In honor of Black History Month, HotMovies teamed up with veteran performer Lotus Lain to interview Black performers and adult content producers to highlight their perspectives on the industry and their unique achievements. In the second of 12 Instagram Live interviews, Lotus sat down with the beautiful, energetic Cali Caliente to discuss becoming a porn star during a pandemic, her favorite performers to work with, and her extensive vision for her career and life goals. Check out Lotus and Cali’s fun discussion below or watch the video on HotMovies’ YouTube or Instagram!
LL: Hey, girl, hey. [laughter]
Bear with me, I’m putting on…
No, no, no. This is part of the glamming-up process. This is the real shit. This is the real deal. Are you getting ready for a scene or something?
No, I was… Well, later on, I’m gonna do a live on OnlyFans, so I’m just getting…
You all ready…
It’s Friday and my energy is great.
Yeah. I hear you. You already be cute, ready.
Let me be ready.
Yes, I love it. I love that top that you have on. Is it like a top or a dress? Let’s see, do a little back-up spin and twirl for us. Oh, it’s a top.
Yeah, it’s just a top, hold on.
Okay. Yes, ’cause you know the fans that tune in, they love to see the ladies and all their beauty. Ooh, look at them legs. I love those shorts.
They’re nothing too crazy just…
Yeah, yeah, no, but cute and casual for a Friday.
Yeah.
Love it, love it. Thank you. Oh my goodness, thank you for making time today. I know we kind of got our times mixed up, but I’m glad you’re available and you made it, and I’m sure the fans are happy too. Let me know a little bit about you. I feel like I only know the cute shit that I see popping off on Twitter, and I love how your personality is so sassy and you take no shit, but you still have a sweet soft side that…
‘Cause I’d be like, wait, am I being too mean, shall I like…
No, no, no… I see the cute… I see the softness coming through. Yeah, I definitely see it. I mean I don’t know if guys pick up on that ’cause they need to be like sometimes knocked over the head a couple of times with the information but… Yes, I definitely think it comes through. I was gonna say, so since you’re kinda new to me, and kind of new to the industry, why don’t you take us through your journey of what brought you here? What became the beginnings of Cali Caliente?
Ooh, where do I start? So it was probably what, 2019, right before 2020, I got into the industry by signing with my agent and kind of just took off from there. I did the AVN 2020, and I…
That was your first one, the 2020 one?
No.
The 2020 AVN?
I actually worked at booths.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so it was kind of like my first one, I guess… But I had gone a couple of years back, just like, “Oh, I wanna go do some research, I wanna shake hands, I wanna network, I wanna meet people,” kinda see if this industry is really for me. I’m intrigued by it, but…
Yeah.
Do it. So I was like, okay, I’ma print out my logo on a shirt and get my hats, and I was running around with my hat on and my shirt, looking all cute and taking pictures with all the ladies and stuff, and then I was just like… I felt really at home.
It’s fun, right?
It’s so much fun.
It is, I know what you mean, like the feeling of being at home where you like, “Damn, might be good I’ve found my people.” [laughter]
Exactly. It’s like fun, yay, you’re right. [laughter]
Right, right. It’s like fun hoes, but responsible hoes. [laughter]
It’s amazing like everybody was walking up to me and being like, “Oh, who are you? Oh my God, you’re so cute.” People were coming up to me and asking me to take pictures, and I was just like, “okay,” like, “Yeah, sure, whatever.” But I was like, “Maybe this is what I should be doing,” and then it took me a couple more years to actually get into it because I was still afraid of actually… The industry… So here’s the thing, a lot of people don’t talk about the…
Yeah, hit us with it.
The process, the building. Everybody thinks that I just woke up one day and was this overnight success, which that is not how it happens, especially not for black women. I’m not saying that it didn’t happen, it does happen every day, but it’s really rare. I did my first porno, oh… Can I say porno?
It’s okay. You did your first video.
[laughter] 2020. When did the pandemic? I did it right before…It started in 2020 in March, and then you said you went to the 2020 AVN, your first time as a performer.
Yeah, exactly. So I did my first scene for Dogfart, and it was a boy/boy/girl scene.
Ooh, fire.
