Tana Lea is a woman purely motivated by her love of sex – a refreshing quality in an industry overrun with starlets suffering from lackluster enthusiasm, just scrambling to pay their rent. Not Tana. She’s a different breed of porn star, constantly getting her name and image out there so that you know who she is and what she’s about. Tana Lea is a nympho with the work ethic of a hustler, so if you like the sexy, strong, independent type, look no further. She was kind enough to speak with me on the phone to discuss her life before porn, how she markets herself in this social media-reliant industry, and how she’s taking her career – and content – into her own hands. Check out my wonderfully candid conversation with Tana below!
HM: 2018 has been an exciting year for you. I’ve been seeing you everywhere since AVN. You’re from rural Texas, now living in Los Angeles. It’s more exciting, the weather’s better, the weed is legal. How are you liking the West Coast compared to Texas?
TL: Honestly I would say my favorite thing is the weather and the fact that I can have weed delivered to my door while I’m on my phone. There’s always a lot of stuff to do out here. It’s a little different than Texas, though. I do outside stuff here, too, but when I’m in Texas I can go floating in the river, going to the lake, stuff like that. Out here it’s a little harder to set that kind of stuff up and actually depend on people to come. So, it’s harder for me to do stuff out here than in Texas because people are less flaky in Texas. I stick to myself a lot in LA, but I like it.
How long have you been living out there?
I moved out here in 2015; I had a place out here and in Austin until last January. Then I got rid of my place in Austin and just moved to LA. Last year I was just Airbnb’ing places and modeling at that point. I hadn’t started doing porn yet. Then I went to AVN, and that’s where I met with my porn agency and signed the contract. I was still living in Airbnbs until July, and then I lived in Downtown LA for a little bit, and then I finally moved to a place in Culver City.
You came into adult entertainment at 29, which is a little later than some girls. Do you wish you’d gotten started earlier, or do you think you had an advantage joining the industry when you were more experienced?
I think starting later was better, I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle it if I was a lot younger. Also, when I was younger I was a total prude, so none of this stuff was even a thought of mine. I’ve already built my brand. I already know how to do social media. I already know how to do cross-promotion. I kinda started building my brand through social media, and then used my social media to get moreso in the adult industry, because I was working with Fleshlight. So I think it’s better, I built my social media before and I know how to use social media to continue to promote my brand with porn.
How many hours a day do you typically spend on social media?
All day. I have two phones. I wake up every morning at 7, and then from about 7-10 I do my posts, I check anything that’s super important that I need to post on, like any brands that I’m promoting. Then I also have two assistants that help me with my social media as well.
Do you ever get to “turn off” the porn star persona, since you’re spending so much time on stuff like social media, your studio shoots, and staying on top of beauty and gym regimens?
I do, but I’m always on my phone. Everyone always says, “You’re always on your phone, you’re always on your phone.” But I go to the gym, I go to the chiropractor, every day I do something. Usually my days are pretty packed full. Like on Tuesdays, I wake up, I go to the gym, the chiropractor, the bank, and then I go get a spray tan and drive home. I have to have a pretty set schedule of how I do things. Once I’m home, I’m pretty much always shooting content.
Yeah, I see that you post a lot. You probably do need assistants to manage all of that.
Yeah, at first I was doing it all on my own, but right now I’m really focused on my Premium Snapchat, so that’s pretty much what I mostly do. I still run my social media accounts myself, but as far as checking the DMs for business deals or whatever… unless it’s a cute guy, sometimes I find those.
I’m sure. Do you find dating easier or harder now that you’re in porn?
I will say that everyone claims to be about that life, like, “Oh cool, a porn star. I’m gonna date her. We’re gonna have crazy threesomes all the time. It’ll be a wild sex party.” Then they start dating me and it’s like, “Oh, that’s not what this is like at all. Nevermind, I don’t like this. You’re having sex with a lot of other people, but I’m not getting laid, so this isn’t fair.” Guys don’t like it. And I’m like, okay cool. I don’t usually date one person, I usually date more than one person, because I get bored very easily and I might die tomorrow! It’s like, I really like grilled cheese sandwiches, but I don’t want to eat grilled cheese sandwiches every fucking day. I might want to eat a hamburger, or a steak, or tacos, ya know? I like to date a lot of different guys.
Sometimes it works out; sometimes I go through dick-droughts. Like, I’ll have nobody that wants to hang out with me or fuck me. But now I’m back home from Chicago, so I’m getting caught back up on work. I’ve had like, in the past two days, 20 dudes literally. I overbooked dudes to come over and hang out. I overlapped them! I had sex with three people yesterday and put it on my Snapchat. I overbooked them, but oh well, just come over and hang out and we’ll have sex.
That’s a good problem to have.
Yeah, not bad!
So, I read you used to work in a men’s correctional facility. Did the inmates ever hit on you or do anything weird?
