Hitting the Marx: Jacky St. James Revisits a Favorite Character

This article originally ran in the February 2015 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the issue online. With a background in film and theater studies, Jacky St. James entered the adult industry on the strength of her words, winning a screenwriting contest put on by New Sensations. That script, Dear Abby, went on to win an AVN Award in 2012. Since then she’s created some of the most memorable characters in adult entertainment. And now she’s bringing four of them back for a return engagement in The Submission of Emma Marx 2. The character of Emma came about partly due to St. James’ dissatisfaction with the book Fifty Shades of Grey, which led her to explore a more subtle and realistic portrayal of BDSM. The project was troubled—its two leads became unavailable, leaving St. James to scramble. But the replacements, Penny Pax and Richie Calhoun, turned in such good performances that the movie went on to win Best BDSM Release at the 2014 AVN Awards.  Now, Pax and Calhoun are back in the same roles—this time in a sequel that will street this month. [Note: the date is now February 16, and the official title is The Submission of Emma Marx: Boundaries.] “It probably is going to be right around Valentine’s Day, either right before that or shortly thereafter. We’re trying to time it with the Fifty Shades of Grey movie that’s releasing around then. Obviously this movie has been really successful for us, so timing it with something mainstream might be beneficial.” According to St. James, sales of the first movie are steadily holding even now, almost two years after its release in early 2013. “I think it’s still in the top 100 at Adult DVDEmpire. Up until a couple weeks ago I think in the top 20 ... which is crazy.” Once she decided to make the sequel, Pax was the first person she told. “At the time I wasn’t sure that I was even going to have Richie [Mr. Frederick] in the story. I didn’t know if I was going to have her just move on and meet somebody new. So I told Penny, because obviously I knew we were going to have her back, and she was beyond thrilled. It was a big deal for her too.” Pax has been an essential part of the movie. ”She’s definitely an expert, working at Kink all the time. She is such an asset. Beyond just being a great all-around performer, she knows a lot about tying rope and things like that. She just gets the whole world,” St. James said. Without revealing too much, St. James talked a bit about the story. “The best part about sitting down and writing this was that I did know the characters. So it’s not like I have to figure out what they’re about. I already know them. So then it’s a matter of, ‘I know the characters but where will they go?’ “I think the biggest challenge for me was figuring out whether Emma should stay with Mr. Frederick or not,” she continued. “I wanted to do her justice as a very strong woman. Sometimes I think that, for a woman, that’s moving on, and sometimes I think it’s staying the course with somebody and really going through new experiences with them. I won’t tell you what she decides to do. I will say that she does have sex with somebody other than Mr. Frederick.” Two other characters returning from the first movie are Emma’s sister and her fiancé, Riley Reid and Van Wylde, now a married couple. They represent “the stereotypical conventional issues that tend to happen to people who are that suburban, not really thinking outside the box,” St. James said. “Does Riley’s character change? I think she becomes a little more open. I never really buy those stories where they have the character do a gigantic transformation and their eyes are open and everything’s great. … But she tries.” “Indulging in BDSM, now there are more issues in her relationship because she’s more sexually open, and that can always be a problem,” St. James says. “Her direction is not necessarily a positive one. But she still gets her happy ending.” The director hastens to add that Reid is definitely not like her character. “She’s not conventional in any sense of the word, but she plays it well. … She cares a lot—she really does.” Calhoun also has been “spot-on since we started shooting Emma 2, so I’ve been really glad to have him back,” she adds. “You always have those little gems, the people you can count on that are awesome.” One thing she couldn’t count on was shooting in the same location. “That’s why I had to write in the script that they moved in with each other.” But a bit of luck brought the crew to an even better location: a house once owned by a Hollywood legend. “It was awesome and epic and it had this cool vibe and energy,” St. James said. “It was beautiful. It’s just a beautiful home. It’s not even lavish in the sense you might imagine it to be—it’s just one story—but it has some beautiful halls and beautifully ornate furniture and I think it works well for the characters, and the views are extraordinary.” She mused, “Maybe it’s optimistic of me to say this but I feel like this one, at least from the production side and the performances we’ve been getting, I feel like out of the gate it’s stronger than the first. And I never say that because I’m so picky. But Paul Woodcrest and Eddie are shooting it and it just looks beautiful. Within the limitations of the budget I think we’re doing a fantastic job. It’s always “within the limitations of the budget,” she reiterated with a wry laugh. Pictured above: Richie Calhoun, Jacky St. James and Penny Pax; photo by Jeff Koga