Yeah, it was my very first mainstream thing and I was super nervous and I almost didn’t go, but then I did and I ended up killing it, and then that scene actually got nominated for my very first AVN award…
Your first scene for your first nomination? How did that feel?
Amazing, like my first year in porn, I got nominated for three awards, for Best Newcomer. And I think either Social Media Star or Most Epic Ass.
Okay. I could see all of those. I definitely see Social Media Star, I think that’s very well-warranted, ’cause one of the things, like I, said earlier, that I noticed the most value is the way you tweet and the way your engagement is. It’s very fun. I don’t think you’re too mean at all. I think there’s definitely the kind of guy that likes a girl that has a little bit of an edge to her and isn’t like just a pushover, and I think you really epitomize that in a very classy cute sassy way.
Well, I try to, because I do know that there are a lot of women who are pushovers in this industry, and they’re kind of like, “Yes ma’am.” I’m not that or gonna be that. [laughter]
No, especially when we start out new, we think that that’s the way we should be. A lot of people we think like, “Oh, let me just say, Yes, please, and thank you,” and that’s it. And I really love that you stand on your own two feet and know who you are independently, even though I can see that you have people helping you and working with you, you stand on your own two feet. It’s not them molding you, you’re not being molded.
I made it a major point in my career to make sure that I didn’t attach myself to anybody else to gain my following, to gain my success in the industry because a lot of people have a lot of other things going on and, to be honest, I’ve always just been a driving force on my own with my agents and my team and staff helping me out. I’ve been able to accomplish a lot, so I never really felt the need to latch onto somebody else for their fame or fortune or to kinda like gain clout or anything like that, I kinda just was like, “No, I wanna be my own person. I’m gonna gain my own clout that way.” Nobody can come to me and be like, “Oh, I made you.” Because I’m past that stage in my life where a man can come into my life and dickmatize me and say, “Oh, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t…” You helped me… I came to you. I already had a plan. I executed this plan and I know who I am as a person. And getting into the industry, I think that’s really important because there’s so many young… In this industry now they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what to do with themselves.
They get into the sex industry for the glitz and the glam, and at the end of the day they end up killing themselves to maintain this image that they’ve created and they don’t know how to separate themselves from the persona, and they become a person that is just like work, work, work, work, work, horny, horny, horny, horny, all I do is have sex. No bitch, I like to dance. I like to go out. I like to read. I like to do… I’m well-rounded. I’m real diverse, and for me, that’s important because at the end of the day, after this industry, I wanna be able to do more things with myself, not only help other people, but if I wanna write that book I can write that book and people will take me seriously. If I wanna do that EP and come out with music, people will take me seriously because it’s not just porn, porn, porn, sex, sex, sex with me, I have so much more to offer. And I feel like as a young woman, you should explore those things before you get into sex work, because once you’re in it, you’re in it for life, and there is no turning back. Once those nudes hit the internet, once people start knowing your name. You can’t get in the industry where being famous is what makes you money and then get mad when people start recognizing you outside of the industry. You can’t get mad at that. You can’t get in the industry if you’re gonna be like, “Oh my god, my mom, and dad, and my brothers, and sisters, and my family’s gonna find out.” Don’t do it.
They’re going to find out.
They’re going to find out. I was laying in a hospital bed ’cause I had gotten injured ’cause my nipple ring got infected and I had to get surgery and my dad came to visit me. And at that time, I think I had an interview with Kink.com, and you know, me and my dad were…
Favorite!
Open it up and I said, Look, “Dad, I got this interview I’m finna do this,” you know, ’cause as a grown-ass woman, I need to… My dad is an avid porn-watcher and I need to…
Mine too. [laughter] Dad’s girl. Yes, mine too.
By the way! And he was just like, “Are you sure? You know it’s forever.” And I was just like, “I’m sure.” Mind you, he thought that he was coming to see me ’cause I had a baby and didn’t tell him, so I think he was a little bit…
Oh my god, dads, for reals, girl! [laughter]
I think he was more relieved that I was like, “Hey, just don’t watch anything with this name on it.”
