If you were to ask me what’s stood out about the past few award seasons in the adult film world, one of the biggest things in this old reporter’s mind is a “Best Release” category that’s been missing the great Jacky St. James and a company that she has helped to mold over most of the past ten years, Sweet Sinner. After 2021, I think that is going to change. The great marketing team at Mile High Media, Sweet Sinner’s parent company, came to me with tales of grandeur and sex appeal, starring a new performer who defies convention in the most beautiful of ways. Toxic was presented to me much like a date would tease their significant other, with flashes of skin bringing about fantasies galore. It was here that I knew that I needed to take on this project and help showcase to the fans of the adult film world, not only Sweet Sinner’s massive film project that just wrapped and is due out this August, but its one-of-a-kind star. Her name is Aila Donovan, and she is here to tell us all why she is on a personal mission to get Jacky St. James a well-deserved trophy. This is Toxic, ladies and gentlemen: a film that is one of many to begin the push for a trophy in awards season 2022.
Aila Donovan, she is a one-of-a-kind Spiegler Girl, and in this industry, that is the highest regard that a new starlet can have within her portfolio. She was the talk of the media world when she only had four films under her belt. Now that she is on film number 26, I can only imagine what this starlet’s outlook on the industry is, and how her journey is shaping her as a person and performer. Aila grew up in a small Northern California town and being that she is one among 12 other siblings should tell you that this woman was not meant to ever have anything deemed ordinary or boring in her life. The most intriguing part of the buildup to this interview was finding out how this stunning new starlet was able to capture the heart and imagination of my favorite writer in the industry, Jacky St. James. It is here that we begin.
DJD: Wow, what a joy it is to finally sit down with… am I saying this right? The lovely Aye-La Donovan?
AD: Yay, you got it right, most people don’t. Alright, what’s up?
How are you doing? I have heard so much about you from so many dear friends and colleagues in the industry.
Uh-oh!
The first thing that I have been dying to ask you: what do you think of the MILF title? I ask this because you are a woman who has been cast in this category, playing this role, and I see you as a new starlet who transcends any title, especially this one. I am dying to know what you think of the term?
I don’t mind the term and I will say, I am not in that category. I am not a teen, and I am not a MILF. I am the “in-between” trophy wife, but apparently, that category is not taboo enough to even be a category in the industry. So, I always get lumped into the “MILF” category. I don’t know if that is because I’m too old to pull off the teen look. I will say that I think it is a “unique” category. I don’t think that I fit that specific category or role personally.
No, you don’t! Truth be told, I really hope that you nab “Best New Starlet” and I will tell you why. It would show so many people in the business that the women of this industry are too talented to only be placed within one category and only have access to one category’s spoils and accolades.
Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. You just gave me little goosebumps just now.
Her laugh comes after almost every question and sentence we engage in. She has this quick laugh that is fast and fleeting, yet there is so much joy and raw happiness within it, if that makes sense. Only a “California Girl” has that laugh.
From the first moment I saw you—it was in a scene with a dear friend of mine, the lovely Rebecca Vanguard—from the moment I saw your ability to work with such a costar of raw sexuality, I said to myself, “This woman is going to go far in this business.”
Thank you, I am trying, doing my best!
Researching you, I came across this wonderful article from the great Tod Hunter. Within that article was a statement from Mark Spiegler about how reliable you are and how you are exactly the performer he looks to be a part of his agency. That says a lot. Mark is not a person who talks a lot, at all!
Right! He doesn’t usually rant and rave or let out high reviews, so that means a lot to me.
My goodness, gracious. Once again, before we begin, I wanted to let you know how much fun it was to research you. I love that you are one of 12 children. My Dad is one of 17 children.
17, whewwwwww, he gots me beat by a handful. Damn!
Oh, my goodness. I am so jealous that you had 11 brothers and sisters. I only had one of each.
Jealous? You are too much! Let’s just say that it wasn’t always sunshine and roses. It did teach me a lot, and I definitely would not be the person that I am today if it wasn’t for that kind of upbringing. So, it is very cool that you said that.
