This article originally ran in the March 2015 issue of AVN. To see the issue, which features coverage of AVN's January shows, click here.
It’s impressive enough that Mason managed to end the seemingly untouchable Axel Braun’s four-year streak as AVN’s Director of the Year, but arguably a far more significant facet of her win is the fact that it’s the first since the award’s inception in 2007 for a woman.
From the veteran auteur’s viewpoint, however, she doesn’t necessarily feel she’s toppled any barrier for her gender with the victory. “I’m not sure what it represents,” she reflected. “I never really think of myself as a ‘woman,’ I think of myself as a human. I don’t see it as cracking a glass ceiling, or infiltrating some secret boys club. I kind of just see it as interesting.”
Not that she isn’t ecstatic. Explaining that she learned she had won via the live Twitter feed during the ceremony (since she didn’t attend in person), she effused, “I honestly couldn’t believe what I saw. I just kept saying over and over, ‘No way, no way, no way.’ It felt like winning the lottery. Surreal, scary, intense and fun.”
What the award does represent for her, Mason went on to impart, is a sort of ultimate validation of her career choice. “From a purely selfish perspective, not thinking about the performers and everything they have given for me over the years, it means everything,” she said. “I remember eagerly anticipating each month’s AVN magazine arrival at the newsstands, flipping through the pages, dreaming that I could somehow be a part of this world. I gave up law school to pursue a career in the adult industry and receiving this award in many ways celebrates my decision to follow my dreams.”
She also noted that had she been able to give an acceptance speech, “I would have thanked everyone who had given their all over the past year, from the performers, to everyone at Hard X, to [photographer] JT, and to Graham [Travis]. I would have thanked my mom and dad for supporting a daughter who never had a taste for conformity. And I would have thanked the adult industry for giving me an environment to grow into the person I have become.”
Pictured above, Allie Haze in a still from Allie (Hard X/O.L. Entertainment), for which Mason garnered an AVN Award for Best Director - Non-Feature.
