Sex Education with jessica drake: The Fleshbot Interview

jessica drake is an award winning porno actress, director and a self-proclaimed "sex educator". When she's not working her magic on or behind the camera, the blonde babe hosts sex seminars and workshops around the world. She was recently placed on CNBC's list of "The Dirty Dozen: Porn's Most Popular Stars, and she's one of Wicked Pictures' top performers. With over twelve years in the business, the 5-foot-9, 110-pound actress is able to still look amazing and fresh on film. Even with HD, jessica is simply beautiful. After hosting a radio show on Sirius/XM, where jessica discussed the ins and outs of sex and answered her listeners' sex questions, the porn star decided she wanted to help people with their sex lives, which led her to begin her own line of instructional videos for Wicked. Each volume of jessica drake's Guide To Wicked Sex showcases a different aspect of sex as jessica addresses topics from female masturbation to fellatio. The sexual wellness authority recently teamed up with multiple award-winning BBW performer Kelly Shibari for the first-ever educational DVD on plus size sex, jessica drake's Guide to Wicked Sex: Plus Size. Jessica was nice enough to talk with Fleshbot about her instructional videos, speaking at "Sex Week" at the famed University of Chicago, the harm of piracy in the sex industry, why she prefers her name in lower case letters, and where she keeps her many AVN awards.

Tell me about how jessica drake's Guide to Wicked Sex: Plus Size came about, and tell me about your introduction to Kelly Shibari, the BBW star of the video. How did you ladies meet? How did the idea of a plus-size instructional video come about?

With my jessica drake Guide to videos, I knew there were several genres that I wanted to include and explore. I wanted to wait until the line was developed and I really understood what the line embodied. I created the line to be a hybrid. I do have some very factual information…some anatomy lessons. I give very specific steps on how to do particular sex acts, but I didn't want it to be clinical. I wanted it to be very friendly, very warm, very funny and very sexy. The Plus Size collaboration with Kelly is a hybrid line, and I wanted the plus size sex to personally fit in with the line. I knew I needed someone to collaborate with, and I was a fan and admirer of Kelly Shibari, but I hadn't met her until about a year and a half ago. I met her in a radio studio. I host a radio show, and she was filling in for another host or on another show and I happened to see her in the studio. We sort of hit it off, and we started talking. And sometime after that I approached her about doing the project with me. Kelly and I actually spoke for about a year before this project was in place. I really wanted to make sure she was the right person, and I wanted us to make the best video that we could. It's an interesting piece, and I can't wait for people to see it.

Were you familiar with Kelly's work on films before you met her in the radio studio?

Yes. Absolutely. I definitely saw her work before I met her. She's a very inspiring performer.

You said you felt that she was the right person to work with on the project, but did you have anyone else in mind?

No. The piece was very specific for Kelly. I like her attitude, and I like the fact that she comes from a professional background in production. I love her determination, and I really love the fact that she wants to be a sex educator; she wants to help people in the same way that I want to with the series.

Are you in the film in any form? Do you perform in it?

No. I do everything but perform. I truly believe in this series, and I'm very hands on because I am a control freak. It's very important to me to know every single aspect of the production. I made the choice to not have sex in the line of instructional videos very deliberately, although it took a long time for me to reach that decision. The reason why I decided not to have sex in the line of instructionals is because I wanted to be able to differentiate from other movies that I had done. I'm a sex educator in this line, and I'm obviously a porn performer in the other movies that I do. Also, I didn't want to build a line with a fan base of people who are buying it to see me have sex, because one of these days I may not have sex on camera anymore. I know it's really hard to imagine, but eventually I'm going to stop performing, and I didn't want to leave fans wanting me to continue to be in the series. I wanted to establish it for what it really is, which is a strictly educational line where I am the narrator. In the plus size video, I do narrate the opening with Kelly, because I thought it was important after already establishing this line where I am the only person narrating and doing the voiceovers and doing the teaching and explaining the demonstrations where I explain what is going on.

Plus you have a really sexy voice.

Thank you.

People refer to you, or you refer to yourself as a "sex educator" and/or "sexual wellness authority"---what qualifies you to be a sex educator?

