LOS ANGELES—Misha Cross knew she wanted to direct from the start of her journey in adult entertainment.
The Polish star studied photography in her native country before beginning her porn career in late 2013, giving her a strong foundation for what was to come.
“But I never studied filming,” Cross says. “So I knew that if I wanted to do it I wanted people to do it as I want it to be done.”
Cross continued to entertain the idea of producing and directing her own scenes as she built her reputation as a performer, demonstrating world-class talent as she won back-to-back AVN Foreign Female Performer of the Year awards in 2016-17.
During that time she still had the desire to shoot her own stuff, but she didn’t want it to be ordinary.
“I thought I want to do something cooler and then I realized that I can do it with [Lucky Red],” Cross says.
Cross describes her relationship with her cinematographer as “like an old marriage.”
She and Lucky Red were friends for about four years before becoming the creative team behind Cross’s now expanding directing portfolio. On February 11, Evil Angel will release Elements, which will be the second movie to come out since Cross signed an exclusive directing deal with the legendary studio—and the follow-up to her AVN Award-nominated directorial debut, Misha in Exile, which she embarked on shooting beginning in November 2017.
Lucky Red, an Italian who is based in Madrid, shot Cross performing in erotic vignettes for his Vimeo channel four times before they joined forces for Misha in Exile.
“They’re like short erotic movies—very sensual but also very cinematic,” Cross says. “And I looked at it once and I’m like, ‘This is awesome. I really like it, so what if we combine it?’
“‘Because I’m from porn; you’re from erotica. But you’re way more skilled than I am when it comes to cameras and everything. So I have a vision and you have talent. So why don’t we combine it and do something amazing together?’
“And he was like, ‘Yeah, why don’t we … we can try.’ So this is how we started. He’s such an amazing cinematographer. He can do everything. This makes work so easy and also we are very good friends. So we kind of like—we look at each other and we know what’s going on.”
With Elements, Cross created four erotic interpretations of earth, fire, water and air, showcasing Cherry Kiss, Tiny Kay and Anna de Ville in gorgeous, untapped locations in Germany and Spain. Cross herself did the honors in the earth-inspired scene that features her in a beautiful set-up on a farm in the southern region of Bavaria, Germany.
Cross also once again collaborated with her close friend Samantha Bentley, the British music producer, DJ and performer who reunited with Cross to create the exclusive soundtrack to Elements.
With a focus on music-video style teases shot with nature as the backdrop, Cross set out to accentuate the beauty and strength of her female subjects in Elements without skimping on the hardcore—every scene is anal.
“I always wanted to do something spectacular and do something outdoors. Then I thought about doing the scene on the desert with the smoke bombs and then it was really natural to me,” Cross says. “Then the idea came, ‘What if we had fire in it’? And then it was like, ‘What if we shoot elements?’
“‘What if we do each scene like each element, so then the desert scene turned out to be fire … I’m like, ‘Why don’t we do something more fashiony, not like porn.’”
In this exclusive Q&A from her home in Europe, Cross discusses the making of Elements, what went into her decisions and what she learned from the experience, among other things.
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AVN: How did you find these undiscovered locations for Elements?
MC: I’m pretty lucky with locations because my boyfriend is in Germany and he had access to all of that—horses and everything. That’s why we did it because I knew I would have access to stuff like that.
So we went to these stables and we rented a horse. He’s staying at a place that is in the middle of nowhere. So for us that was spectacular. This is a pain in the ass on a daily basis because believe me there are no stores around—nothing. But if you shoot, it is amazing.
So we went there in September. … Then in October we went to Spain and shot in the rice fields, which we found by accident. Because we were scouting for locations and then we were driving and it was really rainy that day and everything was just covered with this wet and I’m like, “What do you think, maybe we can shoot here? Are we allowed to shoot because it’s like property of someone probably.”
But he’s like, “Let’s do it.” So basically we went to the rice fields and we shot there and then we found another location next to the rice fields that was this massive lake—like a really, really shallow lake; we shot there as well. And the desert was—we found it on GoogleMaps. We were basically putting in Google: "desert," "Spain," "close to Barcelona" and this is how we found it.