That’s what I said too to my male cousins. I had to say the same to my male cousins. Oh my god. I feel like you just took me to the church of Cali right now, like fuck. Yes, queen… I’m worshipping everything you just said. I’m with that.
I’m an open book. A lot of people don’t see this side of me, so whenever I do get to show it, I kinda get excited and I’m just like, “Look, hi guys… I do bad things, but I’m pretty good too.” [laughter]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I’m feeling the excitement. This is super fun already, like, damn, Woah. And we haven’t even gotten to the rest of the questions, this is so fun.
Girl, I have to finish doing my makeup. [laughter]
Right. You’re so fun and energetic. I absolutely love, love, love it. So it sounds like you got started pretty much right when the pandemic was about to get started, so you know that’s such a unique, weird time to get started in our industry. How did you navigate that, because I would say that that didn’t affect you one bit? As you were saying, you’re walking through the AVN years before and you weren’t a performer then and people were treating you as such. I think that just goes to speak to the star presence that you have, and that people recognize regardless of pandemic and all that, whatnot. So were you taking bookings during that time, or were you just building up your own thing on your own sites and stuff?
At that time, I had my agent and I was just building up my own websites. I had found a guy that was like a Dom, but also he would… He was helping ladies out or whatever doing content. The vocation of a suitcase pimp.
Yes, I know girl. I wasn’t sure if it was positive, so I was keeping quiet until you said it. But yeah, the suitcase orients of the industry, they always get us when we’re kinda new.
Yeah. Well, the thing is, I’m new to the business, but I’m not new to the game; I’ve been in the industry of sex work for a long time. So I recognize I’m not a young girl who you can kinda pull the wool over my eyes. You can’t do that. Next thing you know I’m just like, “Oh, whatever you want, you can have it,” like, no.
No.
It goes and… It got a little tricky, but in the process of all that, I did get some content out of it, and I actually had him train my anus. [chuckles]
There you go. You do need to train that bitch. [laughter]
He was stretching me out during the pandemic. So that definitely helped a lot. And then… I think me and him got into it after he kinda got really rude, ’cause you know how guys are really nice to you at first and they’re like…
Oh yeah.
I gotta be gentle with this one, I don’t know if she’s really where she needs to be, and then… It was like basically a sex call and what… [laughter] I was just like, “Alright, dude.” ‘Cause I think I went home and somehow I would stay with him for a little bit, and we would do content, and he would stretch me out, and then I went home and he didn’t talk to me for a little bit, and then he talked to me again, he was just like, “Oh.” He was really, super surprised that I had continued to shoot solo content, stretching myself out.
Yeah, you don’t need him.
For you, I’m doing this for me. I enjoy it. I was just like you didn’t manipulate me to get what you wanted, I manipulated you to…
Right, to get what I needed. Yes, for my career.
Yeah, and it’s just like… It’s amazing to me how many people kinda started flocking to me and being like, “Oh, oh, oh, I wanna work with you, I wanna do this, I wanna do that.” Because what would happen is people would get excited about working with me, and then if I didn’t hurry up to work with them, and we discuss that, or discuss something, they would just go do it with another model and that was pissing me off. In this business, do not have any friends, everybody in this business, for the most part, are opportunists, and that’s why I had to kinda learn like you don’t deal with people who are underneath you. You kinda gotta… When I met you and I met Ana and stuff like that, you guys were always super nice to me, but you were stand-off-ish because you didn’t know who I was. I was just this new face, this new girl, like who the fuck is she? Oh my god.
And you have no idea, girl, the new-girl stories we done been through. ‘Cause we always are like, “Yeah, we’re down to have other people hang out.” And then like we end up having to Uber bitches down to Orange County, ’cause they don’t have money on their credit cards, and just random shit that we’re just stuck with someone’s spending the night at someone else’s boyfriend’s house, and we’re just like… We also have to be cautious too, which is unfortunate because the real reality of my heart is I’m open, that’s even why I’m able to do porn, I’m open with people. I wanna love and be… Open arms and open heart, open pussy with as many people as possible. [chuckles]
Facts, very true. A lot of times, and I’m gonna just be very honest, I don’t like to hang around people or do certain stuff, like if my money isn’t right. Because again, if these people aren’t really your friends, and let’s just say they come to hang out and you don’t have the money and you do feel pressure to go, now they’re looking at you funny because you don’t have that extra money to spend like they do. Because you haven’t been in the industry, you haven’t built up your name that high, and even though you don’t wanna be that person that’s always like, “Oh, I can’t make it.” It becomes a problem when you think that people are your friends and you try to be open and honest about the things that you’re going through because… a lot of people will come to me in this industry and dump their loads on me about all their problems, what they’re going through, but I couldn’t pick up the phone right now and ask nobody for no help because they’d be looking at me funny like, “You sell nudes online, how do you not have this?” Or, “how are you not doing that or?” And it’s just like, “Did you forget where you came from?”
