AAPI Heritage Month on HotMovies continued on Monday May 9th when host Jada Kai joined bombshell beauty Jade Kush live on the HotMovies Instagram. Jade discussed being an intimacy coordinator on VR porn sets, Asian representation in the industry, and taking control of her own career. Check out their fun conversation below, or watch the video on HotMovies’ Instagram!
JADA KAI: Hello. We are live again on HotMovies Official. My name is Jada Kai, your host today. We have a very special guest, her name is Jade Kush. She has been featured in Women’s Health Magazine, Rolling Stone… She has quite a library on HotMovies. I’m very excited to talk with her today. And thank you to HotMovies Official for celebrating Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We’re gonna talk about culture today, you guys can press that button right there down in that corner and ask any questions that you have and that way we can answer them. Let me get Jade Kush in here right now. I hope you guys are digging my raspy voice today. [chuckle] Hi, Jade?
JADE KUSH: Hi, we have matching voices.
Oh my God, I love it. We’re doing the raspy today.
I call it… I always tell people, I don’t know, right now I sound like a cross between like an old-lady smoker and a frog. There’s definitely something that I’ve seen there about that.
I was like, “Do I sound like a baby seal or something?”
Yeah. [laughter] I need to put all my custom videos on hold for the time being ’cause I was like, “There’s no way. Someone’s gonna want a refund.” [laughter]
I think… I feel like some people dig the raspy voice. I don’t know if you have ever saw the Friends episode with Phoebe and she loses her voice and then she starts getting it back again and she’s sad.
I’ve definitely had some friends who have told me, they’re like, “No, it sounds good.” And I’m like… [shakes head no]
Yeah, it’s sultry.
Yeah. Except this cough though, that’s the part… I can’t. The allergies are just like… [rolls eyes and shakes head no]
Yeah, there was a wind storm here yesterday and we were in state of emergency, so my allergies have just been crazy.
Yeah, it’s too much dust and pollen out here.
Where are you right now?
I’m in Los Angeles.
Okay. Well, anyway, we’ve been talking about our voice for so long. Sorry everyone. I’m very excited to have you here today. Thank you so much for coming.
Yeah, of course, thank you for having me.
Of course, I recently saw you in Women’s Health Magazine—that’s so exciting. I was just reading it before you came on today. You did such a good job of explaining how we are sometimes depicted as just sexual objects and how sometimes companies depict us in a way that we would not approve of, and I thought it was very inspirational. You’re taking a stance on your content: you’re producing what you want now, and I just think that’s so cool.
Thank you. Yeah, it’s definitely been… ’cause I’ve been in the industry almost five years now. And so of course the stuff you get thrown at when you’re newer is more… Right now, you would look at it and be like, “Wow, why would I ever do that?” You know? But then I think it comes with being in the industry so long, and then being able to say no to things. But I think a lot of newer talent feel like they don’t have the option. Especially when it comes down to something almost… It’s not trivial, but as [far as] the content in a scene you know, it’s one thing if you don’t wanna work with the person or the company, that’s a whole bigger thing. But if someone’s like, “Oh, well, we just want to wear this thing, or say this thing, it’s not a big deal.” And then you feel as new talent you’re like, “Oh well, am I gonna lose the scene if I don’t wanna wear this dress or if I don’t wanna say this thing, or are they gonna say that I’m a difficult performer to work with?” ‘Cause they don’t really look at it, it’s not like, “Oh, I don’t wanna work with person because X, Y, Z.” Like an actual reason, it’s just like, “Oh, I don’t wanna wear that outfit.” And they’re like, “Well, why not?” ‘Cause they don’t see the issue with it, obviously, ’cause they’re asking you to wear it. So I just wish that wasn’t as big of a thing, ’cause I feel there are definitely some, not just Asian, but other “exotic” races that they can put these costumes on. But White performers don’t have these cultural costumes that they have to wear really. And so I just think it’s another layer that’s added on to performers of color, that you have to be like, “Oh shit, what if I don’t wanna be dressed in this ridiculous outfit for a culture that I don’t even represent?” ‘Cause that’s my thing. They’re not even matching us to where we’re actually from, they’re just kind of like, “Oh, Asian as a general sense.” [chuckle] Like, “You all are just Asian.”
Yeah, what was the word that you use? Mono-cultural?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that is something I never really thought about, so I was like, “Oh, I feel so educated on that now.” That there’s so many different Asian cultures; we are not all the same, whatsoever.
