.
HCG: How many movies did you do before you signed with Vivid?
Briana Banks: About four hundred. [laughter]- Between four or five hundred
movies before I signed with Vivid. Sometimes I worked twice
a day. So I worked a lot and I was offered a contract several
times from different companies and I chose not to take them.
HCG: What changed for you that made a contract sound more appealing?
Briana Banks: I started getting sore and I was tired and I didn’t
want to go to work anymore. I didn’t want to have to work
all the time.
HCG: How many years was that?
Briana Banks: I think it was only two since I was only Mirage for two
years. I had a bad experience and I stopped doing porn for about
a month or two and got my boobs done.
HCG: Somebody pushed it too far with you?
Briana Banks: Yeah. Somebody pushed me too far. I won’t mention
the name.
HCG: You don’t have to. I am sure that most of your fans
probably know the story anyway.
Briana Banks: Yeah. Somebody pushed me too far and I got completely confused
and I started to hate porn.
HCG: So you had never stripped before this point in your life?
Briana Banks: Never. I had never even had sex with the lights on before
this business.
HCG: So then along comes Vivid?
Briana Banks: They approached me three times and I said no three times.
VCA approached me as well.
HCG: I know you had a lot of offers at that time.
Briana Banks: I finally decided that if I don’t go under contract
then I am going to just quit because I am not enjoying myself
anymore.
HCG: Not when you have to do 500 scenes to keep it all going.
Briana Banks: Exactly plus you never know what you are going to get when
you get rough on set.
HCG: It’s funny that you say that because the business
has gotten so much rougher since you came in and so much more
extreme that it seems completely divided between the contract
girls doing features and the super hardcore.
Briana Banks: Exactly. I’ve done some crazy movies but you go through
AVN now and the stuff I thought was crazy back then pretty much
doesn’t even measure up to the stuff that is crazy now.
HCG: I shot you in an anal movie in the Sin City warehouse…
Briana Banks: I think that was with Joel Lawrence…
HCG: …and you were a bad secretary and had to fuck to
save your job because you were so bad at it…
Briana Banks: Yeah…
HCG: …and I remember thinking that it was such a hard
scene and that we were really pushing it.
Briana Banks: Right.
HCG: Compared to what the average gonzo imprint makes now,
it was nothing.
Briana Banks: I’ve done five on ones, and all that, but I have
two different fan bases. I have the fans who like all the Mirage
stuff, all that crazy stuff, then I have the fan base that likes
all the pretty Vivid stuff. I’m not ashamed of anything
you’ve done.
HCG: How long did Vivid sign you for?
Briana Banks: Originally it was a year, and then I re-signed for three
more years. I am going on my fourth year now.
HCG: Has it been that long?
Briana Banks: Yeah. I have been in the business almost five and a half
years now.
HCG: What are some of your favorite moments in porn thus far?
Briana Banks: Well of course BRIANA LOVES JENNA. The first time I actually
worked with Jenna was in her interactive. I threw up on Jenna
because I was so nervous.
HCG: You are so gross.
Briana Banks: She was the only person that I had ever heard of. She was
the girl that every guy had up on their wall. So I was on a
New Sensations shoot and Rene was pulled me aside and was like,
Jenna Jameson wants to work with you. I was so nervous that
I told her I was booked that day. Not because I didn’t
want to work with her but I was so nervous that I was completely
petrified. I had only been with two girls in the business. Most
of my scenes as Mirage were boy girl scenes.
HCG: Right.
Briana Banks: So I was petrified and I go to meet her and I threw up
on her. Then I was even more upset. I just wanted to crawl under
a table and die. Jenna was like, oh you are so cute. I did the
interactive thing with her and I had no idea what I was doing.
I think I was hurting her.
HCG: But you threw up on her? Where? During the scene? Was
it on her body or on her leg or something?
Briana Banks: No. It was just in front of her. It was on the floor.
HCG: You made it sound like you just vomited on her.
Briana Banks: Well it was at her feet, right in front of her. I was so
embarrassed that I ran into the bathroom and just kept hoping
that I would die or something.
HCG: In some cultures that might be considered a form of worship
or something.
Briana Banks: Yeah, I guess you could call it that.
HCG: Some island cultures.
