Allie Haze is one of the top current stars in the adult industry and she’s starting to grab some big roles in the biz, including portraying Princess Leia in Axel Braun’s upcoming Star Wars XXX: A Porn Parody, which streets on January 24th.  She’s also the newest Emmanuelle, one of the most notable roles in the industry, with a legacy that spans decades and nearly a dozen actresses.  She’s coming off a hot 2011, where she won “Starlet of the Year” recognition from both XRCO and Night Moves magazine, “Performer of the Year” from XCritic.com and nominations for the AVN Awards in seven categories, including Female Performer of the Year and Best Actress.

Back when I did my set visit on the Star Wars XXX set last summer, (Episodes I, II, III, IV, V) for GUY, I missed the chance to interview Allie in person.  While that sucked for yours truly, interview-wise, it’s for the better I think.  Because what would have probably been a rushed, ten-minute –

(bullshit, like I could have lasted 30 seconds with Allie Haze…)

– on-set interview turned into a nearly 30-minute conversation by phone.  As Allie will tell you herself, girls like to talk.  And this Vivid Girl certainly has plenty to say on the adult industry.

DO: So did you sort of fall into the industry or was it something you specifically sought out?

AH: I think it’s in between for me because I didn’t know much about sex or porn, anything to do with the adult business when I was growing up. But I was a lesbian before I became a bisexual. And I was 22 when I started in the business. I grew up very religious. Once I finally moved away from home, I started seeing other things, doing other things and I ended up wanting to join the business to have sex with women in a safe, fun environment and that were pretty much guaranteed to be hot. So, I worked in a bar, and of course I was hooking up with women and men. I date men, but I like to have sex with women. And that’s just kind of the way it all rambled out. I honestly just joined the business for women. The business took a liking to me and I decided to keep going with it.

DO: You joined the business for women?  You have a lot in common with your [Star Wars] co-stars.

AH: Yeah, considering they’re all males (laughs).

DO: You’re from Montana, right?

AH: No.

DO: Oh, I guess IMDB had that wrong then.

AH: I know. They do. And they have a couple things wrong there and it’s impossible to get hold of them. It’s ridiculous. But I got over it and I was like, “whatever.”  People can assume I’m from Montana, CA. And I don’t even think that exists.  So no, I grew up in San Bernardino County, CA.

DO: Well that kind of kills my next question because I was going to ask that since you’re from Montana, how was the culture shock of moving to LA?

AH: (laughs) No, I’m a born-and raised Cali girl. From a really small town in San Bernardino County. And it’s not really much of a culture shock, because now that I’m in LA, I live in the Valley and I tried to make sure that I kept…I live in a house, I don’t live in a studio. I didn’t really want to do the LA life…. Outside of porn, I’m a pretty normal chick, you know? I race quarter-scale RC cars with my fiancee, I play with my dogs, throw barbecues, get all our friends together, I swim all the time. I’m pretty normal.

DO: How did you end up choosing your stage name? I assume it wasn’t from the traditional porn star formula?

AH: No. I didn’t even know there was a porn star name formula! (laughs)

DO: You’ve never heard of it?

AH: No, I know it’s something about a street…the first street you lived on.

DO: There’s a couple. It’s like your middle name and the street you lived on, or your pet’s name and the street you lived on. It’s a couple of different ways.

AH: That’s funny. Well, I’ve done stuff on IMDB under the name “Brittany Joy”, some mainstream stuff. But I chose “Allie Haze” because originally when I was going to start hooking up with women, I wasn’t going to do scenes. I was just going to cam, and like, find girls who wanted to cam with me. And you know, play and make money watching us and that kind of thing. But I never actually ever did that. But in order to choose my cam name, I wanted to be at the beginning of the alphabet, because those girls are always listed first on the cam sites. So I chose “Allie” because it was at the beginning of the alphabet and then I chose “Haze” because it’s actually my fiancee’s legal last name. Obviously not spelled the same way, so we spelled it different. But he’s my fiancee, so I took his last name in porn.

DO: Does he have any issue with you liking girls as much as you do?  Or has he benefited from that at all?

