This article originally ran in the January 2016 issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
When you’re out to conquer new lands, it helps to have an army. And it just so happens that’s what Kendra Lust has at her disposal—427K Twitter followers strong and counting. Perhaps that explains how this pretty brunette Midwesterner came to take over so much territory in the adult industry this past year.
Let’s review. In January 2015 she started off strong at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, signing with ArchAngel Productions and shooting several titles, including True Lust (nominated for Best Star Showcase in the 2016 AVN Awards). A directing gig with Zero Tolerance also came along, as well as a toy deal with Evolved Novelties to serve as the exclusive model for the Perfect Stroke masturbator. Then there was Society 15, her talent agency, launched with a festive industry party in November. And to top it off, Lust ended the year by shooting for her own company, aptly named Lust Army Productions.
Lust invited AVN on set during her first weekend of shooting toward the end of 2015. With her impeccable curves covered only by a few strategically placed black strips of fabric, heart-shaped pasties, a mesh thong and pointy, thigh-high boots, Lust looked ready to take charge of her role as a dom. She talked with ace cinematographer Alex Ladd about the setup for the sex scene, in which she would perform with Reena Sky.
“Her boyfriend wants to try anal so she comes to me and hires me as a professional dom,” Lust explained. The bedroom in which they’re shooting is filled with color: yellow walls and lots of red and black accents, including chandeliers and bondage toys.
Tall, tanned and lean, Sky was decked out in a hot pink club dress that showed plenty of skin. Lust undressed her for the pretty-girl shots. “We’re gonna show off the ass,” Lust said, slipping off Sky’s thong. Throughout various poses, Lust was careful to keep Sky lower than her at all times, to emphasize her dominance. Along the way, Lust got naked herself, eliciting an endearing purr of pleasure from Sky.
In one of the last poses, Sky dangled off the edge of the bed, her ass high in the air. “I like this,” Lust murmered. “If I had a penis I would piledrive you.”
There was no penis, but there were plenty of toys. Consulting with Sky, she selected the bigger dildo—“Just go for it—see what happens,” Sky said—but it turned out a smaller one was called for. After sliding a medium-sized blue dong inside Sky’s pucker, thanks to some lube, Lust surveyed her work and laughed. “Like I’m some anal pro. I’ve done one scene,” she said, referencing her anal debut in Greg Lansky’s Miss Tushy (an AVN Award nominee for Best Anal Sex Scene).
With the pretty-girl shots out of the way, it was time for lunch. There to help keep things running smoothly with the shoot were Lust’s compatriots from Society 15, Randy Quintana and Rita Ruiz, and her husband, traveling with her from their home in Michigan. She sat down for a bit to talk about her new ventures—and also about how she ended up here in Porn Valley.
Elaborating on the shoot for Lust Army Productions, Lust explained that she has a relationship with ArchAngel for releasing her movies. “They’ve agreed to let me distribute one movie a month. So it will be ArchAngel presents Lust Army Productions, and it will be distributed by Girlfriends Films.”
The debut title will be called First Lust. “It’s an all-girl movie with performers making their anal debut with toys,” Lust explained, with each scene involving a first girl/girl anal for one of the performers. “I have Reena Skye … And then Veruca James, she’ll be doing it with Lyra Louvel.” Other performers in the movie are Jada Stevens and Nina Elle, and Kenzie Taylor with Anikka Albrite.
Asked what she hopes to bring to her own productions, Lust said, “Just coming from a woman’s perspective, I don’t think there’s enough passion and real-life sex. I like some of the amateur stuff because it’s more realistic to me. Girls aren’t always done up—sometimes when we have sex it’s spontaneous. It’s not this ideal, beautiful location; it’s just in the confines of our bedroom.”
Lust also talked about her work for Zero Tolerance. “I’m directing one movie maybe every two months; they give me discretion to do what I want to do.” Her next project will be titled Visions of Lust. “I’ll be in one scene but it’ll kind of be my fantasies and some of the stars in the industry who I think would be hot together: boy/girl, girl/girl/girl, boy/boy/girl—kind of mixing it up. … It’s be a little bit of a story line, at least a couple of pages to establish what’s going on in the scene.”
Toy deals, directing gigs, a talent agency—how did all of this start? As many performers do these days, Lust began with webcamming.
“I was a nurse working midnights. I needed another way to make money, and I knew going back to school wasn’t feasible. … I’d been doing it for about three months and I thought, ‘This is really fun.’ It felt so wrong but so right. … And then somebody in one of my chat rooms said, ‘Have you ever thought about doing porn?’ and I said, ‘I’ve thought about it since age 18.’ So I submitted photos to a lot of directors, I tried to reach them through Twitter, and finally they gave me a chance. I was pretty relentless. … I just thought, I have to do this. I need a chance. I need to try. If you don’t try, you don’t know.”
For Lust, it was a chance worth taking. Entering the business at age 33, she said, “I had already established a career. I was more confident.”
But to develop fully as a porn star didn’t happen overnight. “It took me about three years into the industry to really, really feel confident. And even in my photos I can see a difference now. I stand a little taller.” Lust always felt comfortable performing, she recalled, “but I never knew how to own it in front of a camera with posing. … One of the photographers said, ‘Kendra I just wish you would own it. You’re beautiful. Just own it.’ … And I thought, you know what, he’s right. I’m just going to own it. And just work with what I have. I’m not trying to be 20 or do the teen thing. I’m owning being a developed, strong, sexy woman, and it feels good. It feels really good. It only took me thirty-something years to get there.”
And now that she’s arrived, she finds it’s a good place. “I’m just grateful,” she said softly. “People I think give porn a bad rap but it’s a great avenue to make money and express your sexuality … be in charge of your own career. It’s given me opportunities—for myself and my family—that I would have never had. … I’ve done a lot for my family and I feel good about that.”
And she hopes to help other performers, too. “Each girl is different; each one has a different plan. Some girls just want to be in for a year and shoot a ton and maybe be gone—save a ton of money. Other girls want longevity. So I think it depends on the girls’ personal goals. However, I feel that if we can guide or maybe direct them … I don’t know if it’s my nursing background, but I’m a mother hen. That’s just part of who I am and I can’t change that. It’s good and bad. If I can help make girls successful and stars, how cool would that be? I’d be proud of that.”
Photo by Jeff Koga/@kogafoto
