From Vanilla to Severe: Interview With Dee Severe

This article originally ran in the June 2015 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the magazine online. Dee Severe, the name behind the adult studio Severe Sex, always had a creative streak. Even in her former life in the mainstream, she found an outlet in writing. After growing up in Seattle, she took the plunge at the age of 19 and moved to New York City. There, she cultivated a career as a rock journalist, covering bands and concerts for the likes of Spin, Circus, Rolling Stone, Hollywood Reporter and more. She was married, and leading a life that most people dream of. But for her, there was something more out there. “I had always wanted to do screenwriting, and in the mid-’90s I moved to Los Angeles and divorced my first ‘vanilla’ husband,” she said. “I wrote six screenplays, and four of them got optioned. I didn’t know at the time, but that basically means someone gives you a couple of hundred dollars and you have to rewrite your script about 479 times—and by the end of it all you are ready to conduct a mass suicide with yourself, the producers and everyone else involved. I knew I wanted to make movies, but not like this.” She soon joined a small film collective, where members of the group crewed for one another. Some of their short films did well in festivals, including the L.A. Short Film Fest and the Action/Cut competition. Additionally, Severe wrote a horror movie, and even co-wrote a book on remodeling kitchens. “I thought that was really going to take off,” she said. “I bought all these suits and professional clothes that it turned out I didn’t need!” When times were tight, Severe would work part-time as a domme, which allowed her to explore her sexuality. “I had always had a kinky streak in me, and in L.A. I was able to explore that,” she said. “I had some early experiences in New York, and always had kinky fantasies. But then I decided I wanted to be a kinky person.”With she met Jimmy Broadway, things got even better. “When we met it was like, ‘Hey, you also wanna make movies, you’re awesome, you also like dogs … you’re it!’” she said. Today, the two of them live and work in downtown Los Angeles with their four dogs—Libby, Bella, Teddy and Clyde (who even has his own Twitter account @LittleDudeClyde). Severe and Broadway are passionate about animal rights and supporting animal rescue. When they started out, the two began working at Passive Arts Studio, now known as Sanctuary, where the owner wanted to make movies. “So we started making movies for him, and it was cool because we were able to make all our mistakes on someone else’s nickel,” Severe said with a laugh. When she and Broadway started making the films, they shared the news with the others in their film collective, who they were mildly surprised to learn were “horrified.” “They said no one would ever want to deal with us because we were working in porn, we’d never get another mainstream job again, whatever,” she said. “On the upside, they didn’t want any of our ‘dirty porn money’ to rent the equipment we needed, so they let us use it for free! “They get to direct never, I get to direct every month, so I’d say it worked out,” she added. Now, however, Severe doesn’t get to direct every month for someone else: she and Broadway do their movies on their terms. After starting Severe Society Films in 2007, they made their own brand of kinky movies, with Severe doing much of the directing and most of the post-production work. Last year, they signed a deal with Exile Distribution and changed the company name to Severe Sex. “Right now we are at the point we are so busy that it’s good and bad,” Severe said. “We don’t seem to have any days off, but we are doing what we love and it feels good to be expanding and making good productions and doing high-quality work. It’s nice to be in a spot where we are accepted now.” Severe said the deal with Exile came at a time when BDSM was finding a presence in the mainstream world. “I never felt bad about being a perv like some people do,” she said. “But it’s nice to see so many people finding their voice in BDSM. It’s awesome that the lifestyle is getting more attention in mainstream. It’s almost like the Stonewall era, that people are feeling more comfortable to come out and say who they are. And they are finding that there’s nothing wrong with them, that’s just how they are wired.” And Severe, Broadway and Severe Sex plan on making content for many of those people. “I’m hoping our hallmark we are known for is our stories and our characters,” Severe said. “I like to think we are somewhere between Kink.com and New Sensations. I think we have interesting stories, and good sex, and humor and movies that show it doesn’t have to be all red and black and in the dungeon and dark. There are other types of BDSM movies out there.” While Severe Sex continues to grow and expand, Severe hopes she can continue living her dream, and challenging herself and others. “I hope I am doing this with Jimmy well into our old age,” she said. “I am doing what all those people who were in our film collective only dreamed of doing: I get to direct all the time, work with really cool and fun people and pushing my boundaries and skill levels. But I hope our movies are always accessible to our fans.” For more on Dee Severe's latest movies as well as other femdom titles, click here.