Exactly, or if they tell me, they’re like, “Oh, you’re gonna eat sushi today.” And I’m like, “Okay, that’s great. I love sushi. But also sushi is Japanese and I am Chinese. So why would I be serving somebody sushi if this is my house?” If I’m inviting someone over and I’m like, “Oh, here, have sushi.” You know?
Yeah. I definitely have been in that scene. Have you had bad experiences dealing with racism on set?
Not in particular. I mean, I made it pretty explicitly clear to my agent in the beginning, ’cause I was sent to a few of those. It wasn’t sushi-specific, that was just the first thing that came to mind. ‘Cause they have the traditional silk dresses. Sorry. That they want us to wear, and I was just kind of like, “I don’t wanna wear that.” [chuckle]
Yeah, for sure.
Or they would ask me to speak in a different language that I don’t… I’m boring. I literally only speak English.
Same.
So they were asking me, they were like, “Oh, can you say something in your native language?” And I’m like, “Yeah, this is my native language.” And they’re like, “No, no, no, not like that.” [laughter] They would say something and like, “What do you speak?” And they didn’t even know where I’m from. And so I was just like, “Well, you can’t even tell me to speak anything or… ” And then they go on their phone and they’re like, “Okay, let’s look up some stuff on Google translate.” And I’m like, “No, this is ridiculous. I’m not doing that.”
Oh my God.
So I think that was the funniest experience I had. And pretty quickly, the makeup artist thankfully stood up. She was like, “No.” She was like, “That just doesn’t seem right. She’s not gonna know how to say it.” And I was like, “Yeah, my dialect is gonna be off ’cause all those languages have certain ways, you say things for pronunciation. And the last thing I wanna do is be in a movie saying something wrong and then people are gonna be like, ‘What the fuck is that?’”
Right. I’m here to turn people on, not turn people off. [laughter] You know what I mean?
Yeah. And literally they’re on Google Translate like, “Wait, how do we say it again?”
Yeah. And it’s Google Translate, so you know that they’re saying it like a robot. I’m like, “I’m not trying to sound like a robot. That’s not hot.” I think that’s really good advice for new performers when they’re getting into the industry. There are so many boundaries that you can have whether it’s what you’re wearing, who you’re performing with, how you want to be depicted. It’s your brand at the end of the day. So it’s up to you to stand up for it. And you have just set such an extraordinary example for us.
Thank you. I’m trying to change the perception of the image, ’cause I don’t feel anyone should have to feel bad about saying, “I don’t wanna wear this outfit because it’s racially insensitive to me.” It’s just like saying how performers have said to say they say they don’t wanna work with somebody. But it’s kind of, it goes along that same line: this movie is about you. And if you’re not consenting to anything in here or one specific part in it, then how are you consenting to the other parts of it?
Right.
So I think that’s, it just goes down to the whole consent talk and people, performers being able to speak up to their agent, to production companies, to other talent about what they want. And I think that for costumes and stuff in general it just… of course you’re always gonna run into issues where performers don’t wanna work with each other, and no one can automatically know everyone’s no list, you know? And so that’s a learning thing. But for wearing stuff and having us do something, I just feel that shouldn’t even be a question. And then, will this person dress up for me and talk in their language for me? Let’s see. That shouldn’t be… if someone wants to do that and they volunteer to and approach a company and be like, “Hey, I want to do this scene where I speak my native language and this is what I want to do.” I feel that’s more appropriate, but forcing performers who don’t use that kind of marketing strategy in their brand. I feel like isn’t…
Yeah, definitely.
It’s just an assumption like, “Oh, you look like you’re from somewhere else. So that must mean you speak something else. That must mean you own costumes from other places, and that you’ll bring them and wear them in our porno.
Yeah, for sure. And for, like you mentioned, when performers are worried that they’re gonna lose that booking, I feel performers have to know that if they close that door, there are… Another one opens, you might lose that gig but that’s okay. You might get… Because you didn’t book that gig you might be open for another gig the next day. So to new performers, don’t get caught up in that. Don’t stress about that too much. You’ll always have other platforms where you can present yourself in the way that you want.
Right. Something that my agent told me in the beginning when I did cancel a thing ’cause I didn’t wanna work with the costar ’cause I was upset. I was just like, “Oh, it’s day-of, I’m canceling. I don’t want people to think badly of me.” And she told me, “At the end of the day, this content’s gonna be out here forever, whether we want it to be or not.” But that’s just something you know that you’re getting into when you do it. You know? And so would you rather have something… You don’t want something out there with somebody that you’re going to just feel nasty about that you’re gonna regret, you know? So it’s better to just cancel that day, not get the money, have to pay your kill fee, whatever, than to have, I don’t know. It’s just kind of living with knowing I didn’t want to do that and then having it out there for everybody. So it’s definitely a big decision that you have to make but it comes with the job. No one should be forced to produce content that they’re not proud of and that they’re not happy with.
