Adult film star Tera Patrick, the only girl that has ever been on the cover of Playboy and Penthouse in the same month (Feb of 2002), reveals more than ever with her first tell-all book "Sinner Takes All" and a nationwide book tour. I had the chance to chat with her about the writing process, advice in the industry, and life after porn.
What made you decide that now was the time to write your story?
"It was a good time, after 10 years in the industry, I figured this is the time to write it. Because I’m in a new transition in my life, the book basically goes from childhood to present day, which includes my divorce. I wrote the book in 2009 with author named Carrie Borzillo. I figured I’m leaving one industry and going into a new one, so why not do it now?
How did Carrie get involved and what was the writing process like?"Well, I had contributed to a book that she had written called Cherry Bomb, I did a little section in there on threesomes. We got along really well, and after I had done the initial phone interview, she marched into my office; now you’d have to see Carrie, she’s like 5’2," 90 pounds on a good day, she’s this tiny little fiery girl; and she goes ‘I need to be writing your book!’ and I just said OK! So we Okayed it with Gotham [publishing], then she would come over and it would be a couple bottles of champagne, a tape recorder and that would be the book session."
Sounds like the best way to write a book."It was the best! But it is hard to write a book, because you start talking about all kinds of personal things and things where you think; do I really want people to know this? But when I sat down I thought that I needed to tell everything. I have one chance and may never write a book again, this is my only chance, and so I was not going to hold back."
A true tell-all eh? Nothing left out?"Nothing left out! The first chapter begins with me waking up in a mental institution, oh no, there was nothing left out!"
What led to Margaret Cho writing the forward?"I had a show on Playboy radio on SIRIUS called Rock Star Porn Star, and basically she was a guest on my show and we clicked and we hit it off and became friends, so I thought why not have her write the forward, another powerful sexy Asian woman!"
As someone that will likely influence a lot of girls who may be entering the porn industry, did you keep that in mind when writing the book? "Well, the book is a lot of different stories from my whole life, but I’d hope that for anyone who reads it that they take away some inspiration. The book definitely talks about some of the mistakes I made when I first got into the industry, because there really is no book that says ‘hey, this is how it goes, this is what you should do.’ I’m hoping that my book will do that and maybe prevent even just one girl from making the same mistakes I did. I do give advice in the book, for girls wanting to get into the industry which is to treat the business like a business, to not get caught up in all the partying and the craziness, and never sign anything without an attorney."
That seems to be good advice for any profession, doesn’t it?"Really, yes. Not just for business but for life. This book is about life. This isn’t about porn; it’s about life in porn, life after porn, life before porn. There are people that know me from that, but there are people out there that know me from all kinds of different things I’ve done. I’ve lived a very good life and I’ve had the opportunity to do many, many things besides porn and that’s another reason why I wrote the book, because I’m out of that industry now and doing other things and my fans will follow me wherever I go … hopefully!"
I read mention that your career nearly derailed early on. What happened?"Well, it wasn’t drugs. I never got into drugs, but I signed a contract without an attorney with a video company very early on in my career that I did not realize owned my intellectual property. So that was the turning point, something that almost derailed my career. I wasn’t going to be able to work as Tera Patrick and I had to go through a two year litigation to get that back. And the fans never really knew that, they never knew the struggle that I went through to stay in the industry to continue to work so they would still have Tera Patrick, because Tera Patrick could have disappeared in 2000 when all this happened. But, I got my name back and opened up my production company TERA VISION."
And that was with your husband, yes?"My EX-husband, right. I was married to a musician and we divorced this year, which is how the book ends. The afterward is about the divorce and how liberating that was for me. Gosh, I think the next book I write will be a guide to divorce, A-Z how to get divorced and still be a lady!"
Have you had any regrets starting the company with your then husband? "I was VERY happy starting my own production company, and I don’t want to say ‘oh I regret this, I regret that’ because there are things that I don’t regret, I just wish that would have been possibly more informed. I wish that I had known more about business, but that just comes with time, I’m still educating myself today and learning things about, not just the business I that I was in, but about the businesses that I am still pursuing. And it is tough, when I first started my company people were just like ‘oh, she’s just talent, she’s just a porn girl, what could she do?’ and I had to prove them all wrong!"
