This article originally ran in the February 2018 issue; click here to see the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—South Carolina teen Monica Sage made an abrupt life change at age 18: “I dropped everything and moved here,” she told AVN after her first week working as a performer. “I’ve been in six scenes so far. I wasn’t planning on going to school right away, and financially I didn’t have the money for college, and I was tired of sitting at home feeling I wasted my day. I love this kind of stuff, so ... here I am.” To Sage, performing is an opportunity for validation: “Feeling pretty and feeling sexy makes my confidence go up, and what better way to do that than through porn? It’s self-expression.”
She told her parents about her new career three days after she arrived in L.A. “My dad laughed. He was, like, ‘Are you serious? Naked pictures?’ and I said ‘Yeah.’ And my mom was, like, ‘That’s disgusting ... but I guess I’ll have to support you.’ They’re cool about it now.”
Shooting scenes professionally was a surprise for Sage: “There’s so much more that goes into it. You think it’s ‘Oh, go have sex’ but that’s not it. You have to think about the wardrobe, what they want in the scene, what fans want to see. It’s not really about yourself. It’s about what other people want to see. I figured fans like to see whatever happens. I’ve had people hold my leg for me because I’m not flexible enough. As long as the shot looks good, right?” she adds with a laugh. She takes particular pride in her blowjob scenes: “Seeing a man curl his toes and be, like ‘Oh my gawd’—that’s the most amazing feeling. I’m not one of those girls who hits a certain point and then backs off; I’m, like, ‘I’m gonna go deeper now.’ Deep throat’s my thing.”
When asked her favorite thing about the adult industry, Sage replies “big cocks and cute guys. If I’m going to be able to do that, why not? Having sex with good-looking people is a good thing, and if you’re getting paid for it ...” In the future, Sage says, “I’m so excited for my first anal scene coming up, and any fetish scene I might be booked for in the future.” She says she’d like to work for Kink.com (“That would be awesome. I think that stuff is so hot. That’s my biggest fantasy.”), Jules Jordan (“Everything in their work looks so well organized and well put together. It seems so easy and fun.”) and Greg Lansky (“All of his work I’ve seen just blows my mind.”)
Her words to live by—unsurprisingly—are “Fuck it, why not?”
Follow her on Twitter: @MonicaSageXXX.
Photo by Rick Garcia/@IndustryByRick; see more photos here.
