LOS ANGELES—Maya Kendrick reveals she was a late replacement when she got the call to star in one of adult’s most ambitious new series.
Her assignment entailed spending several hours butt naked inside a plastic bubble with porn beefcake Derrick Pierce.
“It’s one of those shoots that you could only do with a few people,” Kendrick jokes, calling the veteran stud “a real sweetheart.” “Because I feel like we were on set until like 11:30 that night. We were definitely in the blow-up igloo for like eight hours together, which was like nothing I had ever experienced before.”
What unfolded that day can be seen in the new episode of the critically acclaimed sci-fi series Future Darkly, which is now available on Adult Time—the premium subscription platform created by Bree Mills and Gamma Films.
The 22-year-old Kendrick starred as the "breeder" in a post-apocalyptic insemination unit, while Pierce played the “conception facilitator” in the featurette titled “The Breeding Pod.”
“Their crew was so much fun to work with and yeah, I couldn’t have picked a better partner to be stuck in a pod with than Derrick,” Kendrick adds.
Her performance in Future Darkly was the latest opportunity for the Seattle native to showcase her acting range—Kendrick has already proven she can get hardcore with the best of them.
“Maya Kendrick will easily be one of our breakout actresses this year across Adult Time,” Mills tells AVN.
Kendrick began to show her flair for drama in a pair of Pure Taboo episodes—“Swapping Daughters: The Other Family” opposite Seth Gamble, Mr. Pete and Dee Williams and “Home Alone” with Mr. Pete. She also demonstrated her ability to emote in an episode of Mills’ new imprint Transfixed with Aspen Brooks.
“Her performance in Pure Taboo's ‘Swapping Daughters’ saga wowed audiences and has literally topped our viewership charts for the last several months,” says Mills, the show runner for Adult Time and creator of the 2018 AVN Award-winning Best New Imprint—Pure Taboo.
“When I worked with her for Transfixed, it was my first time personally directing her. She was professional, punctual, and ready to give 200 percent... very motivated by my approach to acting and quick on her feet with the dramatic improv. It's been a while since I've been that impressed with someone's first performance on my set. So much so that I brought her back for a Future Darkly episode the following month.
“For 'The Breeding Pod,' she spent about 12 hours naked in a bubble tent with Derrick Pierce, our DP Matty and I—and was phenomenal. Funny, sardonic, natural. I think she is a fantastic actress and I'm excited to see her grow with experience.”
Kendrick tells AVN she first shot for Pure Taboo in September, but her initial scene debuted on the site in March.
“So it’s nice to finally be able to show something,” she says. “I had like little roles in features but this is definitely the most acting I’ve ever done.”
She explains that Dee Williams played her stepmom, Mr. Pete her stepdad and Seth Gamble her new ‘brother’ in the “Swapping Daugthers” scenario. In the “Home Alone” scene, Mr. Pete plays her neighbor Mr. Rodgers, who, even though he’s a close friend of her parents, has been secretly spying on her. Both of the scenes were directed by longtime Mills collaborator Craven Moorehead.
“They’re both very dark,” Kendrick says. “The ‘Swapping Daughters’ trailer looked like a horror movie. All the comments were like, ‘We’re glad that you’re going this creepier route but this is one of the scarier ones that we’ve seen.’
“It was more unsettling than scary. I feel like the whole script there was a sense of unease. You’re never comfortable. But seeing how they edited it really changed everything. I never imagined it would be that truly scary.
“I’m really excited to see the Mr. Rodgers one with Mr. Pete because that’s also very sad. It’s blackmail.”
The AVN Hall of Fame performer Mr. Pete tells AVN, “Working with Maya for Pure Taboo was amazing.”
“I really like that company and the process they take to provide great content,” Mr. Pete says. “As far as Maya, she’s the new generation of porn… I salute her! She never complains, even if the days are long! Her acting is superb and the sexual chemistry we provide when we get together is more than compelling. I think we got ourselves a future AVN Starlet of the Year!”
Mr. Pete adds, “She’s always fun to be around on set—passionate about her craft, sexy, yet professional! She’s definitely awesome to work with…”
Kendrick says her scene for Transfixed with Aspen Brooks involves her moving into a new apartment.
“I’m getting settled and I buy this mirror at a yard sale and then I see somebody in the mirror who is not me, who looks a lot like me but they are not me,” Kendrick explains. “And then I feel like it’s an obsession that starts because I gotta find out what’s happening. And then finally I pull her out of the mirror at the very end,” Kendrick says.