I love your story. It is larger than life. You are proof-positive of the many different types of talented human beings within our industry; people who come from all walks of life in this world.
That is absolutely true.
I would love for you to tell the tale of how you found your way to our beloved business.
Well, my story goes that I actually had very, very close friends in the industry. So, I guess you could say I was around the adult world before I ever even thought about getting into it. My experience was nothing like “going cold-turkey,” not knowing what to do once I got here. Two of my best friends are pretty big names on the gay side of the industry. I learned a lot about the business by just being good friends with them. Then, I actually went to the GayVN Awards the year before COVID-19 hit, because one of them was nominated for something. When I walked in, I guess that you could say that I was a little star-struck. I was mesmerized by the whole thing. Everyone was just so amazing! I was actually in-between jobs myself at the time. It was there that I said to myself, “Why am I not doing this?”
I think from there, I was paying closer attention to what my friends were doing, and I say that as this was something that they were succeeding at. I then literally came up with the name Aila Donovan right then as well, right at the GayVN Awards. Donovan is the last name of their stage names. We kind of kept it a whole “family-friendly” thing between us. Then, Aila was just me trying to be smart and alphabetical. So that is just the beginning of the story. At the same awards, I met Chi Chi LaRue, who I fell in love with instantly; she is just so amazing! She kind of took me under her wing and introduced me to a ton of different people. From there, it kind of trickled down to me getting in touch with Spiegler and poof, here we are!
Wow, so met Chi-Chi and Mark before you were even in the business. That is so fucking cool and so fucking rare. One could say it was in your destiny?
I didn’t meet Mark until after my very first shoot, and he showed right up, right then and there. Chi Chi, she is just amazing. I can never thank her enough for introducing me to all the people that she did at the GayVN Awards.
I think it says so much about your strength of mind and character. I just love Chi Chi. She is a gem of this business, and has been for more years than I can count. Then, Mark, he is simply Mark. The people you got started with, they are strong, sharp-minded souls themselves. You are a rare bird, and a sophisticated one at that. I can tell with that tale.
Thank you so much, I try, I try!
I think it is the best of things to see a sex-positive woman in the industry. We need more of that Aila. I love the tale of a woman who worked her ass off and was once a bartender, the hardest fucking job in the world, that few know about but love to indulge in.
Oh, there are worse jobs out there, way worse, but not many!
It is a job where even if you are getting paid good money, you are never getting paid the money that you should be.
Oh, that is so true. That is just absolutely true! In that profession, you are always underpaid and overworked.
I think what hits home so much for me, is that it was family of yours from the gay side of the business that got you started. I will be the first to tell you that I love that side of the business. I think that gay men are actually the most honest men that there are on the planet, and most confident.
I can so agree. A large group of my friends are gay guys, and everything just kind of boils down to what you just said. They are honest, they are real. They will tell you how it is to your face, and they will not let you walk out the door wearing something that I should not be wearing. So, there you go!
You are talking to a true-life lesbian in a man’s body, and I am so very proud to say that. What I love the most about your tale of how you got into the business, it has to be that my best friend, she went to AVN with her hubby and she got into the business the exact same way. With her, it was just the people at Girlfriends Films that got her going and introduced her everywhere. I very much appreciate you sharing such an experience with our readers.
Oh, for sure. You are like me, I look for people who are super nice because that is what you have to be in this life. I think that is what leads to so many things just always happening to fall together. So, yes, it is very special for me to be able to tell my story. So thank you!
You are a person who I can tell lives life with adventure and drive in her heart. You are just cooler-than-cool in my eyes.
Thank you for saying that. That is what I try to do. My philosophy is that if you are not in the middle of an adventure, what the hell are you doing?
Yes, life should always be that way, and that brings us to the meat and potatoes of this interview. I would love to first talk about your relationship with Jacky St. James. I see that she has cast you in a few films now. I would love to know how the business relationship began between you two. She is my favorite writer within this industry, I must tell you first and foremost.