Yes, for sure. So I wanted to talk about culture a little bit since it is Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage month. You know how much I’ve been rehearsing that? [giggles] Because I get so out of breath every time I say AAPI Heritage month.
I always would see it. And I never really thought about what it’s for. Something about Asian’s month and Asian stuff. But then when I saw it spelled out, I was like, “Oh that makes sense.” But I don’t know, as abbreviations, I just read them as in my head as that one word and I don’t… I’m just like, yeah, it’s Asian’s month.
Yup, all Asian month too, and I’m like, “That’s not right.” [laughter]
Yeah. And I’m like oh no, we have to be PC now, okay.
It’s okay. [drinks from cup of tea] Sorry. I’m just lubing up my throat. [chuckle] yeah. So how much has your culture played into you growing up and how much of it is a part of you now?
So actually interestingly, I was adopted. So I grew up in a white household. My sister is adopted, too. We’re not blood-related though. But she is also Chinese, but we’re not even from the same area or province. So it’s definitely interesting, though, because the areas that I grew up in were predominantly white or non-Asian. I grew up in Connecticut first, which was very White. And then I moved to Chicago which is also very White. They have more culture, but not necessarily Asian culture. There’s a lot of White, Black, Mexican, or Hispanic in Chicago, but there’s not really… We have Chinatown and all the Asians literally just live in Chinatown. Like they only live in Chinatown. And so there’s not a lot of Asian influence.
So when I went to LA, that was the first time I was like, “Wow, there are all these Asian people here and there are all these Asian neighborhoods.” And it was really interesting, ’cause Chicago’s a big city, you have a lot of people there, but it’s not very culturally diverse. If you look at it, it’s super segregated how they have it all broken up. But there just isn’t a lot of extra influence besides White, Black, and a little bit Hispanic.
Yeah. So I did a little Asian tour right before I joined porn and I taught in China for a little bit. And it was so cool coming back to the US I was like, “Oh whenever I miss it, I can go to Chinatown and go to all these favorite chains that I had.” I think that’s really cool that moving to LA, it has a lot more Chinese influence and people can be comfortable there. And it’s kind of a little taste of China, and I think it’s cool. [chuckle]
Yeah, it’s definitely, definitely interesting. And the food, obviously. I ate some Chinese food growing up ’cause my dad liked to cook it a lot. But just being able to order it, and not have to go to the one… there was always just like one Chinese takeout restaurant that everyone would go to. It was for eating on the couch, yeah, sure. But it wasn’t a fancy high, you couldn’t go out and have all these different choices of different kinds of Asian food to eat so…
Yeah.
Like, I had Korean barbecue for the first time out here. That was interesting.
Oh really?
Yeah.
We just had Kimmy Kimm on here and she’s Korean. She was talking about Korean food. I was like, “Oh my God, I miss Korean barbecue.” [laughter]
Yeah, no, I’ve had it a couple of times and every time after I’m like, “Okay, that was good, but I can’t do it for another three months ’cause my stomach.” [chuckle]
What have you been working on? What exciting things do you have coming up?
I’ve been working a production gig recently for a VR company. I started off as their intimacy coordinator and now I’ve been promoted to start working on bookings, which has been really fun for me. Even having that role on set was a big step for my crew to take ’cause ultimately my position on set overrules over… like if I see a performer in anguish, or in despair, and I can be like, “Alright, everyone stop what you’re doing. I’m gonna go talk to this person in the other room. If they wanna cancel we’re canceling.” You know, so…
Oh my God.
So it’s almost like a performer advocate on set. And so that comes in.
Wow.
My crew specifically wouldn’t make them, they’re very… They’re also all Asian, which is cool, so we’re not gonna be dressing them up in costumes. But say, for some reason we did or they had that idea, I could say “No, we’re not doing this. Let’s do something else for this person.”
Oh my God, that’s amazing.
It’s been lot of learning. [chuckle]
No, I think that’s so cool.
When I’m talking to the agents, booking the girls, getting to talk to the girls on set, even talking to the few male talents… It’s VR, so we use the same two or three guys over and over. Which I think also makes it easier, ’cause then I can talk to the male performer and be like, “Hey, this is this kind of girl. We’re gonna do this with her, do this with her, don’t do this with her.” I do the whole consent talk: “Hey guys. Show each other your tests. What is on your no-list. What don’t you want him to do? What don’t you want her to do?” And then also once I know that, if I see one of them doing it in the scene, I can be like, “Cut this, stop doing that to this person. I told you, they don’t like to be hit. They said that they don’t want their hair pulled and you’re pulling their hair. You have to stop that.”