Briana Banks: I just remember thinking to myself, “ I should have
just said I was booked, I want to die…”
HCG: So then you did the scene?
Briana Banks: Actually we did the scene for the interactive and then afterwards
we did this little mini scene together.
JENNA JAMESON: Actually the throwing up thing made me like
her even more.
Briana Banks: Yeah. So afterwards we did this little scene were I actually
got to kiss Jenna and I was freaking out. Once we got into the
scene she ended up fisting me and they had to edit it out. If
you watch the scene you can see that we are totally getting
into it and then it just goes black and it says, we cannot show
what is going on right now.
HCG: So need less to say, you guys got along really well?
Briana Banks: We got along really well.
HCG: Like kindred spirits?
Briana Banks: She was like, I didn’t know that you had that in you,
because I was so shy and I had originally thrown up on her.
HCG: I don’t think you knew that you had it in you.
Briana Banks: No. My first girl was Lita Chase and T.T. Boy, so it was
a boy girl girl scene. T.T. Boy just smacked the crap out of
my ass, so I just remember having welts on my butt. I was so
nervous of Lita because I thought she was very beautiful and
had such huge tits. She was very nice though. She walked me
through my scene because I really did have no idea how to do
a girl. I was like, what do I do with my tongue?
HCG: That could be the defining characteristic of your career
is that you didn’t know you had it in you.
Briana Banks: Before I got into this business I’d never even been
told I was pretty. When people here started to tell me that
I was pretty I didn’t believe them. I just thought that
they wanted me to do a better scene. I never considered myself
pretty.
HCG: What do you think now?
Briana Banks: I still consider myself average. You know I don’t
look in the mirror and think, oh God, I am so pretty. I’m
still a little tomboy. I still think I am little Bri.
HCG: Little Bri?
Briana Banks: Little Bri. You know you see these girls that come in that
are just normal girls and then you meet them again like two
years later and they act like their shit doesn’t stink.
HCG: Sometimes they are like that only four months into the
business, after everyone has filled their head with all this
nonsense and had their turn to fuck them. Then they get mad
when the attention shifts to the new girl that no one has fucked
yet instead of them.
Briana Banks: Yeah. I have seen so many girls that are so nice to me
and then a few months later they are just completely different
people. I’ve always thought, God, I’m never going
to be like that and I have never allowed myself to be.
HCG: Did Vivid change your name?
Briana Banks: No. I did that. Actually Lita, the girl I did my first lesbian
scene with, she gave it to me. I went with her and got my tits
done by her doctor because I wanted mine to look like hers so
bad…
HCG: Who was the doctor?
Briana Banks: I don’t even remember his name. This was like my first
set of breasts. After the bad incident that I told you about
I took some time off and I got my breasts done. I wasn’t
dancing yet. I never danced as Mirage. She talked me into coming
back. She told me I needed to start sticking up for myself.
She suggested the name Briana Banks, which I thought was perfect
since I always wanted to be a supermodel. Briana was my real
name and Banks was like Tyra Banks, so I liked it. Well after
I got my new tits I was too scared to change my name because
I thought I would lose all my fans if I did and then Lita threatened
to give my name away to another girl so I took it.
HCG: And then after that you ended up signing as Vivid?
Briana Banks: I did six months of movies as Briana Banks and then I signed
with Vivid.
HCG: Which do you like better, gonzos or features?
Briana Banks: The thing I like about the gonzos is that you are in and
you are out but with the features you can get more money and
have more control over who you work with.
HCG: Who do you like to work with?
Briana Banks: My favorites are Evan Stone and Joel Lawrence. I’ll
bet the same girls same the same guys every time.
HCG: Which directors do you like?
Briana Banks: Chi Chi La Rue is one of my favorites. You know Skeeter
just produced his first film for Vivid and it was with me and
Tera Patrick and was called Collision Course. I had so much
fun. It was like doing a gonzo and a feature at the same time.
HCG: Did you like how he directs?
Briana Banks: I thought it was awesome.
HCG: Did he bring out all the latex?
Briana Banks: He provided all the wardrobe.
HCG: He is a visionary.
Briana Banks: His favorite saying is if it wasn’t for porno I would
be in prison. Or he was like, I’m the best suitcase pimp
that ever was. He is just really hilarious guy. I liked his
way of directing a lot.
