Interview with
Devon Michaels
Adult Entertainer of the Year 1997-1998

Sophie's Mentertainment® Issue Mid-June 1998

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Interview with

Devon Michaels

Sophie:

I want to talk to you about the pressure of going into hard-core.

Devon:

I don’t think there is so much pressure as everybody thinks there is. I do very well, and I don’t do hard-core. I’ve considered hard-core. I did one hard-core movie with my ex-husband. We didn’t like it so we didn’t do any more. It’s not even on my resume so clubs don’t even know, and I still get plenty of work. Of course I don’t get booked for the price that a porn star would command, but I’m also not going to draw like a porn star would. That’s the cold hard truth, that if you’ve done a hundred movies and you can go the video store and your face is all over the video store, then you’re going to draw more than a girl who has done a lot of magazines, but a magazine only stays on the stand for a month. Movies are forever. So yea, I get paid less, and not taking into consideration what I look like, or my figure, or the quality of my shows and my costumes, but on drawing power, yes, a porn star should get paid more. I don’t think there’s really a pressure to do movies.

A lot of women are doing movies because they think that’s a quick way to be a feature and make a lot of money, when there is really no quick way. I know girls that do movies and work a lot less than I do, and at a lower rate. The girls that are getting the really good rates have gotten in and have either done a lot of movies or movies where they have been so well received that people do know who they are. Nothing is quick and easy, but I don’t think there’s any big pressure to do XXX. I think that if women are letting themselves get pressured into doing XXX, then they’re letting themselves get pressured in doing XXX. There’s no pressure to do magazines. You’re going to make more money. You’re going to make more than if you don’t do magazines. You’re going to book out for a higher rate. That’s how the business is. You either do it or you don’t. I don’t feel any pressure to stay published, and keep doing this and keep doing that. I actually like doing magazines and I like doing all sorts of different things. And probably if I didn’t do it I wouldn’t be able to book for my rate and book all the time.

Sophie:

Who books the magazines, you or your agent?

Devon:

Me.

Sophie:

You actually call the magazine?

Devon:

I call the photographers and shoot with the photographers and then they sell it to the magazines. Occasionally I’ll call the magazines.

Sophie:

Who are your favorite photographers?

Devon:

Well, probably my favorite of all time would be Phillip Wong. He’s in the City here. He publishes me less, but I like the stuff we do together more than I like any of the other stuff. He has an interesting way of looking at things and making them come out on film. I like this type of thing better than the magazines.

Sophie:

(Looking at some pictures taken by Phillip Wong) He’s artsy.

Devon:

Yea, he’s very artistic. Uh, who else? I like Michael Scott who shot me for Muscle Mag.

Sophie:

That’s a special art too, to make somebody look...

Devon:

Yea, I just like the way he puts an image together. That’s the type of photography I like the best. I like working with Don Sparks. Don and his wife Jan. They’re good people. There hasn’t really been anybody that I haven’t liked.

Sophie:

Have you been thinking of what you would like to do after you stop dancing?

Devon:

I change my mind about that all the time. Three months ago I was going to go to law school. Then I decided I really don’t want to be a lawyer. Then I was thinking that I’d like to be an actress, but then I’d have to talk and be on film at the same time. But I’m good on video, as long as I keep my mouth shut. It’s hard for me to talk and be in front of the camera at the same time. So. I don’t know. I don’t have a set in stone plan. I change my mind.

Sophie:

You don’t like your stuff when you speak as well, or other people don’t like you.

Devon:

Well, when you turn the camera on, I’m fine if it’s just a matter of moving and being pretty and doing this and doing that, or just portraying certain characteristics, just by how I move and with my face. When I have to do all that and speak on camera, I get nervous and I can’t speak that well; I would have to get over that.

Sophie:

You mean expressing someone else’s thoughts with your voice doesn’t go that well?

Devon:

Just talking when the red button is on makes me nervous. (Laugh) But I would like to do that.

Sophie:

Have you ever tried to portray someone else other than...

Devon:

Usually I’m somebody else every day.

Sophie:

Are you portraying somebody else now?

Devon:

No. This is me. This is how I am... for the most part. I mean everybody has different moods and everything. On stage it is me, but it’s a different part of me. You know what I mean? So it’s somebody else even though it’s me.

Sophie:

On stage you are beaming. Now beaming is an upward motion, and sitting with you here, a lot of that is held back.

Devon:

Yea. I am much more on stage.

