John Leslie’s storied career as a director began in the mid-80s, and through those 20-plus years, with all of the countless women he’s shot, he has rarely been as excited about anyone as he is about Naomi, a girl with only one name.
She’s the titular star of his latest release, Naomi: There’s Only One, streeting March 1 from Evil Angel. Naomi appears in all six scenes, an indication of how truly special Leslie found her. She has a potently sexual kind of beauty, with her tousled black hair, dazzling smile and —especially — the sheer perfection of her firm, rounded butt cheeks.
The multi-award-winning director was so enthusiastic about her and the movie that he contacted AVN to share his excitement. Usually reclusive, and as much of a true porn legend as anyone still working, Leslie was eager to talk about his experiences of an extraordinary performer.
We spoke with him by phone from his home in Northern California. Much of the movie is shot in the style of his long-running Voyeur series, opening with a scene where the director himself picks her up and takes her to a hotel room, then follows her through several offbeat sexual encounters.
AVN: Have you ever seen such an ass?
LESLIE: Never. Ever. And I'm serious. I've been around, man. Very little imperfection there. Sometimes a girl will have a round butt, but there will be a lot of cottage cheese, you know? Which is understandable, we're just human beings. But there ain't none there [on Naomi]. It's so nice when I think about the beginning of the movie, with the scene in the parking lot, in the car, up into the room. She was just sitting there. Before I put the ball gag around her mouth. Her glow was unbelievable. Her smile was like — wow. There was a presence there that was very unique.
AVN: In one scene you have Mario Rossi fuck only the crack of her ass — to completion. Very unusual. Have you ever done that before?
LESLIE: Not as a whole scene, but I think that is very sexy. I thought, hey, let's try to be different. You better get it now [because] you're not gonna find another ass like that. If there is, it's gonna be a long time before it comes around again.
AVN: So that first sex scene [with James Deen] was her first anal?
LESLIE: Yes. And I wasn't even concerned with it. I said, well — ‘cause I don't want to push anybody into that — I said, ‘You know, we're doing 5-6 scenes in this movie, I think with your figure, if you don't do anal, they're going to be a little disappointed.’ This came up when I was very close to starting. I thought about it and I said, ‘You should give it a try if you feel like it. I mean if you feel like you can. Because I think they would expect it.’ She said, ‘Well yeah, we'll give it a try.’ She was fine. You had the feeling it was the first time she ever did it. Which is kind of sexy in itself.
AVN: Have you built other movies around one girl in the past?
LESLIE: Jules [Jordan] did a great job with Gina Lynn [Gina Lynn’s Dark Side]. I thought it was fabulous. I said that's a great idea — if you have somebody real special. I did it last year with Veronica De Souza in Europe. I have no intention of doing another one unless I run across someone really special.
AVN: You obviously felt that Naomi was special.
LESLIE: Oh, absolutely. Once you meet her, she just pops out, her face, she smiled like… this is the perfect situation. I knew how I could make her look. I knew how she looked on other projects, where people don't know how to shoot anybody. Whereas I try to make her look like she does on the [box] cover.
AVN: She looks sensational — especially in that white dress she wears in the beginning.
LESLIE: I look at the dress when there's nobody in it, and I think it's ok, but when she puts it on, it was like — wow! And she has a great walk. That [opening scene] was in one take.
AVN: The walk is something you wouldn't see in a lot of other directors’ movies, because usually it's just right to the sex.
LESLIE: You know, people want to see things. There's time. You've got to tease them a little bit… Even when she walks out of the hotel room [after masturbating], I'm sure the audience gets a little frustrated by that. It's like I want to see more. But that's the whole point of it, man. Like one of the most exciting things you can have is if you end up with a woman, on a date or whatever, and you're not sure if she's gonna fuck you or not. That's very exciting.
AVN: Did you have to direct her at all? Or did you just let her go?
LESLIE: For instance, she was so good in the scene with the three black guys. I said, ‘Everything they do to you makes you smile.’ If you watch it, they'll touch her or something at the beginning, and she just sort of smiles at them. Like she was just thrilled with everything, into that zone. Beautiful stuff that she does there … The way they're talking to her nose to nose… and they'll say something and she won't giggle but she's sort of happy. All I did was say that one thing to her. When you see someone respond like that, there's obviously communication going on between her and I. She's very creative in that way if you give her the opportunity. It's not like she's coming up with suggestions. She just takes the moment and goes with it.
AVN: There's something very spontaneous about her reactions.
LESLIE: Yes, the scene with Erik [Everhard], she got off on that. There was one point when Erik comes over to them and they both start sucking him. Marie [Luv] starts to suck Erik at one point and she says [to Marie], ‘You're so beautiful,’ and she meant that. Little things like that you hear and you go, Wow. I think people pick this up consciously or subconsciously.
