Ricky Greenwood’s Perfect Porn Would Be a Perfect World: An Interview With the Award Winning Director In Which Two Film Nerds Just Chat Film

"To be fair", (Letterkenney reference placed early in this interview with a Canadian hockey-playing porn dude...turns out he doesn't watch it!) this was my first stab at interviewing someone in the biz. And damn if this wasn't a sweet way to have my cherry popped. Acclaimed director Ricky Greenwood could not have been nicer, more generous, or more congenial. I thought I'd get squeezed in between meetings and shooting and lunch, but he had time to shoot the shit for ninety minutes about a wide range of topics, from the Chicago Bears, whom he enticingly describes as a "ground and pound kind of team," to THE EXORCIST, puppet porn, some personal shit and all points in between. We also touched on fucking.

After getting drawn into porn four short years ago by Mile High Media Vice President John Blitt, he has utilized what he learned in his years of mainstream filmmaking, tv, and commercial work to become a respected and highly-rated porn director. He has branched into all genres: straight, gay, trans and lesbian, and his accolades show he's here for a while. From his publicist bio: "Ricky has won multiple XBIZ Awards for All-Girl Movie of the Year, Best Editing, and Director of the Year — Trans twice, as well as Best Girl/Girl Release from the Urban X Awards and Best All Girl Release Editor’s Choice and Best Feature Production Fans’ Choice from the NightMoves Awards. He’s also received over 70 awards nominations for his directing, scenes, art direction, screenplays, cinematography, and editing in all the genres he works in from AVN, XBIZ, the TEAs, NightMoves, Urban X, and Inked Awards.

I was delighted at how candid Greenwood was about porn "behind the scenes," and opening up about how he is in his personal relationships. Ultimately, he proved himself to be just a nice guy, whose description of his dream porn job, in which all genres meld to tell a great sexy story, seems like a dream world in general: everyone just getting along and taking care of each other.

He was open to the idea of answering questions my friends on Facebook posed when I asked them. "If you could ask a porn director anything, what would it be?" Being in theater myself, I have a lot of friends who were curious about the technical aspects of a porn set, performance, and sex for industry folks when they're not on set. What a guy!

Below is a transcript of our discussion, edited for space and clarity. Enjoy!

Hank: My friend Molly asks: "Why, no matter which straight porn you watch, the women are constantly "Ohh yes, Yes, YES. Baby, yes, oh my god, oh my god....baby....." to the point of ANNOYANCE!!!! I would hyperventilate if I had to scream that much during sex! So no sound on for me, EVER!"

RG: It’s something that annoys me a lot, I’ve told my female, male, trans, even the gay guys, try to do it naturally. The thing is that people are afraid of silence. A performer thinks that because he's (fucking) and (his partner is) not making a lot of noise that he's bored and they think it's boring so they try to over play it. Also major studios ask that they make those sounds. Sometimes I have to tone it down. I've directed lesbian and my good friend Charlotte Stokely she'll barely touch the girls pussy and the girl's like "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I'M COMING!" and Charlotte's like "Girl, I know I'm good but I'm not that good."

Hank: One thing I noticed in something like CONFESSIONS OF A SINFUL NUN 2: THE RISE OF SISTER MONA, there wasn't all that histrionic moaning and yelling and screaming and stuff. And when it was there it was more organic and natural.

RG: That’s what I like. I try to bring that natural way of having sex. Sometimes it's surprising for an actor when they say "What do you want me to do" and I say "Well what do you want to do? “ We did a scene where it was just two girls going down on each other with just two positions and it won an award at AVN because it was good. They didn't have to have all these different positions and scissoring to make it look like they were having fun. Sometimes I say to a girl who looks bored "Well why did you use that position? Why don't you talk to your partner?" I always ask the question "What do you like? What do you expect from this? What turns you on? What's your favorite position?" Sometimes they don't know each other; sometimes they're new in the business. Everybody is different and it's important to communicate and make it as natural as much as possible. It's very difficult, especially with bigger names in the business, because a bigger name is used to working with a bigger company that sometimes asks for that kind of acting. If you notice my camera man is always moving. The camera is not on a tripod. It's always on the shoulder always moving around to go get the angle. You don't have sex with your boyfriend with your legs split wide open all the time. And we're not the only one; I think a lot of directors are trying to keep that natural vibe. Like your friend a lot of people are tired of excessive moaning or fake orgasms. They want to feel the connection as much as possible

Hank: You're letting your actors do what they do naturally and you're just trying to capture the action.

RG: Exactly.

