Interview with
Leanni Lei

Editor's Notes:

Leanna's agent called me to ask me to interview her at her home club, at the Mardi Gras in Springfield, MA. I have photographed Leanna before, and remember people liked her in the club, and people liked her pictures. I decided that, maybe, it is worth for me to travel 8 hours, back and forth to Springfield, so I went. It was a Saturday, and I enjoyed my stay. People in the club were genuinely enjoying themselves, including the staff. I almost forgot in the past years that it is possible... it has become a rarity if not nonexistent in the New York/New Jersey area. It felt like a breath of fresh air.
This interview was done by taping it, and it had to be reduced to about half of the original "footage." Read it. It is very interesting.


Sophie:    I don't know what questions to ask. I don't know you. I only know your aspirations. So let's start with the aspirations. OK? My understanding is that you want to be known. What is it that you really want? Do you want to be seen? Or do you want to be known? Or…

Leanna:   Yeah, I want to be known.

Sophie:    … What's in that for you.

Leanna:   Well I aspire to be an adult video star.

Sophie:    What is it about adult video star. Is it the popularity, being known, being in front of the camera, or being seen, or the money. What is it?

Leanna:   Well actually, it's all of that. I am very ambitious. If I do something, I want to take it to the next step, and the next step, and the next step. So I have done dancing, and I have done some modeling. The next step is adult video.

Sophie:    Were you quite young when you started?

Leanna:   I started dancing when I was nineteen.

Sophie:    Did you do well in school?

Leanna:   Yes. I did a year and a half of college. I quit college to go into dancing. I just felt that I am not really good in the classroom and I am better dancing, and I'll be even better on the camera and if that means doing adult video work, I'm interested.

Sophie:    So, the direction that you are going is doing what you can do well?

Leanna:   Right.

Sophie:    So as soon as you find out what you are good at, you go ahead and you pursue it.

Leanna:   Yes. And I like to keep going. Like I said, I'm very ambitious.

Sophie:    How did you find out that you were good at dancing?

Leanna:   How did I find out? Well, it took me actually about a year before I felt I was really good. I mean, it actually takes more than a pretty face up there, y'know. You got to be able to make the guy feel that you want him. I think I do that.

Sophie:    Was it difficult to learn how to do that?

Leanna:   No. Either you feel sexy or you don't. I mean, you can't just go up there and dance.

Sophie:    Do you see the faces when you make guys feel like you want them?

Leanna:   Yeah, I don't look at anything else. I hear that a lot from the guys. "God, she gives so much eye contact. “Believe it or not, I can just sit there, just sit the whole time that I am in front of the guy and just look at him, in his eyes and mesmerize him. Most girls, they dance, they look here and there and they talk to somebody else, or they talk to the bartender, whatever. You got to make the guy feel like there is nobody else in the room but you and him.

Sophie:    It may not be quite that easy, it is a acquired skill to concentrate. When you drive, or when you read, can you give the same single minded attention to one thing?

Leanna:   Yeah, even on a bad day I try to smile. You don't want the guys to think that "she's just out for the dollar." It is true that I'm here to make money, but I also want men to feel special. Do you understand that? I just look at everybody and I smile at everybody even though they are not giving me a dollar.

Sophie:    I think that most people cannot stay with one thing long enough. Their attention is just all over the place.

Leanna:   You mean on stage?

Sophie:    Well, let's say, with a dancer, yes. They think of ‘what's at home,’ ‘what's with the kid,’ ‘did I park my car legally,’ ‘is somebody stealing my g-string in the dressing room,’ and they can't really pay attention to the customers. You have nothing else on your mind?

Leanna:   Mostly, but even when I have something else on my mind I keep smiling and I keep looking at the guys. When you're on stage, you're an actress, you're up there, you're performing, you’re on.

Sophie:    Well, that's an important secret you have here, you see.

Leanna:   I'm not saying that it never happens. Sometimes I do think about something else, like if I didn't wash the dishes before I came to work, I may think ‘oh, I got a lot of dishes to wash when I get home.’ But you know, you smile, and you look sexy, while you are thinking in your head, ‘I don't want to go home because I have dishes to wash!’

{Laughter}

Sophie:    Great. So, you were nineteen, and you were dancing a little bit while you were in college.

Leanna:   Yes. I'm from California. That's were I was raised. I was in college, wanted to make extra money… I answered an ad in the newspaper. It said in there that dancers make such and such money. It was a 1-800 number, and I called it. It took me three or four months before I had the nerve to really do it. As I said, I'm very ambitious. So, when an opportunity comes, I take it. You know, I take risks. So, anything is a risk.

Sophie:    Were you successful immediately? Did you start to dance in California?

Leanna:   No. I danced in Connecticut. I flew all the way from California.

Sophie:    Who put the ad in?

Leanna:   It was a club in New Haven, The Platinum Club, it used to be called Cheetah’s. Everybody knew Cheetah’s. It was a big club. And they got most of their girls from New Mexico, California, Texas, all over. Two girls actually became porn starts from there. So I'm the next one!

Sophie:    Have you ever done any sex scenes in front of the camera?

Leanna:   I've done a demo. Just to show that I'm willing to do it.

