A version of this interview ran in the September issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Photos courtesy Axel Braun/Wicked Pictures
This year, adult performer Kenzie Taylor underwent a transformation, morphing from Gonzo Girl to Wicked Superhero. The curvy blonde, who’s been in the business since 2015, finally got her shot at a big-time feature, taking on the lead in Captain Marvel: An Axel Braun Parody.
“This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my entire career so far,” Taylor says about the Wicked Pictures project, which is set to release at the end of September. She was selected from more than 120 hopefuls who submitted an audition tape to play Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
Braun already knew Taylor socially through her boyfriend, Seth Gamble, who’s acted in many of Braun’s biggest movies. But the director said his interest was first piqued in Taylor’s acting when he saw her in a skit at the 2019 AVN Awards Show.
Even getting word of her casting was a bit of a production. Gamble used his phone to capture the moment she got the news in a letter from Braun. “I was crying like a baby,” she said.
Earlier in the summer, with two days of shooting still left on the project, Braun was already issuing rave reviews to his leading lady. “I’m telling you, she is phenomenal. her comedic timing, her sense of humor. We have dramatic moments too. I mean, she is really, really incredible,” he says, adding, “I have only seen this level of commitment from Seth. Of course, he’s her boyfriend, so I guess he rubbed off on her.”
Braun says he “wanted to do something special” for his sixtieth parody. “With the costumes, I went crazy,” he says. “Normally we have these costumes that have zippers everywhere because you need to do the sex scenes,” Braun explains. But the costumes he designed were so elaborate, he needed to make two versions: one with openings and one without. “I couldn’t figure out a way to put the zippers … without compromising,” he explains, so he made four different costumes. “Makeup wise and costume wise, it’s the most elaborate and intricate thing I’ve ever dealt with.”
Taylor recalls, “The suit was actually specifically fitted right to my body, so it’s very tight and the heels are actually nine inches and they’re built into my costume.” She needs the help of two other people just to get the suit on, she says. “It looks amazing. I got the walking down, but when I was running and stuff it took me a little bit of practice.”
She got practiced enough to be able to shoot a fighting sequence with Quinton James, who plays her nemesis, Yon-Rogg. “We had a fighting sequence that was pretty amazing—we were actually sparring. We had a lot of fun,” she recalls.
“I’m so happy to get this opportunity—not only because it’s the biggest of my entire career, but because I finally get a chance to showcase my acting abilities.” And to show her gratitude and commitment, Taylor did her research. “I bought a bunch of comic books. … I really just wanted to become the character, Carol Danvers.” (She jokes that one of her biggest challenges was training herself to say “Carol” without a Midwestern accent.)
“I can’t wait for people to see Kenzie,” Braun says, noting that this is “the right kind of push” for her career. “This is also a showcase. It’s a big tour de force for her acting, and sexually it’s really intense. … So when somebody with the right attitude feels the weight of something like this, it doesn’t matter—they enjoy being directed because they know my only goal is to get the best possible performance out of them. And then sometimes it’s the little subtle things. … She was really good right off the bat, but I could tell that she was nervous. Literally in, like, 45 seconds as soon as we started I had a talk with her and I said, ‘You’ve got to understand this. You are not working for me, you are working with me. We are doing this together. This is as much your project as it is mine.’ … I just got her to relax enough to give all she had. I’m thrilled.”
It wasn’t just his leading lady who contributed to Braun’s satisfaction with Captain Marvel. “Everybody that I had in the movie was happy to be there … committed to the roles, committed to the characters. … I’m super happy. Sometimes you get a good movie out of a painful experience and it’s part of what filmmaking is. And sometimes everything works the way you want it to work—and this is the case with Captain Marvel.”
Taylor certainly can attest to her own commitment. “I’m putting my blood, sweat and tears into this movie. I’m hoping for some noms because this is my showcase. I’m in every single scene and every single sex scene. It’s been crazy. … I know that I did the best that I could, so that’s what I told Axel. Whether people like it or not, I just know I did everything that I could. I’m happy with that.”
Though this is her first big acting role, it’s not the first time Taylor paid attention to acting in adult movies. That started before she entered the industry.
“I don’t have an interesting story at all,” she says when asked how she got started. “I have a degree in college and I was working in health care prior to and I was just really unhappy—and miserable, to be honest. I was working 80-hour weeks. I’ve always been a really sexual person and where I’m from in Michigan you have to hide that. You can’t be open, because things are really old-fashioned there. So I’ve always had to hide who I truly am.”
Back then, she recalls, “One of the first movies I ever watched was Pirates, so I loved Janine and Jesse Jane and Tommy Gunn—I loved all of them. But I loved the entire acting aspect of it and that it was more in-depth. … I’m very passionate about performance-type stuff. I love the art of it. I love making other people happy, really.”
Taylor took a lot of initiative to make her way to Porn Valley from the Midwest. She “basically googled how to get in or different agencies” and ended up being asked out to California for go-sees. “It was very scary for me because i had never been here and i didn’t know anyone.”
Her first shoot was for Zero Tolerance with director Mike Quasar and male talent Mark Wood. Wood made her feel “very comfortable,” she says. “He broke down exactly everything that we were going to do—the positions and how he would do it. He said, ‘Don’t worry, everything’s going to be OK, I got you.’ And everything was amazing. I loved it. I thought, ‘This is my calling.’”
And as for Quasar, she says, he “is one of my favorite people—hilarious. We’re good friends.”
After she did that scene, she ended up going back to Florida; then her agent said she’d be more successful if she moved to the West Coast. First she moved to Vegas for a few months. “I also have experience in dancing, so I was dancing there and doing a few shoots here and there, but a lot of the shoots I was getting offered were in L.A.” So she packed up again. “It was just me, my dog, my stuff—and my car. … I’ve been here ever since.”
Though she’s grateful for the Captain Marvel role—“I finally get a chance to showcase my acting abilities”—Taylor emphasizes that she really enjoys her work as a gonzo girl. “I really love working for Evil Angel, to be honest. Every crew I work with for them is just amazing.”
She adds, “I think it’s truly amazing what we do,” she continues. “And not even just us as performers, but everyone—you guys at AVN, and all the directors, producers, the lighting, the P.A., the editors. Everyone just works so hard and it amazes me—the stuff we can pull together in such a short amount of time.”
Taylor muses, “It’s truly amazing, all of the art that goes into everything. People don’t know that. There’s such a stigma around the industry of no one understanding anything. ‘Everyone’s undereducated and they just fuck all the time and do drugs,’” she jokes, mimicking a pearl-clutching porn hater.
Her own experience, Taylor says, bears no resemblance to negative stereotypes. “I believe what you push out is what you push out is what you receive. I’m pushing out kindness and love and hard work and doing the best that I can every day. And I feel like, in the universe, if I’m pushing those things out I’ll receive them back. So I think that’s probably why I’ve had a positive experience. I’m kind to everyone; I always show up on time. I don’t get into arguments with people on social media. I take everything seriously and I’m super passionate about every aspect of my career.”
Book Kenzie Taylor for scenes through OC Modeling; contact Sandra McCarthy at (818) 298-6939. For feature dance bookings, visit AListFeatures.com.