Hank: I watched your movie PAINFUL LOVE and there were some fucking scenes like the one in the beginning that was beautifully lit with the moonlight and you had your basic fucking shots but you included several shots of the guys from only the torso up or the shoulders up and you could see a lot more of the story happening on their faces. I really appreciate seeing people's faces when I'm watching them have sex.

RG: I like that. That's what we always try. I don't have the final word on editing but we always try to get as much of the face as possible. That's why in my movies I don't have a whole lot of penetration. I think it's boring. I don't necessarily need to see a dick in the ass or a dick in the pussy. I want to see the girls having pleasure and I want to see the guys having pleasure. [When filming gay], I want to see the guy with his hands on the other guy's back or grab his neck and give him a big kiss. That's what turns me on. It's not always a dick and a butthole.

Hank: Yeah, it’s all the other little details.

RG: Yeah for me that's what makes the scene hot. It's the two bodies merging together and having sex.

(Regarding the sex scene with superstar Nina Hartley in CONFESSIONS OF A SINFUL NUN 2): For me it's one of the top four scenes I've ever shot. And they're not faking it. They didn't play the card of having the dominant older woman teaching the young lesbian how to have sex. So you have the free spirit and the sexual vibe that Nina brings to the scene. She just grabs her and brings her into her world in this beautiful scene.

Hank: Well, you hired a professional to do what she does and she did it.

RG: Yeah!

Superstar Nina Hartley (top) as the dying Mother Superior, with Mona Wales as her conniving Abbess, in CONFESSIONS OF A SINFUL NUN 2: THE RISE OF SISTER MONA

Hank: You mentioned positions earlier. My friend Scott asks "Are there rehearsals and if so how much?

RG: I think usually in general porn they have blocking rehearsals were they decide what positions they're going to do for how long. Some studios like that. For me I don’t block. I just let them…I wanna be surprised. The only thing I block is the cum shot because we don't want to miss it. We discuss where they wanna have it and then we go there so that the cameraman knows what's happening. Because if we miss it we have to wait a long time to get another one. If I do have to fake it we will use a lubricant that looks like cum and then we have a shooter. The guy "cums" inside his butthole and then we will put it inside of a guy's butt and then he can push it out. So those are easier to fake. But if I have to do a fake cum shot in the face… I can't do that it'll always look fake.

(We talked here a bit about set designs and continuity, just like a "real movie." He shoots his movies like a regular movie, shooting scenes out of order as they move setups from one location to another. Which led to another friend's question.)

Hank: My friend Dawn asks "How awkward is it for the crew on the set and also the video editors. How did they do their job (watching all this sex going on)? "

RG: For us and the crew we don't even really notice [all the sex]. I know it sounds cliché but we're not really paying attention to it. Me as a director I'm looking at the lighting, I'm looking at the time, I'm looking at the camera angles to make sure we don't see a boom or we don't see a crew member. It's so technical on my set that really I don't even notice what’s happening with a lot of the sex. Same for the cameraman. He wants to make sure he grabs particular angles. For me I always have a very closed set so I don't have a lot of people. A lot of the other crew are in another room after they've set up playing cards. In the sex room there might only be me and one or two camera guys. Sometimes I might be outside the room with my monitors looking at what's happening and sometimes I'll go in and tell them what to do. We don't really see it as sex. It's just work. Sometimes when you're editing it gets really annoying because you're listening to a girl going "oh my god oh my god oh my God" and I'm editing for a week and I'm thinking "I'll never hire that girl to be with that guy again." You just get tired of seeing them. [When you’re editing], it's more annoying than exciting.

Hank: My friend Ed asks, "How is actual sex still interesting for you? "

RG: For me personally I manage to separate both. The girl I'm with now I'm really into her and we have a relationship that is very safe and very natural and normal. She's not in the business. So that helps. I never date inside the business. I've heard that for a performer it can be more difficult because as we said earlier you get used to doing those positions at work, and then you bring that into your personal life it can be frustrating.

Hank: Because you see them doing something in the bedroom that you saw them doing on the screen and all of a sudden you're like "Um sweetie baby, that's not us. "

RG: Yeah, I've had the thing where I meet someone and they ask what you do and I say "I'm a porn director" and then we’ll go to bed and suddenly she's like "Oh my god oh my god oh baby it’s so good everything is so good!” and I'm like “OK that's it, I'm not working.” But they think that if they don't do those things then you won't be into them. Just be yourself. It’s okay. You don't have to be a slut, you don't have to be over sexualized. Just be yourself. Don’t overthink it.

Hank: Moving from mainstream to porn for many it would seem like a step down. How do you make sure it’s not a step down, but a lateral move. Or is it a step up?

