We talked for 45 minutes on camera in a Beverly Hills park Wednesday morning. Video
Pic pic pic pic pic pic Here’s her blog.
Julie spent 1980-1984 in Germany (from kindergarten to fourth grade) before coming home to Washington D.C. "grudgingly."
"I don’t really like this country. If I had my way, I would go back to Europe. It’s a much simpler way of life. I didn’t know about such things as racism until I moved here. I lived in a farming village. I went to the butcher, the baker, and you could walk there."
Luke: "What do you love and hate about America?"
Julie: "I hate the hypocrisy."
"It’s supposed to be so democratic, which I don’t buy. The Religious Right is trying to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do, meanwhile they have mistresses and dominatrixes…. People should be allowed to make their own decisions. Overseas, they teach people to think for themselves while here they teach people to follow like sheep. Thinking for yourself is strongly discouraged here."
"The educational system here. There are different standards depending on where you live. Why is it ok for people in the South and Mid-West to be stupid? It seems like the system is intentionally keeping certain segments of the population down."
Julie loves the "freedom" in Europe. "It’s just so beautiful there."
"I lived there as a child. I’ve been there as an adult but I haven’t lived there. Other than Checkpoint Charlie which I visited when it was still up, it just seemed more relaxed. Here people live to work and there people work to live."
[Afterwards, Julie praises by email "the lack of homeless in Europe, centralized health care, and lower crime rates (depending on where you are, of course)."]
Luke: "Why do you choose to live here?"
Julie: "I live here for work. Unless I find some European to marry, I’m stuck here."
"I was raised atheist but I wanted to convert to Catholicism."
Simone has lived in Los Angeles since 2003. "The people here are passive-aggressive. I’m from the East Coast where people say what they think."
"I love the East Coast. There are actual cities there. I love when you walk out on the street and people are in suits and ties. They care about their appearance. People here go to work in jeans and t-shirts. How is that acceptable?"
Julie’s parents didn’t "impose anything upon me… So long as I was happy."
"I didn’t know anything about S&M until I did it in photo shoots. I think it’s the danger. I’m an extremist. I like edge play, taking things to your limit. Things like breath play, the element of danger beyond how much pain you can take."
Luke: "What was your reputation in high school?"
Julie: "I was strange. People thought I was odd. People thought I was a slut."
"I was very quiet… I’ve always been a loner. I was a cheerleader. I was in junior ROTC."
Julie married at 20. It ended three years later though the divorce didn’t come through for another two years.
"I was starting to model. He liked bragging about it to all his friends but he was not OK with it and that became a big problem."
"He wanted to start a family and I wasn’t ready for that."
Luke: "Why would you choose modeling over your marriage?"
Julie: "That was not the only problem. He also got into the internet and chatting with young girls online. He wanted to go visit one of them. I said, ‘That is not OK. We’re married.’"
Luke: "How did you get the niche as a fetish model?"
Julie: "Unfortunately, after you’ve done just a handful of those, that’s what you are labeled. My first love was fine art modeling and glamor. But once I started doing the fetish, there’s a stigma attached to it. I’d get booked for a fine art shoot and I’d go yay, I get to do something fun and flirty today, as opposed to getting tortured, and I’d get there and they’d have all these fetish ideas because they didn’t want me to be bored."
"I wish that people would stop trying to make me a one-dimnensional person."
Julie has done some hardcore porn work "but it just wasn’t me. I started having a problem with it. I started going out and thinking everybody knew. It made me not want to leave my house."
"I don’t ever want to do work that says ‘I needed money.’
"My father and I don’t have a close relationship. My parents divorced when I was young. My father found my site and said I was treading on dangerous ground."
"My mother is just happy that I don’t do porn anymore because now she and her husband can watch porn again without worrying that I’ll show up on their TV."
"When I’m in front of the camera, it’s the most creative I feel."
She recently took two years off of modeling. "When I did fashion, I was 110 pounds. I’m 5’9". That’s not a healthy weight."
As a photographer, Julie "hates dealing with models… A lot of models don’t get it. One model complained the whole time she was there. When I later tried to talk to her about her behavior, she said, ‘You tried to make me into something I’m not.’ Yeah, that’s what photographers and directors do.
