When searching for companies that I thought would be great investments in terms of their hard-earned cash and time, I came across a seemingly immortal company by the name of Bizarre Video, a production company that has stood the test of time since the second “Golden Era” of porn began in the early nineties. That alone caught my attention and when I began to dig deeper, I found that this company has been putting out glamorous, taboo fetish for about as long as companies like Evil Angel and Kink.com. I had to know what it was that allowed this company to stand the test of time, so I dug into my bag of resources within the adult world to discover how a company keeps their doors open for so long. They must be doing something right.
It was here that I decided the best way to tell their story was to look back into the past, the present, and forward into the future. There are so few companies left that can boast such a claim. Much of that urge came over me when I saw directing legends like Skye Blue and Stuart Canterbury both had film credits with this unique company, and the surprises did not stop there. Hall-of-Fame performers, groundbreaking starlets—this company featured them all. Superstars, like Brittany Andrews and Jezebelle Bond, one of the first “inked” starlets in the industry who made it all the way to the shores of the mainstream world, and late night on Cinemax. Porn legends who were all ahead of their time, both in front of the camera and behind it. Fast-forward to the start of a new decade and a new millennium, Bizarre Video is still running strong and creating fetish films with “feature” style, a brand that requires the most talented actors and performers—just like Bizarre Video’s latest release, Busted!, with stars, icons, and trailblazers again like Lauren Phillips, Jessica Ryan, and the modern-day icon herself, Katie Morgan. You are going to get to sit down with almost all of these famous faces to find out what it is about Bizarre Films that makes them something far more than Bizarre and a company that has now outlasted even brands that brought us the Vivid Girls!
Some companies claim to “have it all” in the world of XXX. Let this industry writer tell all of you fans something that I think that you might already know—not every company really does offer it all to their fans. Bizarre Video seems to pride themselves in being that company that can offer fetish fans the same kind of passion they do feature-film lovers. There is dominance, aggression, and gonzo, all connected with story, submission, passion, and restraint. That is Bizarre Video’s mission statement and to any industry insider, when you see the names Stuart Canterbury and Jezebelle Bond, that means they take those words very seriously, even when planning a feature film. Our light shines first upon a film called Leather Bound Dykes From Hell and its 25th chapter, starring the one-and-only Jezebelle Bond.
The phrases bad-girl and “Inked Angel” are not enough to describe a performer who was one of the first starlets who indulged in an artform on her skin and blurred that boundary between taboo, mainstream, and glamour. This stunning model was beautiful enough to sit in front of industry legend Suze Randall for her very first photoshoot, something very few models can lay claim to. This is a woman whose performance in Leather Bound Dykes From Hell 25 made her immortal in more ways than one. Her screen partner that day was Dru Berrymore, and what these ladies went on to create was a girl/girl Femdom scene that became one of the most-duplicated scenes of its time. That one defined the series just as much as the second chapter that starred fetish queen Porsche Lynn and sent her career as a Dominatrix into the places of porn history and lore. This is where I began my conversation with the great Jezebelle Bond, and as we discussed this company and what it was like walking through that set door in 2004, I found that this woman was truly the definition of what a model was in the second “Golden Era” of porn.
“What I remember is that even back then, people like me with tattoos did not get booked as much as those girls that didn’t. I mean we are talking about three tattoos I had. Bizarre Video, they were different, they did not treat that like it was a big deal. When I look at myself, I do not even consider myself a great actor. I was just a person who put a different spin on things, all while saying the exact words that were in the script. Okay, this is kind of a big deal.”
