Jacky St. James Returns to the 'Darker Side'

This article originally ran in the February 2018 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Pictured above: Gia Paige By Mark Kernes The thing that’s most striking when on a Jacky St. James set is the attention to detail by both herself and her crew—and how that sometimes conflicts with her desire to get difficult shots. Take, for instance, the small cage that’s been positioned at the end of a long hallway. Katrina Jade, who’s playing the role of Livia, a former dominant who’s now exploring what it feels like to submit—in this case to veteran actor Toni Ribas—has been put in the cage, and when Toni unlatches it, she’s supposed to crawl behind him into the living room. St. James’ (and the crew’s) problem? How to shoot Katrina’s crawl, being led on a leash by Toni, without one or both of the cameramen accidentally getting one or the other’s foot in the shot as they track the pair’s slow progress to the couch where the sex will be taking place. Thankfully, St. James is an old hand at this, and she’s always up for such a challenge, so after a couple of retakes, she’s satisfied and can get on with shooting the coupling. Katrina Jade   Darker Side of Desire 2 is the sequel to St. James’ highly rated first volume from Sweet Sinner, a Mile High Media studio, which has been nominated for several AVN Awards, and as this is written, it’s unknown how it will fare at the show, but St. James is hopeful that at least the current production will find as much favor with critics as did the first. Darker Side of Desire 2 has Gia Paige as the main protagonist, a grad student who’s been dating “vanilla guys,” as she puts it, while beginning to miss “the days when life was exciting and unexpected,” so she decides to write her master’s thesis on “kink,” and in the process, she interviews several women who’ve experimented with different sexual lifestyles, including cosplay and pure masochism. Finally, Gia decides to re-enter the lifestyle—but we won’t reveal which style she chooses. “My role is somebody who used to be in a dominant/submissive relationship with somebody but who has since given up on that and is kind of cheating into the idea of maybe going back,” Gia said. “I do like playing these roles, because I’ve never played with that kind of stuff before, the dom/sub type stuff, so it’s really exciting. It’s not something I’ve done in my personal life but working with it, I’ve grown pretty comfortable with it and actually like it. It’s intriguing to try different things and to find out about yourself and your sexuality.” And in a sense, that’s the same reason St. James wrote it, what with several of her recent BDSM-oriented features such as her Emma Marx series for New Sensations having scored both critical acclaim and several awards. But she had a surprising admission. “I don’t understand the BDSM lifestyle in terms of it being sexually arousing, so when I first wrote my first Emma, and then of course eventually the first Darker Side of Desire, Scott Taylor at New Sensations wanted me to read Fifty Shades of Grey to find out why it was such a big deal, and I hated the book but I totally got why it was popular,” she said. “So that’s when I started writing BDSM scripts and I had to do a lot of research because I was like, ‘I don’t understand why this is a turn-on.’ But for me, it was like trying to educate myself by talking to a lot of people in the lifestyle and figuring out, ‘Why is this so hot?’ And I get it now. I mean, it’s not something I practice but I totally understand now why people find it sexy—and it is sexy.” As a director and screenwriter, St. James always decides first whom she wants in the cast before sitting down at the keyboard. “I always cast first, which is a little different, but then I can write to the strength of the performer,” she explained. “Gia is such a good actress, I can write anything for her and I know she can do it. She was in the first one, but in terms of my process, I find the people I like and then I figure out, okay, if the scene is, let’s say, BDSM, how can I make this work? And so, usually I’ll build around the lead character; like, okay, Gia’s very much an ingenue so I’ll build around this sort of lost ingenue character, and then I figure out what supporting types would make that character interesting.” With that in mind, St. James cast Katrina Jade as the “complete opposite” of Gia’s character; someone who’s “a little bit more rough around the edges, tattooed and edgy,” while Toni Ribas “has a reputation for being good at domming women”—and their sex scene proves they were a perfect match. After Toni leads Katrina, clad only in sheer black pantyhose with the ass cut out, over to a wooden-framed couch, he draws her upright and kisses the back of her neck before easing her down on her knees where she takes out his cock and sucks on it, her eyes always fixed on his. In short order, Toni’s clothes come off and the pair kiss before Katrina mounts him cowgirl style, bouncing with wild abandon. More kissing follows until she lies back on the couch and raises her legs so he can penetrate her fully. Soon, though, Katrina’s on her feet and Toni is taking her horsie style, which segues into doggie style back on the couch, then more missionary before the muscular stud cums right on her labia. The feature—which was due to be released by Sweet Sinner on February 7, just ahead of Valentine’s Day—also includes a scene with Giselle Palmer and Tyler Knight, where the busty blonde role-plays a cat, and then Aidra Fox performs her masochistic duties for Steve Holmes—and does such a good job of telling Gia about it that Gia seeks out Steve herself!