Yeah, for sure. Oh my God. Oh, that’s so amazing that you can be the referee on set.
I’m just standing there, behind the camera, just looking like [leans into camera and cocks head].
Yeah. You’re the lifeguard, I frickin love it. I’ve never, oh my gosh. I bet girls feel so… Well, everyone on set feels so much safer… Even for every talent to be like, “Hey, here’s a reminder.” Because everyone has a different no-list and people do make mistakes. So to have that extra person to be like, “She probably doesn’t feel comfortable to say no right now. Or he probably doesn’t feel more comfortable to say…”
Exactly they don’t wanna disrupt the scene, they don’t wanna make anybody mad. Or even with a position, if I’m like, “Her legs are tired. Don’t make her do that anymore. Let’s do something else.”
Yes. And it’s a VR, so that makes it…
And you have to do all the work. So yeah, especially having, not just a performer on set, who can look at things, [has] done it all, but also having another female presence. Because we’ve all been on those sets and it’s just one dude with a camera. It’s a random dude, PA, his friend. And I’m like, “Alright guys so what are we doing?” And they’re like…
They’re like, “I don’t know.”
And I’m like, “Okay, you guys don’t know what you’re doing obviously, I don’t know what I’m doing here, ’cause you guys hired me and you don’t know what we’re doing, so…”
Yeah, for sure.
Just creating a safer set environment is definitely important, you know.
Yeah.
I think more sets should have female presences, not to be sexist or gender-specific or whatever, but I think, you know, if I’m a female performer and I have an issue, I’m gonna be more inclined to talk to another female performer who might understand where I’m coming from with this issue. ‘Cause, again, talking to a director… they’re great and they wanna help you and listen to you, but also they just might not have the same experiences.
Right.
That you do. So for them to put themselves in your shoes and be like, “Why does this make this person uncomfortable?” [It] just might not even occur to them.
Yes, for sure.
That this is happening. So yeah, it’s just about being there and just trying to be in touch with everybody; not just performers, but also my crew. It goes both ways. Is anyone making anybody uncomfortable on set and what can I do to solve that kind of?
Yeah, for sure. And especially with VR scenes, because they can go a little bit longer because there’s so much to it. Everyone in the audience, I don’t know if you’re familiar with VR filming, but it’s super intense. They usually have one male performer and he’ll have a 360 VR camera in front of him and then he’s not allowed to talk, usually. And then they have a special microphone on each side, and so he barely can move. And so he can’t really power bomb them then; he can’t really help the female performer out. So the girl is doing all of the work, and for every position change [there] is a whole camera setup change. So it makes those days go a little bit longer. But at the end it’s so cool because it feels like you’re the person that is getting fucked. [laughter] I was like, “How do I even say this?” I was looking forward to it. But that’s so good. I love that you are [an intimacy coordinator], I think more sets need that. I think that needs to be the standard of porn, because right now I feel like porn is always changing and, I think Kimmy Kimm was talking about, or actually I think it was Brenna Sparks, that people should be held more accountable and with more people there. Like you’re there to hold people accountable of people’s no lists, of people’s safety, and how they feel on set.
Yeah, I do all their compliance, I do their entrance interviews, their exit interviews, all the paperwork, make sure they get their checks, do all the sign out. So that’s literally my job and you know, some sets might be like, “Oh, well we can just have our PA do that, whatever, whatever.” But it’s such a big part. Even in recent times, we’ve seen a lot of issues arise from instances on set that people say happened to them. And I’m like, “You know, I don’t see why you wouldn’t wanna invest in a compliance person on set, because it’s such a big issue.” If someone goes home and says something or you do something to somebody that’s your whole production, that’s your whole career, you know? I don’t think that anybody should wanna skimp out on that, personally. If I was running a production, I’d be like, “Who’s on here? Who’s only job is to watch everybody and make sure nothing happens?”
Yes, yes. And you can’t really count on a director; he is thinking about lights, audio, all of these things. He’s trying to get the best angle. So he might be a little bit more focused onto that. And if you have someone just focusing on consent and making sure that everyone’s safe, that is a whole-ass job.
Yeah. And it, as it should be, I think. Because I’ve talked to some mainstream friends and they’re like, “Oh wow. You guys have that now?” Because I guess that is a mainstream job in the union and the ‘regular-people acting.’ They have people like that on set whose job is to just look at the talent. [chuckle]
Yes.