RG: For me I don't see it as a step down or a step Up I just see it as another form of entertainment. A lot of my friends in the main stream they don't work as much as I work. They might be doing one movie every five years. I'm fortunate enough that the company I work for follows me and my craziness. Last month I did a movie where they gave us money and we did a werewolf movie [MissaX's forthcoming BLUE MOON RISING]. We transformed a girl into a werewolf. It was crazy. My friends came in and we did the special effects. It was old-school AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON type of thing. It was a dream come true for me as a kid. And we have a couple of projects coming up in the next few months and it's hard for me not to be excited. I get done with the project and then I have something else coming up. I don't have to wait five months. For me, it’s more fun. I have fun. I see people doing mainstream stuff that they don't like, they do commercials and small things that they don't like. (He talks about how working so much trains him and teaches him how to solve the problems that come up and he can help friends on their mainstream work.) It made me a better director. I got to understand lighting, I understand lenses. I understand the camera. 

On the set of BECOMING ELSA.

Hank: What type of scenes or movies do you struggle with? What doesn’t work for you? Do you work through it our scrap it and move past?

RG: When things don't work I try to find a solution. Like when you're working with dicks (the penis kind!), I always say "The more dicks you have in a scene the more problems. Because you have hard-ons and you have cumming and you have all of that involved. When it comes to trans or gay stuff I will cast people who are more inclined to be versatile as opposed to just bottom or top. Because if I'm filming a scene and I've got a bottom who is only a bottom and having pain then my scene is over. But if they're versatile than I can say "OK you guys just start kissing and then you go have sex with this guy" and the scene can continue and we get involved with something else. So I'm not blocked and I have this exit road. 

Also when it comes to gay I try to break the cast types. I come from the straight side so when I'm casting I'm just looking for two guys that look hot together. And if it's two twinks or two daddies together I don't care. Some people say "Oh but you can't have them have sex together you can't have two daddies have sex together or two twinks have sex together". And it's like, well, who wrote that rule?

Hank: Yeah, that gets incredibly boring.

He becomes incredulous at the idea of two hot daddies who's never worked together. “Well why not?” “Because we’re two daddies.” No studio ever saw these two beautiful men and thought let's put them together.

Hank: Well I would thank you for breaking that barrier.

RG: Well I try to put those two together. Just good pairing. If those two guys look good together, let’s do this. Because I'm not super aware of that universe, that side of the business, when I cast I just cast to see how they look together. I don't care ask them for the type of scene they used to do.

Hank: You’re casting more objectively.

RG: Yes! I'm casting them because I just wanna see those guys fucking each other.

Hank: That’s awesome! (And it's so refreshing to hear a straight hottie like Greenwood talk like this!) I saw your movie TERROR CAMP and earlier you mentioned a werewolf movie. Are you a huge fan of horror films in general?

RG: Yeah I’m a fan of old school horror films. My favorite movie of all time would be The Exorcist. Also a lot of the old exploitation movies like prison exploitation. For me horror needs to be more in your head and not just gore and disgusting stuff. With this new generation they just want to have it more gory and disgusting. They'll say "Oh if you look at this movie it's so sick!" and I look at it and I say "It's empty." People getting their heads chopped and turned inside out. And I'm like "OK that turns you on? “

Hank: Do you name The Exorcist as one of your scariest movies?

RG: For me, The Exorcist is the best movie of all time. That movie is so scary on so many levels. Of course if you watch it now people in the younger generation may not understand why we thought it was so scary. It's just crazy, the huge amount of practical make up… I'm a huge fan of practical make up. If you look at American Werewolf In London, that transformation scene, it's just sick. (Famed SPFX/Makeup artist Rick) Baker was one of the best at that time.

(Regarding Alien vs Aliens) For me I'm a huge fan of strong female characters. Alien was good but Aliens is like just bad ass female characters. When you see Ripley coming out of the ship with that robot in that big yellow thing and is like “C'mere motherfucker! “ Or Ramirez with that big gun shooting everything. It's two different movies I love for different reasons. If I had to pick one it would be a tough call. But if you look at all of those movies, like the first four, all of those directors Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, and the French director I forget his name…

Hank: The one who directed CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (Jean-Pierre Jeunet).

RG: All of them have a different world. I like all of them for different reasons. Even the David Lynch one it's very creepy, it's very heavy,

Hank: You mean David Fincher?

RG: (Laughing) Yeah…David Fincher.

Hank: I would like to see a David Lynch Alien film. (You did. It's called Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.--Holly Kingstown)

RG: Yeah that would be weird. I'm looking at the trailer for (Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming) Dune now; it would be two different visions of Dune. You have to have balls, like the guy just did Blade Runner (Blade Runner 2049) and then he goes to Dune and it's like you're attacking this big monster. He has balls for sure.