"A lot of models don’t show up on time. They don’t bring the stuff you ask them to bring… The ones who act like it is a chore, it makes me not want to do it."
"The only thing I don’t like about directing is that the financial payout hasn’t matched up yet with the amount of work I do. The models get paid twice as much as I do and I have two works of post-production to do."
"I don’t mind being vulnerable [as a model] as long as it is within my comfort level. I never want to feel unsafe. That’s only happened to me once or twice in the ten years I’ve been doing this."
Julie owns three cats.
"I’ve gone sober a few times. Two years ago, I went two months minus a one day break."
Currently Julie has been sober for a few months. "I’m trying to make it a lifestyle change."
"It’s been a problem for most of my adult life."
"I was in denial for a long time. It’s not just alcohol."
"I can’t seem to just have a couple of drinks like normal people do."
As Julie gets drunker, she gets more happy and wild. "It helps me be the person I am inside."
"Coke is the only drug I’ve had a problem with. It’s so socially acceptable."
"I was doing speed to maintain my weight."
"From living in LA, I started doing coke again. Everywhere you go, it’s here. As a female, everybody wants to give it to me. Coke is what started me going back to AA. …Unfortunately, alcohol leads to it."
Luke: "Do you become more sexually available when you’re high or drunk?"
Julie: "Sure. Most people do."
Luke: "How often have you been offered drugs or alcohol on a set?"
Julie: "Never."
Luke: "Photographers have never offered you a drink?"
Julie: "They do but I don’t."
Luke: "Do photographers offer you cocaine?"
Julie: "There was one in Indianapolis."
"I haven’t worked the [twelve] steps. I’ve just been going to meetings, trying to find a sponsor."
Luke: "What if the only way you could stay sober was if you had nothing to do with the adult industry?"
Julie: "Then I’d leave it. But I don’t think the adult industry has anything to do with my problems with drinking and drugs."
"When I was doing penetration, it was a factor. There was a period when I had to be high to do a shoot. That’s when I realized I shouldn’t be doing [penetration]."
Regarding blogging, Julie says "some people don’t want their sex objects to be a real person."
Luke: "How has your ‘Julie Simone’ character affected your relationships?"
Julie: "It’s often a problem. A lot of people can’t separate work from personal. In my most recent relationship, we got into fights all the time. He’d say, ‘You had sex with a girl. I should be able to have sex with a girl.’"
"A lot of people are jealous of my work. That’s ridiculous."
"I can see that if I was getting penetrated on film, I could see that as sex."
"A lot of men feel threatened by what I do, as if I’m having some sort of sexual experience without them, even if I’m only holding a camera."
Luke: "My estimation is that about 80% of men would have a problem with that."
Julie agrees. "I wish it couldn’t be like that. I wish a guy could say, ‘My girlfriend directs porn. That’s great. As a female, she’s trying to bring something to a male-dominated world. It’d be nice if they could see it as some kind of social benefit."
Luke: "What kind of guy will think it is great his girl directs porn?"
Julie: "Maybe some kind of crazy deviant. Or maybe an intellectual. Maybe I need to find a professor. A sociologist. He’ll think it is grand."
"I tend to date musicians."
Luke: "Do you feel vulnerable right now?"
Julie: "No. I guess you haven’t asked the right questions."
Luke: "How has your life changed by being sober?"
Julie: "It’s just very strange."
"Pretty much everyone I know drinks but they don’t do it very often."
"I choose not to hang out at drug parties anymore because they’re boring."
I assume a link to the interview is coming…
“”I don‚Äôt really like this country. If I had my way, I would go back to Europe.”
“Overseas, they teach people to think for themselves while here they teach people to follow like sheep. Thinking for yourself is strongly discouraged here.”
Dear stuck up chiche bitch, please think for yourself and gtfo.
while the American in me might agree with ninja pirte…ie if you dont like it here dont let the door hit you in the ass…The Patriot in me recognizes the truth in what this young lady says. We are not taught to be individuals anymore we are taught that we are part of a group and that sacrificing our liberty for the good of the group is a good thing…I think our founding fathers would be genuinely disturbed at what we have become.
Lemmings
You are all individuals.
This is a fascinating interview of a very talented individual. I would quibble with the specifics of her US vs. Europe notions, but that’s fine. She is extremely open and straightforward. I’m impressed.
