Veteran actor-director Randy West has asked to clarify some remarks he made in a story posted on AVN.com on July 26 about his departure from the Evil Angel distribution family.
West and Evil Angel have split after seven years essentially because West signed a deal with New Jersey-based New Machine Publishing in 1997 giving them exclusive DVD rights. Evil Angel, able to sell only West’s VHS product, deemed the relationship no longer profitable.
West said that when comparing New Machine’s sales volume with that of Evil Angel he did not mean to give the impression that the company was not significant.
“They’re actually a rising company in the business,” he said. “I think they got a good future.”
And though he will be releasing mostly compilations from now on, he said, it’s not just the money that is preventing him from shooting new material.
“The fact is,” he said, “that I don’t really enjoy the business as much as I used to. There are too many people involved, it’s too hard to book talent. And some of my incentive’s gone so I’m not working with the girls as much. That combined with not as much money as I used to make tends to make me just want to make comps.” But, he added, “I will occasionally do a new title.”
He said that even if he had stayed with Evil Angel, he still would have reduced his production, probably down to four to six titles a year.
“There are so many people shooting now,” he said. “It used to be that [talent] worked every other day or so. Now they’re booked 10, 12 days straight. I don’t want to spend all my time in Jim South’s office. I’d rather spend it on the golf course.
“Fortunately,” he added, “I had a hell of a good run.”