Yeah, right. Oh my god.
You have to kinda get people around you to build and grow, and so for me, that’s why I’m always by myself. I’ll tap out, and I’ll go and I’ll hang when I’m feeling like it when I feel like being social when I feel like I can go see…
When you feel like blessing people with your presence.
Exactly, otherwise, I’m just like, “No, I’ma stay at home with my dog and I’ma Netflix it up because I had a hard week.” And although I like to mingle and network with people, I’d rather stay at home and enjoy this meal that I’m finna cook for myself and listen to some music and smoke and chill versus feeling like I gotta go around people that are gonna always wanna be recording me or talking about the industry. I like to step away from the industry when I get that time… ’cause if not, it is extremely stressful. It’s a lot of pressure. And people don’t talk about it like, “Oh, I just buy whatever I want, and I live this lavish life,” but bitch you don’t talk about all those times you was crying and like having…
Yeah, and I know exactly what you’re talking about too, ’cause one of the things Ana and I actually bonded on was we were hanging out with this girl back in our… not super-early days, but medium, early-career days. The other girl talked shit about me because I didn’t have… As you said, I didn’t have the money to do some elaborate thing that they were trying to do, and I literally showed them… I was like, “Look, I’m a single mom, this is what I’m working with, I can’t do all that.” And she said the girl was shit-talking me when I was passed out. And that’s how me and Ana kind of bonded, ’cause she’s a real one. Real ones look out for real ones, ’cause we know where we came from too. We all came from pretty humble beginnings. Most people, as porn stars did not start out as trust-fund kids, and we’re out here building up our things, so…
God, one of the things that Lady Lazarus just said in the chat is like, “Wow, she likes you a lot more than she thought she did.” And I’m like feeling the same. The more you talk, I feel energized. I really feel like electricity like that… I’m so excited just talking to you and I’m just like, “Wow,” I’m filled with inspiration, ’cause you’re just like exactly the way people need to come into this industry with this kind of mentality like you sound on top of your shit as far as business goes. You sound on top of your sexuality, knowing what you want, what you wanna do with your body, how you wanna display it, you sound like… You even know how to kill the right way when you know how to kill and not over-kill yourself and hustle, hustle, hustle and catch the bag every five seconds. That’s awesome. Money is great, but… [laughter]
Oh my god, it’s pressure. ‘Cause I’m always like… At any moment when I’m just sitting still at home, I’m like, “No, what do I need to post? How can I make more money? How can I make more money?” And then I have to realize like this, you’re not broke, you literally… In your sleep, you are waiting for deposits to drop, you constantly have money coming in, just ’cause you don’t have a bunch of money stacked up in your bank account doesn’t mean that you’re not accomplished. It’s okay. And social media definitely does not help, you see all these people acting like they live this glamorous lifestyle from porn and the reality of it is a lot of these people don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, but they make it look good, and I’m learning. [chuckles] That it’s more so about how it looks than what it really is, but I never wanted to be that person. I always kind of pride myself on being real, and I feel like it’s not a lot of motherfuckers in the industry who like to keep it real. I try to keep it as real as possible without hurting anybody’s feelings, ’cause I feel like the new generation of sex workers are sensitive and soft, but that’s just my opinion…
[laughter] I’m choking.
If you never got your ass beat and still have to go outside and make that money…
I mean. No, I mean, seriously Cali, I know what you’re saying, ’cause sometimes the things that I see people really crying about, I’m like, “Dude, I grew up a Black woman. People shot in my face on the daily.”