Well first off, I will tell you that I just love her! I hadn’t heard about her or seen her work until I was on set for her. I don’t know, some people you meet for the first time, and you just get that energy, and you click with almost instantly. That is me and Jacky St. James’ business relationship. When it comes to me and Jacky St. James personally, I can tell you that I just loved the way that she ran her set. When I worked with her for the first time, it was literally right at the beginning of my career, and one of the first scenes that I actually did some acting in.
I was so nervous on her set that day. I was saying to myself, “I did not get into this industry to act, but okay.” I just decided to run with it and said, “Let’s go!” I found it to be very fun to act within the scene that I was doing, and I think it was right there that I said again to myself, “You know, I think that I can handle this acting thing.”
From that day on, Jacky has been in my corner, encouraging me. She told me to try to get more scenes like this under my belt; do some more acting and things of that nature. The male performer that I was working with that day, during my first scene with Jacky, he was also a performer I was going to be shooting content with, and that person just happened to be Quinton James. We had never hooked up before that, and the story goes that Quinton was given a list of girls that he wanted to work with, and he just so happened to pick me. I showed up on set and to my surprise, it was him, and I said, “Hey, I remember talking to you.” And he and I just clicked like crazy, which just made the entire experience of that first scene for Jacky St. James that much more phenomenal!
After that, we kept in touch, and we talked about doing a few more types of scenes. I don’t know any other way to say this, she is literally my favorite director in the entire adult industry. I love everything about her. She is just always so encouraging. She loves what she does and is the most amazing independent businesswoman. The support that she has offered me, it has been like a rock-solid foundation for me in terms of just getting into this industry. That means so much to me that she is a female director in a part of the industry that is dominated by men. There is just a different kind of connection for me that is there because she is that strong woman that helped me to get going.
I am telling you, it shows in the “pretty girls” from that first film, I kid you not. You can see the difference in the films you have been in. In Jacky’s films, there is that extra added oomph, and now I think the fans know where that comes from. Jacky brings that out in so many and I think that comes from her being so dedicated to what she does. It is contagious on set.
You are so right, and it is something that now that I think about it, being on her set just affects you subconsciously. I am always excited to go to set for her. I know that it is going to be a great day. I know that the film is going to look fabulous. I know that is exactly what I am walking into each and every time. Those are the things that make people want to go to work and make me want to perform the very, very best that I can. Not that I am the type of person that does not give her all on every set I am on, but like you said, there is that much more oomph in my step.
I know exactly what you mean. I had your work placed upon my desk as a critic. This was a scene with a very, very close friend of mine and what I saw within you, in that very first scene, was a woman who gives it her all, and a beautiful model who is confident in what she brings to the table. You put on a hell of a show with a lesser director, so seeing you in these Jacky St. James films, it is what truly makes a performer a porn star and not just a performer. That is what Jacky St. James brings out. Now what I like about that, what makes you all who you are, is your ability to sell sex as entertainment, and sex is the hardest damn act to perform and make beautiful and believable when it comes to what people see and expect as far as fantasy goes.
Yes, it is, and we do our best!
I really hope that you guys get to continue working together many times. That promo trailer for Catfished 3, it is just epic!
Oh yeah, that one was fun and I made it onto the cover as well! Yes!
You are a woman of supermodel-esque beauty, and seeing you inserted in that cool box cover, that is as “Hollywood” as it gets in this business. Now, before we talk about Toxic, I would love to discover a little more about your background. You are just such a natural actor and performer, I am dying to know if you have had any previous formal training. I am talking acting, dance, modeling, anything before you got into this business?
I never modeled before I got into the industry, not a lick!
Get the fuck out of here, wow!
I chalk a lot of it up to me being a people-person. I am also a person who can look at lines, and after I have gone through them a few times, I can get the gist down of everything that is going on with my character. So, the memorization part, that comes fairly easy. What I have been working on the most since I started in the industry has been learning to sell parts of the scene with my body language. Acting for me is trying to talk to the person like you normally would without a camera in your face. It is all about being able to put in that emotion, and there have been several scenes where I have had to work to be able to reach a comfort level with what I was doing. I am finding that just trying to touch that character’s emotion is the goal that works every time for me. My first feature, it was so much fun, but it really taught me a lot about acting. I don’t know how else to explain it.
