LOS ANGELES—Misha Cross didn’t get where she is today by doing things half speed, so she wasn’t about to start with her latest directorial effort.
In Bacchanalia, which is available now from Evil Angel Films, Cross takes the quality over quantity approach, throwing down for two one-hour scenes in what amounts to a blizzard of stylish hardcore.
The two-time AVN Foreign Performer of the Year from Poland performs a five-girl orgy and a three-guy double-penetration scene in the unique showcase—which is the third movie she has directed in her exclusive deal with Evil Angel.
“The idea for the movie was ‘I want it all,’” Cross tells AVN. “So I want boys; I want girls; and I want to take it to the maximum.
“So those two scenes are kind of feasts—one with girls and the other with men. That’s why we called the movie Bacchanalia.”
The title is inspired by the Bacchanalia—or Roman festivals of Bacchus, which is the Roman name for the Greek god Dionysus, who was known for wine, crazy parties and acts of ecstasy.
“We wanted this movie to be like a feast but we wanted it to also be very elegant,” Cross continues. “When I want to have sex with a girl I mean I want to have sex with five girls. I want to take it to the maximum. I wanted to have a gangbang but something happened the day of the shoot and I had a cancellation. Originally, it was going to be a gangbang with four boys and it ended up being three guys and me. It was way too late to get someone to replace the guy. But it was still very good.”
Cross chose Erik Everhard, Lutro and Gerson Denny for her DP scene; she summoned Anna DeVille, Sophie Sparks, Tiffany Tatum and Amirah Adara for her all-girl orgy. Once again she collaborated with Lucky Red, the Italian cinematographer based in Madrid who worked with Cross on her first two movies.
She and Lucky Red were friends for about four years before becoming a team for her AVN Award-nominated directorial debut, Misha in Exile, which she started shooting November 2017. They joined forces again for Elements, which was released earlier this year. Lucky Red captured Cross performing in erotic vignettes for his Vimeo channel four times before they aligned for Misha in Exile.
“I love that we only shot two scenes in Bacchanalia just to show the contrast between the girls and the boys,” Cross says. “I’m very happy with the way it looks. The intros are really nice and pretty.”
Cross calls the funky black-light, neon, glow-the-dark intro for her all-girl orgy “my all-time favorite thing we‘ve done.”
It took five days of preparation for that scene, Cross adds, noting she used 10 boxes of flowers in a scene that was shot in Lucky Red’s studio.
“This time I really wanted to experiment with what we can achieve when we go to a studio space and how we can make it a look. It has a music video kind of vibe with the neon and black light. It turned out really good. I was loving it," she says.
Her excellent cast was carefully chosen.
“I always choose people who I know they’re not just here for the money,” Cross says. “Also I know their personality. Amirah Adara—we’re like best friends and I know she’s a genuine performer and going to deliver an amazing performance.
“Anna DeVille—she’s amazing. I don’t have to say anything about her; Sophie Sparks was recommended to me by Lucky Red. He shot some projects with her; she could be a supermodel. Thank god she does porn. Tiffany Tatum is the girlfriend of Lutro and she is an excellent performer. She has a beautiful body and is a really nice human being. This is the criteria for me to choose people. I want them to be honest and I want them to be great performers.”
Cross says it’s about the visuals and the sexual intensity in her movies.
“There is no motive to fuck. This is gonzo,” she says. “I just want to introduce the scene in the most beautiful way.”
She shot Bacchanalia at the beginning of April and then again in May-June.
The DP scene unfolded in Barcelona.
“I wanted to make it super chic, super glamorous like Victoria’s Secret-Agent Provocateur type of thing. In the intro the guys are waiting for me all wearing suits. They look very elegant,” Cross explains.
One of Cross’s three lingerie sets for the scene had crystals sewn into it.
“I just got it in a sex shop. I went to the adult store searching for something cool. Pretty much nobody goes there to buy lingerie and I found something very unique,” Cross says.
The Polish star, who won back-to-back Foreign Performer of the Year crowns in 2016-17, hopes to come to the US in 2020.
“There are studios there that I haven’t shot for, so I’d really love to go back to shoot for them and obviously Evil Angel,” she says.