AVN: There’s not a weak scene in the movie.
LESLIE: I agree. You know when you're in the edit room, you're like, man, this is wonderful. You can just go with it. Find the stuff you need and want…
AVN: Do you plan on working with her again?
LESLIE: I'll see what happens. I'd love to use her again, but maybe we've done it already. It's hard to say. In that kind of mind state that we were in at that point — I don't know if that still exists, I have no idea.
AVN: There is an unusual communication between her and the camera, between her and you. You don't see that every day.
LESLIE: I'm glad you saw that. That stuff just gets missed, you know? There's so much product out there, you watch it and watch it and become desensitized.
AVN: When you see something unusual it stands out.
LESLIE: I like the fact that it's unusual and it's a simple set up. It's not a feature. It still has its unusual quality about it. That's successful to me. To pull that off, to make it work. That's very fulfilling to me.
AVN: It's not a storyline, but it has the feeling of a story, as she wanders between sexual encounters. I noticed in a lot of your non-feature movies the scenes seem like they could've been from features, they have some kind of context.
LESLIE: I agree with that. The vignette I always considered as sketches for paintings. You can be experimental with them.
AVN: I take it you're pleased with this movie.
LESLIE: It was the right combination of things. Again, it's the people you're working with. There's a lot there, like she gave a lot. It had a lot to do with her. I didn't get tired of her, I didn't get bored with her. She's almost different in every scene.
AVN: It's very rare that you can find all of that in one person.
LESLIE: It's difficult. And you have to get them at the right time. We met, we hit it off right away.
AVN: The vocal stuff she was doing, that was all spontaneous? Like the scene with Marie Luv, where they both make a lot of noise.
LESLIE: That's sort of the moment she got carried away with. At some point I said, ‘Not so loud.’ She said, ‘Well, I can't help it.” I can't disturb that, whatever is right is right. That's when you've got to get out of your own head. Myself I like quiet. But you have to get into what the people like. This is an honest sensation she's feeling, she's expressing it, you know. You don't try to inhibit that…. That was a very high energy scene.
AVN: Can you sum up about Naomi, comparing her to the hundreds of other girls you've shot?
LESLIE: I can't compare her to anybody ‘cause she's very unique within herself. One of the favorite people I've ever worked with, absolutely. She has a uniqueness on screen, and I found her thoroughly enjoyable. So cooperative, I didn't have to think about her at all, she was there. Once you started, it was like, bang, we're rolling now. That's a good feeling, you're working together, there's a trust there. You have to have support, from my end to the performer. It's nothing I say, it's just the way I am. That I'm on their side, you know what I mean? I just want them to have fun.
AVN: You brought out things in Naomi that many directors couldn't.
LESLIE: Yeah. You ain’t never gonna see that again.
Leslie was eager that we get a chance to talk to Naomi herself, and a few days later we did. She called from her car, driving home from a shoot. She told us she is 22, a native Californian, half Slovakian, half Israeli. She started performing full time in adult movies last August and estimates that, working 20 days a month, she’s appeared in 150-200 scenes so far.
AVN: What was your experience like working with John Leslie?
NAOMI: I had a wonderful time. He was a true pleasure and delight. John to me is like a genuine sexual and perverted person, and I adore that about him. It’s actually kind of rare in the porn industry. And I consider myself a genuinely sexual and perverted person, so working for him, really, really, really allowed me to enjoy my sexuality and have a good time and not have to worry about being fake. He really just let you do as you do. Ever since I worked with him I’ve been telling people he’s definitely been my favorite experience as far as working on a set.
AVN: There was a lot of chemistry between you.
NAOMI: He’s just so sexy. He’s so suave. He’s like the true definition of a man, in so many ways. There’s something that you can just get from him, that feeling in his presence. It’s just great.
AVN: What was your first anal like?
NAOMI: That was the first time ever having anything in my butt, period. I was with one guy my whole life before I got into porn, for four and a half years, and he wasn’t into it and I wasn’t curious about it because we had pretty good sex the other way. It was kind of like a foreign thing to us. John was like, ‘Will you do it for me.’ And I was like, ‘All right, John, I’ll do it for you, but just for you 'cause you’re great.’ And he kind of opened me up to it. In the beginning it was kind of awkward because it was unnatural to me, but I’m doing it more often now and I’m actually starting to enjoy it.
AVN: What would your ideal sex scene be like?
NAOMI: If I had a preference it would be a one-on-one scene with a man vaginally, with a little bit of anal afterwards. I love men, period, I’ve always loved men. The man, his presence, his masculinity, his strength, that just gets me off. I love giving head. I’d rather give head than get eaten out. I get off way more by giving head than eating out. I love sucking dick. I don’t know if you can tell, but it really turns me on.
AVN: You can tell. By the way, do you get a lot of compliments on your butt?
NAOMI: Yeah, every day.
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