The Lustful Wife is based off bestselling author Selena Kitt’s Bluebeard’s Wife.
It was an odd drive Sunday afternoon, heading down the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles towards the palatial house being rented for Kay Brandt’s upcoming feature for Adam & Eve Pictures. I was headed to Calabasas: home of the Kardashians, countless other celebrities, gorgeous mountain views, and buildings secluded and nice enough to serve as shooting locations for adult films. I’d been in the industry for a long time, but for one reason or another had never been to a shoot. It was always something I’d wanted to see in action — years of peddling and enjoying the product, and I needed to see how the proverbial sausage was made. So the drive through the San Fernando Valley on a chilly but sunny day was a mixed bag of eagerness, anticipation, fear, anxiety, and hope. As far as I knew, it was the first time HotMovies would be live on-set in order to document a XXX feature getting produced. Good, old Jeffton would have to be on his A-game.
Getting off the freeway, the hubbub of civilization grew more distant as winding roads connected to one another in a seemingly haphazard manner, twining about the mountains lush from the greenery sprouted from a recent deluge. The home was behind a gate and a long, narrow, steep, and curved driveway speckled with the cars of cast and crew. It was a big, faux Mediterranean beige job with a five-car garage and a handsomely manicured lawn butted up against a hillside peppered with shy golden poppies (far too cold for the poppies to open up). A big “put your big boy pants on” breath later and I walked up through the open garage door in order to avoid potentially disrupting any filming going on.
The Lustful Wife – Production
The room just to my right was cracked and I recognized it as a makeshift makeup and wardrobe room for the performers. To my left was a kitchen heavy with the tantalizing smell of Italian food (it was a macaroni and sausage dish in the oven) and covered end-to-end on the countertops with food and drink to be picked at. Not knowing where to go and not wanting to stick my nose in where it wasn’t wanted, I approached the first person I saw, because luckily she didn’t seem to be in a mad dash anywhere. It was a fellow invitee to the set, Sharan Street (Editor-in-Chief of AVN and a lovely, warm woman). She indicated that filming was going on upstairs and that she wasn’t sure whether or not it made sense to go up. She proceeded to introduce me to the ruggedly handsome Gustavo Turner, who was detailing the shoot for XBIZ.
It was then that I ran into the lighting guy. I began to ask questions about his background and about film shoots in general. He was an industry lifer who also worked in the mainstream, and it appears that several crew members will jump back and forth. There is a stigma attached to adult, and so it is often kept unsaid… and so I won’t be giving out the details of the crew or naming names that aren’t stage names.
The Lustful Wife – Set
While waiting for the filming to take place downstairs, I wandered the halls and popped into the rooms to admire the artwork. Dali, Chagall, and Picasso prints adorned the otherwise spotless walls, and the house could be said to be pleasantly innocuous — devoid of any quirk or idiosyncrasy that would betray its identity and become a distracting character in a shot. In other words, it was the perfect house for filming in: lovely, understated, and immediately adaptable to any scene or shot that would require a nice home (or resort, country club, sorority house, or whatever else the mind could conjure) with minimal set dressing needed.
Kay and company came down the stairs and she pleasantly greeted Sharan, Gustavo, and me. Knowing that the other two had been on set before me, and knowing that this was my first visit, she paid special attention to letting me know what was going on. It was hardly necessary (just being invited was nice enough), but greatly appreciated. The next shots would be dialogue in the kitchen. As the lights and cameras were set up, Derrick Pierce and Ryan Driller, the two male leads, lingered around the craft services to power up for the rest of a long day of shooting. They casually and amicably chatted it up between bites with the crew and the media and myself, and it was as if the guys had known me just as long as everyone else. It was small talk – how tired they were from the shooting the day before, plans for the following day, eating schedules, and so forth. But with the familiar nature of the conversation, they were charming and funny and it is easy to see why they are both cast in such prominent roles for big studios.