Sophie:

You are more of a stage persona?

Devon:

In real life I am much more shy than I portray myself to be on stage. More comes out when I’m on stage. In real life I’m more like this. Casual and not necessarily shy just more quiet. You know how comedians in real life are pretty shy and they’re not the life of the party, they’re not cracking jokes, and this and that, and then on stage they’re like this. That’s how I am. If someone just saw me walking through an airport, I look like a normal little person.

Sophie:

Let me ask you a weird question, okay?

Devon:

Okay.

Sophie:

Who is the real you? Are you sure that the shy one is the real you?

Devon:

I think both are the real me. I think there are many parts to everyone. But which one is more me? Probably this is more me?

Sophie:

In which situation is more of you expressed?

Devon:

Hmm, I don’t know.

Sophie:

Because you are complex.

Devon:

I am very complicated.

Sophie:

You know I interview girls, and this is the first time that I’m interviewing someone that I can imagine in another profession. Period. I can imagine you in a corporate setting and I can imagine you in a court room and I can imagine you as a gym teacher and I can imagine you doing anything. Actress is not one of them, by the way.

Devon:

No?

Sophie:

No.

Devon:

There are other things I can do. There are lots of different parts to me, but this is just the one I’ve stuck with. Not that I am stuck with, but that I have stuck with. I enjoy it and it’s fun, but I don’t know which part is more me.

Sophie:

You say that you have an ex-husband. Did you meet him as a dancer or did you meet him as a shy girl?

Devon:

We went to different colleges at the same time and we worked at the same club. He was a dancer too. There was an upstairs bar and a downstairs bar and we’d always get together for breakfast, so I probably met him at breakfast. So, I was probably more of a shy girl, because it was outside the club, although I was a dancer at the time. We were friends for a long time, but we just did not mesh as a married couple. But he’s an all right guy. So, yea, I probably met him as a shy person.

Sophie:

I think that whatever you’re going to choose, has to have the outlet of expressing openly, and somewhat flamboyantly, your sensuality. I think it’s going to be very missing if you don’t.

Devon:

Probably.

Sophie:

I mean, look, I’m fifty, and that outlet is missing for me, and when I don’t generate it for myself I am miserable. So I go from shy to miserable, as in suppressed. Given how well you do it ... it is very clear that you feel good about yourself.

Devon:

I don’t do it twenty four hours a day.

Sophie:

On stage.

Devon:

On stage I do.

Devon:

I’m not jealous of anyone. I also try not to be envious because all the people that I have ever been envious of and thought that they had this great life turned out to be heroin addicts or their husbands beat them. The beautiful women you see and you say, “Wow, they must have a great life, I’d love to be her”, then they tell you they spend seven hundred dollars a week for a heroin habit, or some other awful thing. So either I envy the wrong people or you really shouldn’t envy other people.

Sophie:

Now, that’s an interesting topic. So let’s see. When you pick someone to envy, what is the main characteristic that is most enviable?

Devon:

Probably, and this goes back to being visual, when I see a woman that is very beautiful, especially if she’s tall and very beautiful.

Sophie:

(laugh)

Devon:

You know what I mean though. Ones that look like super models.

Sophie:

Give me one.

Devon:

I don’t know her, but she was sitting behind me at a Broadway show once, Iman, that’s married to David Bowie. She’s striking. She’s so beautiful. Even in person. I turned around and she was just so breathtaking to look at. People like that I’m always like, “Wow” I am blown away by their beauty, and then I automatically think that their life must be so great just because they are so beautiful. Which it may be. And if it is great it’s probably not because they are beautiful. It’s probably because of other reasons that their life is great. Probably in spite of that. I would say that that is the first thing that makes me go, “Wow”. And it’s really not so much an envy thing it’s just a “Wow”, just kind of blown away. But if I could change places, I think I would still want to be me. I’m ninety-nine percent sure there is nobody else that I would rather be. And that doesn’t mean that I like everything about myself, or my life is perfect, but I don’t regret anything that I’ve done. There’s no reason to because I can’t do anything about anything that’s already been done. I try to be happy where I am. Why spend your time wishing you were someone else, or had a different life when you don’t. You can change it, and you can change things about yourself and change things about your life, but you’ll never be anyone other than yourself.

Sophie:

Tell me, what racial background are you?

Devon:

I don’t know. I’m adopted. If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked me that I would have been rich ten years ago.