AH: No he doesn’t have a problem with it at all. I’m pretty relaxed, easy-going kind of person, but I’m also really straightforward with the things I do and about my life. When we met, he already knew that women were a big part of my life and if he was going to have a relationship with me, he should be prepared for that. So there was obviously warning going into that for him that this is what my life consisted of, which he was completely fine with. So yeah, of course, definitely there’s times in our life before porn that we benefit together from me liking women so much.

DO:…that lucky devil…

AH: (laughs)

DO: It’s pretty easy to notice that you’ve stayed natural. You haven’t gone the breast implant route or anything like that.

AH: Yes, yes…as I look at my boobs in the mirror, they’re still small. (laughs)

DO: How important was that for you personally, and when you were starting out, was everyone like, “No, no, you’ve got to get implants you’ve got to get implants you’ve got to get implants?”

AH: You know, that’s really a wrong assumption for people from outside of the business. Nobody when I got in ever suggested or ever said that I should get implants. They actually told me the opposite. When I went for a meeting for my first agent, on the way to that meeting, I also stopped for my first breast augmentation appointment. The first appointment to decide what size I wanted to get and stuff like that. And I was already going to get boobs before I even got into the business. I’d always wanted them since I was younger, because I have a really big ass and really big hips and I just kind of wanted to even myself out, not so much be the girl with big fake boobs but even my body out. And when I went to talk with somebody about starting porn they said, “Whatever you do, don’t get breast implants. It would be the worst move you ever made.”

DO: That’s surprising.

AH: So, I don’t know if it’s a combination of the way my look is, because I have such a young-looking face, that I’m kind of seen as the “girl next door” or and I don’t wear a lot of makeup and this and that it may look kind of silly to have fake boobs on me instead of me being the stereotypical, unfortunately to say, “blonde with big boobs.” And that’s how, unfortunately, people see a lot of those women, where they get categorized in that character where they feel they have to get boobs to fit what is being done at the time.

DO: That’s not what I would expect because if you go on any site or you watch any movie you may happen to have you see women all over the place with enhancements, often to the detriment of their own looks.

AH: Yeah. I don’t think I’ll ever do it, but I really feel porn helped me appreciate myself as a woman. I guess I would say the adult business, because I sometimes hate using the word porn, because it makes me refer to movies and stuff like that. The adult business in general, the things that I do, the travel, the people that I meet, kind of led me to appreciate me for who I am a little more than I ever thought I would. Because I was really insecure in high school. I definitely wasn’t the hottest chick in high school…I mean I was hot…but I wasn’t the hottest chick. I was in the in crowd, I was a cheerleader, I was really popular, but I was kind of the girl that guys wanted to have sex with, but I would never let them. That doesn’t mean I didn’t play around and did other things, but I never gave it up specifically. So I wasn’t really seen as the hottest chick and I was really insecure about my small boobs and my big hips and I never really felt like I was sexy. Being naked and being comfortable and these other people making you feel comfortable…and as my fan base grew, you know, showing appreciation for who I am, kind of made me look in the mirror and go, “You know, what am I so unhappy about?”

DO: You said that when you started you were about 22. When I was checking out a certain site and I typed in your name, it kept saying “Teen Allie Haze.” Why is that coming like that? Are they trying to titillate men with a falsehood?

AH: Well, the younger sites tend to sell a lot better and everybody is into role play. So if you look 18, I see it more of a roleplay genre than false advertisement. Because some like to take it as, “Oh, you’re not 18, that’s false advertisement.” Well no, it’s a role play movie. So you have to understand that I’m someone who is older, but looks super young. Sometimes I don’t even look old enough to be in porn. You know, I would say it’s more of a role play scenario than it being false advertising or them trying to say something that necessarily isn’t true. But when I first got into the business, I called it “little kid porn,” which sounds kind of creepy. I always call it the “little kid porn,” like I want to wear the big high socks and play little kid and talk about eating lollipops and you know, that’s the “little kid porn” I always call it. Because I don’t have big boobs and I don’t look like a big girl and I never get to wear big girl makeup. So it’s interesting how differently games are playing out. It’s kind of cool because I feel like I’m actually gonna get to grow up as an adult actress in the adult business. Sometime you start in the business you start as a MILF or just the hot chick. I get to start as if I was a little kid and grow up all the way and if I wanted to be a cougar if I really wanted to. A lot of my fans tease me. They enjoy watching me and they enjoy watching me grow through porn because it’s like “we’ve gotten to travel on this journey with you and watch you grow up as a woman. Along with watching you have sex.” (laughs)

