Veronica Hart DOB: October 27, 1956 Birthplace: Las Vegas, NV Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Blue Height: 5'6" Weight: 125 lbs. Measurements: 36D-27-38

"I was kinda like the girl next door"

If you take a look at Veronica Hart's (a.k.a. Jane Hamilton's) resume, you would think she hadn't slept for the past twenty years. She was a pornstar for four years, now she's an adult director and producer, and she's been a mainstream actress throughout-with a coveted cameo in Boogie Nights, no less. Get ready for Veronica Hart to spill the beans on what it means to make adult films.

Q: Where are you from?

Veronica Hart: Las Vegas.

Q: And how did you end up doing adult?

Veronica Hart: Let's see, I moved to New York&. I worked in the music business for a little bit and in the meantime I was a secretary for Psychology Today. The gentleman that I rented a room from saw my modeling pictures and my acting resume and he knew I liked to get it on and that was it--he took me around to a couple of the things I thought were really stupid. The only adult stuff I'd seen were much pretty much like Gonzo--amateur stuff.

Q: But I'm trying to get a grip on you went from being a mainstream actress to thinking that porn wasn't like--

Veronica Hart: I was never a big mainstream actress. I had a degree in theater.

Q: Right, right&that is what I'm saying--I never was either, but I was struggling in Los Angeles and dancing, but porn still seemed like a weird--?

Veronica Hart:Yeah, but take this back 20 years ago. Porn was much more like movies. It's like the stuff I do today, if I get five minutes of build-up its like fifteen minutes of sex. What we were doing back then was, fifteen minutes of build-up an five minutes of sex. It would be interesting for you to check out some of the older films and see how they were put together. I was lucky enough to come into the adult when it was the "Golden Age of Adult".

Q: What year was this?

Veronica Hart: '79, '80, '81, right before the big video explosion.

Q: And why was this the Golden Age?

Veronica Hart: Well, when people were actually making films. They had plots and stories.

Q: So it was less sex then it is now?

Veronica Hart: Yes, actually it was. It was more explicit sex, but they were more like movies with sex in them, rather then sex films. I like them. That's the way I like my films. What we've learned to do is, we've learned to shoot sex a lot better. Let's face it--we were a hairy bunch back then and they were more of the natural woman. I became famous as a pornstar not because I was so gorgeous or I had the best body, but probably because people felt comfortable with me. I was kinda like the girl next door with that you could feel like you could talk to and maybe could get lucky with. Now our girls are much more beautiful, much more model-perfect. People back then went into the business probably maybe to prove something or to be rebellious now people go into it as a profession.

Q: So you don't feel like you had some ax to grind or were you this closet exhibitionist or--?

Veronica Hart: Oh, no--I was an exhibitionist, period. There was nothing in the closet about it.

Q: Had you danced or anything beforehand?

Veronica Hart: 'd been [mainstream] dancing, I think for 11 years. I'd been in recitals since I was seven. I was raised to be a complete show-off.

Q: But as far as taking off your clothes and having sex onscreen wasn't that big deal at some point to you?

Veronica Hart: No, it wasn't that big of deal. It was a big deal that I called my parents and told them.

Q: What was that like.

Veronica Hart: I just left a message for my mom and with my dad Hey, is mom there, and he said, No, she is at the store. I said, Give her a message-- I'm going to do an adult film tomorrow. He starting laughing, he thought it was really funny. I told him I was serious and he said, Well I'll be sure to tell mother.

Q: Were they conservative?

Veronica Hart: Not conservative, but they weren't liberal--just regular parents. I'd been acting and I'd been doing stuff and they knew I was going to do something, but I don't think that they thought it would be that.

Q: So they may have expected that it would be something unconventional, but not adult.

Veronica Hart: They expected it to do with acting or something because that is what I always studied, something to do with performing.

Q: Do you think that perhaps that you were sexually actualized enough, personally, that it was just not that weird?

Veronica Hart: Oh, yeah. I have always been really sexual--it wasn't like I got into the movies to discover my sexuality. I was already sexually active and I wasn't a kid, I was 22. I graduated from college and lived in England for three years.