So I think that the more normalized it becomes to have somebody… ‘cause then again, it makes performers feel more comfortable to speak out about stuff that they might have just gone home with and be like, “Oh man, wish I hadn’t done that.” Or worse, when they go to their agent and they’re like, “So and so made me do this.” And then it’s just like, “Oh no. Well, nobody knew.” And that’s the biggest thing, I think, is trying to get the “nobody knew” out of it so somebody can know. So being on set, you don’t wanna cause a disrupt, you know. Especially if it’s about your co-star, if you’re like, “Hey, I don’t wanna work with them.” “They said something weird to me.” “They touched me in a weird way.” Whatever it is. “They have something weird on them.” [chuckle]
Yeah.
I get it. Maybe you should just be like, “Hey, he has something on his thing.” But also you don’t wanna say that in front of everyone, because that’s embarrassing to your co-star, also. So I feel like having someone whose job is to deal with those issues [is important].
Yeah. To know that they are an expert in that, too, is a lot more comfortable; knowing that, “Okay, she has probably had to deal with this before. So I feel comfortable to talk to her.”
I gotta go up and look and be like, “Alright, all of you strip naked.” [laughter], Because some sets do that. They have you, when you first arrive, they’ll have you take off all your clothes and be like, “This is my body. I have a bruise right here.” Because sometimes even if a performer shows up too bruised, that’s a big thing in the industry. If you show up and you have too many bruises or if you had an open cut, that’s not safe. Because we’ve had performers who had, I’ve seen on set, not my set, but a girl will have a big gash. And I’m like, “That’s not safe to be working with. You fell down and you scraped yourself and it’s still pretty fresh.” Why, you should just postpone your scene ’cause now you might be on some box cover with your whole arm scraped up. So it’s just stuff even like that where it’s not their fault, but kind of discretion. We can’t shoot anyone obviously who’s too beat up ’cause that looks kind of questionable on our part.
Yeah. And also like you said, it’s not really the safest thing to do.
Yeah it’s their own body.
You guys are gonna be sharing bodily fluids.
Exactly like I do…
Things are gonna happen.
Yeah. Let’s get a band-aid on you or something. Don’t just kind of be like, “Hey guys, I cut open my arm today on my car door. But, you know, it’s fine.”
Yeah. [chuckle] Do you prefer working behind the scenes or in front of the camera?
I’ve liked working behind the scenes recently just ’cause I think it did come down to the whole controlling my own content thing. Obviously during COVID everybody stopped working and so that’s when I stopped, too. Just because it was, we had to, and then when people started going back, I was kind of like, “I don’t know if I want to really, unless I can control the whole scene. I don’t really wanna do it.” So this has been… I didn’t go out seeking this job either. It just kind of came. So that was interesting ’cause I was just mostly focused on my OnlyFans content. ‘Cause I mean, overall, everybody knows, that’ll make you more money at the end of the day than working on set for ten-hour days. That’s the truth of it. And I was just kind of content regathering myself and finding who I was again in the industry. And then being able to be slowly introduced into production was very cool for me. I have done one professional scene since the one that just came out with Nicole Doshi.
Oh cool.
On Slayed. So I am open to select work, I think. It just really depends. It’s obviously a production value, production company [consideration]. That’s how [chuckle] I kinda weigh it, not others above others, but you know, I knew that one that they were gonna make me look good. Nicole’s obviously amazing, so I knew that that was going to be… They weren’t gonna make me do anything ridiculous there and that it would be marketed well, advertised well. And so for that, for me was, not for the money, it was more just, I don’t know, ‘to stay relevant’ is a weird way to put it. But just be like, “Hey, I can still do this. I’m still that.” But just being really selective with where I choose to invest my image into.
Yeah. For sure. I feel like you’re really reshaping the industry and it’s really beautiful.
Thank you, thank you.
And it’s so cool that you’re just focusing on what you want to do and you’re holding people to a standard. Like, “I’m not going on your set unless… if you’re gonna treat me a way, then I’m sorry.” It’s easy to get caught up in things that you don’t wanna do because it’s like, “Oh, I don’t wanna disappoint my agent,” or whatever. But I think you can really open the doors up to what you really wanna be in. Let me pull up some questions from the fans.
Okay.
For those of you that are in here and you have any questions, you can hit that little question mark on the bottom right corner. And I’m gonna throw them at Jade.
Okay.
Someone said, “How can we get more Asian male talent into the industry?”