Julie is awesome! I’d also say she’s right on about the U.S; the most brainwashed nation in the world.
I know from experience that alternative points of view are reacted to with instantaneous dismissive hostility with the carried assumption that the reigning popular point of view must be the obvious and proven truth (although information control is mind control and there is not a free flow of alternative information like most assume). This certainly is not the country our founding fathers fought for or what our ancestors died for. I have Julie’s awesome “Audition” poster on my living room wall with Gia Paloma on the floor tied up with ropes and her eyes and mouth wrapped in cloth and I’d say this image accurately represents our collective “freedom” in this mass media mind controlled corporation nation.
jeremy you’re a fucking idiot.
“the most brainwashed nation in the world”
would be a country like North Korea not the US.
“I know from experience that alternative points of view are reacted to with instantaneous dismissive hostility with the carried assumption that the reigning popular point of view must be the obvious and proven truth”
So your alternative points of view are met with alternative points of view and that’s wrong?
“although information control is mind control and there is not a free flow of alternative information like most assume”
I’d say you’ve never been on the internet but that wouldn’t stand to reason since you posted here. If the internet isn’t a “free flow of alternative information” God only knows what is.
“mass media mind controlled corporation nation”
Spoon fed garbage. Be honest, what text book did you lift this from? It’s certainly not your own words.
Oh, hell, I can’t resist the temptation to chime in here on the US / Europe thing with my Random Internet Guy Ideas.
I’m an American and quite happy that I am, although I am very much not on the political side of your Bill O’Reillys and Rush Limbaughs. Like any big country the US has problems: our health care system is a disaster, our justice system is way out of wack with too much of a “throw ’em jail” attitude, and, as Julie points out, the quality of elementary and secondary school systems vary drastically based on the wealth of different locales. And certainly not least our electorial system is clearly flawed at the edges — and they are wide edges — to an absurd degree.
On the other hand the US is by far the dominant military power on the planet (even with the wrecking of the Army in Iraq) mainly because of our technology; overall we are the prime engine for advanced science and technology (like the Internet) although obviously not the only one; and culturally we have a massive impact not just in mindless block buster movies, but in the very concept of mass entertainment (as opposed to entertainment aimed at an elite) on a real global scale. Now this is not necessarily a good thing across the board, I’m certainly NOT trying to argue for a US hegemony over everything, and this position is not going to last forever.
But we must be doing something right to be able to attain this level of global influence (good and bad) on a scale that has never been seen before.
What we do right in this country, I believe, are things like a higher education system that is second to none; an employer-employee system that allows for relatively rapid changes in economic conditions (not good news for those who are fired, of course); and, a political system that is dependent on local elections far more than centralized parties.
Expanding on the last point, which most people don’t agree with, I believe that the dependence of Congressman on their local districts as opposed to a centralized party as in a Parliamentary system is — on average! — a good thing for the US. (Alaska these days is an obvious counter-example.)
Since WWII most Presidents have come from outside the center of Washington, except for a few VPs who made the transition. Clearly this is bad in some circumstances like, well, now.
Also we don’t have the extreme regionalism seen in, say, Britain. Everyone talks these days about Red and Blue states, but at the county level its much more shades of purple with dots of Red and Blue.
The primary problems that I think, sitting here in my little apartment on the east coast, which will eventually do in the United States (which of course must happen eventually one way or another) are internal issues:
— I believe we need to maintain a “melting pot” mentality towards immigration, which, even with jingoistic fringers we tend to do because that is part of our cultural heritage. This is a big and growing problem in Europe.
— I also believe we have to maintain a reasonable level of social mobility to make sure that there is a reasonable chance for someone born in a lower economic conditions to be able to attain the middle class through work and some luck.
— We also need to maintain a strong position in science, especially at the upper levels from which new technologies flow. So much of what we take for granted today, like a computer or indeed anything with a transitor, or an led or laser, is based on quantum mechanics which wasn’t even around 100 years ago. (Well, bits and pieces were coming
together then, but it wasn’t yet brought into a coherent set of ideas.) This includes but goes beyond keeping a lid on silliness like creationism.
