Tina Tyler‘s office at Lexington Steele’s Mercenary Building is amazing. Employing a Wonder Woman decor, it is all glass, so it is difficult for me to find the knobs. The entire office pivots in response to the Swedish-made autogyros that protect the Mercenary stable of talent from earthquakes.
“Sometimes I need to dive to the center of the earth to fight crimes,” Lex doesn’t tell me, “and it’s easier for me to tunnel through the mantle with the whole building rather than just my person.”
But I’m not here to talk about superpowers or plate tectonics (I do that on Thursdays with Kiki Daire); I’m here to talk with Tyler about the Ironhead picture she just directed.
“Ironhead is not the first picture I directed,” she says, “but it is the first one I shot. It was very nervous-making at first, because I wasn’t confident about my shooting skills.”
I smile and laugh. I write it all down. “I’m a fantastic interviewer,” I think. Later I read the press release and see she said the same thing yesterday. She also relates to me a very funny quote about Antonio Passolini taking his shirt off that I find delightful until I read it on another site.
Tyler has been in the business as a performer since 1992, and has appeared in over 260 films. She first directed in 1998 with Odyssey Group Video’s Tina Tyler’s Favorites.
GP: Now that you’re wearing a director’s hat, do you ever want to step in and school your performers on reverse cowgirl, like giving a line reading except with your parts?
TT: Ironhead is an all blowjob line, so it would be difficult to do reverse cowgirl unless you were very flexible.
GP: I see.
TT: Yes.
Tyler has made public her retirement from performing, but she is quick to point out that she will “never say never.” I press on, though, about the wanting to jump in and show a newbie performer how a veteran does the job.
“Sometimes I want to say, ‘Sweetie, can you hold the camera and I’ll do it?'” she says. “And sometimes, I have to deal with someone who’s been there for ten minutes and they suddenly want to direct.”
I don’t respond that sometimes the very same thing happened to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“And if the guy needs help, I don’t mind directing a scene topless. If it’s integral to the role.”
Calling a porn performer a cool chick carries the implication that other porn performers are not. It is, in fact, true that many porn performers are male and also that some female performers are not cool chicks. Tina Tyler is a cool chick.
GP: How’d you get into the biz-nass?
TT: I was shooting a spread for High Society and the photographer had a connection. I shot a lot for VCA. VCA was the best company; I loved their stuff. Now VCA is just initials that stand for Hustler.
Of Tyler’s performances, her favorites include a New Wave Hookers, a Devil in Miss Jones, and Mondo Porno with Antonio Passolini at VCA, Dangerous Games for Veronica Hart at VCA, and Models and Belle du Jour for director Kris Kramski at Sin City. She was also in Erotic Angel’s Infected: Radioactive Sluts from Hell.
GP: What is the atmosphere you try to create on set as a female porn director?
TT: A woman’s sexuality is a lot easier to express, I think, with a female director. I try to make sure the performers’ personalities come out. I talk with them a little beforehand to keeop them thinking about what turns them on, for example, about blowjobs?
GP: You’ve got a talent for blowjobs (Tyler is not blowing me at this time).
TT: A blowjob is the easiest thing to capture, but then I never direct a girl to have an attitude she wouldn’t normally have while being turned on. And usually that excitement comes out on film.
GP: Who are your favorite performers?
TT: I love Seka, Annette Haven, and especially Vanessa Del Rio. You could tell Vanessa was really enjoying herself. She loved her job. She was voracious. And Annette Haven had a great dignity and love of sex.
I ask her where I can get some photos for the site and suggested (her name).com.
“Don’t fucking do that. Go here instead. Some Brazilian bastards stole my name and have been making money off it ever since.”
Ironhead 3 is out today and it stars Katja Kassin, Sativa Rose, Avy Lee Roth, Mya Lovely, Jackie Diaz, Jamie Sweet, Gia Jordan, Eve Lawrence, Lori Alexia, Eva Angelina, Nicki Hunter, and Jackie Moore.
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