DO: Strange journey that one…

AH: I have a really interesting fan base. It’s funny sometimes when I web cam, they don’t even want me to play with myself, sometimes they just want to sit there and talk with me. You know, it’s interesting how amazing my fan base is. I really have an amazing group of fans. Who really enjoy not just watching me have sex but also enjoy my company.

DO: And of course your webcam is a pay webcam?

AH: Yes, it’s a pay webcam. They pay to talk with me (laughs)

DO: Pay an adult actress to talk with you. Sounds like something Larry David would do on Curb Your Enthusiasm or something…  So how did you land the Star Wars XXX role?

AH: Actually, my agent let me know about the audition and he was like, “I think you’re amazing for this role.” He’s a big Star Wars geek and he was like, “Oh my gosh! This movie’s coming up, you’d be perfect.” And I’m really well-known in the business for my acting ability, so he was like, “Even better. You’re an amazing actress, I know I can rely on you to memorize the script, so let’s go to this audition.” And we talked about it for a little bit and I was like, “Sometimes you assume that these big features already have the girls that they want kind of picked out.” You know what I mean? They’re going to audition five…it’s like any big movie, even mainstream. They have the five top people they know they want to audition for it and they basically pick out of that five. If they choose to pick out of that five, you got a lucky break. So I kind of felt I wasn’t obviously in the top main group of people that were auditioning for it, but I went and I had a killer time.  And I showed up there in buns…actually went to the audition with my hair in buns, looking like Princess Leia already. Because I wanted it so bad. And I didn’t want to get discouraged by thoughts that I had.

So they had me stay and read with a couple of different guys, they rotated a couple of different guys through and you know, it took two weeks to finally figure out that I was the one. I kept hearing, “Well we really like you…” back and forth and two weeks later I found out that I was Princess Leia. And this was before I was a Vivid Girl. So me being a Vivid Girl didn’t get me the role of Princess Leia. I actually nailed the role of Princess Leia before I was offered to become a contract girl. But, the audition for Princess Leia is what led Vivid to look at me to be a contract girl. And what happened after that is a week later, their other director, Michael Bisco, had me booked for a regular gonzo scene and I did a scene for him.  And right after I did that scene, he went to [Vivid honcho] Stephen [Hirsch] and decided “We need to have this girl.” And two weeks later, [Star Wars XXX director] Axel [Braun] went to Stephen and said, “Oh my God, have you seen this girl? She’s amazing, we need to have her!” So two of their top directors separately went to Stephen Hirsch and was like, “You need to look at this girl.” And that’s what…Stephen hears a lot from people, but because he heard it from two separate directors, who weren’t conspiring together to get me a contract, he was like, “Alright, I guess we should look at that.”  So that’s what led me to having the chance to talk to Stephen and down the road, become a Vivid Girl.

DO: Considering Axel Braun’s background, it’s like a porn director would be the last thing you’d think a guy with his credentials would do. Speaking all the languages and being a MENSA member and all that. Do you think people in the industry get dogged by the perception that they’re not smart?

