A version of this article ran in the January 2020 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Photos courtesy Wicked Pictures.
Romi Rain will be at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, signing for Motorbunny at Booth 813 in Artist Hall on Friday, 3-7 p.m.
From the outside, Romi Rain is the quintessential porn star package. Big curves, bold makeup, badass tattoos—she’s got it all. And Rain hasn’t hesitated to augment her god-given assets. “I love boobs. I already had big boobs and I just wanted to make them even better. I always joke that my body is a temple, so I want to decorate it the way that I want,” says the veteran adult performer. “I like tattoos, I like nails.”
When she was back in her hometown of Boston native, Rain says she was “kind of a tomboy growing up.” Now she’s one of the top stars in adult entertainment, the living embodiment of feminine pulchritude for her 3 million followers on Instagram.
Last January, Rain co-hosted the AVN Awards Show with cam star Bailey Rayne. “It was truly one of the highlights of my career. … I love hosting, I love speaking in front of a crowd. I’m one of those weird people that at an event or a show I’d rather be on stage than in the audience.”
For this year’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which stars January 22, Rain is part of the group of adult stars who was shot for the promotional campaign. She enjoys seeing “how they throw our pictures around at the Hard Rock Hotel. That’s always fun: playing Find My Face.”
This powerhouse performer got her start as a dancer at around age 19: “My house name was Rain, so I’ve been Rain for pretty much 12 years.” And she’s kept up the dancing career; in fact, she’ll be appearing in Miami on Super Bowl weekend.
After dancing came nude modeling, and at 23 she started webcamming for Playboy Live.
“My very first scene was for Playboy TV when I was first doing solos and girl/girl for a few months when I was webcamming. I think it was for Dare Dorm, or something like that,” Rain recalls. “I believe one of my first girl/girls was with New Sensations and one of my first solos was for Reality Kings. I did get pretty lucky. I worked for really well-known companies early on.”
A top-tier performer ever since, she’s racked up hundreds of credits, working for pretty much all of the big brands. Two of her favorites show Rain’s range: She’s shot about 80 scenes for Brazzers and has been featured in more than 70 Girlfriends Films titles.
“I think I’m number seven most shot on Brazzers,” she says.“Brazzers was actually my second boy/girl ever. It was a really good scene, a really good day. It was with Johnny SIns and the director was Vic Lagina. It was a Mad Men parody scene. A lot of people remember it. I had really good experiences with them really early on.”
“Brazzers has taught me to perfect the exaggerated facial expressions for photos,” Rain says. “I love it. The shocked, the excited, the wide O-mouth faces. I feel like that company really taught me to be extra expressive, if I wasn’t already.”
In addition to doing her second-ever boy/girl scene, Brazzers also offered Rain some of her first acting jobs. “They gave me a series, Deadly Rain, which was amazing. I’ve done so many features for them. I did Queen of Thrones in the U.K.—that was my first actual trip out of the country.”
Working for Girlfriends Films, on the other hand, is very relaxed and very raw. It’s not nearly as produced. … So I can be a lot more organic.” Girlfriends Films director Dan O’Connell “wants me to have a good time. He loves it when you’re ending a scene covered in sweat, and that’s kinda my favorite way to end a scene as well, so we have a really good rapport of trust. He tells me what he wants and he lets me go. That’s honestly one of my favorite things, besides having a big script, is when directors trust me and really let me be myself. There’s some fun in being a character but there’s also really invigorating in being yourself on camera, so I really appreciate that as well.”
She also appreciates O’Connell’s insights in pairing performers. “Dan was the first person who booked me with Scarlett Sage. We did a scene together and it was off the charts. We had a really good rapport and energy. … I like when directors do that. They pay attention to who works well together, but they also try to put you with new, interesting people,” Rain explains. “Now she’s one of my favorites and I probably never would have met her if it wasn’t for Dan at Girlfriends.”
