Tori Black on a Year to Remember

Tori Black is featured in the January issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Photo by Keith Munyan. A two-time winner of AVN’s Female Performer of the Year, Tori Black is most definitely porn royalty. And all last year she wore another crown as the 2018 Vixen Angel of the Year. During her 12-month reign as Vixen.com vision man Greg Lansky’s brand ambassador, Black enjoyed a European photo shoot, a starring role in After Dark—Vixen’s first dramatic feature—and the opportunity to participate in the monthly Vixen Angel shoots. After a seven-year hiatus from shooting, Black says she didn’t know a lot of the newer performers, and the Vixen Angel shoots gave her “a little time to get to know the girls on a more personal basis.” The Vixen Angels shoot day is “pretty laid back and a good way to celebrate a girl’s achievements.” Celebrating performers is what director Lansky’s brands are all about. “Greg has this amazing idea set of who we could be as porn stars in the world. We’re jetsetters, we’re trendsetters, we’re fashion forward, we’re brave, we’re strong and we have this air of confidence about us. And he’s willing to invest in making that image,” Black muses. “He sends us all over the world to go show everybody just how badass we are.” In Black’s case, she showed off her badass credentials in Paris. “We went all around. … Paris was my catwalk. I walked in front of every building, I walked over all the bridges,” she recalls. “I’m in this beautiful ball gown and watching the Eiffel Tower lighting up the night. “I mean what girl doesn’t want to look badass with a whole team following her? It was definitely a bucket-lister.” Of the whole experience she now says, “He really knows how to make a girl feel like a princess. And a strong, confident one. Not just one that looks pretty in the corner, but a real princess.” Black continues, “Every girls loves being a princess. And let’s be honest—this industry has not always been super kind to the girls. Not necessarily in an upfront super rude way, but sometimes we’re expected to be super troopers.” Even with Lansky shoots, “we definitely go above and beyond—we’re challenged.” But after the work is done, she adds, “it’s really nice to be revered and rewarded and celebrated. It definitely motivates you to push yourself beyond what your normal limitations might be.” After Dark was a different sort of challenge for her. The movie was shot entirely at night, Black recalls. “The night thing has always been a struggle for me. I’ve always been an early-bed, early-rise kind of girl. So it was interesting trying to shift focus. But in that shifting I definitely found a more sinister, more jaded side of me, more irritable.” Those emotions worked perfectly to bring Black’s character to life: a powerful woman who demands constant stimulation. “It was interesting to find the more reckless, dissatisfied side of me. … It worked perfectly.” The movie, which was directed by Kayden Kross, “wrapped two days before my 30th birthday. It was the end of August,” Black says. “I really found that Kayden stayed very true and dedicated to the vision that she had. … She knows what she wants; she sees it in her mind and she will continue to push until she gets there. … You push people’s boundaries and buttons and everything’s challenged, but it’s all for the sake of the art. And she’s willing to do that. And that is so admirable.” Black adds, “It’s really difficult, especially as a female director, to be ballsy and be tough and stay dedicated—‘No, this is what I want and we’re going to get this right.’ And at the end of the day you have to stand up and recognize that if weren’t for her dedication, the product would not be what the product is. So as hard as I might try to be the best me I can be, I have to have a director who is going to follow suit. We have to work together and challenge each other and push each other.”     Power to the Performers Asked about whether much is different since she started in the business back in 2007, Black says she sees many positive changes, with much more on the way. “I can definitely see ten steps down the line where things are really going to shift in a big way toward a female-oriented industry,” she predicts. “I think it’s going to change the shape of a lot of companies in this industry. She adds, “There might be some growing pains. …. But it’s a shift that needs to be made. Women need to have the reins to show the world we’re doing what we want to do. We are smart, strong, safe women who promote ourselves and take care of ourselves.” One of the big drivers in the shift toward more power for performers—both female and male—has been the rise of social media. Though she took a break from shooting, Black stayed engaged with social media, so she’s a keen observer of how platforms like Twitter and Instagram have enhanced the power of individual performers. “You can’t be in the industry and not have social media. When I started, nobody knew it was really going to take off.” And it’s not just female stars who are benefiting from social media. Black points to one of her new coworkers with whom she worked for Greg Lansky’s Blacked Raw imprint. “Look at Jason Luv,” she says. “His OnlyFans is constantly blowing up.” In fact, she muses, the ability of performers to interact with fans directly has diminished the control that large companies once had over contract stars. “The power is being put in the hands of the talent,” she asserts. Performers no longer have to follow the dictates of a company that wants to control their images, because it’s more important to stay in tune with what the fans want. “I don’t know how many times I’ve been told, ‘Don’t cut your hair, don’t dye it any other color. You have to get your boobs done, or don’t get your boobs done. You have to gain weight or you have to lose weight. You have to do this or you have to do that.’ And it’s absolutely bananas the difference I have received in feedback from fans. You find that people love every stage. So while these companies have one vision they see of you, your fans … will follow and enjoy watching you progress as a person.” For fans who crave the “girlfriend experience,” social media gives them access to performers’ personal lives. Black says she has fans who like seeing photos of her with her dogs, or who want to chat about her hobbies. But she admits that “with the good comes the bad. … With this access comes opinions. And through the internet, people are infinitely more bold. They are free to jab at you in any direction they want and for any reason they want.” A steady stream of negative comments can be hard to deal with, Black allows. “We are human beings and we do have sensitivities and we have real insecurities that we battle.” She takes a tough line with trolls, stating firmly that she doesn’t hesitate to block people: “I don’t have any time for negativity. I don’t need you as a fan.” But she explains that others use different tactics. “There’s this one girl I was speaking to and she said, ‘I don’t block anyone. I let them say what they have to say … because somewhere down the line, they’re going to buy something from me.’ … You have two very opposite ways of dealing with the issue. But either way, you have to find a way to deal with the issue of ugly people.” In short, Black sums up, it’s important to remember that “the more free the platform, the more rude people get. Obviously, if you have a fan base that actually cares for you and they know that what they pay for things is going into your pocket, they like that.” She points to OnlyFans and Camsoda as examples when fans show both financial and emotional support. “Social media, as we’ve seen over this past year, can definitely bring people’s demons all the way to life. I don’t think social media is the demon itself; it just exacerbates any existing condition,” she says. And on top of that, performers also have to deal with the physical challenges of the work, and the disapproval they face from society at large. And these emotional burdens can be tough to carry. “This industry has a way of making or breaking people. You find the people who have longevity are people who have a drive and a purpose and a goal,” the veteran star muses. “Some people stumble in and find the worst version of themselves. They are exposed to too much too soon and they haven’t really given themselves any time to process, and sometimes people act out really crazy or sideways. So you either find the best of yourself or you find the worst of yourself.”   The Mind/Body Connection Back before she became @MissToriBlack on Twitter, this slender, pretty brunette was raised in a tiny town in Washington state. “I grew up with my feet in the dirt and salt air all around me, and beautiful gorgeous giant trees. My mom would look at me and say, ‘Why are you inside?’” Black recalls. “I was in school for journalism before I got into the industry,” she says, but she found the course of study to be too confining—or, as she says, “in the box.” Her instructors were always saying, “I can hear your voice too much.” She found a new outlet for that voice in the adult industry, though she admits that making the transition to Southern California wasn’t easy. “I grew up on some of the cleanest air in the country,” Black says, and coming to Los Angeles “just didn’t feel right. I’ve been here for a long time now and it still doesn’t feel right. There’s definitely an urge to move somewhere that sits a little better with who I feel like I am on the inside.” That person inside is filled with ideas for the future—in the adult industry and beyond. Right now she’s carefully observing the changes she sees in the industry, “watching this evolution and trying to find my place in the waves of it. … I’ll always be around, because I do feel like I have found my feet underneath me in [this] career. I do find I enjoy the power of my voice in the industry. ... I don’t know if that means I’m going to continue to perform or to direct, or just be very outspoken and involved. So I’m just letting it go. There’s no plan. It’s just going with the wind.” Her plans beyond the industry seem to be more deliberate and fully formed. “As far as outside of the industry, I have lots of things that I’m pursuing,” Black enumerates. “I just got certified as a barre instructor. I tell everyone it’s what ballerinas do to work out. And I’m going to be working on my yoga certification. My mind/body connection is definitely really important to me, and I want to share it with other people.” And she also loves cooking—another pursuit that, like yoga, remains a hobby for many. Her status as an adult star is what has given her the ability to build up these avocations into sustainable career options. “There are lots of things I’ve wanted to explore. This industry has provided me with a nice lifestyle in that I can really push myself and expand in directions that typically people say are, quote unquote, not real jobs, don’t make enough money to pay the bills, blah blah blah blah. It’s not that these careers aren’t careers—they just take time to establish. You don’t immediately make money. The industry gives you a little bit of a cushion so that you can have time to develop another path. And they can all go together.” She points to another adult star as an illustration. “Look at Dani Daniels. She is a phenomenal artist,” Black says. Daniels also used the freedom of being an adult performer to “give herself time to embrace her art,” and also was able to leverage her stardom in a positive way. “Her fans translated directly over to being fans of her artwork,” Black notes. Asked if she had anything else she wanted to talk about in this interview, Black used that as an opening to express her gratitude to fans for “showing me so much love that I have been able live this beautiful and blessed life. It’s been outstanding. I mean it. How many people get to live the life that I’ve led? I literally supported my seven-year hiatus raising my children through fans. People supporting to me and caring for me, and that’s phenomenal. I’m blessed.” To find Black online, visit @MissToriBlack on Twitter and Fans.camsoda.com/toriblack. She does live shows on Camsoda every Monday night from 7 to 8 p.m. and will be adding a second night in 2019. Also, Black will be at the Vixen Media Group booth at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, running Jan. 23-26.