AH: All the time. And you know, I feel like people…we always grew up and our parents told us, “No matter what you do in life, you want to love your job.” It doesn’t matter how much you make – and they always tell you that obviously – but we really do realize how much money matters sometimes.  But you know, I feel like that’s part of the reason why Axel does choose to do porn. Because it’s something that he loves to shoot. So I do feel that, unfortunately, we do get misconstrued at times. It’s a stereotype.  There’s a stereotype for everybody and unfortunately our business has a stereotype of not being intelligent people. Don’t get me wrong, there are some smart people in the business, but that’s like in every group. Just because we’re in the limelight and we have cameras around us sometimes, we get picked out of the crowd a little more. But if you look at people like Jenna Jameson, who owned her own company and then sold it and now has two wonderful boys and is married and is continuing to live off of her success as being a business woman. And then there’s Jenna Haze, who now has been in the business for ten years now and has her own company and is a businesswoman. And people like Bobbi Starr who are up and coming just started her own site and is now producing all her own DVDs for Evil Angel and there’s Jessica Drake, Nikki Benz…all these women are businesswomen and I think people forget that we pay our taxes. We do our bills every month. We have our expenditures, we have to keep track of that. And we also own our own websites. Some of them own our own clothing companies, or our own toy lines. There’s so much more than what you see on film that is involved with porn stars.

DO: You mentioned all these ladies who are diversified in the business, but as far as acting goes, how fierce is the competition for female adult actresses? And what do you have to do to stand out?

AH: You know, it seems like there are a lot of porn parody movies or porn movies that need acting that are out there a lot. But it’s very few and far between the number of porn stars you have. Say there’s 150 movies made with maybe 200 women leads roles out of those 150 movies. There’s over 6,000 female porn stars. So the ratio is obviously really hard. And the only reason that it’s hard to stand out is because…I feel like once they find somebody they use the same actress for everything. It’s kind of what happens. Like Amy San Dimas. She’s an amazing actor. You can find her in Flirt doing Glee, you can find her in Vivid doing Superwoman, you can find her in Exquisite doing Family Guy. She’s in all these major league roles, like all the big companies that do thease features use this one person sometimes and you can kind of get shifted around. And that’s what makes the competition fierce. Once that one person stands out, they’re kind of a go-to girl, you know? It’s all about being proactive. A lot of these people sit around and think that something will just happen just because of their looks they’ll nail the role and it’s not like that anymore.

DO: How often do you get recognized in public?

AH: You know, I wear my necklace a lot with me. My Vivid necklace. So if I’m not getting recognized I’m getting pointed out for my pretty necklace, which I know is basically them going, “Is that really a Vivid necklace? Is she really a Vivid Girl?”  It’s their way of starting a conversation of, “Is that who I think it is?” I would say, generally, face to face, people looking at me, I do get recognized a lot. But people are really afraid to say, “Hi.” It’s more like you see that one person in a corner staring at you and you know why they’re staring at you.

DO: Are fans generally cool about it or have you ever had any scary occurrences?

AH: I have been truly lucky that my fan base has been really cool and I haven’t had any weird experiences, no stalker experiences. Nothing really strange has happened to me. But I also don’t lead my fans on, I’m really point blank: this is who I am, love me for me or don’t. So I can see how certain girls can get wrapped into some experiences, but I have had great experiences with my fans. I will love it if they come up to me in the grocery store and the movie theatre and say, “Hi.” that’s the best time to get your free picture! (laughs)

DO: Well…where do you shop?  Heh…

AH: When we’re at conventions and stuff like that, we all mutually charge the same thing for a photo, so if you see me, take a chance! I might even have an 8×10 in the trunk.  Come on over, you know? I love it. I don’t mind it at all.

DO: I see that you’ve done an Emmanuelle movie recently?

AH: Si! Yes, senor, I have! I was chosen last year, last summer, for a major soft core series that started in the ’70s and the original producer, Alain Siritzky, decided to remake the movies. He also has a couple of other major softcore series on HBO, like Alien Sex Files 1-3. Those are also his creations. But they decided to remake Emmanuelle, which was an iconic woman in France, who kind of brought sex to the theatres in France. Like regular movie theatres, not TV. She brought sex to the theatres in France. Ten years straight it played. It was one of the most popular things back in that day.

DO: Oh, I remember Emmanuelle and Sylvia Kristel.

AH: Right, she’s the original, and then the other major one that stands out is Krista Allen.

DO: Right.

AH: She was number eight. She was actually the eighth Emmanuelle. People don’t realize there have been that many because some of them weren’t very successful. They hired them and they were either bad actresses or the movies just didn’t come out good and things like that. I’m actually the tenth Emmanuelle. And the series…we’ve just made seven…

DO: Already? Wow.

