Fight Night: Sybil & Rocco Siffredi on 'The Spanish Stallion'

LOS ANGELES—Sybil considers her role in The Spanish Stallion to be the biggest opportunity of her career. The Ukrainian star played the girlfriend of trainer Kai Taylor in the upcoming episodic series that centers on the world of boxing and was written and directed by the iconic Rocco Siffredi.  “Yes and I’m happy that Rocco take me there,” Sybil tells AVN. “I'm happy that he trusts me that I can make it—that I can make this movie good.” Not only did Siffredi trust Sybil, he tells AVN she lifted the project to another level with her effortless sex appeal, natural acting ability and professional demeanor. “There is no one who is in this movie who was better and more erotic than her,” Siffredi says. “I deeply love this girl and I respect her so much. She’s not only talented, she’s a human person who has a sense of responsibility and professionality.” Sybil performs in four sex scenes in The Spanish Stallion, a Rocco Siffredi Films production that will be released in a series of seven full-length, monthly episodes—each running at least two hours—on EvilAngel.com beginning in June and then come out on DVD for the first time in August. In the first episode—subtitled “Field of Sluts”—Sybil tangles with Kai Taylor and fellow fight trainer Erik Everhard in separate scenes. In the second, yet-to-be titled episode, she squares off with Kaisa Nord in a girl/girl and then takes on the title character—boxer Maximo “The Stallion” Garcia. "It was different energy there and this energy was from everywhere,” Sybil says. “It was something special for me and I think for everybody. “It makes me be more open of this shooting and try to be like in more harder style, which I was actually happy about.” Siffredi shot the first two episodes with an ensemble cast during eight grueling days in February at his compound in Budapest, Hungary—aka Roccoland. The 26-year-old Sybil, a native of Kiev, who once worked at a coffee shop, flew in from her home in Prague for the principal photography, spending five days on the set. Siffredi says Sybil is a rare talent, especially in this era of independent publishing platforms that have given performers many alternatives to doing big movies. “After OnlyFans and all this new way to make money, people are less and less reliable because they’re like, ‘Oh, I can make money with OnlyFans, what the fuck I don’t need to work, I don’t need to do these shoots.’ So it’s really difficult to find a person to stick on the project and give you all of herself. But this person is Sybil,” he says. “She is not only professional, she is incredibly sexy and sensual.” *** Siffredi reveals that he set up a live cam that streamed video from the set during the movie and that “everyone was going crazy about Sybil.” “They were asking, ‘When is she next on the set?’ She only had four scenes throughout the whole project, which is a lot for the whole project, but not a lot if you think about two weeks of shooting. “So everybody was asking, ‘When does Sybil come back?’ And that was the only girl they ask for. That means what I think about her shows to many people that she is so talented. When I’m talking about an actress in porn, I’m not only talking about acting, I’m also talking about body and sensuality—that is to be naked and be confident.” Sybil admits that the shoot could not have gone any better. "Everything was so good,” she says. “I was just happy with everything there—of my work, of other people’s work. Just like when all is just perfect and that’s almost never, but Rocco’s production was this way.” She says that at first she didn’t fully grasp the complexities of Siffredi’s narrative. “Because the story is really very big and confusing. So when I start to shoot, I still didn't understood them,” Sybil confesses. “Like, what's going on? Why it’s like this, who I am in this movie? And then I understood by myself. I got it. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Rocco. What did you just create?’ But it’s so cool.” Sybil, who started nude modeling for MetArt when she was 18 and has about 150 credits since 2013, says her role in The Spanish Stallion brought out another side of her as a performer. “I think it was the hardest what I did in my whole career,” she explains. “Because I'm more soft model. But with Rocco I felt to do this. I enjoyed working with Rocco and his team. “I felt so much good myself. I was so open, I really enjoyed what I did. I'm happy that people are happy about my work. You know for me on the first step it’s not the money. It's not my feelings, or how do I feel on the set, but how I will make my work in the end. “This is what makes me feel to do this.” A skilled makeup artist in addition to being an accomplished performer, Sybil says she clicked with Siffredi behind the camera. “I like to work with him,” she continues. “I understand all what he want from me. It was easy to communicate with him. He was happy about me. I was happy about him. He's strong. He knows what he's doing, so it's easy to work with him. It’s not like when a person don’t know what to do, so it’s like hard to understand. But Rocco know what Rocco is saying, so it's easy to communicate with him.” *** Siffredi, who has directed almost 500 movies and thousands of scenes, calls The Spanish Stallion “probably one of the biggest features I’ve shot in the past 10 years.” He had been considering other plans for the material, including incorporating his boxing storyline into another series. Then he found his leading man. “All of a sudden came this guy Maximo, very good looking talent with personality,” Siffredi says. “I thought let’s go do something completely new, modern and fun that could be interesting in the direction of sport—MMA—this kind of situation. As I was writing the script and adapting the people on what they do it was very stimulating and very fun.” He says the movie reminded him of a two-part