Good Vibrations Magazine

Veronica Hart is one of porn’s most celebrated mavericks. Like many Hollywood directors, she found a resting place not in her first career as an object of the camera’s fascination, but when she re-invented herself as the conductor behind the camera’s lens. She certainly hasn’t been the first adult actress trying on the director’s hat to discover that the hat fits, but she’s especially notable because she began making videos whose straightforward attention to being films (in every sense of the word) made us porn critics sit up and take notice. Her videos also hiked notions of adult industry quality up several notches.

Hart’s films are complete storytelling vehicles and have extremely high production values. She casts the best actors in the field into roles they can actually sink their teeth into rather than just “going through the motions.” And they offer explicit sex between the characters in mind-blowing, emotionally charged encounters. In the past few years, Veronica Hart has fascinated and aroused an ever-widening fan base with a variety of clever and provocative films — achingly romantic, love story comedy, gripping mystery — and has begun a dynamic portfolio of film worthy of a young Billy Wilder.

Love’s Passion (1998) opened up the discussion for romantic porn movies while captivating us with an allegorical story-within-a-story plot line. In it, actress Juli Ashton is a romance novelist coping with the pain of a recent heartbreak. She weaves her pain into her latest work about a Civil War-era southern belle (also played by Ashton) who must cope with the possible addition of her man (amazingly handsome Mickey G) to the casualty lists. The sex reflects authentic lust and emotional desperation between the characters, and features a sexual realism rare in mainstream porn, with touches such as the men ejaculating inside of, rather than all over, the women. Given the number of Good Vibrations customers who have clamored for that, Love’s Passion is an important milestone.

“Love’s Passion is very romantic and melodramatic — just what I wanted,” says Hart. “This was my reaction to a lot of the loveless and mean-spirited videos I saw being made at the time. It’s relationship based. There’s love involved and the main character played by Juli Ashton doesn’t want casual sex even when she’s cast aside by the man she loves. It was wonderful to have the luxury of playing with the different time periods. Juli plays a romance novelist and we see the book she’s writing which parallels what she’s experiencing in her life. I love all the period costumes and locations, and the notion of true love. I’m such a romantic at heart.”

Romantic screwball comedies are a modern film archetype — and Hart’s Being With Juli Ashton (2000) proves that they can be sexually explicit and retain all the romance, humor, and genuine character interest that the genre requires. The concept of Being John Malkovich is turned on its head as an aspiring erotic filmmaker discovers a portal in his boss’ storeroom through which one ends up in the body of whomever is making love to Juli Ashton (who plays herself as a porn star beyond Hollywood celebrity). And Ashton is always having sex. But our anti-hero ends up in unintentionally eye-opening (though incredibly hot) sexual situations that reflect the subtleties of lust and the human condition. It’s fun, lighthearted, and the sex has the women calling all the shots. Especially noteworthy are the hot-tub three-way with Ashton and the final encounter between the fumbling filmmaker and his wife (Chloe), where we see a man who won’t stop making love until his partner is satisfied. Hilarious bloopers are included at the end, and the DVD version really lets the viewer have some fun playing around with the sexual possibilities.

“Being with Juli Ashton was another complicated but fun script!” says Hart. We shot it and edited it with the DVD in mind. There are two concurrent storylines: Juli Ashton’s experiences as an adult superstar and the experiences of Herb (Steve Hatcher), a struggling pornographer, and Candy (Chloe), his wife. Their two worlds collide when he discovers a secret portal which jettisons him into the person who is “with Juli Ashton” ala “Being John Malkovich.” It’s obviously a treat for the audience to be there with the unlikely star — who wouldn’t want to be with Juli? It was fun role-switching — showing Chloe inside Lexington Steele and Steve Hatcher in Bridgette Kerkove.”

Topping the charts as the smartest, most engaging adult film to date is her hardboiled crime mystery, White Lightning. Overlapping stories about blackmail, lust, temptation, and redemption revolve around a pair of married police officers, with Ginger Lynn in a stellar performance as a repressed wife and strangely sexy Michael J. Cox posing as her cocksure — though easily manipulated — husband. This film packs in the passion, and viewers are treated to gripping orgasms for women and men alike. What’s more, while we get to see great (and often very dirty) sex between characters we’re involved with, we’re treated to some highly skilled storytelling.

According to Hart, “White Lightning was a complex movie to shoot and edit, inspired by the movie Go. Everybody’s story is in the same timeframe, but as we all know, everyone has a slightly different experience from the same event. What a pleasure working with such an incredibly talented cast. There are no better actors in the business than Ginger Lynn, Chloe, Mickey G., Michael J. Cox and Nina Hartley. The story starts light with a lovely bedroom scene with Ginger and Michael J., and progressively darkens to the rain and lightning scene — Kylie Ireland and Mickey G. — and finally to the dirty talk in the dirty warehouse — Ginger, Sindee Coxx and Brad Armstrong with some blackmail and a possible murder thrown in for good measure!”

Veronica Hart shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, much to the delight of her fans (and adult film reviewers like me). In fact, we’re looking forward to her latest film set for release in early March, and she’ll be shooting her next video, titled Edgeplay, with adult legend Marilyn Chambers in a couple of weeks. You can also see some of her collaborative work with Michael Ninn (whose recent films she’s produced) on Playboy’s animated series, Dark Justice. If you’d like to see this maverick in the flesh, catch her in March as a guest star on a new HBO series called Six Feet Under, created by Alan Ball (who wrote and directed American Beauty). “He was amazing,” says Hart of Ball. Hart also appears on the pilot for an NBC mid-season replacement show called This Life. But we’re sure her loyal fans won’t be disappointed — she’ll continue making first-rate erotic features as well, and Good Vibrations will be sure to bring them to you.