I thought to myself, “Is this the secret to what Bizarre Video really is?” This became my goal as Jezebelle and I talked about porn sets so massive, they would boggle the modern porn fans’ mind. I mean we are talking about a performer who was on Cinemax for crying out loud, the pinnacle of what every adult performer aspired to become and be a part of in the true “Golden Era” of adult films, at least in my opinion. Let’s face reality, the modern performer does as well, as Jessica Ryan will prove a little later. Jezebelle would later go on to tell me that those movies she took part in, they were the favorites of her career, and you want to talk about Hall-of-Fame-worthy, this is a model who learned to become this great actress by watching television in order to learn how to speak English. In many of her famous films, she was simply improvising, even if she had the most dedicated actor in front of her as a scene partner. Those are her words, they had to be when you are shooting a dominance scene with Dru Berrymore, a screen legend in her own part who also never gets the credit for setting the bar high, spawning many imitators. Jezebelle continues:
“Well, today’s era of porn is so different. You have social media, you have performers gaining this massive following, and having fans bow down to them. In my day, when I would go out on the road for feature gigs, I went to many cities across the country and people did not always know who I was. You had to go out there and make a name for yourself. In those days, you had to earn being on the box cover, and if you did, you were given another day to shoot the box cover and get all glamorous. I miss the box cover days! Those days when working with Bizarre Video, it was so glamorous. You got on set and there was this big food spread. It was all about you and selling the product!”
Jezebelle went on to talk about the people that taught her how to be a model and how that led her work to be featured in so many places, just like this scene in Leather Bound Dykes From Hell 25. Her scene is a mixture of two women who really love women, doing things that just had not been seen like this until then. Let me say that again—they were women who just enjoyed women. You can browse through the Bizarre Video catalog here at HotMovies and you will see this scene across many other volumes of kink that this company produced year after year. This is not just porn being recycled; they did not do that back in the early years of modern porn. If your scene was in high demand, fans took notice and let people know; you had your scene put on a pedestal both high and low with many different companies, not just the one you shot the scene for. Just as Miss Bond spoke of, you had to go out there and make a name for yourself, and that is what she did with this film, scene, and company. I asked her to go into more detail about making this production as she told me tales of being on the road, being this headstrong model who actually went to the adult bookstores to find her pictures in the back of magazines and within the box covers of Bizarre Video—tales of Jezebelle falling in love with the industry and realizing she was doing something she once could only dream about.
“Well, so much of what I remember about Bizarre Video in those days was like being on an Oscar-worthy set for porn. In today’s world, I get that fans want ‘reality.’ There is OnlyFans, but I have always thought that porn was always meant to be a fantasy and that is what we created. There were many people on set, doing hair, makeup, wardrobe, and that is what helps you to become a part of this fantastic image. You are trying to become something that is unattainable, think about Kelly LeBrock in that movie Weird Science. When I think of Bizarre Video, I think about what it took with all those things I just described to become this ‘dominant’ fantasy, which took more than most fans would think because I have a very ‘sub’ personality. I am like a lawyer in a sense; most of them have strong personalities who just like to get beat down. That is me! I was always into anything that had to do with tying me up, spanking me, and making those big eyes of mine come out, especially if you threw a Hitachi on me.”
That is Jezebelle for you. Since I have known her, I have learned that she is a woman who enjoyed what she did and the things she took part in. This talk about her work with Bizarre Video began a conversation about the fetish community and how much they loved you if you made something that they could rant and rave about. What does that say about the woman whose scene is on more than one compilation with Bizarre Video? What I also saw, being a man who has sat down with both Nina Hartley and Maitland Ward, I’d never heard a performer tell me about going into an adult bookstore, something I still enjoy doing and looking at magazines to find her picture. That stuck in my head.
“What we created, it is not like you are really getting ‘hit’ or smacked. It is the release of control, and knowing in the back of your mind that the other person has your back. Dru and I had that, and it was fun to be at her will. I remember that during this shoot that I was going to be safe and that I was going to have the time of my life. I was so lucky to work with so many great people and companies like this, and I credit my crossover with films like this and even more with Robert Lombard with Creative Image Management. He got me into so much, including those B-movies that you and I talk so much about. He got me many of my acting jobs and I think about acting when I think about Bizarre Video and what we did with Skye Blue.”
If you want to talk about female directors, you must mention Skye Blue, as she was one of the first performers to cross that line in a time when it was virtually unheard of. She’s an erotic storyteller who was inspired by Ray Bradbury, who should be mentioned as a trailblazer who helped fetish seep into the world of mainstream porn with films like Slave Surrender, which starred the lovely Jezebelle that is on our hot seat right now. So few stories are ever told about Skye, her porn sets, and what it was like to be one of the lone women who was shooting porn during this second Golden Era of adult films.
