Twenty Questions with Lily Cade

Lily Cade is one top all-girl performer who directs Filly Films's recent American political parody "Between The Headlines: A Lesbian Porn Parody". Cade herself is always engaging to watch and she plays MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow in it really well. Her Filly Films-directed releases always have solid girl/girl fucking. Combine that with her own fabulous sexuality and you have some great times guaranteed, especially if you pick up one of her titles on your next porn buying spree. Here are her answers to twenty questions.

1) What kind of girl were you back in high school? Who did you hang out with/date?

I like to say I was the closest thing to a boy that went to my all girls Catholic high school and I made it work for me. I was also super goth. Some people were actually afraid of me. I was one of those girls you didn't mess with...but I was also a bit of a teacher's pet. I got good grades and I played pranks. I had a surprisingly good time at a high school run by Catholic Sisters (they'd want to point out to you that they're Sisters, not nuns. These are different, though I can't remember why.) I'm still secretly a little bit goth, in a philosophical way. I've always had a touch of melancholy about me. I'm fascinated by darkness and unfairness and how the human spirit - or life, in general, perseveres anyway.

I didn't really date in high school. I hung around with weird kids and sometimes hooked up with them, but I didn't have any serious relationships until early college. Everyone I've ever been serious with has been a dyke – possibly bisexual, but what the kids these days would call “homo-romantic” and a part of lesbian culture at least to some extent. I've always liked fucking “straight” girls or “bi-curious” girls but my deeper connections have been with women who love women foremost.

2) Were you a porn fan before you got into the industry? Who were your favorite porn stars/favorite porn movies?

I wasn't a porn fan, though I'd studied porn. I'd actually taken a class at USC about the history of erotic cinema. We toured Metro (rest in peace) and the owner looked at me, convinced I was a boy, decided to tell me that "the lesbian porn that real lesbians make" wouldn't appeal to me at all. I told him I was writing my thesis for the class about the difference in the construction of fantasy in dyke porn versus mainstream girl/girl porn, and he still didn't realize I was a woman. We watched silent stag films, and Deep Throat, and Annie Sprinkle. It was a surprisingly apt choice of an elective.

As far as my own erotic imagination, I found very little porn that sparked it. I watched a softcore movie on cable on demand once - secretly while my parents were asleep - that really did it for me. It was a story about two women who had been lovers, years ago. They were in their 40s, meeting again, remembering the love affair they'd had in their 20s. It hit upon that melancholy in me, plus it featured a beautiful redhead. I have no idea what it was called, but it felt real, in a way that's rare for any kind of girl/girl content, because it's so often made by people who don't know what real love for another woman feels like.

As a young adult I watched what was then called Dyke Porn but has now been subsumed by Queer Porn. I mean, that aforementioned "lesbian porn that real lesbians make." Mostly it left me cold, though less so than watching two disinterested blondes paw languidly at each other. I saw "Sugar High Glitter City" and "How to Fuck in High Heels" and the original "Crash Pad." I liked it, sort of. I liked the intensity, but most of the performers just weren't my cup of tea and the camera work...let's just say it wasn't Hollywood. I went to film school. I like cinema. I like pretty and interesting looking people. As "Queer" took over from "Dyke" there was an increasing focus on trans performers - both trans men and trans women - as well as BBWs and other unconventionally attractive people and fewer scenes featuring either the kind of sex I had or the kind of woman I fucked off camera.

The early to mid 2000s saw the rise of this genre of lesbian erotica, typified by Girlfriends Films last decade: two pretty, but natural women, left mostly to their own devices, having passionate but kind of soft or romantic sex. Many of the scenes are older/younger, and they had a touch of a pulp novel feel. I liked some of it, but it was often much too low energy for me. I wanted dirty, but connected, hardcore but real. So I got into porn. I always wanted to be a director. I got in as a performer with that as a goal. I see myself as somewhere in between mainstream girl/girl and queer porn. I'm really happy with what I've accomplished so far, and I'm hoping to make a lot more awesome movies.