“But I’m excited for that one, too, because that was probably one of the more emotional ones that I’ve done. In the other ones my character is in distress but I don’t feel that bad for them. They’re enjoying it. For this one at the end of the scene I felt so much sympathy for my character. I’ve never been one of those people who cry on camera and it’s fake—I don’t know how they’re doing that.
“It has to take everything in your being to cry on camera. And then at the end of this there’s a very somber moment and I have like one single tear. And I was like, I didn’t know I could do this.
“Out of all the crazy sex scenes I’ve been so proud of, I’m proud of this one single tear, equally.”
The Transfixed scene marked Kendrick’s second time working with a trans performer—her first time was with 2019 AVN Transsexual Performer of the Year Chanel Santini on Halloween for Santini’s Evil Angel Films showcase, Chanel Santini: TS Superstar.
“Then I just worked with another girl Jenna Creed for a Kink scene in January,” Kendrick says. “So this was my third scene with a trans girl of hopefully many, many more… Those are some of my favorite scenes; they’re always super fun. It’s always a relaxed set. There’s never any nerves or anything. But yeah I love—I really love it.”
A seasoned gonzo performer, Kendrick admits that was all she ever watched before she got into the industry.
“Like oil in a kiddie pool porn,” she jokes. “But I feel like it was almost because I didn’t think I’d ever be good at acting. And then I’m like, ‘I didn’t realize you could just do both.’ I shot for Aiden Riley for the first time last week, which was super exciting because he was one of my favorite directors before even getting into the industry.
“Because I love that stuff where you can’t tell if the director is telling them anything or if these people are just going to have sex like this on a table and that’s just how it’s going to be. So it was really exciting to finally get to work for him.
“I did a DP, which was really cool because it was the only DP in the movie, which was nice of him. I was like, ‘Thank you to entrust me with two dicks.’”
Slim Poke and Rico Strong did the honors. “They’re both super nice,” she says. “I worked with them both in different DP’s like a year ago. So it was nice to come together. It was probably the easiest DP I’ve ever done.”
She says working for Aiden Riley was even “more fun than I thought it would be.”
“Because I see his scenes all the time and they’re fun to watch. I never assumed they would be so much fun to film at the same time,” she says. “I mean shooting for him it feels like you’re working with one of your best friends. He’s so nice; he’s super welcoming; he’s super funny. He’s definitely one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked for.”
Riley tells AVN he liked having Kendrick on his set for Dark Meat 11, which will be released on DVD on May 28.
“Her holes were a lot of fun,” Riley says. “They were always open and that reminds me of a 7-Eleven, and I really enjoy 7-Eleven.”
Kendrick says her three-year anniversary in adult this month has her feeling like her best is yet to come.
“I’m super grateful for all the really cool work I’ve been getting,” she says. “I feel like everything’s been paying off and coming—not to a climax—but I’m stepping into more of a prime. I feel like the first two years were kind of just practice. Everything I did in the first two years is just practice for what I’m going to be doing now.”
Her practice includes more than 160 performing credits across just about every genre of porn. She started self-booking on March 1 and can be contacted at [email protected].
“I felt like it was kind of the right time; I had been with Nexxxt Level for almost two years,” she says. “We left on very good terms. I would never be where I am in the industry without those two years with them, especially in the beginning. They helped me out so much. It was very grounding to have them. But I feel like at some point they’ve done what they can do for me.”
She has shot one sex scene for Tushy—a boy/girl/girl with Logan Long and Whitney Wright—after appearing as an extra last summer, when all she had to do was roll over in bed for $300.
“When I got Tushy in December it was last minute. They were like, ‘Can you do this?’ It was more-so, ‘Can you have your nails done this way by Sunday?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I can but for how much money?’” Kendrick recalls.
“So an hour later I was getting a manicure and pedicure.”
She put aside her disdain for French nails for the booking.
“They’re such a god-like company in the industry,” Kendrick suggests. “I’ve heard so many things from so many different people. I really didn’t know what working for them was going to be like. And it was one of the easiest anal shoots I’ve ever done.
“The crew was more accommodating than I ever could’ve wanted. Everyone was so nice. It was one of the only times for an anal scene we’ve shot the scene first and then the dialogue and intro after.
“I understand why other companies don’t do this. I get it. But it was still nice and refreshing to be able to do all that first.