Sophie:

Actually, I think I know. I just figured it out, because I’ve been really watching you.

Devon:

Well that’s good, but don’t tell me, because I don’t want to know. I could actually find out, but I didn’t want to, because I don’t think anybody should know, then nobody could be a racist. I think if nobody knew what their ethnic background was, then nobody could dislike anyone else for their ethnic background.

Say you were white, but there was a chance that you were black and you just didn’t know it. And you looked at yourself and you looked like you were white, but you didn’t know for sure, so you couldn’t dislike someone who was black because they were black because you might be black.

Sophie:

Do you think people dislike others “off the cuff”?

Devon:

Yes. Definitely.

Sophie:

So it’s not something else?

Devon:

I’ve had people dislike me for whatever race they thought I was. I have been called every nasty name there is for a black person, a Spanish person, just because people assume that I am this and I am that and they don’t particularly like that group. So I think people do judge off the cuff. I’m not saying all people. There are plenty of people who don’t.

Sophie:

I was called a dirty Jew when I was a kid.

Devon:

And it’s not like I feel like I’m discriminated against. I don’t. I have been before.

Sophie:

So you were adopted? What is that like?

Devon:

What is that like? I don’t know. I was a baby. I have really good parents.

Sophie:

Are there any other children?

Devon:

I have two brothers.

Sophie:

I think people are genuinely interested in other people and very seldom get an in-depth look that other people are people. People discover their own humanness and they feel less isolated when they discover it in someone else too. Sometimes that’s why I ask questions that are deeply personal, and if it’s not comfortable then I won’t print it.

Devon:

Oh, I’m fine with it. I just think that’s kind of rude when you see a star interviewed and they start talking about their childhood and their parents and their family, even if it’s in a good way. My life as a dancer started after I was away from my family. We are still very close, and there is no animosity in my family. I just feel like this is my life and that is their life and I don’t want to bring their life into mine, in case they don’t want to be pushed into it. Like on my web site I don’t talk about things like that. I talk about me.

Sophie:

It’s just that you can’t be understood without your roots.

Devon:

This is true.

Sophie:

Something like how you reacted to the school topic was probably your strongest and most authentic reaction.

Devon:

Well, my mom, once in a while, has to hear this or that, because she teaches school.

Sophie:

What is this thing that you always keep your eyes on the television.

Devon:

I don’t know, I always look at TV. A lot of times I have the sound off and just watch the TV with no sound. It’s a habit.

Sophie:

What do you do with yourself? What other things do you do? You work out.

Devon:

I work out.

Sophie:

You probably get enough rest.

Devon:

Sometimes. I’m a little run down right now. I need about a week off so I can just sleep. I write.

Sophie:

Write what?

Devon:

Whatever.

Sophie:

Poetry?

Devon:

Uhh, sometimes. Just stories.

Sophie:

Stories?

Devon:

Sometimes.

Sophie:

Somebody else’s life?

Devon:

Sometimes somebody else’s life, sometimes my life.

Sophie:

Why, to work it out?

Devon:

No, just to write. I like to write. Just to be writing.

Sophie:

To hold a pencil and to write?

Devon:

Well, to type. But I like to write. Other than that I don’t do much. I travel all the time. So it’s not like I have lots of free time to do things. When I’m home it’s usually not for very long. Like I’ll be home Sunday for nine hours.

I get in at one and then I fly back out at ten-thirty. I’ll be gone for three weeks so I have to do laundry...

Sophie:

Where are you going?

Devon:

I’m going to North Carolina for a week and then Tennessee for two weeks. Then I’ll be home for three days and be gone for four weeks.

Sophie:

Are you pushing it?

Devon:

I’m probably pushing it right now because I have a huge doctor bill coming up. So now I’m working harder than probably I should be working and need to be working. Last week I ended up getting sick because I wasn’t drinking enough water and I got dehydrated. I had a few days off before I came here, and I have an ex-boyfriend that I used to live with a long time ago and we’re still good friends. So I just went to his house and slept for twenty-four hours. He got me take-out Italian food and a gallon of water and told me to eat and to relax. So I rested for a while and I feel better.

Sophie:

Are you drinking enough water now?

Devon:

Oh yea. I just get kind of run down.

Devon:

Well, what else?

Sophie:

Actually I do like your voice more than when it’s the little girl. You have two voices.

Devon:

Do I have two voices? I probably have more. I have a club voice too.

Sophie:

One is the chirping. That’s how you talk in the clubs.