3) What/Who do you want to do on-camera that you haven’t done yet?

I've never had a one-on-one scene with a butch lesbian. I've done some "butch-on-butch role play" where some semi-andro girl wears a suit I bought for her and we fuck, and I've done butch/butch/femme threesomes (though, once again, the other "butch" has usually worn my wife's clothes) but I've never actually fucked a straight up dyke on camera. I'm certainly butch by porn standards. I'm "Hollywood Butch" - you've probably never seen me without mascara, but I play a boi on TV. I'm the plumber and the mechanic and the dirty cop...but I can still rock a dress and heels. A lot of the girls I see off camera, including my wife, wouldn't be caught dead like that. It's a different dynamic, and one I haven't explored on the record.

Some of the girls on my "to do" list are Ash Hollywood and Dani Daniels. Dani and I had a date to shoot for our websites, but something came up (we're rescheduling) and Ash and I are supposed to eventually shoot for Juliland. It'll happen.

4) Who is your favorite female performer to work with and why?

That's such a hard question. I often have my best scenes with women I haven't worked with before. That newness and rawness really works for me. They do have to want me, instead of just being okay with me. It's a huge difference. Every porn performer knows what I'm talking about. There's this chasm between real and manufactured chemistry, between dragging someone through their paces and FUCKING like you mean it. I tend to prefer either pros who live and breathe this job or newbies who are doing it for the sex, rather than just the money.

As far as favorite long term scene partner? I'll split that between Annabelle Lee and Aaliyah Love. Aaliyah's one of my best friends, who has been in so many of my movies. She's vibrant and sharp-witted, and completely fucking adorable. We have good sex. I love her energy. Annabelle stays at my place when she comes to LA. She's been shooting girl/girl forever, and she's quite honestly the best pussy-eater in porn. We've been on work trips together and we've shot a ton of scenes and we get along both sexually and as friends.

5) You seem to really love your fans and respond to them a lot on Twitter. Tell me how having this fan base has changed your life.

I totally love my fans. I'm a working adult performer instead of some girl who did a few scenes in the mid 2000s because of my fans. I do not look at all like the image in your mind when someone says "porn star." The reason I've been able to sustain a six year career in porn is because my fans support me. I have my own successful membership website at LilyCade.com. I won this year's fan vote based "Mile High Madness" contest and placed second last year. It's definitely fulfilling to know that people like what I'm doing. I'm an entertainer. I would be nowhere without an audience.

I have a kind of weird stage persona. I'm cocky and a bit of an asshole and I say things like “you don't know if you want to fuck me or be me but you can't do either so join LilyCade.com”. I sometimes joke that I'm male talent – because I do a lot of strap-on scenes and I know how to position them and because I play “boy” roles like plumbers and cable installers. I definitely have a different relationship with my fans than a lot of girls do. I don't flirt with them. I don't do webcam. I'm not their fake girlfriend. I'm more like a person they can live through vicariously. Both my male and female fans tell me they identify with me. I have guys tell me that I make them wish they were a woman – which feels pretty neat.

I've even met some of my fans in the real world. I've gone out to dinner with a select few of my long term fans. They have always been kind and polite to me. I'm not at all ashamed of what I do – but there's a way to talk to someone about porn (or sex in general) that makes it fun and cool and a way that makes it feel gross and creepy. I've had to learn to ignore the gross type of attention or pay lip service to it and focus on interacting with people who are nice to me (which is most of them).

6) What’s your favorite position to get fucked in and why does it get you off?

Officially my "favorite position" is me on my knees fucking two girls with my hands (optional bonus, another girl on my tongue) but as far as a position for me to get fucked in? It's so dependent on who and why and where and when I am. I'm so much more about context (and angle) than position. If we're talking strap-ons, pound the shit out me in doggy and then turn me over and finish me in mish (we can do everything else in-between if you want). If you're using your hands? Just be good at it. I don't care if I'm standing or upside down or on my back.

7) Why did you decide to do this political parody for Filly Films?