“I was like, 'You guys have got this figured out. You’re on schedule.' I loved everything. Their pictures are amazing. I loved working with Rick [Shameless] who did the pictures and Derek [Dozer] directing—he’s so nice, so encouraging. It’s always my favorite to watch… and I loved working with Whitney [Wright], it was amazing. I wanted to work with her for a long time so getting to do Tushy with her was perfect.”
She is eyeing a big shoot for MissaX in May in Milwaukee.
“I’ve watched their stuff for a few years now and it’s always been like a fantasy to work for them, but I thought I would have to wait a lot longer to be hired by them because I still haven’t done that much feature work,” Kendrick says.
The 5-foot-10 model grew up north of Seattle in a “very hippie-dippy college town.” In fact, she says the town is so laid back that no one even made a big deal about her getting into porn.
“They’re all stoners who are blowing glass pendants,” Kendrick jokes.
An only child whose parents still live in the same house, Kendrick worked in her aunt’s flower shop—where her mother is the manager—from when she was 15 until she left home at 19.
She will celebrate her 23rd birthday on May 9.
“Probably my favorite place is this tiny little flower shop,” Kendrick says. “[My mom] sends me videos all the time because they get new stuff in all the time, so she sends me videos of all the plants.”
Kendrick specialized in the gardening aspect of the shop, rather than the florist part.
“I’m better at planting. I’m a better gardener,” she says. “She and my aunt are great florists. I feel like the perfectionism of a floral arrangement always scared me.”
She also told her mom about her decision to do porn before she entered the biz.
“I told her everything and she didn’t try to talk me out of it because she knows I’m very stubborn,” Kendrick adds. “So she was just like, ‘I just want a little bit of time to process but it’s fine.’ She’s like, ‘I love you; I need to process.’
“So now it’s three years later. She visited last January; I went home last May. She’s coming here next week. It’s nice; everything’s good. It’s nice to show that I have something from it. I came here with like 200 dollars in my pocket three years ago, staying at a model house. And my apartment now is nicer than our house.”
Looking ahead, Kendrick would like to get nasty with six-time AVN Male Performer of the Year Manuel Ferrara at some point.
“I worked with Toni [Ribas]; I worked with Ramon [Nomar]. I want Manuel. I feel like I need to finish the trifecta,” Kendrick says with a grin. “I’ve always wanted to work with Manuel. I’ve wanted to work for Jules [Jordan] for a long time, too. I really want to work with Dredd; I’ve been wanting to for a while; I feel like I could handle it.
“Once you do a lot of DPs with a lot of other big black guys this is just one little step above. I feel like I’ve practiced; I’m pretty cavernous. I feel like it’ll be OK. I feel like the biggest decision is, ‘Do I want it in the butt or not?’ I just don’t know. I know that I could take it. … Whatever hole they want I’ll give them.”
When she isn’t working, Kendrick is a “homebody.”
“I just want to read on the couch. I want to take a bath. I want to play Civilization on my computer,” she says.
One of her favorite books is Night Film.
“When I read Night Film when I was 18 it was very formative for me. I’ve never read a book that speeds up your heart rate—when you’re reading you’re actually nervous,” she says. “It was so amazing, so good. It’s one of the best books I’ve read.”
Kendrick never looked at adult “like a stepping point for anything else.”
“I got into it because this seemed like the best, most fun job you could ever have when you’re a 22-year-old girl living in LA,” she says. “But now I see people behind the camera and I’m like, ‘That looks fun.’
“Until the last six months I never seriously considered going behind the camera later on but I think now more and more I am interested in it. But I understand it’s a long process and I have a lot of dues to pay before that ever comes. But I do see that, hopefully.
“The industry changes so much every year but I would just want to be in it and be as big a part of it as I can for as long as it’s still serving me and still making me happy. And hopefully, I’ll be financially responsible enough in that time so if the day did come where I wanted to leave adult I would have options to do that.
“But I don’t see myself having a really far departure from adult… I’m a lot more interested than I ever thought I would be.”
She points to producer/director/performers such as Dana Vespoli and Joanna Angel as “role models” who have created strong brands.
“Joanna Angel is kind of the icon for me in terms of building everything on her own, having her own company and directing, but not saying she needs to retire,” Kendrick reasons. “The long-term goal is to somehow do one-tenth of what she did.”
Photography courtesy of Bree Mills/Adult Time; Shelby Black for Naughty America.