Devon:

Except sometimes it goes out.

Sophie:

And that’s how you were the first minute and a half and then you turned into...

Devon:

I do that at the club, too. I’ll be in my club voice, and then my regular voice will just come out.

Sophie:

I think the club voice in easier to hear in the club. It’s a higher pitch.

Devon:

Somebody interviewed me for something last week in the club on Saturday night and it was packed and it was noisy and I had to yell at him. I was annoyed with the whole thing. He probably didn’t like me much. But that’s okay because he shouldn’t have come into the club on a Saturday night to interview me and expect to get good interaction. I asked him if he ever thought about maybe coming in on a Tuesday or a Wednesday or after the show, and he said, “No, I always do Saturdays”. Well, I really hate to yell.

Sophie:

Where were you?

Devon:

Upstate. Albany. I forget what magazine, but he was actually a nice guy. Plus I ran out of my pain pills like two months ago and I hardly ever have pain so I didn’t bother getting it refilled. When I had gotten dehydrated, I got some Tylenol PM and I was so messed up that I was half out of it because of this Tylenol PM. I had two more shows to do and I didn’t know if I was going to make it through those two shows and then this guy is trying to interview me.

Sophie:

Is there a way that you could drink water in the club?

Devon:

Yea, I do. I drink water through the night. I just wasn’t keeping up on it. I wasn’t paying attention.

Sophie:

That’s one of the reasons for having a roadie around.

Devon:

I don’t want another roadie. Ever. I can do this all by myself. There’s always someone at the club to help me. I don’t want to drive any more, so it would really be silly to pay for an extra plane ticket and then pay somebody to pick up my clothes. I paid my other roadie way too much. Way too much. That’s a sore subject. I don’t want a roadie.

Sophie:

Well then somebody better remind you to drink. (laugh)

Devon:

I will write myself a note. Actually, it is a really sore subject. The guy that worked with me was my boyfriend. We were together for two and a half years and he turned out to be a real dick. I’ve just decided I’m really tired of supporting men. Think that somebody would date me even if they weren’t getting my money. I know, I’m just thinking too much of myself.

Sophie:

It’s not so easy to date someone who’s always on the road.

Devon:

This is true, but I don’t always have to be on the road. I’m on the road more now than I need to be. I don’t need to work this much.

Sophie:

Only because of this big bill?

Devon:

Because of this big bill and more so because I didn’t have anything else to do, so I just thought that I would work more. But after this I’m going to be working more like two weeks a month instead of four weeks a month.

Sophie:

Then if you need more money, you can just work more.

Devon:

Yea, I can always take another booking. I don’t have that many bills, aside from my medical bills, which are usually only once a year like that. I don’t have lots of bills or a house that I pay for. Everything is actually paid off. I work more than I need to.

Sophie:

Can you think of anything that you could say that would be interesting to say? That people would like to hear? You know who will read this article? All the dancers. They are very inspired by, especially with the feature when it’s about performing. Or it could be interesting the customers or the club staff of something

Devon:

I can’t think of anything. Like what? Nobody performs on stage anymore. They just say it but their are so few people that actually perform on stage anymore. There are so few people that actually dance. When I started everybody danced. Did you notice that. And I’m not saying I’m a phenomenal dancer or anything, but I just mean that when I started everybody danced. There was none of this just walking and wiggling. I kind of miss the days when people actually did dance. Even when I was in Queens, we had all those Brazilian girls back then. It was like Brazilian girls, Puerto Rican and me. All the girls that were up there, they had dark skin and they were just beautiful and they could all just dance. And I don’t know if you remember...what was that girl’s name. She was little and short, not incredibly beautiful or anything, but she was cute. I think she was Puerto Rican.

Sophie:

Lorraine?

Devon:

Yea. She could dance. She could dance. Oh my gosh. Everybody danced back then. Maybe that’s why business isn’t that great now either.

Sophie:

That’s what I think.

Devon:

If you don’t put anything into it, you’re not going to get anything out of it. Even the club I started at, it wasn’t go-go, but everybody danced and everybody performed on stage and we did little skits and we did performances. We didn’t just stand up there...maybe this isn’t what other dancers want to hear and maybe they’ll think I’m a big bitch for saying it, but if you just stand there and expect people to just hand you money because you’re pretty. Some people will, yea. There will always be men that will hand you money because you’re pretty. But I mean, god, give them a little something for it. And it doesn’t have to be grinding on them or anything. Just something like smiling on stage. That’s a big step. Even if you can’t dance, but if you smile and wiggle that’s better. I hate that sour puss look of their faces, just like, “Here, give me your money”. Most of the house girls are nice to me wherever I go, but I go to places where I’m just like, “Maybe you’re making money because you’re not performing on stage, you’re not dancing, you’re not doing this, not really being nice to the customers. Not even so much to make the money but it just makes the job more enjoyable.