Yeah, at first it was weird, because people would hate on me because I was the only white girl who worked there. But I’m respectful to people who are respectful to me, and if someone’s incarcerated, they’re already serving their time and have a pretty shitty life. You don’t have to make their stay there really shitty. So the people who worked for me, respected me, and had my back when new people would come in on the chain. But yeah, that’s when I realized I first liked attention, when I worked in a prison with 2,332 men jacking off to you every night. Like, alright, that’s cool.
I also read you used to work at Dennis Hof’s infamous Bunny Ranch. How do you feel about his political career gaining traction?
Oh, what did he do now?
He just won the GOP primary election in Nevada.
Oh shit.
Yeah, I guess he’s a politician now.
Honestly, I don’t know what his views are really since I don’t follow him as much. But he’s a very good businessman, I will say that. I worked for him for like two weeks or so. I originally only went there because of Ron Jeremy. I met Ron Jeremy in 2014 and he was like, “Oh, you should work at the Bunny Ranch. I’m friends with Dennis Hof.” And I used to watch that show, I used to love it. I’d watch it when my mom went to bed. So, it’s something I’ve always been curious about. I emailed Suzette from their website and said I knew Ron Jeremy, and he said I should work there. But yeah, I don’t know. [Hof] is very business-driven. I know he likes to make money. He’s passionate about the things he does, so that’s cool. But I don’t really know what his take is; I can’t really say.
I don’t really know either, I just saw that he’s running.
But I remember being there, and he had a campaign saying “Hookers support Hillary Clinton,” and shit like that back in the day. Honestly, every politician is a fucking liar. They’re all just saying things so you’ll believe them and vote for them. No politician has ever done anything that significantly impacted my life. I’m still gonna do whatever the fuck I want, like I do anyways. I don’t really care.
True… so what about anal? Have you done that yet?
Yeah, I did with James Deen for a content-trade sex tape we did. But now I think he’s planning on doing a whole anal-exclusive thing with me, because he’s the only guy who can successfully fit his dick in my ass. I’ve only done anal four times ever in my life, and all four times have been with James Deen. It’s always when he comes over, we have sex, and then he fucks my ass as well. When I have sex with James, we have sex, and then he fucks my ass also. You know what I mean?
Your Instagram bio mentions that you’re an “alleged man-eater,” who was the first guy to call you that, and why?
Oh man, I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me personally. I just kind of know it’s true, because that’s what I do. Someone last week said something to me, and it kinda clicked. I was in Chicago, and I didn’t have anyone there because it was super early in the week. I went on Bumble, and this guy took me to dinner, and it was really super fun. But like, every time I go on a first date with a guy, they have the most amazing time of their entire life and they fall in love with me, so he was saying kinda the same things that everyone says to me. “Wow, you’re so special…” Just saying shit that guys usually say to me. “You’re so different.” I hear it all the time, but I wasn’t being rude. I guess he could tell by my face that I’d heard it a lot, though, because he was like, “Wow, people say this to you all the time, don’t they?” And I thought about it and told him, yeah, they do. So he said, “So this isn’t special. Am I special?” And I’m like, yeah of course. Fuck man, I don’t know. I like falling in lust, falling in lust is my thing. Then I get annoyed and get over it, and I’m on to the next. I feel I’m a real-life succubus.
Yeah, you’re very open about your love of sex. Is there anything you’re definitely not into or not going to film?
I’m pretty much down for whatever, honestly. I always say I’ll try anything twice. I do wanna try taking as many dicks as I can. I always thought it would be hard taking a really big dick, but now that I know I can, I want to take two big dicks. I really want to try a double-penetration, or a double-vag. As long as it’s James in my ass. Nobody else’s dick but his in my butt.
I read that you love shitty reality TV. So do I. What are you watching?
Teen Mom I’ve watched since they were Sixteen and Pregnant. I kinda grew up with them, and then became friends with them.
Really?
Yeah, Janelle from Teen Mom.
She’s my favorite!
Yeah, and her ex baby-daddy Nathan. He just DM’ed me on Twitter yesterday being like, “You used to follow me, sad face.” Like, ugh. How awkward. Lately I’ve been watching the reruns from Mama June, From Not To Hot. It’s the Honey Boo-Boo girl’s mom. Have you seen that?
I saw commercials, she lost a bunch of weight, right?
Yeah, so I watch that. I just finished watching Daisy of Love, all those shitty MTV dating shows I like to rewatch. For new reality shows I just watch Catfish, Teen Mom, shit like that. I just like rewatching old shit I’ve already seen. I get high and play smoking games, so it’s a little better.
I saw you also have a YouTube channel. Can you tell me about some of your vlogging? Are you vlogging porn stuff, or just your everyday life?