Right. I am alive bro. I’m happy to just wake up every day and be alive.
Right. I’m just happy that people wanna see my ass on the internet and pay for it, I’m good. [laughter]
Don’t play with me. [laughter] But it’s like, it is what it is. I’m not young. I’m not out here just like, “La di da”, like, “Oh, it’s popular. I wanna do it,” no. And with the TikToks and the social media, I feel like there are so many young girls from the moment they get out of high school until they decide that, “Now I can’t because my mom found out about it,” or “I got r*ped and beat ’cause I ain’t really know what I was doing, ’cause I watched a TikTok and they told me I could do it.” It’s like…
Yeah.
How do I make it so that if these young women or men are fighting to get into the industry, that they have a guideline tool that they can use so that they’re not just getting information from social media or their friends or YouTube? [chuckles]
Right. Exactly.
They’ll have like ten years of experience of actually being in sex work.
Yeah. Damn girl. Okay. Let me get to some of these questions, ’cause we could talk for a minute, I can feel that. Lady Lazarus wants to know, are you from the East Coast? ‘Cause you seem to kind of have that mentality.
No, I’m originally from San Francisco, California.
Really? Okay, the Bay?
I sound like a New Yorker. [chuckle]
Right. No. Yeah. You kinda do. East Coasts are real as fuck, but a lot of people up there from the Bay area are real as fuck too. So I could see that, I could definitely see that. And then question: do you have a favorite scene? If so, what is it? That one is coming from… Anyways, that was random. It’s anonymous, I don’t know who said that. [chuckle]
I always seem to outdo myself in my scenes. So I wouldn’t, I don’t know. I have favorite performers, but I wouldn’t say…
Okay let’s do that, favorite performers, ’cause we really wanna know who you like to fuck, who makes you tingle when you see their name on the call sheet.
Girl, I don’t even wanna go there.
Yes, you do.
Oh, no, no. I just shot with him.
Who?
Mick Blue… He’s…
Okay, okay. He’s so nice. He’s so charismatic.
Yeah, he is. I shot my very first professional anal scene with him, so that was amazing.
Was that the one for Tushy?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, sweet, sweet. Alright, who else is a favorite performer?
Pressure The Entertainer is one of my favorite performers.
Ooh.
Mazee The Goat, one of my favorite performers.
Okay.
Scotty P, one of my favorite.
Scotty P is so cool and funny, I love him. He has such a pretty dick. Oh my God.
Yeah, we’re gonna shoot some content so y’all stay tuned for that all week. He’s gonna be my valentine.
Oh, cute. I love that type of shit.
Who else? Let’s see, Isiah Maxwell, of course.
Yes.
Okay.
Oh God, yes.
I could keep going.
No you don’t have to stop girl. You just reminded me. Okay, speaking of, before you became a porn star, who was the people that you looked at? Since we’re talking about Black History Month, who were your Black history porn stars that you looked at before you was one?
Ana Foxxx.
Yes.
Ooh, Misty of course, Jenna Foxx. I was looking at Isaiah Maxwell, Prince Yahshua, Pinky of course. She just won the Hall of Fame for AVN… wow. How can I forget her name? Not Skin Diamond, but she starred in a lot of Skin Diamond stuff, but Skin Diamond too…
Yeah, I was gonna say Skin Diamond was one of mine. I think that’s when I realized different-looking Black girls could do stuff in the industry.
When I saw her, it made me feel more comfortable because she was one of the smaller girls that I ever saw. And I was like. “Okay. Yeah.”
Yeah. Yeah.
We’re like all the way for a MILFy and big…
Exactly. Especially if it was a Black woman, you had to have a major ass. I remember seeing Nyomi Banxxx and Roxy Reynolds and being like, not like I was comparing, but I was like, “Oof, they got something I definitely will never have.” [laughter]
Yeah. I’m bisexual, so I love me some women.
Me too, me too, girl. I love everything about the women’s bodies and curves. So, let me see, we wanna know, as we’re wrapping up, what do you think you wanna leave your legacy? I heard you talking about all kinds of stuff like future books, rapping maybe. What do you want to be your legacy going forward, if people looking back on your career?