One of her favorite projects for 2019 was The Motorbunny Club, a two-part series directed by Kay Brandt for Adam & Eve Pictures. Rain plays Tasha, who is a married woman in a sexually open relationship. “It was interesting and fun to be involved with something that was so sex-positive. My character’s entire goal was to have a better sex life with her husband [played by Tommy Pistol] and to reconnect with her friends. It’s amazing. … I think it’s one of the most well-rounded romantic comedies that I’ve done. It’s hard to do good romantic comedy in porn. We’re not usually built for it. But this is one of the sexiest, funniest movies I’ve done.”
Other favorites include Killer Wives, from Digital Playground. “I got to be a psycho in prison,” she says, laughing. “Bridgette B. throws somebody in a car and sets it on fire—it’s a good time.”
She also loves the photography in Axel Braun’s Nylon 3, from Wicked Pictures. “That’s a very sexy shoot for anybody who loves a woman in stockings. The beautiful Ana Foxxx and Emma Hix and other gorgeous girls are in that one.”
Wicked and Axel Braun also tapped Rain for one of her highest-profile movies: Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody. Rain played Wonder Woman, which suited her just fine. “I’m a big comic book nerd so I think that’s why I gravitate toward an energetic, expressive character. I really love to be overtly sexual.”
She adds, “Who doesn’t want to have sex with a superhero? That was my own geeky dream come true.”
As far as what comes next for this adult superstar, Rain says, “I would like to explore a little bit more with acting. I haven’t worked for Pure Taboo or those sister companies. I know they do a lot of really interesting features. … I would love to stretch my muscles.”
She’s also eyeing Blacked and Tushy. “I think that’s really cool that I still have some companies that I haven’t shot so much for, so there are still options. … Anybody that’s professional and has a good set, I’ll try it out.”
And of course she also spends a lot of time producing her own content and engaging with fans on social media, which she says has “definitely exploded in the last couple of years.”
Rain believes “it’s because of the social media era that performers have been able to do more on their own and feel a little safer, to be honest. We have bigger fan bases and a bigger outlet for people to hear our stories and care about what we’re saying—good things, bad things. The fact that we have an audience nowadays is really amazing. And for porn in general, if we’re promoting the right people and the right stuff, this is a great time to be in this business, especially if you’re a striving, independent, strong-willed person who’s out for the greater good. I love the social media era.”
She adds, “Fun fact: In terms of other sets that I’ve been on the past few months, they’re actually actively taking less not-safe-for-work photos, less sex stills, because it’s harder for them to promote. Most social media outlets and websites nowadays have a little bit of a strict system on what you can post and not post, and what you can promote is more important than anything else. … I’ve even been seeing adult companies switch over their tactics to the more social-media-friendly situation.”
And the proliferation of clips platforms also helps a lot of performers. “I tell everybody to be in as much areas as you can. As an independent contractor, it’s the smartest thing we can do. I love it all. I’m personally on ManyVids, iWantClips, OnlyFans, FanCentro for Premium Snapchat—I even use Pornhub. I have a verified profile on Pornhub. I make money there,” she says.
And all this choice makes it easier for performers to take control of their careers, she believes. Performers have more choice in what type of work they do, and they are "able to take care of themselves a little better.”
Rain considers herself lucky to have gotten into the business when she was 25. “I do think it helped me make a few different decisions. I couldn’t imagine personally even getting in at 18. This is a very intense industry.” She has been in a dozen years in adult entertainment in general and seven years in porn. “I love this industry. I want this to be a thriving industry where people treat each other well. … I don’t want to be one of those people who regrets anything they do so I try to take as much control over my product as much as I can so I don’t have anybody to blame.”
Rain has a number of goals for the future. “I have this really interesting idea to do a little more traveling in the future .... get amazing content and shoots in a specific area like Hawaii or London.” And she also wants to share her experiences with others, both as a speaker and a writer.
“I want people to understand that this is an industry you can be in as a strong, confident adult woman and still thrive,” Rain asserts. “This industry isn’t all terrible and doesn’t always destroy you, and it can lead to a long, happy life with a lot of other things.”
Once she can make the time, Rain wants to “really hunker down and write more. I would love to write a book of my own at some point.”
When Rain first got into the business, she says, “I read every book imaginable that was out there. There was really only Jenna Jameson and Tera Patrick. Now there’s so much knowledge we can spread and give to each other and help each other out. … I really want to be a part of that if I can, and share my story.”