Is it hard for a woman to find that level of respect in the industry?"I think that’s just with women in the work place in general, but for me I am just speaking from my own personal experience in the porn industry. I mean I think women, we’ve all come a long way, even though we weren’t ready for a woman President – which I was – I say for President we get Jessica Simpson and Suze Orman, Jessica can distract all the evil people out there and Suze can make all the decisions. But, I think in my industry, because I had been a performer everyone was willing to take meetings with me, when I was pursuing crossing over I was taking meetings at big companies but they weren’t serious. People just wanted to meet me and sit down with ‘Tera Patrick.’ So I was dealing with a whole other level of trying to get people to realize that I was serious about doing business. That’s why I only started taking meetings with women and gay men! [LAUGHS] So that was my experience early on in the business, and now I have a lot of great people in various industries that I have built up my name and relationships with."
Has being labeled an Asian adult film actress been positive or negative?"I think its definitely been positive. I’m very proud of being Asian, I was raised in America, I talk about it in the book, I was raised by my father not my mother, who is Thai, so I don’t speak Thai and I feel like my ties to the Asian community are that I’m pretty much the J.Lo of Asian girls. There is not really an Asian actress that Asian girls look up to, and I remember when J.Lo came along all the Latin girls were like ‘Oooh we got J.Lo.’ When I go do my signings or when I’m out and about Asian girls, all kinds from every country, always come up to me and say ‘Oh Tera we love you! You’re our favorite!’ so in a way I think that made me successful. The stereotype of the typical girl that was in porn was blonde hair, blue eyed, big boobs and I was tall, lanky with black hair and brown eyes, and people really saw me as something different, which is why I think I became so successful so quickly. I was against the mold."
Being in the industry you are, and with a title like "Sinner Takes All," are you a spiritual person, and If so, do you see yourself as sinful and how do you bridge those two opposing words?"[LAUGHS] Well, I was going to call it ‘Winner takes all,’ because I have successfully done what I wanted to do and I’ve done it all on my own terms, and that’s pretty much my motto for life; go get what you want and do it how you want to do it. Carrie Borzillo came up with the title, she said no ... you’re a sinner because you do porn; people are going to think that anyway.
But you know, I am very spiritual. My mother is Buhhdist, I was raised to be free thinking and free spirited, my parents didn’t force religion on me, but I go to the Buhhdist temple every week with my mother and I do lots of praying and meditation. I don’t want to sound too holy, but I’m down with Jesus. I have a very good relationship with God.
I’ve made so many people happy, and a lot of people have been effective positively by the things that I’ve done. I’ve done signings and people have come out and held up signs that say ‘I GET MINE AT HOME’ and I‘m like well, then go home and get it! What are you doing here with me? I’m not going to give you any! Go get it from your wife!
That’s what’s so great about this country, we can be whatever we want, where as I’ve been to countries where people are tortured and persecuted for believing what they do. I think its great that here we have the means to be what we want to be but don’t force that on anybody else. I think that people who have to aggressively press their views in any extreme is them being uncomfortable inside with who they are and expressing that outwardly to people they want to show their resentment to. Be it you’re gay, a dancer, a porn star, whatever. That has to do with how they are inside. It is really sad because you can’t judge someone based on what hey do, or how they look. And when people jump down my throat about porn I say; ‘Look, you’ve got to be 18 to look at porn, if your kids get into porn then that’s something you need to be monitoring at home!’ Not to get up on a soapbox, but everyone is looking for a scapegoat."
Now that you have retired from porn and done this memoir, what is next for you?"I am actually opening a burlesque show, that I will be the star of, in Las Vegas. If I had to describe it, I’d say it like Pussycat Dolls, traditional burlesque, mixed with Cirque du Soleil. There will be aerialists and all, it will be a very big production and I will be the star of it! Otherwise I’m still very active, I’m doing a lot of modeling, I’ve been learning how to DJ and plan to tour."
Tera Patrick will be in
Jacksonville signing copies of
SINNER TAKES ALL
January 22, 2010
at
Books-A-Million
1910 Wells Road
Orange Park, FL
at 7pm.
www.teravision.com_____________________________________________
FOLLOW UP: PHOTOS FROM THE SIGNING