Sophie:    How was the sex for you?

Leanna:   It was OK.

Sophie:    I may have to tape this louder, because you are whispering.

{Laughter}

Leanna:   It was good.

Sophie:    Fun?

Leanna:   It was fun. It was a lot more technical than I thought it would be. But…

Sophie:    Did you have to do the whole thing?

Leanna:   Yeah, people think when they watch those movies, that they're watching two people have sex. But in reality when we are doing the actual film, you get somebody saying "No, move your head this way." Or a…

Sophie:    Tell me, at the moment, you don't have a boyfriend?

Leanna:   Well, umm, I don't have a boyfriend. I have somebody I see that I like a lot. But I've already told him about the movies and he doesn't like the movies. He doesn't want me to get into it. I offered the idea of us being in the movies together, and that's all good with him. But I can't work with anybody else. And I can't be a star if I stay with one person.

The guy I like now I met him outside of dancing, outside of the business and I would like to keep it that way. Even though it sounds good that he wants to do movies with me, but I like that I have my life, and he has his life, and when we're together, we have our life together.

Sophie:    Do you know anybody that does movies and has a relationship outside the industry?

Leanna:   I don't read up on the girls, or their personal life, or anything like that. The only one I know about is Asia Carrera. She's one of the top Asian porn stars now. Her husband is Bud Lee, who used to be married to Hyapatia Lee. If I won’t have a boyfriend until I leave this career, then that's fine, because… I mean, I want to be in, I feel that maybe a career for a year or so, I'll stay in the business. If I succeed in it, I'll still be young and beautiful.

Sophie:    Do you have any idea of what kind of money you can make? Or you want to get the credits and then come back to dancing as a feature. What do you want to do?

Leanna:   I know what the money is for the movies, it's not like extraordinary money, but it's good money to be outside of the club. I mean, it's something I want to do, and I know I'll do it for the money.

Sophie:    So you want to spend two, three years doing movies.

Leanna:   Right.

Sophie:    Get your name out there.

Leanna:   Right.

Sophie:    Really work it.

Leanna:   But I want to make this clear, that I'm not just out there just to do the movies. I mean I want a name out there… There are porn stars, adult video stars, that go out there and they just do it. But you gotta make a name for yourself. Everything that I do is business. And, I mean I don't know if that makes me hard-core…

Sophie:    Do you come from a business background? Your parents? What is your family like?

Leanna:   My father is in the military. My mother, she's an assistant manager at a restaurant.

Sophie:    What sign are you?

Leanna:   I'm a Gemini.

Sophie:    Gemini. Very independent.

Sophie:    Where else do you work?

Leanna:   I only work at the Mardi Gras. I like it here, the girls are friendly, the management's really organized, and they're good, they're really nice. And umm, they accommodate you, you know, with my schedule. Very accommodating, you know. I'm just comfortable here and the money's decent. This is not a high pressure club. I hate clubs in New York. Got to hustle, you have to hustle, hustle, hustle. That's all it is… I don't like to beg for my money.

Sophie:    How do guys tip here. Where do they put the money?

Leanna:   Oh, they just lay it out and, you pick it up. If I had a bigger chest, I would, you know, put it here.

Sophie:    You would do that?

Leanna:   Yeah, as long as they don't touch you. You can still be sexy and, and classy at the same time.

Sophie:    Any girl-on-girl acts?

Leanna:   No That's illegal.

Sophie:    In New Jersey, if a club serves alcohol it can't even be topless.

Leanna:   Wow. Actually I worked in Jersey at the Go-Go Rama. It's all nude dance, and it's a full contact bar. The money was really good. I used to work there three days every other month. And that's all. Girls think that "Wow, this could be cool making this money every day." After the third day, you just want to avoid all men, you just want to head home. Get away from me. Don't touch me. You don't want to breathe, smell, look, hear, touch anything.

Sophie:    Do they grab on you?

Leanna:   They grab a lot. You have to, like, tell guys sometimes, "no, I'm fragile." You can make a thousand dollars a night there… I can make eight hundred dollars, and I am not a hustler, I mean, I'm a mid-hustler. I just do my little dance and my little tricks to try to let them believe that they want to give me money, but I don't ask for money. So, if I can make eight hundred dollars doing that, girls who hustle can make a thousand dollars.

Sophie:    But the girls are all pretty there?

Leanna:   Um hmm. That's one good thing about this place too. You know, the girls here are all attractive girls. Classy, attractive, nice. That's why I like to be here. Shall I sign a model release?

Sophie:    Yeah. Here they know you as Leanna, right? So that's what I'll have to put on your pictures. Where are you originally from?

Leanna:   The Philippines. A lot of people ask me if I'm from Hawaii. So, they are Polynesian. More islander than Asian. I like that. And plus with my name, they hear "Leanna", they go "Oh, are you Hawaiian?" They expect me to have this accent which I wish I did, because, I think I would make a lot more money. ‘cause I know how guys are, because if I hear an accent, even if the guy is not good looking, or they smell, or something, I'm like, "Ohh, you're so sexy, that accent!"

Sophie:    All right, good. I think I've got it. Thanks.