I just want people of our color to look at me and say that they can do it too. I just, I feel like I already kinda inspire a lot of people within our industry, whether they wanna admit it or not, it’s true.
I’ll admit it. [chuckle]
Thank you. But just mostly I want to leave behind the guidance and education that I learned by getting into the industry and guiding the future generation of people who want to get into it, like how to do it the correct way—the safe way—without having to necessarily put their moral standards or anything like that on the line. It’s okay to say, “I still want a family, I still want a husband, I still wanna do certain things or don’t wanna do certain things.” You don’t have to be pressured into being in a poly relationship or having someone that has multiple partners or saying, “Oh, I don’t want to have kids.” You can still live a separate life outside that lifestyle and be happy. You just have to determine what it is that you really want out of the lifestyle. For me, it’s a stepping stone, and I feel like the industry is a stepping stone. The most important thing to do is to get in, get your money, build your reputation, build your brand, get out, and use it for something else. And a lot of people don’t think like that.
I feel like I will be in the industry forever, just not in front of the camera, eventually, I’ll have my own model house, my own agency, my own professional company—which I have my own production company now, I shoot a lot of my own stuff, and it’s just like an amateur pro. But if and when I get to the point where I have the financial backing. Excuse me, not if, but when I get to the point that I have the financial backing, I am going to be able to put our Black performers on a pedestal and take from the companies that I worked with and actually use what I learned as an internal performer to apply that to make more money and to bring up the smaller generations that are coming into the industry. That’s my overall goal, because eventually I wanna have some babies, and I’m gonna have a husband, and I’m…
Yes girl. You know they’re lining up to get married to you. I would love to see that as a fucking reality show, even though it’s just one season, they’re trying to date Cali…
In reality, y’all need to go tag me a Zeus or something.
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I would love to watch that, the men trying to win your affection, ’cause I know they can’t be no scrubs coming halfway, you need to be top-level men, if they’re gonna step to you. [chuckle]
Yeah, no, I mean, I don’t discriminate. The toxic ones got the best D. [chuckle]
Isn’t that right? Don’t you hate that? I almost wonder if I could just have a little…
I’ll take two to three of them that’s building and healing a little bit. Just a little bit.
Can I just pedal a toxic D on the side, but be married to my straight-laced business dude that can finance shit?
So, I see this doctor, and he’s always like, “I’ll send you and your boo on vacations, just let me watch the recordings.” And I’m just like “Perfect.” I’m having two to three husbands, maybe a wife or two, but then the reality of it is I require a lot of time and attention, and I don’t like my attention divided. So the reality of it is, it’s like, do I really wanna share? We could do that on the weekends, birthdays, and holidays, the rest of the year is us, and we’re a partnership, and we’re a business, and we’re grinding, and we’re making all this money, and then we go on vacation, and we just take some baddies with us and just enjoy that shit. I have my whole life… I have a vision.
I see that vision, I see it girl. I love how active your mind is because I’m like, “Take me in that world.” I’m trying to get into the Cali Caliente lifestyle.
It’s not in stone yet, but I’m working on it. I’m manifesting every day, and every day I just wake up extremely happy because I know the possibilities of what I can accomplish and can’t let anything else get in the way of that and just stay focused on that. It works.
Well girl, I’m not gonna take up any more of your day. I can’t believe I just got to see you beautify yourself, right before my eyes. You’re a little princess, princess of porn, and you’re gonna be doing so much more in the future. I already know it, I see it, and I can’t wait for it all to come true, so thank you so much for sharing your absolutely wonderful thoughts with us. I can’t wait for people to watch this and read about it on the HotMovies blog, because you really were spitting hot fire, like…
I try not to be so vocal sometimes, but it’s necessary.
But when you talk, you fucking say something. So thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you, Cali, I really appreciate you.
I finally speak with a purpose. [chuckles]
There you go, I love it. Well, let’s say bye to everybody.
Thank you, guys. Make sure you go subscribe to all my platforms, as @TheCaliCaliente on everything: OnlyFans, XVideos, Twitter, Instagram. Check me out, I got a lot of nude content with some big names coming, y’all don’t wanna miss this. [chuckle]
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