Q: When the idea was first presented to you, were you right away, like enthusiastic--?

Veronica Hart: [I was like,] No, I don't do that I'm an actress.

Q: So it was the content and the way that it was being handled that made you sort of change your mind or made it appealing to you?

Veronica Hart: I love sex so it was like okay-act, have sex and get paid for it-cool!.

Q: Would you tell me what your favorite part of having sex on-screen when you started was?

Veronica Hart: I guess I have enjoyed like popping guys cinematic cherries. I've enjoyed being able to get them relaxed enough and to take them to some place and help them to perform. Making love is not the best all the time--sometimes it's really good, sometimes it's just mediocre, sometimes it's like you wished you would be doing something else. When you're performing, not every time you make love is gonna be fireworks. Occasionally, when you're making love, it just clicks: besides feeling great, it gives you an inside feeling that's also great.

Q: So you found the sex to be gratifying

Veronica Hart: I stopped doing it when it became not fun. I only wanted to do it when it was fun and I was having fun at it. I said would get out [when it was no longer fun] and I did.

Q: How long where you acting in adult?

Veronica Hart:Four years.

Q: From '79 to '83?

Veronica Hart: Something like that.

Q: Did you act with both men and women?

Veronica Hart: Oh, yeah, I'm bisexual.

Q: Did you find the adult community to be a sexist community did you ever feel exploited?

Veronica Hart: It's always been a case of mutual exploitation. Sure I was exploited and I exploited them for cash back then it was just all cash. I suppose when I first came in, like anybody who is green in any business, who makes mistakes and people take advantage of you, but what business do they not do that in? .

Q: Did you ever feel like you would have been better off to not have been a woman in this business?

Veronica Hart: Oh no, this is one of the few businesses where it's better to be a woman as far as the payment goes. People have asked me what kind of influence do woman have on this business? Minimal. It's funny because without the woman it wouldn't be there.

Q: You must of had some pretty positive feelings about the porn community to stay in it after you stopped acting

Veronica Hart: Absolutely, don't misunderstand me I think there are many lovely men in the business

Q: Where are you from?

Veronica Hart: Certainly not [by] the AVN Awards, I'm sure they will never award me with anything. I'm a little controversial. I don't stand up for shit I don't like. I call trash, trash so I'm not politically correct in that. [Some people say they] stand up for all the pornography, I sure don't.

Q: What did you say about the sexual olympics being entertaining, but it's not filmmaking or it's not what you wanna do?

Veronica Hart: Yeah, like the carnival. It's very entertaining but I don't want to be part of the circus. There is a large part of this business, like the sexual Olympics-like, oh my God, I can't believe she could do that. And there is something that is fascinating about that and that is the reason why some tapes sell&.It's like, wow and 's cool. But that's not the kind of movies I want to make. I don't believe that those are movies. They're a form of media, but I don't believe that it's filmmaking.

Q: Would you say that there are more women involved at the helm of pornography then every before?

Veronica Hart: There have always been women involved&. I want to tell you it's not a gender-based thing. Just because a woman is a woman doesn't mean she's not gonna be misogynistic towards women. I know some women who really mistreated their talent or women learning, like myself, one shoot I didn't have enough towels-but I sure learned to have towels for my talent!.

Q: Would you say that your stuff is less hardcore then most?

Veronica Hart:No, no, no, that's why a lot of people kinda are very surprised. No, I'm very in your face, very explicit. I'm not pussy-footing. My hardcore sex is very hardcore. I don't ask my performers to do anything that I wouldn't want to do or haven't already done. I like anal sex. That is a personal favorite of mine. I never had a DP, but I'm hoping to arrange it one day. And there's a question that comes up all the time which is, how do you portray violent fantasies without promoting violence toward women? Sometimes I do film guys that are shit. That are either bad lovers or inconsiderate of the women or rather abusive, but it's made perfectly clear in my movies that these are not the good guys. This is not something to emulate.

Q: I just watched that scene where you were the judge in Boogie Nights and I thought you would have something to say as far as the irony of playing that part?