“She is amazing! It was just one of the easiest sets ever. You knew what was going to happen with Skye Blue. You knew what needed to happen whenever you were in her presence, and you just did it. She made it fun, you know? She is the coolest person and we chat from time to time on social media still to this day. When you have that kind of ease on set—well, that and knowing your lines—it is like this tornado of talent when Skye is a part of things, and you are making a film with her. I am just so humbled when you told me about how much love this film and scene with Dru still gets watched to this day. I had no idea!”
It was from here that I began to understand a little more of a secret equation that gave us an insight into Bizarre Video’s success. It is a meeting of the minds, like minds that is. These are people who all have a love for what they are doing and porn is not always made with the performer or director loving everything that they are doing. That is what makes them the artists they are. I think it is obvious how much this soon-to-be Hall-of-Fame performer has still within her heart for what she created more than 15 years ago. I then wondered: could this still be true, now, in the modern era of porn? So, I began to search the latest productions and what did I find? Legendary director Stuart Canterbury was actually the man behind the camera in their two latest releases with HotMovies: Busted!. This tale looked to have that exact combination of acting, sex, and fetish that is within their company profile. Here I finish with one icon of the XXX world, only to find that another is heading a project that I had to find out about, all from a man who has been making films for more than three decades, and making them well.
Stuart Canterbury is a man who needs no introduction. What I will tell you as a modern-day industry historian is that Stuart Canterbury is a director who does not lollygag while on set. He takes everything seriously and the tales of his blunt and beautiful direction are legendary. You had better be a person who takes their job seriously, because Stuart Canterbury is a man whose passion is nothing to be taken for granted. He will let you know this, and God bless him for being that man. I believe it is what led to his massive success as both a writer and director, just check out his book—Turning Blue—that he has so generously allowed us to share with the fans at HotMovies. As I sat down with this legendary filmmaker, I found that his strength and truth came from the way that he falls in love with his cast and leading ladies. I cannot tell you how much that meant to me as a man who has loved adult cinema his entire life. Hearing a director say that, “you must fall in love” with the performer who is taking the reins as the lead in your film. I believe that is what leads us, the viewer, to do exactly the same. I had a unique battle plan for talking about Busted!, a film that focused on story and personality just as much as it did skin, sex, and education. I was going to find out the point of view from the director, then find the line of sight with Jessica Ryan: two people who are as bold as can be in this business, and love every second of making adult entertainment and fetish with story and backbone. I had to find out how two beautiful, bold minds could meet like this. Was this all coincidence, or was this a part of this Bizarre Video formula for success? Stuart began by telling me that “every film has its own story,” and there were many, and I do mean many, that came to mind. We sat down to dissect this feature with its creator, something very rarely done in this industry.
“If you look at my work, you will see that a lot of the movies have the same girls. I have had the fortune of having a good repertoire with many companies. I could write for specific performers. I could shape roles that would fit perfectly on them. It was sort of like the chicken and the egg, but the other way around. I had the performers first, and then I could create the roles for them. Having the length of career that I have had, I have been lucky to have been able to work with the same great people constantly—and not only in terms of performers and the crew—but also the studios, just like Bizarre Video. I was always working with the same executives who always knew what I wanted to do going into each project.”
Talking to someone that you admired as a fan and now looked up to as an industry writer, few things compare to a man who talks about his films the same way we see them. “That was a nasty little movie!” It is how this passionate man described a film that is nasty as can be—not a promo, not slick marketing tactic. Here before me, on the other end of the telephone, was a man who I could tell loved women, erotica, and sex with storytelling the same way I did. That is a wonder of the world of XXX I had not seen in many moons, but I think specifically a company like Bizarre Video brought this out for the public to witness. To beat a dead horse, maybe this is the secret ingredient that makes people line up around the block for 30 years to see this company’s films. I was suddenly a young man in college, discovering the wonder of women, sex, and porn. That is where our conversation took us—perhaps this is what their films do as well?