The Lustful Wife – Penny Pax
The shot being set up featured the legendary Penny Pax, who has been making pulses pound and hearts race since 2011. When shooting was ready, the professional tenseness in the room became palpable. Everyone involved sprang to action and put on their serious face, taut and focused like a coiled rattlesnake. Everyone not involved knew better than to make a peep — many of us not ten feet away from the boom mic getting Penny’s lines. Action was called by Kay, and Penny launched into her imaginary conversation on a cell phone… only for a loud crash to come from a room down the hall. The Director of Photography, David Lord (who is an award-winning videographer and acclaimed veteran director himself) shouted words of warning for quiet; a light-hearted jab at the other performers in another room, but with a clear sense of professional urgency.
Lord’s bark down the hall grabbed the attention of The Lustful Wife’s other female lead, the immortal Bridgette B. Bridgette, feeling the fun vibe of the set, snuck up on the crew with the intention of startling David. When things became a dead quiet again, Bridgette let out a loud gasp. David didn’t seem phased, but Bridgette did inadvertently make Kay jump, much to the amusement of everyone around (including Kay).
The Lustful Wife – Bridgette B.
Once the two scenes of Penny on the phone were shot (requiring a wardrobe change to indicate another day), the lights and cameras were struck and it was on to the next location. Waiting for the next shot was a long moment of respite to the people not setting up. It had been a long period of shooting Saturday — nearly long enough to see the sun rise another day — and it was understandable that despite a pushed-back call time that the energy level during downtime might be a tad lower than normal. It was in this lull that I met Andre Madness, himself a veteran director, whose main job these days is as one of the two heads of the Nexxxt Level Agency (who represents Stormy Daniels and Brandi Love, among others). He is close with Kay Brandt, and when told they needed a stills photographer, agreed to help out. Still photos would be shot for behind-the-scenes, once a scene was set up with the actors, and there would be mini photo sessions taken ahead of sex scenes.
The next scene took place in the sub-level of the home. Since it was built into a mountainside, the ground level was actually the second floor, and the sub-level was home to an indoor soaking pool with jets, a small dinette, and a lounge area (there were other rooms off the main room as well). The main room was ringed by floor-to-ceiling windows, and in the late afternoon, the chill air was beginning to breach the windows and settle on the tile floors and drywall. Multiple space heaters were brought in, and Penny and Bridgette both rightly took to wearing robes when not being filmed, even though they were completely clothed. Penny, Bridgette, and Derrick took to rehearsing their lines and planning how their interaction would go down as the crew finished adjusting the lighting and figuring out how best to shoot the room. Kay stepped in to provide the three actors with motivation and some direction as far as Derrick’s entrance and exit, and how Bridgette and Derrick should pay each other some affectionate attention.
The Lustful Wife – Bridgette and Penny kiss
Several scenes were rattled off in a row at this point due to the central nature of the location, and the crew that wasn’t involved or was only minimally involved took it as an opportunity to either straighten up, or take a light nap and catch up on what they lost the night before. The final scene in that room involved Bridgette and Penny teasing out some of their mounting sexual attraction with a close and sensual dance that evolved to some light making out behind the backs of their husbands (Derrick and Ryan). Knowing that this was a moment of sensuality put the fear of God into me — as one of my biggest fears of being on set could possibly rear its mushroom head. Despite my sex-positive attitude, I am a man who considers his genitals and their state of being a private affair. As such, the only people I really ever want seeing my bulge are the people I’m romantically involved with. The thought of sporting wood on a set where everyone is just trying to do their job was mortifying, and all rational thoughts about how nobody would notice or care, and how nobody would be bothering to look at any pants tent I have, couldn’t stave off that primal terror I felt. This, I knew, would become the first such Trial of Jeffton’s Denim.
The hope was that the professional nature of filming and being around so many people would scare off any tumescence. Luckily, that mostly wound up being the case. Bridgette and Penny making out and dancing erotically nearby was titillating, but my clothing didn’t budge. The filming then made its way up to the master bedroom for an expository scene of Penny talking about Bridgette’s moves on her to her husband Ryan while they dressed for bed. Now naked Penny Pax in a bed spitting distance from me became Trial 2. The Trial was passed, but only with some serious self-control because, Jesus, it’s Penny freaking Pax! What hadn’t occurred to me until I was right in the thick of it, switching from looking at the bed to looking over Kay’s two monitors and back, was how annoying a disrobing scene would be in a film. As Lord and second camera, Steve Matts (whose own directing credits include 2016’s Hustler Donald Trump parody, The Donald — This Is A Parody), set up for additional coverage of the scene, Penny and Ryan would have to hurriedly get dressed again in order to take off their clothes again.