HCG: What is your website?
Briana Banks: http://brianabanks.com- It only has one N, like Brian with
an A. And it is run, of course, by Club Jenna.
HCG: What is so great about your website?
Briana Banks: My website is amazing. I mean Club Jenna has done such a
good job. I have masturbation videos, you can buy my movies
at the store, I have glamour, hardcore, fetish, girl on girl,
guy on guy, friend’s gallery, and my diary. I mean you
can just keep going through it all and not see everything plus
I have constant updates too. I do a daily diary, and an on the
road pictures, and glamour shoots every two weeks.
HCG: When did the dancing start? How did that start?
Briana Banks: I didn’t want to. I was so nervous but finally the
money got to be so good and I was so in demand that I couldn’t
turn it down. I had never even danced. I was getting offers
long before Vivid. I had already been a Penthouse Pet before
I signed with Vivid. Then the night before I went out on the
road my kidneys went out and I couldn’t move. I had heat
pads on my back and they left burn marks. I thought that God
was telling me not to go.
HCG: Why did your kidneys go out?
Briana Banks: I was literally so nervous I was scared.
HCG: They went out? It was nothing else?
Briana Banks: No there was nothing else. I pissed myself. Then on my first
show, I’m at the cabaret and there are like four hundred
guys out there waiting for me and I was backstage crying. I’m
hyperventilating and I am crying and I was saying, “ I
can’t do this, I can’t do this.”
HCG: So what happened?
Briana Banks: Well they started my intro and I got pulled out of my dressing
room by my boyfriend and he shoves me out on stage. He said
it was like riding a bike. He always used race terms. He said
if I didn’t do it now I never would. I used to say, what
is it I am fucking racing?
HCG: Wow.
Briana Banks: But I got on the stage and I was such an ass. I just walked
around and I kicked my foot and a heel nailed some guy in the
head.
HCG: You did great though?
Briana Banks: No. I was awful. I mean after the show it was dead silent.
They were thinking about whether they wanted to cheer or boo
me. They actually cheered me on. I went back not that long and
the place had gone from three or four hundred guys to eight
hundred guys. It was amazing. They were selling tickets to get
in.
HCG: So I take it that means your dancing has gotten better?
Briana Banks: Yes. Now I’m at the point where I realize that they
are just there to see me. The last thirteen clubs I’ve
gone to I’ve broken all the clubs records, so I am a lot
more confident than I used to be.
HCG: Do you do anything crazy in your show?
Briana Banks: Oh. I am completely nuts.
HCG: What do you dance to?
Briana Banks: Lords of Acid, Prodigy, Crystal Method, Korn, Disturbed,
the angrier the music, the better. That’s how I go onstage.
I have to go out there and be angry or else I will be scared.
HCG: Speaking of angry music, you are single again?
Briana Banks: Yes I am.
HCG: And you are considering staying single for a while?
Briana Banks: I am, although I know that when you are not looking for
anyone that’s when someone always seems to come along.
HCG: And we aren’t going to talk about how that ended,
that horrible relationship that a lot of people know about.
Briana Banks: I’ve been single now for almost six months.
HCG: And your crazy, wild antics are behind you for a while.
Briana Banks: Yeah, just for the record, and you can print this, I am
clean off of the drugs. I mean everyone knows what I did. I’m
not going to sit here and say it was all a lie. –[laughter]
HCG: It would be kind of hard for you to deny some of the things
that people know about.
Briana Banks: Yeah well I’m not doing that drug anymore. I am reliable
again. People are starting to trust me. I’ll dance at
a club and they will rebook me before I leave.
HCG: Because they can see that you are clean now?
Briana Banks: Right well I have put on like thirty pounds from what I
weighed a year ago. I’m back. I’m ready to start
over.
HCG: What is going to define this part of your life?
Briana Banks: Right now I am jut focusing on keeping straight and being
a better person than I was in the past and just focusing on
my career and not taking for granted how far I have come and
how lucky I am.
HCG: What do you have to say to your fans and we will wrap
this up?
Briana Banks: I love my fans. Thank you all of you. If it wasn’t
for you there would be no me.
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