“There were a lot of girls that aided in my film’s success that I used all the time. Isis Nile, Kaitlyn Ashley, and Rebecca Wild in another. I always wanted those girls because I could plug them in anywhere. They could do anything. They could do a boy/girl, they could do a girl/girl. I knew they were performers who could act, they could carry a scene, and not give me any trouble if and when we needed to shoot late into the night. I try to use these great performers at every opportunity there was. I would push for those people when I could. I did not always get my pick of talent, but with companies like Bizarre, they always made sure I did.”
Stuart’s voice and demeanor is one full of happiness, passion, and confidence. We will talk about this a little later, but why I brought up this question with this legendary director was that one of his leads in Busted!—the one-and-only Jessica Ryan—is a woman who is known to give people “trouble,” and I mean that in a good way. In a nutshell, Jessica is a confident, loving, and driven performer, and a woman who can do all those things that Stuart mentioned above. I felt like I was beginning to get down to the secret formula of what it was that drove these one-of-a-kind films at Bizarre.
“I have had a very long and good relationship with Bizarre Video. What pops into my head when I think about this company, it is really simple: they are ‘Fifty Shades,’ curious, and kinky. They are not like Kink.com, which is very extreme. They are on the other end of the ‘fetish continuum,’ far away from the amateur and horrible fetish productions. Which we seem to see a lot of these days. I think that maybe we always have on the fetish side of things. Fetish is not just something that is a mindless beating. It is very cerebral. The way that it is portrayed with Bizarre is somewhat glamorous, as opposed to the more extreme stuff.”
Stuart Canterbury years ago said something in an interview that I never forgot: he said that the sexiest organ is the one that is in between a person’s ears. BDSM that is cerebral, fetish that glamorous—they are ideas that people may not see going together when first introduced, but isn’t that what makes porn and sexuality so wonderful? This amazing mind of the industry then went on to correct me in the best ways possible. He told me that he directed three films, not two, the third being a film with his good friend Jewell Marceau, a XXX gem called Fetish Island 2. This film was actually shot in Jamaica at a resort/hotel complete with latex, restraints, and everything in-between. I just could not get my head wrapped around how much went into these productions, more than I had ever thought or known, more than I think today’s fans know about. Stuart told me that those are the interesting ideas that Bizarre brought to life. So much more was now making sense, or maybe I should say that secrets were finally being revealed…
“There is a series that I am a part of called The Secretaries. I don’t know if you know this, but our inspiration from this series came from the movie Secretary with James Spader. That was the idea that kind of got us started. It is something all atrope with all The Secretaries series, and it has not been used that much lately, just like nurses and cheerleaders and teachers have not. Secretaries have not been exploited as the others mentioned in the adult world and its films. So, I thought this is a great place to do so and to take ownership. We have done three of those so far, and hopefully we will do more. It allowed me to work again with Katie Morgan who is wonderful—just a true professional.”
His exploration into so many genres and subjects is fascinating within his Bizarre Video filmography. There are many male-dominant productions, but what else there is, I have never seen with any other company: a female-dominant film that has acting and his patented glamour. That is where Busted! comes into play. Now, I think fans can see how he is sculpting his statue. We have Katie Morgan as one lead and Jessica Ryan as the second: a woman he also is very, very fond of. The story he had of meeting both, you could not write a fictional story that was half as good as how they all met.
“I had met her while shooting a film in the Family Affair series. We started together at Hustler, and we had also worked together with Penthouse. When I heard that Jessica Ryan was back, I simply had to have her for this film. She was just as great as I thought she would be to bring on. Her role is just amazing. Katie Morgan and Jessica Ryan both play detectives. For myself, the way I approach making a movie, I want to make a rollercoaster ride out of it. You have to have some twists and turns that people do not expect. I like to mess with the viewer just a bit by looking like I am going to be setting up the sex scene, giving all the clues that it is going to be a sex scene, then we cut out. Then we come back to the sex scene! A good film has to have certain elements, certain twists. Any movie, any successful movie, it is always about conflict. If you did not have any conflict, things would just become really boring. Just like with Katie and Jessica, you want to know the secret to writing a movie script, here is what you do. You have one character that says yes and the other that says no. Then, at the end of the page, someone has to win.”