Actually the "air" one was the biggest struggle for us. You would’ve thought that the desert one or mine [earth] was so difficult because first, we were trying to shoot it outside. But it was the biggest hurricane when we were shooting and I was like, “Oh my god, what are we going to do? Are we going to cancel?” And then we found this aerial studio where you can actually learn how to do it. It didn’t really look how I wanted it to look but we made it work with lights and everything. But it was the biggest struggle—the last one.
And we found it at the last minute—like on the day of the shoot.
In what part of Germany did you shoot the "earth" scene?
It’s a tiny place on a map—about 40 people live there. … It’s close to Augsburg, or Munich … but Augsburg is like an hour away. It’s Bavaria which is very, very beautiful but there is nothing there.
Where did you shoot in Spain?
It was all around Barcelona, … It was Tarragona with the rice fields and also Tarragona for the desert, which is two hours away from Barcelona. The air [scene] was Barcelona in the city somewhere, because it was in the aerial studio.
What went into your casting decisions? Why did you choose these particular girls?
I’m not really all about just pretty faces. They need to perform good in front of the camera but also they need to be hardcore performers … and I know how I do scenes. I’d rather do it more like the American way than the European way, so this is what I was looking for in a girl when I was booking.
So I knew for sure that Cherry Kiss would be great for that because she is amazing. I wanted to have Amirah Adara, but she had this episode when she retired for some time, so I couldn’t have her but she was doing my production managing … and then I decided to have Anna de Ville because of the aerial thing. I always wanted to shoot her because she’s awesome. But then I twittered something one day that I’m looking for someone that can do aerial acrobatics. And she responded, “I can do it. I have 12 years experience.” I’m like, “You’re in.” And then Tina Kay because I knew that she’s mental. She’s crazy. Her scene was in the water—in the bathtub—and she just smashed it.
So what I’m looking for is a pretty face and someone who has this connection with their body because the teases that we do—they’re very, very important to me. I do care for the sex, don’t get me wrong—but we focus on teases because they are so cinematic. So they need to know what they’re doing in front of the camera, especially with [Lucky Red] because they are not typical porn teases. It’s not just like dancing titties; it’s more. And especially with [Lucky Red] working around the model—focusing on details—they need to know what they’re doing and be in touch with the camera. So that was very important to me. But also they need to take it in the butt.
How did you choose your guys—Ramon Nomar, who worked with you, Erik Everhard (and Cherry Kiss), Chris Diamond (and Tina Kay) and Emilio Ardana (and Anna de Ville)?
Good male performers who can deliver a great, great scene. So Ramon was so nice that he came to shoot the scene from America. Because he has family in Spain, so he visits. So I messaged him and I was like, “Are you maybe around in October?” And he was like, “Well I don’t know, but I can be.” So he just scheduled it to visit, but also to shoot for me. So I was like, “Oh my god this is so amazing. Thank you so much.” I love working with him. He’s such a good performer.
And then obviously Erik, Chris Diamond and Emilio Ardana. I think [Emilio] is an underrated performer because he doesn’t speak English. He’s never been to America. But he is such an amazing guy. He’s so easy to work with and he’s got a very good cock and knows how to fuck. So it’s very easy, especially because we shoot for 35 minutes and they do whatever they want. … I’d rather not cut; I just want to have everything bang, bang. But if we need to cut, obviously, we cut.”
What did you learn from shooting this movie? What did you improve upon from Misha in Exile to Elements?
How to manage time; how to manage people. That’s why I had someone to organize everything. Amirah [Adara] was on set to keep everything organized. Because it’s just so much work. But what I learned is that we can do better and better.
The first movie when I saw it, I was like, “Oh my god, this is amazing.” And this one showed me that this is even better. Just crazy stuff. I’m planning already another one and I want to do the ultraviolet thing—like in the dark or something. I want to do all of this.
I wanted to have a snake. But nobody wants to fucking give me snakes. They’re like, “Why you want snakes for?” I’m like, “For fashion.” They’re like, “No, we don’t provide such services.” I need to find someone with snake rentals or something.
