This article originally ran in the August 2018 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition.
Jasmine Webb makes an impression. She struts into the AVN Expo press room in a black leather-trimmed jacket, her show ID around her neck vying for attention with her trés décolleté lacy black bustier. The voice is quiet, confident, British. Look up Jasmine Webb on the Internet Adult Film Database and you’ll see her credited with more than 100 titles from European companies including Harmony Films, Killergram, Private and Bluebird Films, and also Euro-based productions for U.S. companies such as Evil Angel, Digital Playground, Third Degree and Jules Jordan Video. Her scene with Jessa Rhodes and Juan Lucho in Digital Playground’s Rawhide was nominated for Best Sex Scene in a Foreign-Shot Production at the 2018 AVN Awards.
Webb came to performing through a roundabout route. “I had three jobs: I was working in a law firm in central London; at Café de Paris, which is an event venue; and at Tommy Hilfiger. I realized one day that I wasn’t exactly happy with my life. I was lying to myself. The money was good, but I was lying to myself. So I sat in the solitude of silence and figured it out: I love myself, and I love entertaining. The best thing to do is fit into that category. As I was breaking down what makes me happy, it worked itself around to porn. It was like a brainstorm. I had a mid-life crisis at 24.”
She went to Harmony Films and has performed in “13 or 14 movies for them,” making a bit of history along the way. “Director Tanya Hyde is my best friend of all time.” When Webb was pictured on her first box cover, she was told that it was a milestone: “You know you’re making history. No black female has ever been on the cover of an English porno. You smashed it.” And she also worked with Bluebird Films. (“That was fun.”)
Although she has visited the United States she had not shot here prior to January, when she worked with Glenn King of MeanBitches. Back then she was making plans to “come back in the summer and shoot for everyone. I’m a Brazzers All-Star; they shoot me all the time in England. When I come back to the States, I’ll pick up where I left off. Shoot with Brazzers, Digital Playground, Tushy...” She says her best recent Brazzers scene is as “a horny estate agent” trying to sell a house to Danny D. “Basically I’m showing Danny D and his girlfriend around, and when her back’s turned I’m flashing my vagina, I’m flashing a tit, but I’m so professional.”
Her British accent is not the posh U sound of Mayfair or the guttural sound of the North: “I grew up in Leicestershire, which is very old-country, very prim and proper. Midlands. The heart of England, dahling. Bread and butter. The sound helps. That’s got a lot to do with it. [British] people can relate. People connect with you. They aren’t comfortable when they can’t relate and they don’t understand.”
Webb is also a singer and songwriter. “Music is therapeutic. Music is a very big part of my life.” Her musical influences are all over the map: “Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Prince, the Gladiators—they’re a Jamaican rastaman band. I’m into roots and culture, I’m into rock and roll. I love the Beatles, Elton John. Classics.” During the AVN Expo she was planning to perform her music at a showcase in Las Vegas and her song “Pay Attention” was put on the BBC1XTRA playlist in June. She also plans to perform her music at the Urban X Awards in the Los Angeles area in August.
What does Webb want to do as an adult performer? “I’m looking to do more girl/girl stuff. I’m a raging lesbian. I’m like, ‘Pussy and tits. Give them to me.’ I’ve seen the Vixen stuff. The Digital Playground stuff—I love the roles they give me. Next year I’ll be reaching out to the AVN Awards. I’m putting myself forward. I’ve been doing this for 11 years. I’m true to my craft, and I give my all.
“I’m a good actress. I’m believable, and my sex is real as well. I’m there in the moment.”
Webb tries to keep her life balanced in the “real world” as well as the adult industry. “Porn is not all my life. I invest in property, I write songs and sing, I have friends outside. Because I’ve been in the industry so long, I don’t take it that seriously. But I’m so proud, I’ve been doing this 11 years and I’m sitting here being interviewed by AVN. My style is quality over quantity. I refuse to be dragged around a set and disrespected. I’m very dominant, I’m very classy, and I believe that women have a sexual power that should be respected. If it wasn’t for sex, we wouldn’t be here. If it wasn’t for a titty, you would starve. Respect it. I want to shoot for people who have that in mind.”
Above and below, Jasmine Webb prepares to get her femdom on in a shoot for director Glenn King. Photo courtesy MeanBitches.com