film that he starred in 25 years ago in Los Angeles called Boxer that was directed by Joe D’Amato for In-X-Cess Productions. But Siffredi encountered challenges from the beginning with The Spanish Stallion, which got its final name from Evil Angel founder John Stagliano. Two of Rocco's original choices for main characters, Cherry Kiss and Vince Karter, turned up positive for Covid on the first day of production. Siffredi wasn’t sure if he was going to scrap the project. But knowing that Maximo Garcia already had been training for more than two months to get into optimal shape for the role, he decided to move forward, replacing Kiss with Kaisa Nord in the span of an hour and hiring Erik Everhard for the part he had reserved for Karter. “Cherry was very, very disappointed about catching it, because she really wanted to do the movie and we spoke about it for quite a long time,” Siffredi says. “But Kaisa did an incredible job, and sometimes things happen for a reason.” Siffredi says at the halfway point of the first eight-day stretch, when he filmed Episodes 1 & 2, that “Maximo told me that he was almost sure that if Cherry would have been the main character, they would probably have fought for real, because both of them has a huge personality.” “He's some kind of real macho man style,” Siffredi continues. “He really doesn't like to deal with people who doesn't understand him. For example when I was hiring girls for him, he always told me, ‘Rocco, I don't want weak girls…’ “And Cherry has also very strong personality, really strong. He was almost sure that could've been a big problem during the shooting. But I love when a person has a strong personality and is willing to take a risk. If there is a possibility to put them together, for example in a sequel, I will put them together for sure. I would love to see this energy in front of the camera.” But it all worked out for Siffredi, Kiss & Co. because after seeing how well the first eight days of shooting turned out, the veteran shot-caller decided to transform The Spanish Stallion into an episodic series, rather than a two-part feature. Kiss entered the picture in Episode 3, which has the working title “Cherry Undefeated” because Siffredi says “she fucked the shit out of Maximo.” *** Siffredi finished shooting the first six episodes on March 28 after almost a month-and-a-half, connecting the storyline through the men. Some of the top performers in Europe make up the supporting cast, including Liya Silver, Jia Lissa, Kitana Lure, twins Silvia and Eveline Dellai, Anastasia Brokelyn, Zaawaadi, Angie Lynx, Lottie Magne, Jayla and Shalina Devine. “Shalina Devine is one of the best performers and actresses,” Siffredi says. “When I’m talking about being an actress, I’m talking more about being able to play a character during sex and before sex at a very good level. She can play characters incredible. I was very happy with Shalina.” Speaking of acting, Siffredi also lauded the performance of Kai Taylor, who has a background in boxing and was “fantastic.” “He did probably the best acting of the whole movie,” Siffredi says. The director says when Sybil performed with Maximo, she proved something to him. “She doesn’t like too much strong hardcore. It’s probably something that she decided not to go in that direction,” Siffredi explains. “And when she had to go through the scene with Maximo— he’s somebody who can perform so good when the girl loves real hardcore—but she could manage with him incredible. Sybil turned the tables on Maximo and imposed her will on the scene, according to Siffredi. “She start to play around with him and all of a sudden he’s not anymore aggressive without breaking the scene,” he says. “She used her psychology to keep the character but at the same time turn on her side exactly the way she wanted the scene to be. She show me she’s a huge talent.” She gave “the whole series another touch,” Siffredi adds. “If the series will be successful it is teamwork, but without Sybil I’m not that sure,” he continues. “When I’m talking about this, I’m talking about the erotic side of the movie, when you go to the sex. “Sybil is very special.” *** An avid combat sports enthusiast, Siffredi says he’s been a fan of UFC, K1 and mixed martial arts “since forever." He made use of green screens to create the elaborate visuals that will bring the sights and sounds of a championship fight to life, so there is a lot of post production still in progress.Siffredi teamed with his son Lorenzo, who has reinvented his cinematography in the past year, on the look and feel of The Spanish Stallion. “He make me change all my cameras and the way of shooting,” Siffredi says. “He told me, ‘Papa, your movie looks shit.’ I say, 'Thank you, that’s very nice.’ He say, ‘Come on, you have to improve.’ “All of a sudden it was let’s go with his vision, why not? Maybe it’s too long I’m in porn and too long focused just on the sex. “It was completely day and night, a new way of making movies and I’m much more having fun and the cinematography is much, much better. He’s taking care about this.” Siffredi says Lorenzo directed two of his all-girl movies last year—Pure Neon and Rocco: Pure Fitness—but didn’t want to take the credit for it. “They were completely his movies—all the cinematography and the lights all come from him,” he explains. “The timing of the sex scenes and angles—it was all made from him.” It is Lorenzo’s impact on the recent Rocco Siffredi Productions that makes the process that much more rewarding for the porn mogul. “Finally I could share with him my passion,” Siffredi says. “I’ve been in porn so long, what does he think? Does he like my business?” He says Lorenzo’s stage name is his middle name, Siffredino, which means “small Siffredi.” “I call him this way. I thought it was funny to keep in this direction, that maybe when he is older he’s going to laugh,” Siffredi says. Photography courtesy of Rocco Siffredi Films