Pole Climbing: An Interview With Burgeoning Star Misha Cross

This article originally ran in the April 2015 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the issue online. CHATSWORTH, Calif.—In the latter part of 2014, a new and hauntingly alluring face cropped up on the suburban vista of Porn Valley which set a blaze of excitement rippling through the community: that of Polish sex siren Misha Cross. Eerily reminiscent of Sasha Grey (a comparison she considers "a big compliment"), Misha had a helping of European porn work under her belt already with companies including Woodman Entertainment, Private and Rocco Siffredi Productions—but it was the American market, she says, where she had aimed to make her name from the moment she ventured into the industry. And once here, she was welcomed with more than open arms, getting snapped up by producers like an iPhone 6 on release day. Kayden Kross and Manuel Ferrara were so enamored of her, in fact, that they co-helmed an entire showcase spotlighting her, Misha Cross: Wide Open (released through Evil Angel), which went on to score a slew of AVN Award nominations. And Misha herself made such an impression during her U.S. journey that she earned a nod alongside the year's other biggest breakouts in the much chased after category of Best New Starlet. Currently back in Europe for the time being, Misha shed some light on herself and her career ambitions to us over email, starting right at the beginning with what spurred her to first step in front of the X-rated camera. "I remember I was watching porn and suddenly it hit me—why not porn, why not me?" she relayed. "I was very serious about it from the beginning; I wanted it to become my lifetime career, not a part-time job or a secret hobby that I should be ashamed of. I knew what I was going for, I set myself very ambitions goals and promised myself to reach them." One of those goals from the very outset, she said, was "to come and work in Los Angeles. I didn't want to work in Europe at all! I'm a big fan of American porn and I can't find anything exciting about European porn. Well, go ahead and hate me now, but in Europe everything is improvised and shoots take forever. I can name five very good performers but they also visit USA very often 'cause they also need bigger exposure and are aware of European standards. I wanna do things that matter, I want to be a part of [what's] bigger, I'm not in this business to fool around." Not that people are necessarily just fooling around in Europe—something that became quite clear to her when she shot for Siffredi during her first trip to Budapest. "I realized it was serious then," Misha said. "I gotta deliver the best performance every time, it's my job. We all call ourselves 'performers' for a reason." That expressive streak has long been part of Misha's nature, and she views porn as an apt outlet for it, she attested. "I've been always very artistic at heart. I used to dance as a kid. I write things—it there's anything I'm good at, it sure is writing. I've also studied photography and history of arts. I've been always hungry for people's attention; I'd say that porn is a kind of wicked stage for me." When Ferrara and Kross approached her about taking the literal center of that stage in Wide Open, Misha said, "I was like, 'You're kidding right? No, seriously, are you kidding me?!' Honestly, I was extremely happy and excited and honored, it was a mix of feelings, all positive ones. I thought, 'My god, it's really happening, I made it, that's what I'm here for. My biggest dream was to do a scene for [Ferrara's series] Raw or Slutty & Sluttier; I ended up with my own showcase movie! My heart almost exploded." Noting some of her other American credits in which she takes great pride, Misha submitted, "I'm very happy I made it to work with Aiden Riley, in Sloppy for Evil Angel. Also Jonni Darkko was the man I wanted to shoot with since forever, he gave me a scene in Sloppy Head 6. The White Room 4 by Ryan Madison from Porn Fidelity is definitely one of the most extreme scenes I've done so far—I'm also on the cover of the DVD." Looking ahead, Misha said she eventually hopes to begin shooting her own content—and until then keep doing as much work for others as they can throw at her. "What I love about it is how [it] gives you a shot of adrenaline and gets you high. It's addictive," she professed. "After a while, you simply cannot live without your daily dose of it." Get more doses of Misha Cross in Sweetheart Video/Mile High Media's Prison Lesbians, Bang Productions' Mr. Anal 14, Amateur Allure/Jules Jordan Video's Cum Swallowing Auditions 16 and Hustler Video/Girlfriends Films' True Love Stories: Mail Order Brides. Above, Misha Cross in Misha Cross: Wide Open (Manuel Ferrara/Evil Angel)