That is exactly how this wonderful film plays out. Busted! is a story that opens with Jessica Ryan doing exactly what Stuart describes: a sexual fantasy that you think is going to open up the film with her patented elegance and fire in-between the sheets, or maybe I should say underneath the leather. One of the most interesting stories that he and Jessica Ryan spoke about was having a male lead that was willing to be submissive to such a female powerhouse. It is this scene itself that is the reasoning behind this Spotlight. Stuart Canterbury talked so much about the sophistication an adult performer must have, and how special they are as people. I see a film like Busted! and what I see is a film that has the real superstars of XXX—the people who know it is about acting, performing and modeling.
“David Lee, he was very good. We had a tough time with the male talent that we were looking at before we cast David. They have egos these guys, and many of them that we thought about for the part were not happy about being submissive to the girls. It is just acting, it is just a performance, and David Lee, he was very open to playing the submissive role and I respected him for that. There is a moment where Jessica has him suck on a dildo, and we had some pushback from others about that.”
They say that great minds think alike. I kid you not, word-for-word, blow-for-blow, Stuart Canterbury and Jessica Ryan were literally the same person in my hot seat when talking about this film at its core. If I could play back my recordings on my ancient voice recorder, you would see that both Stuart and Jessica thought the same way about the scene and about each other, and even spoke the same exact words. Both of them, as I asked them to talk about the other, playfully busted each other’s chops. Fire is a good thing on any film set. It is a sign that people are striving to accomplish the same goal. They both are dear friends and spoke about their love for one another and how they met on a Hustler set years ago. The love that these two have for one another, I think it is something that defines the adult world and what makes Stuart’s films what they are, especially with Bizarre Video. It is an intimate pursuit of something that takes hard work, passion, and some aggression to produce. I then sat down with Jessica Ryan, a star whose acting is so powerful, very few have ever got to meet the woman and see just how damn good of an actor she really is.
“Stuart Canterbury is a man who has opinions. I remember that first time on set, shooting with Hustler. What I first saw was a person in ‘work mode’ like myself. When you get into that zone, you want to shoot and do everything perfectly. It was a long day on set, I was hungry, and I will be the first person to say that I snapped a bit, saying that I would be able to deliver lines without some food in my stomach, and since that day, we have been really good friends.”
That saying of “an immovable object meets an unstoppable force” came to mind both times here, with both of my subjects. I think that is what made them great friends and people who enjoy working with one another immensely. Jessica Ryan is a performer with firm boundaries. She knows who she is, what she can do, and it is all about maintaining elegance. She reminds me so much of the iconic Dyanna Lauren. Both are women who know how to model, how to act and the lengths they will go to in order to create a film and live life; they are not given the credit they should. I guess you can say that both Stuart Canterbury and Jessica Ryan’s goal was to make sure there was some fucking with force going on in this film—true passion everywhere you would look—and boy, how they succeeded. They both would not sugarcoat anything, it is not in their character, and my stars, how those two great minds think alike. I find it fate that this production is where they would meet again.
“I love how firm Stuart is on his features. I really wish there were more features in this world. I understand that there is a lot of fatigue that comes with the acting and most people just want to get to the fucking, but one of my favorite things is to actually develop the story. I love getting to do things in other people’s shoes. I get to live Halloween every fucking day that I am shooting, and I love every second of it! With Stuart, the stories are usually developed with care, and that is what allows you to fully step into that world as a performer. We shot Busted! all the way back in October, and that was the very first film that I shot when I first came back. I had been messaging Stuart, and he told me that he had two features that he wanted me in. I had not shot for three, maybe four years, and of course said yes. This is what makes shooting features so difficult, these types of dilemmas.”