So there are. There have been an influx of male, Asian talent. Have you seen that? Is it just me? ‘Cause I’m testing, so I’m going on all the agency sites, I mean like, “Wow, what’s going on here?” And there’s a lot more talent in general. We should talk about again, we just talk about that part. There’s so many more male and female talent. It’s almost overwhelming. It’s very exciting, though. Because like I’m getting to cast all of them. I’m just like, “Oh my God. Who are all these people?” But there are… I don’t think there were any Asian guys when I started. Maybe there were a couple. There weren’t really, any.
Yeah. It’s like now they’re getting bigger.
Yeah, last year, I met at least three or four, maybe five that are around. I think we’re gonna try to book some. I mean VR, obviously it doesn’t matter. [chuckle] You see neck down; doesn’t matter who it is. But I definitely think that I wanna try to get some other colored talent behind in the VR area. ‘Cause I think that’s important, too, to show. Because if you’re watching it and this is your body and you wanna feel that this is actually your body.
Yeah, an accurate representation.
Yeah. Right, right. And so I feel like a lot of people, standard, we just standard ’cause it is just the majority of the industry is just a white dude, you know? But if you have darker skin, you’re like, “This isn’t my body.” You have to go the extra distance to use your imagination to make that your… I mean it’s fine at the end of the day, but I think that it would be nice to have that inclusion. So you can find a video that you’re like, “Hey, I’m represented in this.” And I try to do the same for the female talent that I cast, because there is all different kinds of beautiful women out there. And so I want them all to be in front of my camera [chuckle] obviously.
Yes. I think it’s so exciting.
Yeah, so…
I think it’s so exciting that we have so many new performers coming into the industry. I think it’s really helping break the stigma towards sex work.
Yeah.
Well, alright. Let me go through some more questions. Has working in adult entertainment made you more aware of your sexual health?
Yes. I think for everybody, because for us, like I was saying, my job on set is to make sure people show each other their tests. I walk up to them when they’re eating lunch and I’m like, “Hey guys, when you have a minute can you both send me your STD tests?” And they’re just eating a sandwich being like, “Yeah, sure. Here.” But say you bring someone home with you from the club and you say, “Hey, can I see your STD test?” They’re gonna be like, “What? I’m not dirty. Are you trying to say I’m dirty?” And it’ll become this whole thing.
Yeah. It’s so offensive. [chuckle]
And I’m like, “No, no. I just… I don’t… When did I say you were dirty?” So it’s such a casual conversation for performers to have, but for other people, I guess it’s still kind of stigmatized, you know? But everybody, [looks deep into camera] all you viewers go get STD tested right now in the next week. You should all do it. ‘Cause it’s good for you. Why wouldn’t you wanna know?
Right.
Sexual health. It’s part of your body, and we’re all getting COVID tested so frequently, go get STD tested. It’s the same thing. [chuckle]
It’s good for you, some of them, there are no symptoms to it, so you might not even know you have something. So it’s good to get checked out.
Right. Or yeah, different people’s bodies react differently to them. Some people might get super sick, some people might not show anything just based on… Even if you get it from someone and they’re fine, you could get super sick and they also have lasting effect, if it goes untreated and you don’t know. It could do permanent damage to your body, and also then you’re just passing it along to other people, too. It doesn’t mean that you’re dirty if you go get tested. It’s just better if you had… If I have this cold in another couple of weeks, yeah, I’m gonna go to the doctor and be like, “Hey, can you give me some antibiotics? Because I don’t wanna sound like a frog anymore.” But it’s the same thing. You just have a virus and it needs to get solved, so you don’t hurt your body or other people anymore.
Yeah, I feel like health is just a whole picture, and it’s just a part of you. Just check yourself out. It’s better than not.
Right, right. Yeah, it’s the people who take care of it more, who are generally safer, I feel. And people who just assume, “Oh well, I’ve used a condom before, so that means I could never get anything…”
Wrong.
I’m like, “Okay, but it still doesn’t hurt.” Yeah, it doesn’t hurt anyone to go pee in a cup.
Yes. I mean, the blood test might hurt a little bit, but it’s like you’re saving your health for the future.
And you get a blood test for next time you have to get blood drawn for any other test, you can… I think ask them to send off just to test it for everything. Because I feel that’s a pretty general test that if you go into the doctor and you’re like, “Hey, I’m feeling this way, this way,” they do all kinds of tests on you by whether pee, blood, they’ll swab you. So you could just ask them. And I think that they’ll happily do that.