A fan sent in a suggestion to Filly Films, asking for a scene featuring political figures. I decided to build a project out of that. I wanted to make something irreverent and cool and put my own particular spin on it. Plus, I've always really wanted to play Rachel Maddow in a porno. 

8) What do you think makes Rachel Maddow so sexy?

She's smart and confident. She's a little bit pretentious, but also nerdy so she seems accessible. She's the lesbo version of girl next door. She's exactly the sort of "looks like a lesbian" but still conventionally attractive woman that pushes my buttons.

9) What are the best things about being a porn star?

When people ask me this at a party, I always answer "the bitches and the money" which is pretty much true. I love getting paid to do something I love. I'm combined sex and cinema - two things I adore - and I get to do it for a living. I get paid to have fun. It's amazing.

10) What do you think is your hottest scene overall?

That is such a hard question. I've shot hundreds of scenes and I've loved so many of them. I think it might be my scene with Justine Joli for my movie Live Nerd Girls 2. I lose a Star Trek trivia contest with my friends, and as punishment I have to hit on "the hottest girl at the party" in Klingon. I tell Justine she has nice tits, and because this is a porno instead of real life, she responds back in Klingon that I should buy her a drink. The sex we had was fierce and raw and went on forever. She gave me a fucking hickey on my chin that I labored to cover up for weeks. I put my fist in her (though you can only see this at LilyCade.com and not on the DVD. Hooray for softcore angles). She made me squirt. We're both pale redheads with similar sorts of bodies. Put it on your watch-list.

11) What advice would you give a woman who wanted to be better at pleasing her sexual partner?

Watch my porn?

Seriously though, it's about confidence and communication. You need to be confident enough in your skills that your energy is sexy. Insecurity isn't hot. Anxiety isn't hot. Be relaxed and listen to your partner's body and her words. Be willing to communicate your own desires. It helps if you know what they are.

I'm very confident and I don't judge you in bed. I have my limits of course but I'm pretty game. I won't make you feel bad about whatever weird shit you're into, because I'm into weird shit too and so is everybody. Channel that. Be a person people want to open up to.

12) What do you most want to achieve in the adult industry?

I want to make high quality girl/girl features with a story and well-shot, hot sex. My latest movie, "Between The Headlines: A Lesbian Porn Parody" is definitely the film I'm most proud of, and the one I feel comes closest to achieving my goal. It's a movie. You can take the sex scenes out or abridge them and it's still funny and cohesive. I am (and Between The Headlines is) very much inspired by the films made at the dawn of hardcore chic, when porn was shown in theaters and shot on film. These were porn movies, not scenes strung together.

Video ruined porn, from a filmmaking standpoint, but with the increasing availability of affordable digital cinema technology we are much more able to shoot porn that feels like a movie. I want to tell stories. I want to transmit my ideas about the world. I'm interested in having a conversation about sex on film – in showing different ways or reasons that people fuck, rather than just showing fucking. Eventually, I want to make films on the border of porn and non-porn – mainstream-ish movies with sex as a central component, but not strictly adult content.

13) Who are your role models in porn and how/why do they inspire you?

As a director, I'm most inspired by Radley Metzger (also known as Henry Paris) who made both softcore and hardcore movies during the 60s and 70s. He was something of an auteur of jerk off cinema (although he did also make one “mainstream” film) who directed The Opening of Misty Beethoven and Naked Came the Stranger and Therese and Isabelle. His movies were beautifully shot and well-constructed and can function as films as well as erotic material.

As a performer, I really respect Nina Hartley. She's been around forever and she's still going strong. She is a consummate pro who shows up on time, throws herself into her dialogue roles and knows how to position a sex scene so it feels effortless – but she's still right there with you as a person. When you work with her she's engaged. She flirts off camera with her co-stars. She's genuinely sexual and does this because she loves it. She's great. She's Hillary Clinton in Between The Headlines, because of course she is.

14) If you could change any one thing about our country's current laws, what would it be?

This is a really difficult question. I think there is a lot wrong with the system we live in. I do think things are getting better in many ways – the onslaught of gay marriage victories being a good example – but there's still a lot that's fucked up about the way this country works.

