Interview with pornstar legend, Seka
Posted on October 29, 2007
Filed Under seka, Porn star Interviews, Seka, blonde |
Of all the stars of the Golden Age of adult film, none loomed nearly so large as Seka. Seka ios the biggest name in classic porn and the biggest name in Swedish Erotica
The porno scene of the late ’70s and ’80s has managed to garner a modicum of mainstream attention from both fiction and documentary filmmakers in recent years. From the slick Hollywood films Boogie Nights and Wonderland to the biographically-oriented Porn Star and Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes.
Here is a short interview with the Swedish Erotica sex star… who soon may have a film of her own.
Seka hit the adult movie world in the late 1970s, and became a star overnight. Married twice and born and raised in Radford, Virginia, Seka grew up with an inherent sense of knowing what she wanted out of life—something better than what society had planned for her. She had a keen sense of style and of business that helped her become a success. These gifts have labeled her as difficult to get along with. Rumor was ripe that she wouldn’t give interviews. In fact, at the Chiller Theatre show where this interview was taken she turned interviewers away and almost physically threw one away from her table. Now retired from the adult film world Seka did take time out to talk about her past, her romance with the great comedian Sam Kinison, her fight with the Government’s investigation into the adult film industry (the Mease Commission), and her life today. Welcome to the interesting world of Seka.
CT: First things first, is your name pronounced SEE-ka or SAY-ka?
SEKA: It’s pronounced SAY-ka.
CT: What is your real name?
SEKA: You’ll have to look that up because I won’t tell you. If you really want to know you can go to SEKA.com and look it up.
CT: Was that a plug?
SEKA: You better believe it.
CT: You have a reputation for being difficult and NOT giving interviews. How did Chiller Theatre get so lucky?
SEKA: Everyone at this show has been so kind and so gracious that it’s the least I could do. The staff here is so friendly and polite. It’s been a good time.
I’ve done a lot of appearances at adult film events and the staff and many other people are rude and demanding. Here everyone was so polite and easy to get along with. I can see why Chiller Theatre has such a good reputation.
CT: But a lot of people have asked you for an interview.
SEKA: Your approach was the correct one. I had a guy come up to me at this show. He was some guy with a hat and sunglasses. He cut through the line where I was signing autographs and threw his mike in my face. He had his camera going thinking I’d stop and put everyone else on hold so I could do his interview. I told him we’re not doing anything. I told him to leave. He wasn’t respectful to me or the other people around me.
He wasn’t nice at all.
CT: Well, let’s start with the basics. Where were you born and what was your childhood like?
SEKA: I was born and raised in Radford, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I had a plain, normal childhood. I had one brother and one sister.
CT: What got you into the adult entertainment industry?
SEKA: I was part owner of seven adult bookstores.
CT: In Virginia?
SEKA: Yeah. They were all over the state. At the time 8-millimeter films were the big things. I had to splice them together for the peepshow booths that were in the back of the store. Naturally I watched the films and I thought to myself, “These women don’t look that good, and they are not a fair representation of women.” I figured I could do better and I did. I tried hard to show how women should be represented in adult films.
CT: You didn’t start in films right out of high school?
SEKA: Oh no. I started when I was twenty-five, a time when most women were getting out of the business. I’ve got good genes.
CT: How many films did you make?
SEKA: I made about fifty in my career. It seems like more but what a lot of these distributors do is add scenes from my movies into something they are trying to peddle. They use the name recognition to sell their film. That makes it look like I did hundreds of films.
CT: What caused you to stop? You hit the scene in late 1970s and were an instant sensation then you disappeared.
SEKA: I was the transition girl. When I came into the business it moved from 8 millimeter to VHS so that everyone could have adult films in their home. I did my movies and had a lot of fun, but then you want to try other things.
CT: So you quit cold turkey?
SEKA: I did fewer films through the late eighties, but I began working at CLUB Magazine. I had a ten-year contract. I did their pictorials and wrote some articles.
CT: What do you think you’d have done had you not become involved with the adult film world?
SEKA: Actually I got married, and that man wanted to have children. I didn’t. It’s not because I didn’t love kids; I love kids. I just didn’t want to have any. I wanted to experience the world, and you can’t do that when you’re carrying around children. I would probably have been a housewife with a bunch of kids. But when I heard mention of kids after I got married I thought, “I don’t think so.”
CT: Did you have any problems in your career that made you want to rethink your decision?
SEKA: None. I knew exactly what I was doing. I wanted to do adult entertainment especially because of the way women were represented before I became involved. It was also something I enjoyed. It was sex for God’s sake.