No explanation needed, I feel you. Having lived with actors my whole life, it is an art that has a life of its own, one that only actors and performers can ever know. Learning to play roles, it is something so damn difficult. My hat goes off to a true student of the game like you. I hope you stay in this business for many, many years. We need more women like you in this business so desperately.
Oh, you are going to be stuck with me for quite some time!
Yay! People do not know what it means to be put on such a pedestal by Jacky, Mike, and Shawn. They are people that have done everything in this business for many years. After just getting to talk with you for 20 minutes, I can honestly say that your praise is very, very deserving.
I appreciate when people recognize that. It just encourages me to do better. I love Quasar to death. Jacky, she is my absolute favorite and Shawn just defines the word amazing. I have my favorites in the industry. We all do, but the people that are that awesome, they are the ones who seem to always create the best scenes, and they do honestly bring out the best in me: best performance, best vibe, the best everything!
I love it. Oh, my God, I have put this in about four straight interviews, but it deserves to be said a million times over: I love Mike Quasar to death. And I know, we are supposed to be talking about Jacky’s film and this wonder known as Toxic, but Mike, he is one of the best souls on planet fucking earth. They all bring out this system that brings out the best in everybody, even when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Okay, okay, back to the interview: what can you divulge to me and the HotMovies readers about Toxic from Jacky St. James? I have a few of the promo stills that Mile High Media sent over, and everything looks wonderful.
I have seen those promotion stills as well, and I am so glad that they have turned out looking so amazing! What I can say is that a lot of this particular movie was working with Quinton James. He and I, we just clicked. If I had done this film with any other guy, I do not think it would have come out as good as it did. This is one of the most crucial factors in what makes Toxic so good. I think that this was the rawest script that I have ever received. This is going to be a story that a lot of people are going to be able to relate to. That in itself made the performance more natural, if that makes any sense. This is a film that has a subject that people will have dealt with all the time. I myself have dealt with relationships that are toxic, especially when it comes to open relationships. I know how that works within the industry and how people believe it goes against our natural instincts as people. So, really just being able to allow myself to let go when it came to the acting, being allowed to be as raw as possible, it contributed a lot to how good I think everything will turn out from the fans’ perspective.
I dig it. Dusty and the folks at Sweet Sinner always like to tease me with what is coming by showing these little tidbits of the film, the cast, the story. They told me, “It is the tale of the modern relationship, where everything seems to go bad. But, can sex be what saves a relationship?” I just dig that they are putting you in these kind of films Aila, movies that are about modern sexuality. I think we need more of that in this industry, as well as casting that brings people in who are sexually savvy in so many ways.
I think we do too. I think that the whole pizza-boy and pool-boy scenario has been done so many times. No one gives a flying fuck! Fans these days just end up skipping those parts and going straight to the sex. Now, a movie like Toxic, I feel like people are going to sit and watch all the way through the entire acting part before they get to the sex portion of things. They will do so because they feel that intrigued, and the film feels that relatable to them. They will want to see the build-up, they will want to feel the tension. All of that leads to them seeing other things, like our hair, our makeup, and so much more.
I have long said that the biggest sexual organ that humans have is right between their ears. Integrating so much of what we know as sexually confident people in the industry, that is something that will open up the mind of the weary viewer. Hell, even the not-so-weary. Yes, porn does have that power no matter how many people joke about it, or believe it. The mind is a forgotten sexual organ in the business.
Yes, it really is. Quinton and I, we are in open relationships together, if that makes any sense? We kind of came up with the idea for the story, the idea for the script. That is because of things that he and I are going through together, as being part of an open relationship. Then Jacky said to us, “There are so many people that are in an open relationship who will understand this.” Then she just took that and ran with it and created this awesome script that has become Toxic. Because Quinton and I are in that scenario, that is why I think things were just so natural when it comes to how everything unfolded within this film. It is because we are already learning from each other. I learned so much about myself from being in an open relationship with him.