Yeah, for sure. The next question: “What’s the best part about helping new girls in the industry?” I feel like this is such a good question for you because you’re literally on set, and I feel like you’re just a pioneer for us Asian performers. Yeah, so…
I think the best part is when they actually… A lot of them will recognize it, they’ll be like, “Thank you so much, it was so great to meet you this and that.” ‘Cause when they come on set, I won’t be like, “Hi everybody, I’m Jade Kush. And I’m famous and I have this many followers.” I don’t do that. I’ll just be there. Yeah, some of them, I think that they’ll recognize me. They’ll look at me and they’ll be like, “Oh, okay.” But it’s always funny after sometimes they’ll… ’cause again, I don’t go around and toot my own horn or any of that. And then sometimes they’ll follow me after then their perception, they’ll sit there and be like, “Oh, you’re actually a performer too. That’s so cool, this and that.” So then they’ll open up more and they’ll wanna talk about the industry, and want to just hear, just show that, hey, you can have friends in the industry. And not everyone’s gonna put themselves on a high horse. And we’re all just here to help you and make your day better and just setting that expectation: this is how it should be on set for them. So that the next set they go to, especially if they’re new, ’cause they haven’t been on a lot of sets, can be like, “Oh, well, this is a standard that I should hold being treated on set going forward.”
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
But like I say, the biggest part is just showing them whether they’re new or old, this is how it should be. And if anyone’s disrespecting them or whatever, that’s not okay. And you’re a human and you deserve to be treated as such.
Yes. For sure. That’s a really good answer. It feels really good to just help people sometimes, too, and be there for performers. Does Chicago have better… Well, did you say you grew up in Chicago or Connecticut? Where were you longer?
So I left Connecticut when I was in eighth grade, seventh grade. I lived there for my elementary school and my child life, I guess, but all my adolescence was in Chicago.
Okay, so do you call Chicago home?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, nice. I think I’ve had Chicago deep-dish pizza at Chicago’s, [chuckle] and I was like, “This is not that good.” What is Chicago’s specialty, is it pizza?
It is, but I don’t really like it either. I’m not a fan of the deep-dish pizza. Everyone always asks, they’re like, “Oh you like deep dish?” I’m like, “No.” I like New York pizza, honestly. New York pizza.
What is your favorite thing in Chicago for all our Chicago fans?
Chicago is a weird… Their foods are very… They like deep-dish pizza, and they like these loaded hot dogs. You can’t ask for ketchup on your hotdog, for some reason, because they don’t put ketchup on their hotdogs. So they get mad at you if you’re like, “I just want mustard on my hotdog.” They like to put too much stuff on all their stuff. That’s why I think, the pizza, they stuff it so much, it’s like a calzone. Oh my God, they’ll just pile all this extra stuff on that, and I’m like, “This isn’t even what I ordered anymore.” [laughter] And I think that’s the biggest thing. If I’m gonna order a pizza, I just want pizza. I don’t want all this extra stuff on it. In it. You have to eat it with a fork. You can’t pick it up and eat it.
Yeah. It’s more like a soup bowl. [chuckle]
Yeah, it’s like a pie.
You’re on Twitch. Do you still do that?
Not as much just because I don’t, I honestly don’t have time enough. I can’t set aside my schedule enough, I feel, for it. Because the big thing with camming, Twitch, any kind of streaming, is that you have to be consistent with it. And from just my own energy levels, my mood, whatever… based on set, I just don’t have a regular enough schedule to do that, you know?
Yeah. What games did you play on there?
I mostly played League of Legends with my friends, but that’s also hard because I liked playing with my friends more. Because as I think a more fun dynamic than just sitting there and being…
With strangers [giggles]…
I don’t like talking to myself. That’s weird to me. So…
During quarantine I got into this app and it was like League of Legends Mobile. I don’t know. I got so addicted to it. But then I felt everyone was cheating. Or they were just really good and I sucked.
[chuckle] That’s definitely the hard part but for Twitch it was fun. But a lot of the times I’d just be streaming by myself, and I didn’t find that fun. I was like, “Who do I talk to?” I talked to my chat and they’re trying to tell me how to play the game. Just because I’m bad at it. I was like, “No guys, I understand. You don’t have to tell me what order to press my buttons. I understand. I just, I don’t know. Something else [got] in between me pushing the button.” I’m like, “I know what to do. I know how to do this.” And then just the execution of it’s just horrible. I’m like, “I swear, I’m not bad at the game, guys.” People would be like, “No, you’re bad. You have to push these buttons like this. I’ll tell you how to play the game. We should play together.” Like that. Hopefully I messed up once.Gaming culture gets stressful.
Yeah. It is, it’s just very… intensive.
Yes. You’re like, “Please don’t judge me.”
Yeah. I don’t know what I’m doing and let me make my mistakes in peace.