I also liked the business end of things as well. That’s where I got my reputation for being difficult. I wouldn’t let people take advantage of me and I prevented it from happening as much as I could.
CT: That’s interesting because porn was becoming a mainstream industry in the early 1970s. My teachers used to go see the movies then these tell all books started coming out. The women claimed they were abused and drugged to make those movies, and suddenly porn retreated back into the closet.
SEKA: Yeah, I know.
CT: What was that all about?
SEKA: I think a lot of people don’t want to read something unless it’s tragic or horrible. And since there is so much negativity about pornography to begin with it’s easy to assume the star had a difficult life. And unless you had something tragic happen to you, no one is going to read about you.
CT: Why haven’t you written a book?
SEKA: I have been approached about writing a book about my life a number of times. When they find out I wasn’t molested as a child or abused in some way they lose interest.
I had a perfectly normal childhood. It was a very positive upbringing. I came from a normal family. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we all got along well. We walked to school together. We made our own Halloween costumes. We decorated the Christmas tree as a family. It was a very normal upbringing. And no one is interested.
Society wants to think that only down and out desperate people get into the adult film business. That’s the picture that has been painted.
What ever happened to this is sex, it’s fun, and let’s share that fun by putting it on film?
CT: Political correctness rules.
SEKA: Political correctness drives me out of my mind. It’s such BS. We’re supposed to be a free country as long as we watch what we say or do because some person we’ve never met before or didn’t even know existed MIGHT become offended.
CT: So you’re a Howard Stern fan?
SEKA: I love Howard Stern. He tells it like it is. He shoots straight from the hip, and people can’t deal with that. You think in 2005 it wouldn’t be so restrictive. It seems that the more we progress the more we digress.
CT: Everyone takes everything so seriously anymore.
SEKA: You’re right. Look at smoking! I can’t smoke anywhere. What’s wrong with having a section for smokers? I got a ticket in California because I was smoking a cigarette outside where I wouldn’t bother anyone. I ripped up the ticket and threw it on the ground.
CT: You have worked with some of the best (or some might say the most notorious) in the adult film industry. Are there any people you enjoyed working with more than others?
SEKA: I really enjoyed working with John Holmes because he was always very nice to me. I’ve heard from others that he wasn’t very nice to them, but he was nice to me. Jamie Gillis was fun to work with because he was such a character. Jesse St. James and Aunt Peg were a lot of fun to work with. One of my most favorite people was Veronica Hart. She was such a sweet woman.
CT: After completing a movie, did you go to premieres with the other stars?
SEKA: If there was a premiere to promote the movie AND they wanted to pay me to promote their movie then I would go. But most of the distributors had the attitude that since I made the movie I was obligated to promote it. I was accused of being difficult, but if I wasn’t getting paid I wasn’t going. It was a business. They were still using my name and images.
CT: After a day’s shoot do adult film stars pal around together like regular film stars?
SEKA: I don’t know. I wouldn’t hang out with anyone from the business and I never did. I’d go home.
I’d go to the set and do what I had to do, then I’d go home and come back when they needed me again. It was a job. I enjoyed it, but it WAS a job.
CT: So no close pals or wild antics?
SEKA: I just didn’t want to be in that scene. From what I had heard there were a lot of drugs and I wasn’t into that. I’m not saying I didn’t do my fair share of anything but I wasn’t into the drug scene.
When I worked in front of the camera I was totally sober. I did not drink or do drugs. I was completely clean.
CT: Were there actors and actresses who came to the set stoned or drunk?
SEKA: Yeah. I won’t tell you who they were, but you could tell. It just made the day go longer.
CT: How long did it take to film one of your movies?
SEKA: We shot sixteen to eighteen hour days over ten days. We were shooting on 35-millimeter film as opposed to the digital stuff they bang these films out with now.
CT: What happened at CLUB Magazine?
SEKA: I had a great job there for ten years. I was able to sell a lot of SEKA merchandise and have a great time. I had exclusive rights to all of my photographs. I had a lot of freedom to do what I wanted. It was a very amicable arrangement. Now I’m doing the Club International’s 30th Anniversary issue coming out this January.
CT: In 1985 you ended up testifying in front of Congress?
SEKA: Yes, it was the Mease Commission. They were doing an investigation into the adult film industry. I begged to testify on behalf of the actors and actresses.
CT: Not many of your peers were as willing?
SEKA: No. Most of them didn’t want to be bothered. They were afraid.
CT: Why did you testify before the Commission?