— And finally I personally believe that the “unitary executive” theory which has shifted so much power to the President these days needs to be rolled back soon before it effectively becomes permanent. Without a reasonable amount of conflict and oversight between the branches of government we’re all in trouble.
– Related to the last one, we have to try and make sure that the politicization of the military brass, using them as a tool for one party, is rolled back too.
As for Europe they have a lot of challenges, but frankly this is too long and I’m getting bored so I’ll skip that.
In conclusion… all right, settle down… this is what I — Yet Another Random Internet Person — believe. Just my opinions. Although if you see it on the Internet it must be true, right?
King, they are ALL my own words, believe it or don’t. After doing lots of research I came up with “mass media mind control” myself. I’ll take your accusations that they are certainly not my words as a compliment, Thankyou.
I’ve been accused since I was in Elementary school of plagerizing words and ideas, even drawings. Nothing new. When I decide to really put myself to things I surprise people. Someone has to have come up with the words, and that person happens to have been me.
I know that being in porn may suggest disbelief on your part but unlike many here I don’t spend my life obsessed only with porn gossip or occasionaly reading just the corporate controlled news.
I’ll take your knee jerk reaction of calling me an “idiot” as proving my point.
Here’s just one example of a vitally important subject: Are you aware of Greg Palast and other’s works showing how the Presidential Elections in ’00 and ’04 were fixed? Wonder why it’s NEVER a subject in corporate media?? Sure it “freely” floats around on the web here and there but the bottom line is is never in the news.
Meanwhile corporate media is more controlled and in fewer hands than ever. It’s the Murdochification of media (I just came up with that too, so fuck you in advance of your accuasations that I don’t have a mind of my own)
Check out thise excellent video
“Orwell Rolls in his grave”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4467655342219448521&q=orwell+rolls&total=58&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Please show me how North Korea is more brainwashed that the U.S.
Do you know that the U.S. has bombed 50 countries in our history? I’m sure they feel they way they do for certain reasons. We should look into them for our own well being, as well as the world’s. War and poverty and hell on Earth are big business for the controllers. Wake up.
P.S., Hey bigdipshitdaddy where were you? You never showed up, bitch. What a surprise.
“they are ALL my own words, believe it or don‚Äôt”
“lots of research”
“that they are certainly not”
“I‚Äôve been accused since I was in Elementary school of plagerizing words and ideas, even drawings.”
“has to have come up with the words”
Talk about damning yourself. Wow, just, wow, I can’t quote any more of this bastardized english. I’d be better off just pasting your entire post as a lesson in bad grammar. Graduate fifth grade english then return to the adult’s table.
“I‚Äôll take your knee jerk reaction of calling me an ‚Äúidiot‚Äù as proving my point.”
I’ll take your illiteracy as proving my point that you’re a fucking idiot. Try to book a flight to North Korea and tell me the results. When you get there criticize “The Leader” and we’ll see in about 75 years if you’re still alive. Douche.
Hey King, just because I’m lazy with my grammer/grammar while I’m on the phone with someone talking doesn’t mean I’m not being honest with you. I used to get alot of A-(minuses) because of grammar. I swear on my mom’s life I have not lied about what I said so fuck you Douche.
Also, the most brainwashed nation is the one which believes it is free. Obviously if someone cuts off your head for criticising it’s ruler the population knows they are not free.
We are the most brainwashed nation because we are the most powerful and controlled nation. Think more about ideas than grammar. Perhaps I’m too busy communicating what matters more. Knowlege and ideas matter more than grammar and polished sentances. Obviously I am not “illiterate”. If I cared about impressing the impressionable I’m sure I’d dress fancy all the time as well as be more concerned with my “grammer”.
“extreme regionalism seen in, say, Britain” Thats so true the location discrimination is terrible, affects education, work opportunities, everything.
“You tried to make me into something I‚Äôm not.‚Äô Yeah, that‚Äôs what photographers and directors do.”
May find Suzanne Junkers visual take on that interesting.
The thing a lot of us find amazing about the US are the guns, the whole gun culture thing. I remember that pic of Burglar with a hand grenade, in the UK he would be behind bars for that for 5 years. The use of the word Pak with the i would see you frozen out and with police interest. They come down very hard on racism and homophobia.
But over there everything is half price, cost of living here is just too high.