I'm currently enrolled in a program to become a certified sex coach, a licensed and certified sex educator. I don't come with a degree. Instead, I come with ten years of on-camera experience. But like most people, I learned about sex through trial and error, and in doing that, I've always been a very curious person. So when something works, or something doesn't work, I want to know how, I want to know why, and I want to know how it can be better next time. And in the meantime, between being certified to be a sex educator, I take part in workshops and I do intensive seminars over weekends. It's very difficult to commit and go back to sitting in a classroom all through out the week because my schedule is just ridiculous. So I do these classes in my own time, at my own pace. But I'm very quick to tell people if there is something that I'm not comfortable talking about, I don't have any problem referring them to someone that knows what they're talking about.

This past February, you spoke at the University of Chicago during their "sex week". How did that come about?

I do a lot of speaking on college campuses all over the United States. I speak on a panel about piracy with Nate Glass. The University of Chicago was holding their "Sex Week", and they asked if I would come and speak. U of Chicago's "Sex Week" was very interesting to me because it had a different sort of climate to it than other universities I've spoken at. I speak at a lot of universities that are local---UCLA, PCC, Chapman, University of Santa Barbara.

At the University of Chicago, I guess there was a protest staged because they were having me as a guest. Unfortunately I didn't really hear about the protest until I was gone. After doing a little research on Twitter, I guess one of the students that's really anti-porn was rallying up her Twitter followers to e-mail the university and condemn them for having a porn star on campus during "Sex Week". I found the students at the U of Chicago to be absolutely amazing! "Sex Week" is a great idea because some people think that a porn star is coming in to tell students how to have sex with a porn star, but that couldn't be any further from the truth!

My goal is to reach people as young as close to eighteen-years-old as possible because I know when I was growing up, I was seriously lacking some sex ed. It wasn't explained in school, and parents weren't comfortable talking about it. I learned a lot of technical things, but I learned a lot of fear. I just wish I was given a little more pleasure-based sex ed, because what ended up happening was that I was bombarded with all these hormones and I had no idea what to do with them. I just try to educate as many people as possible. I wish I could talk to kids in high school and teach them about things like consent—something no one talked to me about when I was growing up. I want to talk about how drugs and alcohol inhibits good sex-making decisions. I want to talk about how to make sex safer. I mean, no sex is safe, unless you're having it with yourself, and that's fine too. There's nothing wrong with that!

Why should the average porn viewer care about piracy in porn? How has it hurt you? Have you benefited from it?

I could go on forever about piracy. I think we have a lot of problems when you just say the word ‘piracy', because there are so many different levels. Essentially, it's totally crippled our industry. From a performer's standpoint, it really hasn't had any benefits. I've had fans tell me, ‘Yeah, I would've never known about you if it wasn't for a free Tube site'. Yeah, it might be recognition, but we really can't make money from that recognition. At what's happening from a director/creator standpoint, is that there's nothing more frustrating than putting in so much time and effort and hard work and investment in making a product that as soon as it is released, it's everywhere on-line for free. It's kind of like a kick-in-the-gut feeling when that happens. Piracy is something I've always felt very strongly about, even back in the early days within the music industry. I've never illegally downloaded music. I've always paid for my entertainment, and I take piracy very seriously. People are stealing from the performers, but they're also stealing income and jobs from everyone else that's involved in the creation of that product. People don't think about the editors, the makeup artists, the camera people, people that work in the offices of the companies that make and distribute films.

How do you stop piracy in the world of adult entertainment?

Well, that's a good questions. There's not one way to stop it. As of right now, we have Nate Glass from a company like Take Down Piracy. He essentially scours the Internet and tries to protect people's content, but as you can imagine, it's a very lengthy, frustrating process, but he's definitely made some progress. The other things we can do are look for other methods of content delivery, newer technology—which I'm not a specialist of, obviously. It's also about creating a quality product that people are willing to purchase, because I think another reason why piracy became so rampant was due to the influx of all these different types of adult entertainment, and it's not high quality; it's clips and scenes, not full-length movies. But I think there is a specific demographic of consumer that does understand the inherent evils of piracy.

During a 2009 Australian interview, you were asked about how you ended up in the adult industry and your immediate answer was "luck". What do you mean by "luck"?