Jessica and I talked about working with Katie Morgan and how nerve-wracking that was. “She has her shit down!” Jessica explained with this deep respect in her voice. I highly suggest that you watch this film so that you can see what Stuart Canterbury meant when he spoke about building a character around the performer. Jessica Ryan and Katie Morgan gel brilliantly as these two lead detectives who are on this mission to dominate the criminal element of this fictitious story. So, how does one of the best damn actors have so much going for her in this role? I mean Jessica, and I spoke in length about what it is that makes Bizarre Video and this film something different, and I think she can explain it better than I can summarize her tale:
“You know, this is super funny. I knew about Bizarre Video before I got into porn. They are one of those old-school companies that have been around forever. I can not pinpoint what it is that made them stand out back in the day with me, but what I figured out when I shot with them for the first time was that they were from the old-school, and that they believed in more colorful stories, it was safe to say. If you take the time and really sit down to find out who they are, you will get this great porn history lesson. That is what I got, and I could not believe how far they go back. When I talked to Stuart about this film, there were not a lot of companies that were up and fully shooting because of COVID, so I did have the time to see what I was really getting into. It was fun to relive some of the things I saw before I was in porn. I think that is what comes to mind when you asked what this film and company means to me.”
Isn’t that something you never see as a porn fan? You have three greats of XXX, all of different eras of pleasure, and they all speak of the same thing, and they all talk about this company like they are a fan discovering the next-greatest thing in porn. I don’t know if fans have ever had something so relatable. Maybe this is the catalyst that brings everyone together: director, actor, and fan. It is not just the style, it is not just the acting and mind-blowing sex and fetish, it is a meeting of so many great minds who are all transformed back into passionate fans looking at porn for the very first time, and being thoroughly aroused, entertained, and enthralled. The secret ingredient to what makes this company special is not something in the water, but a direction, a method, and presentation that takes even the most dedicated person in XXX back to what made them pursue the greatness that they now have.
“When you are coming back to do something that you love, you want to be with a company that loves the things you do and has been around for a very long time. There is a comfort in that. Stuart and David Lee, all I can say about them is that they both did such a good job, and I guess you can say, because I am the woman that I am, it just naturally kind of happens to become the dominant, if that makes sense. So many people, it is not something that they do, and I do not just mean David, I am talking about Stuart and the way he makes his films. They are two men that do not suffer from the same kind of complex that can keep something from being great in a scene or a film. That is what makes it so important for your submissive not to see you as a submissive when you are playing this kind of character. In all honesty, just like with sexuality, dominance and submission is kind of fluid. I tell people that I am a big ‘D,’ little ‘s’ switch. I am mostly dominant, very rarely submissive. There are people and situations that I want to be dominant in and say, ‘Hey bitch, I am calling the shots!’ Stuart casts the correct people for me to do that. That is what made the power-play so hot in this film and with David Lee.”
In closing, all I can finish telling you fans is that if this is the journey that you are being sent on with only four films that we are discussing, imagine what the rest of the film library consists of with Bizarre Video. Jezebelle Bond, Stuart Canterbury, Jessica Ryan: these are not pushovers in the business—these are great artists and creators, who all live in different places across this continent. I did not ‘pad’ my interview, nor did I instruct these people what to say. The places that these three magnificent minds kept taking me to as we talked more and more reminded me of what happens at XRCO and AVN when talking about who made the best film, or who is the best performer of all time. These conversations carried on for hours and I wish I had more room to write, to go into even more detail with this company and these great people within their films. This month’s Spotlight focuses on a company that deserves your hard-earned dollars to view here at HotMovies because nothing is truly better than watching the porn that actually makes porn stars and directors swoon as the true fans of erotica they are, just like you: the reader. Bizarre Video has stood the test of time because they go after the sexual organ known as the brain and they dare you to see the performers, directors, and erotic stories in ways that you never knew existed before. Jessica Ryan once told me, “It is the weird things that I love and cherish in another human being.” I think that is why this company is called Bizarre Video, for it is those things we call “bizarre” that truly make us normal.
Watch Busted! and the rest of Bizarre Video‘s catalog on HotMovies!
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