Sophie:

Or maybe somebody makes money through a means that they don’t really quite approve of themselves, and at the same time they make a sour puss look.

Devon:

If you don’t like it then don’t do it, because it’s not like the money is ungodly. It’s not like there’s so much money in it. It’s not like I have a gazillion dollar house. if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t do it. And if you don’t like it you shouldn’t do it because even if you’re making a gazillion dollars, what’s it worth to you if you’re not happy? I know a couple of adult video girls that make about five times what I do.

Sophie:

But they can’t work every week.

Devon:

They can’t work every week but they like what they are doing. I know some girls that really like what they’re doing. And that makes all the difference. They could be making that money and being miserable and there are other people that make the money and then end up with drug problems or end up in, well, everybody ends up in bad relationships so I can’t really say that. But I know people that do make good money and they’re very happy and I know people that don’t really make a lot but are really happy with what they make and enjoy what they do. If you don’t like it it’s not worth whatever you make. I have a friend that never seems to make money and can’t figure out why and she works every night and she dreads going to work and she hates being there and she hates dancing... gee I wonder. I don’t know why she doesn’t make any money. She hates it and you can just sense it from her that she is so unhappy. And she’s so afraid that if she stops..., she still likes performing, she just hates all the other stuff. She hates talking to people and going to work and basically getting out of bed in the morning she doesn’t like. But I told her before to maybe take two or three weeks off and then you might actually find that you like it again even. She is afraid that if she takes one day off that she won’t get her bills paid. And I’m like, “C’mon, how much are your bills?” This industry sucks a lot of times. It’s good to me, but I think I’m good to it, too. I don’t think it’s just that the clientele has gone down, or this has happened, or the club owner hasn’t done this, but I think the industry as a whole isn’t quite what it used to be. And maybe that’s why there’s not as much money in it. There are a lot of little things here and there that could be improved on everyone’s part. Guys will still appreciate a good show without it being sleazy. They will. Guys do like that. I’ve done shows where you couldn’t even take off your top and they couldn’t get near you, but if it was a good show they still enjoyed it. Men will always enjoy women. It’s just a given. I’m sorry. I could talk forever on that. Everybody needs to do a better job. That’s all.

Sophie:

Okay. (laugh)

Devon:

I know, in the end it made no sense. It’s real easy to get spoiled by this industry. There are nights where I’m like, “Gosh, I should have made more than that”, or “That crowd should have loved that show, that was great”. It’s not always incredible, but it’s always good to me.

Sophie:

You never know, by the way, what people do when they leave the show. Sometimes the are afraid to express because they are so suppressed.

Devon:

I’ve actually had guys come up to me after the show and tip me as if I was doing a cape show. And I’ll be thinking that these guys hate me, and I’ll be like, “Well, whatever, this is cool and I like it and I know it looks good so I’m just going to do it”. And I’ve had guys after the show stop me and tip me and say, “Here, I didn’t want to interrupt you. It looked pretty and I didn’t want to stop the motion and I thought I’d just wait until you were done”. And I’d go, “Oh, I thought everybody hated me”. So, you never know. Or, you might think you’re doing something really great and they think it’s the stupidest thing they ever saw. As long as you’re nice to them and you smile then they will usually like you, I find. I think. And they will like just about anyone.

Sophie:

There was a contest in upstate New York a few of weeks ago. There was this girl. Her body wasn’t anything special, her face wasn’t anything special, but she smiled. She was just fun. And there were two contests that she won at. She was the only one that smiled all the time. She genuinely enjoyed it.

Devon:

Guys want to think that you like what you’re doing. They don’t want to think that you’re miserable up their. That’s why the girl that’s nice, that can talk to the guys, even if she’s the homeliest girl in the room, she’ll take home the money because she’s nice and she smiles and will talk to them and say hi, be friendly to them.

Sophie:

Make them feel special.

Devon:

Yea.

Sophie:

That’s a great way to close. (laugh)

Devon:

Yea. (laugh)


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