(Laughs). I think that my career has progressed and has had a longevity that makes me feel very fortunate. I mean, it's not an easy industry, especially nowadays. I had to carve out a name for myself. It's completely different now than it used to be, and I think things could've happened to me differently. I was in Texas, going to college, but I didn't have a real plan. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I started as a liberal arts major then I took psychology and thought it was really interesting. I've always really liked helping people. I know it sounds kind of strange to talk about helping people through porn. I came into the industry with a lot of great people who were very forthcoming about the business, and what it entailed, and what it may or may not do to my life. I just think I made some great decisions in the beginning, but I also met some really great people, and I found myself in some really great situations. I've had it really good.

But you're obviously good looking, you have a charm and talent about you, so what I'm trying to say is that luck had nothing to with your success. It was hard work, talent, and perseverance that led to your success. Correct?

Well, thank you. I appreciate your comments, but there are a lot of girls out there that are exceptionally beautiful; there are a lot of girls out there that would do anything to be a big star. I have worked really hard, and I have made some very careful and cautious decisions. But I have also taken some risks that have paid off. But I think, at least in the beginning, that I do think luck played a huge part. Because there was a time where my career could've went either way. (Laughs). It really could have!

How have your films changed, evolved or improved since you started acting?

I think since I signed a contract with Wicked Pictures, I knew I would be putting out quality movies for the rest of my career. But once I signed with Wicked, I didn't wonder if I would proud of a particular movie, I knew I would be proud with my product. Sexual speaking, I've become so much more comfortable with my sexuality. I noticed a difference between right when I got into the business and when I signed a contract with Wicked.

I'm just comfortable. I know what I like. I know what I don't like. I know what I'm willing to try, and I think our sexuality is just so incredibly fluid that what we like one year we might not like the next year, and for that matter, we might not like it with the same person. I've learned all that. I think that makes the sex in my movies better. With all the experience I've gained over the years, it has helped me to become a better director, a better writer, and to be a better performer, too. The business has given me a lot of world experience that makes me see the bigger picture. When I started directing the line of instructional videos three years ago, I had a very clear idea in my head of what I wanted the series to be, and all my experiences in life brought me to that point.

What's the most popular jessica drake instructional video to date?

In particular, three of them are very strong: Fellatio, Anal Play for Men and Anal. But Anal and Masturbation are the ones I get the most fan responses to.

Why do you prefer your named to be spelled with lower case letters? Is there something deeper behind this decision?

I didn't think so, at first. When I got into the industry, I never signed "Jessica Drake" before---it's obviously not my real name, so I didn't know how to make that my signature. After signing my name a bunch of times at a convention, when I signed my name on a piece of paper, I just hated a capital ‘J'. I just hated it. I just hated my handwriting. I kept writing it, and I wrote it all in lower case letters, barely picking up the pen, and I was like, ‘Oh, that's cute', and a few years later I realized it was a submissive thing. Maybe it was a submissive thing, but I didn't think about it back then. I just like a little ‘j' and a little ‘d' better. It's quirky. It's weird.

For people that are not familiar with your movies, what movie should they start out with? What film is the best introduction to jessica drake?

Oh, I would say Fallen. I think Fallen is one of, if not, the best movies I've ever done. It's a gorgeous movie. I won a ton of awards for it. The newer movie I would recommend is Underworld, which is this year's winner at all the award shows. It is a little similar to Fallen in regards to the undertones. They're both great films. They're both big budget, shot in amazing locations, there's a great wardrobe and the sex is phenomenal!

What about some of your earlier work, something that's not as big budget? What film(s) would you recommend?

There are two movies that I did when I signed with Wicked that set the pace for the way my career would progress--Fluff and Fold, a light little romantic comedy, where I won my first acting award. I also did a movie called The Collector, which was my breakthrough sex movie because when we shot it, I did a few things on camera that I had not done before, and I had a lot of creative input in some of the film's scenarios. I realized that with The Collector that the more input I had during pre-production, the happier I am with the outcome. Both of those movies taught me a lot.

You have an official Wicked jessica drake doll on the market. Do you own one? Do you have one in your house?

Yeah, I do not have one at my house, but I could if I wanted to. I'm just afraid of what my houseguests would do to it.

Final question: Where do you keep all your AVN Awards?

(Laughs.) They are in a really big display case in my bedroom. I just didn't know where to put them. It's funny, because sometime I'll be giving someone a tour of my house, and I find them lingering by the trophy cabinet, and I'll hear them say, ‘Oh, best double penetration sex scene…Wow!'

Thank you for talking to Fleshbot. I appreciate your time.

Thank you!

Make sure you follow jessica on Twitter.