AH: Yes. That was last summer. The announcement just came out. They wouldn’t let me announce anything for almost a whole year. I had to sign a contract that I wasn’t allowed to say that we even shot it. They didn’t wasn’t to announce it until they could actually produce the films. So it was really hard because I left porn for three months…at really a peak time in my career. So it was scary for me to have to make the decision: do I keep going up this ladder that I’m going up, or do I try to step away for a moment to start to branch off into a little bit more of the mainstream world? Even thought they’re softcore films, they’re also going to produce them as R-Rated films and submit them to the film festivals.

DO: Which do you think holds the better future for you: the softcore and Emmanuelle stuff or the more hardcore?

AH: You know, time will only tell I guess. I love both with a passion and I guess it’ll have to be whatever opportunities come my way. I’m kind of a “take each moment as it comes” kind of person. So I don’t like to think or hope, “Oh I get this one big break in mainstream and that’s where I go.” Or “I get this big break in softcore and that’s where I go.” I’m just going to roll with the punches and see what happens. I love mainstream and I would love the opportunity to truly play a good character, a good hard character that wasn’t me trying to play a porn star. I don’t want to be a porn star trying to play a porn star in a mainstream movie. I want to be a girl that can play a character. I want to be a girl that can create what all these other amazing people do in mainstream because we’re there too. And even if it’s not me that does it, I would like the opportunity to push somebody else from our side of the business over that way. Let them know: “Look, we have a little bit more than what you see. Don’t judge the book by its cover.”

DO: How often have you pursued the mainstream avenue?

AH: It’s sooo hard! I wish I could do so much more because I’m so busy. I’m so busy in adult that I haven’t really had much of a chance to step away. And I haven’t really been introduced to the right people yet either. So I’m starting more acting classes and I’m trying to keep up and keep current with the things that are going on. So as much as possible I try. I would say I do maybe three auditions for mainstream every two months. So. not enough to make a difference for how competitive that world is also.

DO: What do you have coming up in the next few months?

AH: You can always check me out on Vivid.com. That’s the best place to see any of my upcoming movies. And you can always check me out on Twitter (twitter.com/alliehaze). I just worked on a movie that, if the title stays the same, will be called Overnight. But the biggest feature I have upcoming is the Star Wars XXX parody. So definitely check that out. And right now I’m just doing a lot of appearances. I’m going to begin feature dancing for the first time ever. Which should be fun because it’ll give me a chance to get out there more and see my fans and test out another side of the business. And Emmanuelle is going to be coming out on HBO for two seasons. So you can find me there for some softcore work.

DO: You said “seasons” for Emmanuelle. Is it a series of movies or is it a TV series?

AH: It’s a movie series, and they’re going to break it up so that it’ll be a TV series. So it’s gonna be both. It’s a set of seven movies that can be shown in sequence, so that you can play them in a row. And then it’s also set up in a way that HBO can buy certain ones of the seven and they can play out for a season. And you can understand them from start to finish. So they’ve bought two of the seven and they’re reviewing the rest and we’re hoping they’ll pick up the rest of them.

DO: Well, Allie, it’s been very enlightening. I appreciate you taking the time.

AH: No problem. Thank you for catching up with me and wanting to interview me. I’m sorry we didn’t get the chance to do this on set.

DO: Yeah, me too.  But if we’d done it on [the Star Wars XXX] set, I don’t think we’d have had the opportunity to gab this long.

AH: Girls like to talk. (laughs)

DO: It’s been a pleasure, Allie. Thank you.

AH: Thank you so much.

FYI, this coming weekend, Jan. 20th and 21st, Allie will be in Vegas with fellow Vivid girl and former wrestler, Chyna, for both the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo and the annual AVN Awards.  You can find them both at Fan Fest at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, at tables #1300 and #1301 from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.  And after the AVN Awards, they’ll be the featured attraction at the casino’s Body English Nightclub for the official AVN Awards Afterparty.  You can check out Vivid for more details.