SEKA: I was fed up with what I was hearing. They were making all members of the adult film industry to be criminals. Some were, but most were people trying to earn a living. Then they tried to say that I was a victim. Well, I had to tell them off..
What a lot of people don’t know is that the Mease Commission was founded in the late 1960s to investigate an alleged pornography problem. They didn’t find one. After their investigation they recommended that all the obscenity laws on the books in the United States be abolished except for those dealing with child pornography. When President Nixon got that report he threw it in the circular file.
The second Commission, the one that I testified at, was established in 1985. Because of the “tell all” books by some stars and some complaints by parents who caught their children watching their store bought porn tapes, they set out to prove there was a problem. And you know what? They didn’t prove a thing.
CT: I wonder if they’ll have another commission because of all the Internet availability.
SEKA: Well, they have been trying to pass new obscenity laws.
CT: It will be interesting to see what happens in the long run when the Supreme Court can’t define what is obscene.
SEKA: Some people will always complain about the industry.
CT: You dated the late great comedian Sam Kinison. What was that like?
SEKA: Sam was appearing on stage in Chicago. I had nothing to do so I went to watch his show. I had a box seat so that I could look down on the stage. He was so funny that I found myself laughing uncontrollably.
After the show, one of the stagehands approached me and asked me to come back stage. Sam wanted to meet me because of how hard I was laughing. We hit it off and began to date. Eventually he used me in his act. When I was free I’d tour with him and sometimes come out on stage with him. We’d do a bit of dialog. I was uncomfortable with it, but it got a lot of laughs.
CT: What was Sam really like?
SEKA: He was a very kind and gentle person. He was loud on stage but when he wasn’t doing his act he was very soft spoken. He found it necessary to drink a lot and take drugs. He had a lot of demons in him that he couldn’t get rid of so he hit drugs hard.
As I said I’m not part of the drug scene. I just couldn’t handle it so I left him.
I was so happy when I’d heard he’d been to rehab and then married someone special. It was a tragedy that he was killed. Sam was a wonderful person. I still miss him.
CT: After you left CLUB Magazine, what happened? You seemed to fall off the face of the Earth.
SEKA: I joined the club scene as an exotic dancer and toured clubs all over the world. I had a great time and got to see a lot. Eventually, though, I figured it was time to retire. I’d found my significant other and decided to settle down. Maybe the third time is a charm?
CT: And what do you do now?
SEKA: Just my website. That’s it. I had a difficult time getting it established because someone was using SEKA.com and I had to sue to get the domain name back. Strangely enough I got it back on my birthday April 15.
CT: What do you do with your free time?
SEKA: Free time? What is that?
CT: What’s a typical day for you?
SEKA: I get up about five thirty in the morning and go to the gym. I come back and check my emails and answer them.
CT: You answer all emails to your site?
SEKA: Yes. Every reply is from me.
CT: Then what do you do?
SEKA: I fill any orders made online, write in the diary online, and update my calendar. Then I do my errands. When I come back I check the website and answer more emails. I try to think of new things to do with the site to keep people interested and coming back. I post new stuff once a week. When you are a member you get four new pictorials a month. My fans have been very supportive, and I feel this way I can give something back.
CT: Have you had any problems with the website from weird fans?
SEKA: I get crazy emails but that’s to be expected. You get the religious ones that say I’m going to hell and all. So what? I’ll be in good company because most of my friends will be there.
CT: So what brings you to Chiller?
SEKA: A friend I knew asked if I would be interested in doing the show. I didn’t know anything about Chiller, so I asked around and everyone gave me good news about the show. So I went from there.
This has been the absolute best show I have ever done from beginning to end. Anytime someone said he would do something for me he did it.. There were no rough spots. There were no bumps. There was no BS. Everyone was so accommodating. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I was at a show and no one was trying to mess me around. It was so refreshing to see that there are so many nice people still around. It’s been an extremely pleasant experience.
CT: Do you have any plans to continue in the entertainment field like singing or making movies?
SEKA: Singing? I wish I could sing. I’m so bad that I don’t even sing in the shower for fear of scaring anyone. I can’t sing at all. As for movies, it depends what comes my way. I’m done with adult films. I wouldn’t mind doing a horror film if the right one came along.
CT: A horror film?
SEKA: Yeah. I think it would be fun. They scare me so I don’t watch a lot of them, but I think it’d be fun to be in one.
CT: That would be a change of pace.
SEKA: Well, I’m not saying I’m an actress. I’ve been a performer all of my life, I’d like to try acting.
CT: Is there going to be a book?
