Ashley Blue, JM Productions Part Ways

For three years, Ashley Blue has served as the iconic face of JM Productions, and today, she resigned that post.

"At 8:15 this morning, I called [JM owner] Jeff Mike, and I told him that I quit," Blue told AVN.com in an exclusive interview. "We've always had a verbal agreement, it's never been a written contract, so we're even. Everything's fine — he didn't yell at me, and I didn't yell at him. It was one of probably the nicest conversations we've ever had!" [Mike was unavailable for comment. — Ed.]

As to what prompted this decision, the 2004 AVN Female Performer of the Year said, "It's been three years. It was March 2004 when I agreed to be exclusive with JM, and in three years, I've kind of exhausted every line for them."

Explaining that the move came about very rapidly, Blue said, "It took me about a week to really decide. I mean, I really thought about it every day and every night, because I didn't want to piss off JM, and it took about a week to build up confidence to feel like I'm not too old to be doing this. But I feel like I want to do scenes with other people for all the right reasons, not to spite anyone or because I need money for alcohol or anything."

Wasting no time in re-directing her career, Blue immediately met with L.A. Direct Models owner Derek Hay. "I signed a one-year commitment to Derek, and everything's really good. I'm excited!" she exclaimed. "It was fun, going into the Direct Models office and writing down, like, 'Yep, I still do everything.' I mean, Derek's going to get me a variety of work. I was in there not even five minutes, and I already have one scene to do tomorrow, and it's just a regular boy/girl."

In other words, not involving any anal sex, the nearly exclusive staple of her on-screen work during her time as JM's contract girl. "I haven't done a non-anal in, what, three years?" she laughed. "[It's] a new chapter. And it's a good one. I'm not a crack-head anymore, I have a really good relationship, and I have good friends, and I'm curious to see what everybody else has been doing." 

The scene she booked as her first non-JM job is for Private's Pirate Fetish Machine 30: Bondage and Sleaze in L.A., being directed by her significant other, Dave Naz. She also plans to appear in Octavio "Winkytiki" Arizala's next project for Vivid Alt, and hopes to return to the feature arena.

"Derek was saying that we should try to capitalize a little bit on my winning personality," she chortled, "and not so much doing all the gangbang stuff." Having won AVN's Best Supporting Actress – Video award in 2004 for her work in Vivid's Adore, Blue certainly possesses the necessary chops to tackle such fare.

She's also built a strong portfolio of work as a director, helming the Attention Whores and Lesbian Bukkake lines, among other titles, for JM, something she said she'd like to continue pursuing.

"I'd love to direct more things," Blue said. "I'd love to direct for Vivid Alt. I'm excited about Kimberly [Kane]'s new movie [being released through Vivid Alt] … it feels like all my friends are doing really cool things, and I'm excited to be a part of it."

On her future relationship with JM, Blue stated, "We're on good terms, so as long as that [continues], it's likely that we'll be doing more Girlverts.

"I guess it's a new image," she summarized, "because now I'm not the poster girl for JM anymore; I'm just myself."