Correction – thats Susanne Junker.
jeremy who brainwashed you?
Christ! I didn’t know you are a porn goon. That explains a lot.
Hey that dudly who calls himself “King”, I am not brainwashed, but you apparently are too proud to learn something since I ticked you off with the “we are brainwashed” comment as well as my bastardized english.
Meanwhile, have you even checked out “Orwell Rolls in his grave”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4467655342219448521&q=orwell+rolls&total=58&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
yet? Of course you haven’t. To say you learned something from or through me, even if I am but a messenger would be too much for your stupid ego. However, it’s very relevant to the porn industry and even mentions pornography as relevant to government controls over public information.
I dare you to watch. Come on. Don’t be such a proud pussy. It’s actually very interesting as well as informative.
I read all sorts of stuff btw, from all sorts of authors. Ultimately I make up my own mind. Can you imagine that? I just came across some crazy literature about “Starborns” vs “Darkborns”. The former are “repelled by injustice or abuse to the innocent and the helpless while a Darkborn revels in it. The Darkborn find pleasure and power in performing belittling and cruel acts.”. Cruelty seems to be a forte of many porn gossipers. Lost souls they are.
I miss the way people dressed in NYC as well. The clothing is also 3 years behind here.
First; to all you who have bashed Julie and asked her to GTFO, I think this is the typical American. Yes, what you don’t realize is that Europeans that visits, and lives here accept the twisted way of how American’s think and live, however, it is not the other way around. So when you open your mouth and bash, trash and look down upon American’s that have been outside America and have formed a different opinion about its own country, you are falling into the trap of what have been said. Where is the freedom of speech in this country, if anyone thinks differently about things, if there is, allow people to speak their mind and move on…
jeremy, the day that I’m taught a lesson by a person so inept at everything in life that they are reduced to getting naked and fucking for a living is the day I put a noose around my neck to end it all. Yes, I’m familiar with Pappas’s “Orwell Rolls in His Grave” and this is exactly the kind of brainwashing garbage that has demented you sanity. Show a debt of gratitude to Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore as your moonbat icons, talk about being brainwashed, wow. Plus, this is the reason I brought to your attention the explosion of blogs/internet etc. as alternative sources of information. That documentary is reduced to left wing propaganda given the availability of independent information these days. You’re still a fucking idiot.
Hey King, what are you King of by the way? If you could refute one thing specifically in that doc I’d love to hear it. I won’t hold my breath though. You gotta back up your labels, otherwise your claims are worthless as a porn maggot crawling around the latest fresh laid turd. BBC Journalist Greg Palast’s work is backed by the data. Why do you think the guy who runs diebold walked out of the room before the interview barely got started? You’re dissing alot of people with alot more credentials than you can dream of having, Mr Self-proclaimed elitist Porno Fan. You’re just a typical internet shit fly, shit loving garbage spewing, human garbage dump, with nada to offer but the typical boring insults, excrement and waste.
Of course garbage in, garbage out. What else can we expect? You’re so full of internal trash that you should find a landfill to spew to no end. You’re boring and completely unenlightening and so together in life that you spend your time spouting crap out on porno gossip sites. Real gift to humanity. The documentary points out that media is in more monopolized than ever in America’s history, as is your mind. You’re also proving there is no intellectual dialog in America, just insults, name calling, blah blah bluh. YAWN!
jeremy, you have to take your clothes off to make money. If beastiality were legal you’d be replaced by dogs and monkeys. Think about it. Dogs and monkeys.
I don’t have to fuck for money King. I choose to. It’s better than being a daily 9-5 whore for a corporation. Porn is a way of saying I rather be the most innocent and innocuous type of whore in society. I’m making my statement. I speak my fucking mind, I don’t sell my soul and I can sleep at night (or mornings and days depending). I have plenty of time in my days, which I many times devote to things other than the latest dingleberry dipshit news bit that have no relevance to the world at large. And thank God bestiality ain’t legal. The idea of “Bitches in Heat Volume IV” and Monkey bukakkis doesn’t appeal to me and I’d hate to have to turn down the big money JM productions would pay, amply available due to the laws of supply and demand economics. I’d imagine the smell would also be even worse than the usual rotten egg aroma of 67 reeking bukkaki loads as well.