The first movie showed me it’s just hard work and the second one showed me that it’s just so much work it’s mind-blowing. But it was better. The second one was better because I was not performing in all the scenes.
And when I was performing in all the scenes in Exile I remember after the first scene—it was obviously boy/girl anal—and that was the first scene that we were doing and I remember that I had no idea … we knew what we were going to do but we had no idea what a sacrifice it is for my body to manage people. To even give them stupid paperwork; to pay them; to organize them. Like I know they are hungry, so we have to give them food. So focusing on all this stuff. I remember when we finished it I passed out in the restaurant. We went to eat and I was like I don’t even know if I want to eat. All I want to do is vomit. And I remember I passed out and [Lucky Red] caught me. And I was like, “You know what, fuck. On the next one we have a production manager because I can’t deal with this.” This is what Exile taught me.
Amirah was taking care of everything. I was like, “It’s your business now!”
How did you work with Samantha Bentley to get the music to sync to the moment and the vibe you were going for in each scene?
With Sam, first I told her I got a directorial deal with Evil Angel. Then she was like, “If you need any music for it just let me know.” And I was like, “Oh yeah, I will probably need music, right?” And then I was like, “Yes, definitely. I would love for you to compose music for me.”
She’s such an amazing person—she studied music and she’s just such a talent.
And how we did it on Exile is I basically told her what kind of feeling I want in it. It’s like, “I want this to be really depressing, sad—like nothing makes sense anymore.” On my drowning in the sea thing—the intro that opened the movie—I was like, “I really want it to be depressing—like I don’t want to live anymore.” And she was like, “OK, I’m on it.” Because she knows me exactly. Because we are like the same person but in two bodies. So she understands me and she knows what I’ve been through. So I’m like, “Yeah, if you can make it sound like this, or make it sad or you can put piano in it. But it has to be modern.” And she just composes and then I listen to it and I say, “OK, let’s get rid of that. But this stays and make it longer.”
But it was very easy to work with her. It was the same on Elements. But I think it was more difficult for her to be honest because I was like, “Make me music for fire.” … And she was like, “I hate you.” But she did a good job with it.
How did the design of the box cover come together?
I wanted to make it a close-up of their faces. This movie is about women and about beauty and glamour. So you can see what kind of element is each girl—all in cinematic style, very simple … I don’t want to have dicks everywhere and pussies everywhere because this is not our style. So I wanted it to be similar to Exile—very clear—but just with four girls on it.
So it just kind of happened. I was like sitting on it. We only drew it on a piece of paper how we wanted it to look and then I saw on it on my computer, and I just put it together and sent it to Evil and was like, “What if we just do it like that?” And they were like, “Yeah, I love it.” And they just put it on the box cover. They came up with the Elements font. They did it. But I loved it. I love how it looks … it’s kind of like a Vanilla Sky movie or something like this. I really like it.
I understand you took a special approach to the behind-the-scenes package for this with the YouTuber Snaptrasher … how did that work?
She’s my friend. We studied photography together and I asked her if she would like to cover BTS for us, so she went with us to Barcelona. I asked her because she does vlogs for YouTube. Because she goes to Barcelona often and she goes to Port Aventura to surf, so she travels a lot everywhere. And she posts vlogs on YouTube and I looked at it all—like this is really cool—so why don’t we do something like this? Because there’s always BTS on porn. But it’s always like filming girls being made up. So let’s do it differently. Let’s do it like it’s more mainstream. Let’s do it interesting with music and everything. And then let’s do it so we can use it on other platforms because we need to expand it. It’s not just a closed industry. We need to expand it, so people get to know that it’s not vile. It’s really cool, actually. So she was on set with us for five days and she filmed constantly.
We ended up with like 10 hours of footage, but we had to make like one hour. It’s going to be on the DVD; and it’s going to be online in four parts. It’s all PG-13. There’s not even one titty in it. The first hardcore scene gets released [on EvilAngel.com] and then immediately the first BTS gets released.
Photos courtesy of Misha Cross