Okay. Let’s look through some more questions. Some of them are just too naughty to ask Jade on Instagram. So we’re gonna skip through the dirty ones. Someone said, “Is Judy single?” There is a Jade and there is a Jada here and we don’t have any Judys, so I think that’s so funny. Okay. Let’s answer… ooh, okay, “What’s your favorite weed strain?”
Okay. So this is a… I’ve gone through this multiple times. I’ve never made a public video about it because I don’t know where to put it… well, on YouTube. I actually quit smoking. But I’m not gonna rebrand. That’s just too much work for me. I’ve had this name for five years and rebranding right now just seems like not a wise career choice.
That’s so funny. I was like, “This is on brand for Jade.”
Yeah. One day I was just like, “I’m done smoking.”
It’s gonna be Jade Sober.
Yeah. Right. I’m like, “What am I supposed to rename myself as?” But I think about it. All my credits are under my name already. Everybody has this. I mean, that’s kinda why I did… I switched my handle because after doing the Women’s Health and some other mainstream stuff, I was like, “This isn’t my brand anymore.” But for adult stuff, I’m going to keep it because it just doesn’t make sense to uproot everything.
Yeah, for sure. It’s even…
I’ll have my identity crisis in my head and nobody else has to be a part of it.
I’m glad you talked about that because that’s something that I didn’t know. Even on Twitter, if you change your handle, you lose all of those links.
“Who is this? Who is this?” You know? Because I worry that… I just, I, yeah. Sometimes it works, but I don’t know if a lot of times it has gone better for people. Because then all your stuff is split, too. All your old stuff. And I do have credits that I am proud of that are under my name, and I don’t wanna cause confusion to people based on a personal decision. I don’t hate weed. It’s just not something that lined up with my life at this moment in time, you know? And that’s fine. So yeah, I was like, “I’ll just keep it, but…”
That’s cool. I still think it’s a cool name. Let’s find our last question for today. What’s your YouTube algorithm look like? [laughs to herself] Thank you guys for asking so many questions. I’m sorry that we can’t answer them all. It’s mostly Instagram’s fault that we’re not answering them. We’re not avoiding you. I promise. It’s just they’re a little bit too explicit for us.
That’s a problem dealing with the Q&As, trying to do the “ask me anything.” Sorry. There’s so much cat hair flying around in here. But I’ll try to do a nice “ask me anything” and it’ll just be raunchy stuff. And I’m like [does a silly voice], “Guys! You’re supposed to ask me my favorite color.”
[laughs] No one asked me that. This question, I felt, is really good. What’s a question that you wish people would ask you more?
What’s my favorite color?
[laughter] Perfect. What is your favorite color Jade?
My favorite color is red. I don’t know if you can tell. [laughter]
I thought you were gonna say Jade.
I do… So yeah it’s between those—the dark red and dark green colors. So that’s why everything I have is either black, red, or green.
Yeah. I feel like I wear, I don’t know, black the most. But it’s not my favorite color.
Yeah. I would like to wear lighter colors, but then you just gotta do the different laundries and that’s… for my brain, I just can’t. I just need all my clothes washed at the same time. I don’t have time to do three loads of laundry. And it feels like a waste to me, too. If I only have five light-colored shirts, do I just wash them by themselves and that’s wasting water and energy to dry them?
Why is adulting so hard?
You’d think here in 2022, they would invent clothing that didn’t discolor; that just didn’t bleed color.
Right? 2022. [chuckle]
Yeah. Come on clothing brands, get it together. [chuckle]
Okay. So before we go, do you wanna plug your socials and tell people where to find you?
Well, this is my Instagram. It’s @justqueenjade and my Twitter is Jade Kush with the Roman numeral 13, which is XIII [@jadekushxiii]. Which is another thing that I didn’t think about when I created it and got stuck with. I try to rehearse that to people a lot. And then all my other links are in my LinkTree in my Instagram bio.
Can we meet your cat?
Yeah, this is Jack. [holds up cat]
Hi, Jack.
He decided to come on Instagram Live. He’s been sleeping.
Thanks for coming and hanging out with us.
And so he likes the attention, too. So…
Thanks for showing up, Jack. You’re a surprise special guest. I love it.
He is. Yeah. He heard me talking and he had to come out of the linen closet to hear what was happening here.
He’s like, “Who’s Jade talking to?”
He’s like, “She’s talking to herself again. Crazy lady.”
He’s like, “Why is this lady taking all the attention away from me?” I’m sorry, Jack. You can have Jade back.
He loves just seeing what’s going on.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me today and celebrating Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Of course. Thank you for having me.
It was so fun to have you. Thank you. Thank you.
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