Interview: Jacky St. James on Best Romance Movie Win

LOS ANGELES—There are few things more fulfilling than having your newly created brainchild receive a big award. But according to Torn co-director Jacky St. James, the experience of making the movie was even better than winning for Best Romance Release, a new AVN Award category. “This was the very first feature from New Sensations Couples,” St. James told AVN, “and Eddie Powell and I both will say that it was really just the most perfect film experience we've had to date. We had such an incredible hardworking cast and crew, and everybody wanted to be there and everybody came prepared, and that seldom ever happens, so it was really wonderful.” St. James admits to some embarrassment at actually having auditioned veteran actor Steven St. Croix for the lead—hey, she didn't know his work, okay?—but she's even happier that she took co-director Eddie Powell's advice to cast Remy LaCroix as St. Croix's young love interest. "In adult, it's very hard to find a young performer that has an old soul," she lamented, "because a lot of times they're fun and happy, but I wanted somebody who was really deep, that it would make sense that she could feasibly be with a 40-year-old, but Eddie's like, 'No, no; trust me; when you meet her, you'll see she's not like anybody else.' But with Torn, we just got so lucky across the board; like everybody came and read and nailed their part, and we were like, 'Boom! This is the easiest casting!'" St. James is already at work on her second New Sensations Couples script. Jacky St. James with co-director Eddie Powell and Torn co-stars Remy St. Croix, India Summer and Chad Alva; photo by Chris King