I've answered this before, but here we go.

I was a long-time porn fan and admired the girls and the directors like rock stars. I never wanted to lead a boring life. I liked porn and doing porn seemed more lucrative than dancing and more counter culture. More punk rock than punk rock, if you will.

I would've gotten into porn in my twenties if I had the connections and opportunity to do so. California was not where I lived, and the Internet in the 90s didn't have the kind of presence like today where an aspiring porn performer could search that 'career' choice. Certainly, every city had their version of the LA Weekly with it's back pages of adult work, but it was mostly seeking dancers, escorts (man, was I stupid not escorting in the 90s- if Microsoft money bought me a home by age 31from stripping, imagine my finances escorting!), and the occasional fly-by-night small porn production. That didn't interest me. I wanted to do porn for real. The porn I watched...Vivid, Evil Angel, etc.

There were times I vacationed in Los Angeles, and perused their local weekly. Now that looked more promising. And relevant. But I didn't know how to drive (not seriously anyway), and the ads looked either shady or so glamorous that the subtext read 'Barbie. Not you, Gia Jordan!'

By the early 2000s, porn was taking a different direction. It was edgy, more hardcore (that REALLY interested me,) and more open to different looks. I was then living in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and had a friend who was good friends with the marketing manager at Vivid. Yes, the first place I show up to in porn was Vivid! I was actually shocked at how little the female performers made. Yes, $800-$1,200 is a lot of money for 4 hours on set, (or 4 hours dancing at my club in Vegas,) but I was under the impression that girls made much more and owned multiple homes. Alas, it was still something I wanted to do. I read for a film, didn't get it but did get the one after that month later, got introduced to other industry people, and on my own, I met William H and Patrick Collins by driving to the Elegant Angel office address listed at the end of the DVD credits. Two weeks later, they made my first film.