I used to vlog back, like two years ago, when I was living in Austin and I used to date this kid who did an MTV show so we were doing a YouTube couple thing. But he wasn’t really that great, so I just did my own YouTube thing. I have some old stuff on there, like sad ones from when I found out I had a mental illness, and when I was at my lowest point. Then I have ones where I go on dates, get a puppy, just like life shit. Then when I came to LA, I started doing porn reaction videos. Whenever I do a scene with Girlfriends Films, I do a reaction video and post it on YouTube. They’re really funny. I also had a vlog from AVN. Then I’m also filming this scene for my Pornhub series on my channel on the 19th, so I’ll probably do a behind-the-scenes vlog day for that. Then I have my assistants coming down this week, so I’ll be doing more vlog stuff. People are most intrigued by what me and my girlfriends are doing when we’re not doing porn, because they’re like, “Oh man, these girls are crazy. They’re so intimidating. They’re doing all this crazy shit.” But really, we’re not. We’re doing normal shit most of the time. When we do crazy shit, they’ll get to see that too. But I like to give them both sides; it’s different, it’s cool.
You’re going to be a trophy girl at the upcoming Inked Awards this year. I feel like tattoos are getting more popular in porn, but some companies still give girls a hard time about having body art. Have you experienced this at all?
Yeah, that’s kinda why I started doing my own shit. At the very beginning when I started porn, I was getting booked every day because I was new, and then once the “new” wears off and you’re not like, super crazy… I mean, I’m a great performer because I like having sex, but sometimes companies want over-the-top, or they want a certain look. Just because I don’t look like a teen and I don’t look like a MILF, and I have tattoos, I get shafted for a lot of things. Usually I just get thrown into orgies or IR stuff, which is fine, I love IR. I don’t know why it’s separate, almost all of my shit is mostly IR. But I think they want more MILFs and teens. I was getting really sad because I was getting booked, and I didn’t realize at the time that I should be doing my own shit. I would text my agent and ask why I wasn’t getting booked, and she told me it was because of my tattoos. So I started creating my own content and having people come over and fuck me how I wanted them to fuck me at my house, and doing whatever the fuck I wanna do. I don’t wait around for people to book me, people are gonna book me for me.
Do you have any long-term goals in the industry? I know you’re doing a lot of your own stuff on OnlyFans and Snapchat, but would you want to do something like studio production or talent management in the future?
Yeah, I wrote and directed my first feature porn on my Pornhub channel.
“Kidnap Me,” right?
Yeah, it’s sort of like an HBO or Netflix late-night series, I guess you would say. It’s basically a dark fantasy of mine. So that’s where I’ve been focusing my energy lately. On Tuesday I’m shooting the second episode of the series, and Small Hands, Ivy Lebelle, and myself are going to be in it. It should be really good.
Can we get any spoilers for the next scene?
Yeah, the next one is also a dark fantasy of mine. It’s got a little BDSM in this one.
I haven’t seen you in a lot of BDSM stuff. Are you getting more into that now?
Oh yeah, I haven’t done any. Honestly, the only BDSM thing I’ve done was kind of, a little bit, for PornFidelity. My scene with Tommy Pistol (for Dark Perversions Vol. 6), we did a little bit, but not much. But in my personal life, my real life before porn, I did a little BDSM. It should be really cool.
Are you more dominant or more submissive?
Dominant, for sure.
Yeah?
I’m a Domme, that’ll be the one thing that’s the same in every scene.
You should shoot for Divine Bitches or something. Have you shot with Kink.com yet?
Yeah, I’m shooting for Kink for the first time next month. Have you seen “Kidnap Me?” The vibe that I do, even James Deen was telling me, I should be shooting for these companies. But I just mostly make my own shit. Like this first one that I did, at one point I have a guy slam my head in a freezer and fuck me. I did that because I heard this rumor about a girl in my high school class who liked to have that done, so I wanted to try it. So stuff like that just sticks with me, and I’m like, “What the fuck? I really wanna do that.”
Yeah, if you ever want to bring your content to VOD, let us know. So, you’ve mentioned you like interracial, and you do a lot of orgy scenes. What’s your favorite part of being in an orgy?
I usually get casted with the same people, like my friends, so we all get to have sex together. You don’t have to wait a week or a month to fuck somebody; we can all just have sex then.
So who are some of your favorite stars to fuck, then? Besides James Deen of course.
Let me think… who did I have sex with lately? Ivy Lebelle was really great, I had sex with her the other day. I’ve had so much sex with so many people in the past few weeks that I can’t even keep all of them straight. I like to have sex with Johnny Castle. We don’t have enough sex, he was great. And then girls… I really want to have sex with Romi Rain. We tried to have sex for a scene we were in together, but we weren’t supposed to. She was with someone else. We thought we were having sex with each other, but we weren’t.
So, besides your Pornhub series, is there anything else upcoming your fans can look forward to?
Honestly, my Snapchat. Every day I have someone on there. Yesterday, I had three different people on there; I had sex three different times. They got three shows. My Snapchat I’ve been doing a lot for lately, trying to make it different. I think the appeal of Snapchat is that it’s live. But the last two weeks, I couldn’t find anyone to fuck me, girl. No one would fuck me on my Snapchat. I was like, “Am I gonna have to pay people to come fuck me? People do not want to have sex with me.” Then, this week, I have people coming over… three, four, five of them asking me if they can be on my Snapchat. I can only have so much sex. It’s like all of the sudden I come back to LA and everybody wants to hang out with me, like alright, as long as you bring food and weed, come on.
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