I think prison is probably the worst thing in America. Obviously we need to deter crime and deal with dangerous people, but on a very large scale that's not what our criminal justice system does. Instead, it reifies the injustices that already exist in our society in order to make money. We have for-profit prisons. We put people in jail for stupid shit, like doing drugs, so that other better situated people can turn a profit. Prison turns non violent offenders into hardened criminals. It takes people away from their families so that their children end up more likely to both commit crimes and get punished for said crimes. It creates a culture where instead of being protectors, police officers are often seen by marginalized communities (and often see themselves) as the enemies of those communities. It's just fucked. It's racist and unfair and immense.

15) What is the best mainstream movie you have seen recently?

Probably 12 Years a Slave, which I liked so much I went and purchased the book. It's this gorgeous, intimate movie about terrible things. It strikes at that melancholy place in me, that likes to feel intense things even when they are sad or painful. It's supposed to make you uncomfortable, and it sustains that feeling exquisitely. In a lot of ways, it's a movie about institutional power, a story about how when the system is unfair, it doesn't matter if you are personally excepted from it. Freedom is tenuous when everybody isn't free.

16) How about the best porno movie? Is there someone whose movies you like to watch who is working now?

My favorite porn has always been "The Opening of Misty Beethoven". It's not the movie I think is the hottest, but rather the most fully realized erotic film. It's a satire of Pygmalion. It's funny, and well-made, and the sex is varied and interesting (it was made in 1976 and it's got a girl fucking a guy in the ass with a strap-on). I saw it on a big screen in a class at USC, in a room full of other people, as it was intended to be seen.

Someone who is working now whose movies I like is Sam of Femme-Life.com. His site is really just getting started, and some of his early stuff is a little rough, but he's starting to make these clever, well-written porn stories that still feature perverted sex. I've been editing a lot of his stuff, and I've worked with him as a performer too. I got to threaten Alyssa Reece with a knife because I was a crazy doctor whose career she had ruined and cry in Cheyenne's Jewel's arms because we were partners at the DEA and she almost got shot and I realized I couldn't wait another day to tell her I loved her. We were actually talking the other day about Radley Metgzer, and how he's a source of inspiration for both of us.

17) Are you into toys to get yourself off alone or are you a low tech woman?

I've actually never gotten myself off, not really. I used to think when I was young that I was just incapable of orgasm: although, I had actually had a few induced by thinking about hot things and lying very still with all the muscles in my body tensed up until I just couldn't handle it anymore and something broke over me. I was a stone top at the dawn of my sex life. I'd still rather fuck you than get fucked. I can get off from fucking someone else, without being touched. I can get off from someone else's energy. I can't touch myself and get all the way there. It's annoying, but it's at least part of why I'm the sort of person who does this job.

18) If you could fuck any celebrity, who would it be?

Rachel Maddow. I played her in a porno. It's the next best thing.

19) What is coming up for you?

I just finished another movie for Filly Films – Teen Lesbian Fantasies – and I'm going to be directing more movies for both Filly and new company Girl Co in the near future. The Girl Co movie is going to be a sort of “Fatal Attraction” story in which an affair leads to some high drama (and hot sex). My latest for Filly is an Officer Cade feature film! I'm in the writing process right now, but the film is going to feature dirty cops and dangerous women (and of course Officer Cade taking advantage of girls). I'm going to be starting an Internet TV show for TheKingNetwork.com which we're calling “Lily's Little Lesbians”. You'll be able to watch it on The King Network's Roku channel as well as on their website and mine. Of course, I'm going strong with LilyCade.com where I have over 171 scenes of me doing what I do best. I update every week. I don't do solo or tease or anything other than real lesbian fucking.

20) Is there anything you want to say to your fans here at Fleshbot?

Thanks for watching, and thanks for reading! I really hope you'll check out “Between The Headlines” and LilyCade.com.

All of the images for this piece were provided by Cade.  Go watch and buy "Between The Headlines: A Lesbian Porn Parody" by clicking here!