HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Adult production company Adult Time held a “For Your Consideration” screening on Saturday night, but technically, the audience didn’t see an adult movie. Industry-only attendees were treated to a showing of the R-rated cut of director Bree Mills' recently released feature movie, Birth, starring Casey Calvert, Seth Gamble, and Leana Lovings. The event was complete with red-carpet arrivals and adult stars in attendance, including several Adult Time Brand Ambassadors.
“I’m gonna feel better once it’s playing. I’ve got the nerves now, but once it’s playing, I’m gonna relax a bit,” director and Adult Time Chief Creative Officer Mills told AVN.
“It’s cool to make something and share it with a bunch of people. This is my movie, but it’s really a lot of people’s movie. The whole producing team and crew, all the actors... We have our editor, who worked so hard on this movie, who’s here tonight, as well—her editing name is Clit Eastwood. Like Mike and Siouxsie, who I produced the movie with, haven’t seen it yet. They held off to see it until now. So, to be able to see everyone’s live reaction—because it’s a statement of a movie,” Mills added. “You’ll either love it or hate it, but you won’t forget it.”
The ambiance was art house cinematic, as the aroma of freshly popped popcorn wafted through the venue at Hollywood’s Bourbon Room, one block west of the corner of Hollywood and Vine. A selection of exotic cheeses and vegetarian nibbles was served in a vibey lounge area for guests to enjoy—even if the movie’s concept may not seem appetizing to some.
In Birth, Calvert and Gamble play a successful but unhappy young married couple, Laura and Matthew. Matthew is a sales guy who travels for work and finds himself increasingly interested in “alpha male” ideology. His wife, feeling ignored, grows increasingly desperate to have a baby, causing the tension to grow (just like the fetus that she hopes for, characterized by an audible heartbeat and images reminiscent of a blood-rich uterine environment in some segues between scenes). When a resistant Matthew changes his mind and assumes control over getting Laura pregnant, a psychological body horror story ensues.
Lovings plays Grace, a religious, ultra-subservient birthing doula that Matthew hires to “help” Laura through what becomes a very difficult pregnancy. The wife, none too stable to begin with, becomes paranoid, emotional, and unable to cope with what may be hormones and “pre-partum depression”—or is she imagining an evil plot against her?
“It’s pretty insidious,” Lovings said before the movie started. “It’s a psychological horror, but I don’t want to reveal too much about my part.
“It’s thrilling to be able to play a part in this,” she added. “I was there for about two weeks on set. There was so much involvement with everyone. I love the depth of acting that we all went into. There’s so much tension in the film that when it finally bursts, and it’s time to give birth—the project itself is its own labor of love. It’s spectacular.”
Calvert, who convincingly plays the mentally spiraling mom-to-be, talked about the horrifying aspects of pregnancy, confessing that in real life, she’s chosen to remain childless. For the film, two belly prostheses were created for her to wear as her character grows more heavily pregnant.
“There was a second-trimester belly, which was pretty comfy and felt just like I had a little bit of extra weight in my stomach. But then, the third-trimester belly was so heavy, and so uncomfortable, and pressed on all my organs like I was actually pregnant. I had to pee every five minutes. I could barely eat anything. It hurt my back. I could barely function,” Calvert explained. “I did specifically ask that the pregnancy bellies be as realistic as possible for acting purposes.”
Mills, as part of the pre-production process, imposed demands on the performers to help with character development, like asking them to coordinate the wardrobe pieces for their characters. She also kept Calvert and Lovings as separate as possible before shooting their scenes, to create some distance between them.
Leading man Gamble emerges in the movie as a guy you could hate. Without giving away too much of the story, many women will find that his character goes from uptight to diabolical as events take a turn. For the sake of the storyline, Gamble also was able to deliver a couple of mediocre (though humorous) sex scenes, which were left in the “safer for work” version.
“I had to go there. It was traumatizing,” he said of his role. “I went to a really dark place to do this movie. The secrets, the disgust that I have for the woman I’m with—it was the hardest role I’ve ever played. You don’t know that I’m that guy. At first, you think, ‘He’s an asshole.’ But then you’re like, “Oh. No. He’s not just an asshole.’”
Industry luminaries on hand for the big-screen premiere included Mills' wife and former performer, Sara Luvv; Calvert’s husband and industry veteran, Eli Cross; talent agent Mark Spiegler, who represents Calvert; popular adult auteur Ricky Greenwood; Reagan Foxx, the star of Pure Taboo’s twin-themed thriller Let Me In, also directed by Mills; Adult Time Ambassador Lauren Phillips; reigning AVN MILF Performer of the Year Penny Barber; producers Siouxsie Q and Michael Vegas, also a cinemaphotographer for Birth; Wicked and Disruptive Films director, Jessica Jasmin; director/performer Aiden Starr, 2024 AVN Best Trans Newcomer Leilani Li; as well as a bevy of starlets including Gal Ritchie, Charlotte Sins, Katrina Colt, Valentina Nappi, Whitney Wright, Lexi Lore, Lola Fae, Evelyn Claire, Scarlett Alexis, Olive Glass, and Olivia Jay.
The event offered the rare opportunity to watch the 80-minute-long version of the movie with a live audience, and they responded with shock, laughter, and enthusiasm throughout. Many in the audience are part of a new generation of adult filmmakers who believe in explicit movies as an independent genre, as legitimate as many other types of niche content.
But, with a feature film like Birth, the average adult audience member may ask, “Can you wank to it?” A rare entry into the pregnancy fetish niche, the X-rated version of the movie (which weighs in at two hours running time) promises several sex scenes featuring the main characters, as well as a pregnancy gangbang and a “Yoni massage” sequence that is comical in the SFW version.
“It’s perfect for Halloween,” Mills offered. “It’s definitely a body horror flick. It’s meant to play with your mind. For me, I’ve really been inspired by A24, Neon, and [mainstream] production companies like that, and what’s been happening with modern horror. So, for me, this is a horror movie—it’s a nightmare.”
To watch Birth or for more information, visit the Adult Time streaming platform.
For a photo gallery of the event, click here.