Hank: And don't even bother comparing the two. Just enjoy the both of them.

RG: Yeah that's what I'm planning to do. I think they're both strongly different. I think Villeneuve isn't trying to remake the original. He's basing his adaptation on the book.

Jenette Goldstein in Aliens (1986.) Yeah...I see Ricky's point!

Hank: What would you like your movies to accomplish besides getting someone off?

RG: I'm creating a different type of movie. I just want people to enjoy it and find something interesting in it. On a personal note I want at some point in my career being able to just forget about straight, trans, gay and just do a movie with life's situations. Do a movie where we're not putting those things in a box or it's not a straight movie or a gay movie. I know (writer, director, actress) Nica Noelle did a movie where she mixed straight and gay and I think this is at some point where I want to go in my life. I pitched a movie recently where I have this brother and a sister go on a vacation and they meet a bartender, very attractive and they decide to seduce this person and so they will have a threesome. And (the studio) were like “Yeah yeah okay” and I would start the movie with the sister having the brother kissing the guy and they were like "No no we can't do that. It's gay." "But they're both attracted to him." And they’re “Yeah but the two boys can't fuck with each other. People will not like it.” And that’s when you have a thing where you stop telling the story. And I want to have a story of these two people falling in love with that man. But I can't have them having sex with him because it crosses the line. Gamma had one where they had their top male having sex with a trans woman. So I'm happy that they are opening their eyes, opening their boundaries to accepting a trans woman to a place where they deserve they’re a woman. I feel like there's always a block but I think those blocks are (eroding). I hope that in a way my movies push that and other peoples push that so that there's no more boundaries which I think would be fun to see. I am a huge fan of old-school porno. I have a weird one, I don't have the title off the top of my head, but it was porno with puppets. You had real people fucking with puppets, and it was completely insane. But it was great, I have the Blu-ray of that. (A short Google search came up with the title LET MY PUPPETS COME.)

Hank: Is this a regular film that has a lot of sex with puppets in it or is it a porn film?

RG: It's a porn film. Vinegar Syndrome released it. And you watch the movie and I'm like what the fuck did I just watch but I like that weird stuff.

Hank: That's the type of porn I want to see. I want to approach a porn movie like it's just being a movie not trying to be a regular porn film.

RG: It just needs to be what it used to be back in the day. Do you know Francis Ford Coppola at one point was considering doing porn. You know like when you had Malcolm McDowell and all these people doing Caligula. I think porn lost a lot of itself by removing those movies that they used to make back in the day. I have a lot of movies here at home where it looks like they were shot on 16mm film and they look like very small independent films. And if you look at a lot of the people in the business right now, if you look at Gamma Films or Mile High, they look like independent films. If you remove all of the porn out of it and just keep some erotic scenes you look like you have any small independent film.

Hank: Hopefully you can do that but just have a much more safe workspace than they used to have for the women decades ago.

RG: I cannot talk to others but for us and we try to have a very safe workspace. I know that Mile High tries to have that in place and I've worked for Dorcel  and for them it's very very important to have people to make sure everything is good. I have some friends who work for Erica Lust and it's the same. I can't talk to other companies that I never worked with but from what I hear it's getting better. You need to clear (the abuse) out of it. In all sides of it: straight, trans, gay, lesbian, everything just has to be cleared and safe for people. They're coming to do a job. I did a panel with people about asking for consent. Consent is simple. You just have to listen. The problem for many people in porn is like (a performer will) say No and they’re like “Yeah but…” And if they say no then you just move on. And that's it. Don't try to talk her out of it. Just let her say no. Don't throw more money at that person, don't try to sweet talk her out of it. She don't want to do it. That's consent. And you move on. It’s that simple.

Hank: That's great. I love that. In another interview you said "We take the job seriously but we're not saving lives so there's no point to yell, scream, and freak out."

RG: Right. We take it seriously because we want to make a great movie. We wanna have a nice story, we want to have  nice lighting and everything. Your job is that you have people jerking off to yourself. You're not saving lives, you're not changing the world, so what if the acting isn't that great, people will still love your movie and jerk off to it, and if the movie isn't good then you make another one. It's OK. You're there to have fun, you're there to do a job. But if it's not perfect it's OK. For me when you leave my set I want you to say "OK that was great that was fun. Let's do another one next month."

A class act.

And let's certainly hope that Greenwood is given the green light to do as many movies as he can dream up!
Follow Ricky Greenwood on Twitter.

And thanks for reading!

I would like to thank Erika Icon of The Rub PR for her help facilitating this interview.