SEKA: Yes. There might be two: one about my life, and the first one will be a coffee book pictorial. Hopefully the pictorial will be within the next year. The autobiography may take a while. I’ll warn you now: it won’t be scandalous.
A lot of stuff got thrown on my plate recently with getting SEKA.com back, packing up twenty-five years of my life and moving to a new house, which we just did last week. I haven’t even unpacked yet. And now the book project is in the works.
CT: Are you in California now?
SEKA: No. I’m in Kansas City, Missouri. When I left Virginia I went to LA for 3 years and didn’t like it.
CT: Where were most of your movies filmed?
SEKA: Los Angeles or New York. After Los Angeles I moved to Chicago and stayed there for 25 years. I found a nice place in Kansas City. I’d never been there, but my better half took me there for Thanksgiving and asked what I thought. I looked at about fourteen houses. I walked into one and said. “This is my house.” So we bought it and made the move. We’ve been in the house four days.
CT: What do you think of the adult film world today?
SEKA: The industry has gotten kind of freaky. To me it’s not erotic anymore. It’s just “how many people can we throw into a scene?” and “how many orifices can we fill up with something?”. It’s just not sexy.
CT: It seems that the adult movies from the late 1960s to about 1986 seemed to have a sense of style.
SEKA: Back then people enjoyed what they were doing, and we did. We tried to make movies. I was getting six figures a movie. Now girls are getting $400 and most of them are burned out within a year.
CT: If you were just starting out, would you go into the adult movie field?
SEKA: Today? No. it’s too dangerous. They work you hard for little pay and after a year, you’re done. Plus you have to worry about diseases and the threat of violence.
In the old days not just anyone could make a movie. There was too much involved. Now, any psycho that can get a digital video camera can make one. And who knows where that would lead?
CT: Do you get residuals?
SEKA: No. They try to get you to take money on the back end so they don’t have that big expense up front. A lot of people fell for that.
CT: What do you mean?
SEKA: Well the company would make the movie then go broke and have to sell it to someone else who would make the money. The actors would lose. So I figured I’d get the money up front and be done with it. So all of those movies are now public domain.
CT: What do you think of television?
SEKA: I love THE SURREAL LIFE. I’d love to be on that show. It would be so surreal. Unfortunately I only get to see it in reruns.
CT: And no one has approached you?
SEKA: No one knew how to reach me. There was even a rumor that I was dead. My website and Chiller Theatre are helping let people know I’m still here.
CT: Do you watch a lot of television now that you are retired?
SEKA: A little. I’m a big fan of that HBO series DEADWOOD. I love the character of Trixie the Whore. She is so real, so liberated, and she’s the only character on that show that smokes cigarettes. I also love to watch cooking shows. I’m a pretty good cook too.
CT: You were a big fan of the Chicago baseball teams?
SEKA: Was? I still am. The only drawback to leaving Chicago is that I won’t be able to go to as many games as I used to when I lived there.
CT: I understand that you have a keen business sense.
SEKA: I don’t know about that. I do know what I want and how to get it. It might be from experience or from keeping my eyes open. I do own all the transparencies taken of me at Club Magazine for ten years. No other adult star was able to do that. There are over one hundred and fifty thousand of them. That’s where the coffee table book will come from. I own all the rights and the registered trademark to the name SEKA.
CT: Is there a SEKA action figure?
SEKA: I was approached by a company to produce one. I don’t know what’s involved. I was approached here at the show. So I’ll contact them after the show to see what happens. (SEKA contacted me to say she has reached a deal and there will be a SEKA statue at the October Chiller show.)
CT: Do you get a lot of people approaching you like that?
SEKA: Oh, yeah, people come up to me with this great idea to do this or do that then want me to come up with the money for it. I’m not stupid.
I had a guy come to me that wanted to use me promote a DVD of one of my movies on his site. I told him I’d do it if I got a dollar for each DVD he sold. He said he couldn’t do that, but he could give me exposure. Honey (she laughs) I think I’ve been pretty well exposed on my own. I know what they paid and I know what they stood to make so I wasn’t being unreasonable. But because I wouldn’t promote it (I wasn’t making any money from the movie having been paid for it years ago) the DVD didn’t do so well.
I’ve been called unreasonable and difficult to work with when all I am trying to do is protect myself just like anyone else would do.
CT: You’ve given a lot of interviews over the years. Is there anything you’d like to say that you’ve never been given the opportunity to say?
SEKA: I believe people ought to be nice. Dammit, be nice. It makes the world an easier place to live and you get back what you give out. And it’s easier to be nice. And go to SEKA.com and say, “Hello.”
CT: Thank you, Seka.
SEKA: Thank you.
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