Veronica Hart: I thought it was cool. Let's face it it's very easy to cast porno stars, so I got a big kick out of it being the judge and not being one of the naked girls&. The last two things I've done, I played a pornstar with a baby with Ginger Lynn [in a] pilot for the series about young lawyers&. I played a pornstar there. Then I got a fucking wonderful part on Six Feet Under. That is a brand new HBO original program series like The Sopranos Alan Ball, who wrote and directed American Beauty is the director/ producer of this and is the most amazing, amazing man and I got to work with Kathy Bates--she was the director. What a wonderful experience. But what did I play? I played pretty much a washed-up pornstar.

Q: So, Boogie Nights, how do you feel about the movie?

Veronica Hart: I liked it. We got a lot of flack from people in our business for a lot of reasons. Nobody would shoot at the time that they were portraying. Nobody shot in the San Fernando Valley, or if they did they were completely stupid or assholes. There was still the pandering law, it wasn't until 1986 or 87, Hal Friedman law [was] overturned, the law of pandering. Before that time they considered any act of adult filmmaking, basically sex for money prostitution. So you would never film in the Los Angeles area, that's why all the films were made in New York or San Francisco. So chronologically, that was wrong. A lot of historians were pissed off about that, and also they made our business very violent. In fact, our business is not violent at all, especially at that time.

Q: So why did you like it?

Veronica Hart: First of all, it dealt with people in adult and it portrayed them as a family, which we are. It wasn't this whole thing about all the victims [being] played upon these by horrible people. They were regular people--a little fucked up, but they were regular people. When I first read the script, I was appalled by the amount of cocaine use and then I kinda thought back to those times and you know, that is what we were doing. There was tons of cocaine use, not only in our business but doctors, lawyers, you know musicians--look back 20 years ago, everybody was doing blow. I also realize that everybody being wonderful and having heads on their shoulders doesn't make an interesting story. So you do pick on one person who had controversy, who had violence, because it makes it an interesting story. When people want to do a scandal--a sex scandal in pornography, they don't follow me around. They don't come to VCA and find scandals. They'll follow a little scumbag around who is misogynistic and mean and an asshole.

Q: I would like for you to recommend some DVD titles for people to check out

Veronica Hart: Upcoming ones that I want people to look for, Being with Juli Ashton, Dark Chambers, Taken, and Edge Play. Those are all to be released&. Being with Juli Ashton is being released next month. DVDs that are already out, Torn, White Lightning.

Q: I just watched that this morning

Veronica Hart:How did you like that?.

Q: I liked it. I thought it was good for you to be working with people like Chloe, the acting seemed kinda important there and she seems pretty capable

Veronica Hart:She is very capable and Ginger is very capable--they all are. The fun thing about DVD you can watch it anyway you want to. You want to watch it in a linear fashion or if you just want to jump to certain scenes, you can. I think we are one of the only companies that really takes advantage of the whole DVD experience. I really get DVD. We just shot Edge Play, we shot a scene that was completely for the DVD--it won't ever appear on VHS. We shot it so you could have sex with the two people involved and they were both people that were in my movie. So you're familiar with them and then you have a chance to step in and have sex with them. I think that's really cool. It's taking the video and expanding it, like the scene with Ginger Lynn [in White Lightning]. You can bust outta that scene, and you can fuck her! It's real fun. I like the one we just did Edge Play because it also goes from a women's point of view. Usually, it's always the guys doing something to a chick and it's nice to see from a chicks point of view.

Q: Do you want to throw me any more titles that are already out there?

Veronica Hart: Love's Passion Still Insatiable is out. I know that Torn is out, White Lightning&. I also produced all of Michael Ninn's things Shock or Latex--I believe, almost all of his stuff, Cashmere, Dream Catchers, the Divas series all of that is done extremely well. And of course our Fantasex titles from VCA. If you see the women that are in the movies, like Kylie Ireland or Chloe or Stacy Valentine, they have titles that are completely interactive, that you basically get to court the girls and if you lucky enough, have sex with them and also choose the speed and the position.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with us Veronica!

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