The Lustful Wife – Penny Pax and Ryan Driller
The next scene brought us back down to the sub-level and a room that was cleverly decorated and lit for a lingerie party scene. The Lustful Wife is based off bestselling author Selena Kitt’s Bluebeard’s Wife. In the film, Kelly (played by Bridgette) sells lingerie and sex toys, and convinces Tara (Penny) to attend a lingerie party with the intention of seducing her at the end of the night. The extras in the lingerie party included Victoria Voxxx and Cindy Starfall (who are both awesome and who have a scene with Derrick in the movie), Lisey Sweet (who is just as adorable and nice as her name suggests), and Katy Jayne (whose good looks and British accent made my knees turn into jelly). They all wore cat ears for the scene (a particular weakness of mine), and Trial 3 became especially difficult. I think I might’ve failed that one, honestly, but luckily out of sight of everyone else (try being around six beautiful women in lingerie and cat ears and passing that Trial).
It was here, a few hours in, that it occurred to me how incredible the congenial vibe of both cast and crew made everything run. Nobody was immune to some light and playful ball-busting, and it felt much more (Cliché warning!) like a family than it did colleagues. That the performers would snuggle up for warmth or goof off to one another during down time to get a big laugh only cemented the bond that existed. It wasn’t all smiles and guffaws, though. With so many moving parts, and perfectionism on the part of both cast and crew, stress was inevitable as moments become a race against the clock to ensure the right amount of daylight, or shutting down at the end of the night.
The Lustful Wife – Cindy Starfall and Lisey Sweet
As the crew was setting up for the final sex scene (a scorcher featuring a soft swap of the two couples), Andre took Bridgette and Penny to an adjoining bedroom for stills together. Penny was still wearing her sexy green lingerie from the party scene, and Bridgette was still wearing her corset and cat ears. When it came time to take off her corset for more stills, everyone encountered one of a million random little crises that can strike unforeseen on a set: one of the fasteners of Bridgette’s corset had gotten bent and was not allowing her to take it off. She had Andre take a crack at it: no dice. Bridgette lent a hand, didn’t budge. Kay jumped in and the three of them tried together, and nothing. A low-grade panic was starting to settle in. Jeffton, ever the Boy Scout, lent his trusty pocket knife to the fray and Kay used the flathead screwdriver to pry the fastener… but still the damned thing wouldn’t come off. Andre tried one more time after the fastener was adjusted and more severe methods were narrowly averted.
The end result of the photo session was every bit as hot as you’d expect. Bridgette and Penny have an onscreen chemistry that appeals to something in our primal brain: Penny’s excellent ability to portray the ‘gee-golly-gosh’ innocent contrasts in brilliant ways to Bridgette B’s painted-siren persona. It also speaks to something that really warrants mentioning: the fact that the performers can turn passion and heat on like a faucet when the shutter clicks or the cameras roll is a testament to real talent that can be easy to overlook. They turn multiple takes, stops and starts, and extreme lingerie wardrobe malfunctions into a performance that the director, cameramen, and editors can turn into a finished and viable aphrodisiac. That is nothing short of alchemy.
The final scene was incredibly indicative of how professional and experienced the cast and crew were. David and Steve’s cameras darted and weaved around the scene in an intricate dance that only years of shooting and existing on the same wavelength could produce. The performers all exhibit a perseverance that was truly awe-inspiring — not to mention their Olympic-grade stamina going at it with each other. The crew wore winter clothes inside and the performers displayed a Polar Bear Club level of tolerance as the temperature dipped down to 35 degrees inside. The shoot lasted late into the night and easily could have gone sideways with shouting, hurt feelings, or bruised egos. Instead, there was a camaraderie and partnership that led everyone to be their best selves. At the end of the day, there was simply a pleasure that permeated the effort, and turned even the most tense situation into something enjoyable, titillating, and ephemeral. By the way, I failed the 5th and final Trial.
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