That is amazing. That is something I have never seen in the industry. I am wishing you all so much luck with this film come awards season. Being a man who sees the age of polyamory and open relationships before him—with all the emotions that come with them being put at the forefront—this is something game-changing, and I am not just talking in porn. When people allow sex to be that beginning point of exploration within themselves and that gaining confidence, I think that is the only way you learn to discover more about a person, and what really counts within them.
I one-hundred percent agree with that. The physical touch from a person, you can get that from anywhere, but you can’t get that click and that connection from just anyone. That is what makes it that whole next level of discovery and acceptance.
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you taking out time for me in your day. I knew that when we got to sit down and do this interview, that it was going to be solid.
Yes, I did too, and thank you so much.
There is a very good friend of mine, a new performer in the industry as well, and I saw she was in this film with you: the amazing Crystal Taylor. She said so many great things about you. She is one of my true friends in the industry. I cannot wait to see this film with such amazing, new, powerful talent within it. Fans are in for a treat!
Oh, this was the film where I met Crystal Taylor for the first time. She is just so amazing. We just shot some OnlyFans content together. I just love her.
I cannot wait to get to meet you both as this COVID-19 shit clears up, and we see this film plastered all over the place come awards season. Is there anything in closing that you want to say about this film before we bid each other adieu, or just say to the fans, voters, critics?
I want to tell the fans, the critics, all the people in the industry: you have to go out and see this film and get it nominated! It is not something for me. I think everyone that is in this cast is amazing, and I think that every single one of them, along with myself, we want to see Jacky St. James win an award this year! I think that this film deserves it.
What a woman, what a performer, what a porn star. There are few interviews I have ever been a part of that are this good, this authentic. They say, if someone else can say it better, quote them and go out with a bang. We at HotMovies will do you one better. I had Quinton James surprise Aila and offer to give us a closing quote on Aila, this film, and what they all mean to him:
“Toxic, in essence, is the film title and theme; there are a lot of people who have been through some sort of toxicity in their life, whether it be a friendship or a romantic relationship. I approached Jacky with a role I’ve wanted to play, and I wanted to be the villain, the bad guy, the ‘asshole.’ I wanted to be angry, manipulative, all things that I haven’t played in any other role, and she wrote this epic script! It’s about a manipulative relationship, where the man wants what he wants, when he wants it, and the girl is so infatuated with him that she will let him have it, even though it’s tearing her apart every day hoping he will change, or hoping she can accept it and he will choose her. He’s a master manipulator, until the shoe’s on the other foot, then all of a sudden the rules change. Aila’s character seeks advice from friends and they want her to leave as it’s not healthy, but she just can’t, because she has too much love and hope. Her character is torn and in the end, she has to make a decision.
When I received the script it was almost like I went back in time and was reading things from my past. We all have a past, we have all done things that we are not proud of—whether we were the villain or the victim. Traits of my character are traits of a selfish person I used to be. I’m not proud of the person I was, and certain manipulative things I did in my past. So, reenacting that dark, buried past really brought back a lot of emotions. Not only for me, but for Aila too, and things she has gone through. It hit us both pretty hard when we were portraying these characters from a place with similarities from our past lives, and actually, after we finished the movie, myself and Aila went out to dinner and talked for hours, just about this movie and our pasts, which was beyond amazing. I have nothing but amazing things to say about Aila Donovan.
I don’t think I could have done this movie with anyone else but Aila. It’s almost like it was written for us and our pasts combined. Aila and I are really close, and we already have a really good comfort level together. I knew I could really bring out the character with her more than I could have with someone I didn’t know as well. As I said, we both related to these characters on a deep level, having a great relationship prior to this made everything easier to bring a more realistic approach to the characters.
Fans, I think this could be the movie of 2021, so please, watch it when it’s released in August. It’s a film that a lot of people can relate to, it’s much more than just a porn movie in my eyes; it has so much depth to it… so much that you rarely see in the adult world anymore. So please watch and please vote. Not just for me and Aila as performers but for Jacky St. James. She is the real reason this film is what it is. She is an amazing person, writer, and director, and I think everyone will fall in love with the film. We love and appreciate all of you!”
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