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Eon McKai Interview

I get the VCA director on the phone Monday afternoon, March 7.

Duke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Eon: "When I was a kid, there was a girl across the street and I always wanted to...somehow I knew I could convince her to get naked because I have a camera. I had my parents' video camera. I just remember trying to put together elaborate situations with women... I've always been fascinated by the phenomenon of women and the camera."

Duke: "I'm sure your parents didn't expect you to become a pornographer when you grew up. What did they expect from you?"

Eon: "I was a weird kid. My parents are pretty liberal. That's part of why I'm into it. Because they weren't totally against it. They didn't hide it from me. They weren't into porn but they were really open about the fact that it was out there. Obviously the internet makes a big difference. Once you have your own unmonitored access to the internet, there's all kinds of s--- out there."

Born in 1980, Eon graduated highschool in 1998.

Eon: "I'm delivering Kill Girl, Kill to LFP right now. LFP is freaking."

Eon's first movie, a feature, was called Art School Sluts. "Kill Girl, Kill I did while VCA was in big flux. Art School Sluts wasn't out yet. I wanted to continue making movies and find my voice."

Luke: "In [arts] highschool, what crowd did you hang out with?"

Eon: "Deaf metal kids. I hung out with alternative kids. I always dated goth girls, punk rock girls."

A psychologist on the Dennis Prager show today said the teenage love of goth (dressing in black etc) might be a way that they mourn their lost childhoods.

Luke: "Were you a good student?"

Eon: "Not in highschool. I ended up in continuation... Highschool petered out and didn't fully happen for me. It's a touchy subject. Once I got into college, things shaped up. I got to put together my own program of what interested me [majoring in film]."

Luke: "How did you get into the porn industry?"

Eon: "I hooked up with Veronica Hart. She was talking at the ATA Gallery in San Francisco. I started talking to her. She was really approachable. I went down to VCA. I met with Wit Maverick."

Eon started at VCA in the Spring of 2004.

"During that period when Antonio Passolini was the creative director, we really locked. He really pushed for me."

Luke: "How did the reality of the porn industry compare to what you expected?"

Eon: "I thought people would be more passionate about the product. It's just a lot of uninspired people doing stuff. That doesn't apply to VCA.

"It's cliquey. It's locked down. It's such a formula. You've got foreplay, eat pussy, give me a blowjob, three positions, give me a pop."

Luke: "What do you love and hate about your industry work?"

Eon: "I love the freedom I've been able to wrestle away from VCA and the s--- I've gotten to do. When I feel like I am shooting a couple that is real and they're expressing who they are and I'm representing what they're all about.

"What I hate is when people in the business say I'm making a goth movie. That's the mentality. That's not what I'm doing. I might have some goth girls in the movie but there are more discrete styles than just just goth.

"Porn has always looked like it is ten years behind the actual production date and that's what frustrates me the most. People who want to bring things up to date are few and far between.

"I'd like to see something interesting happen with VCA. I think VCA made the most punk rock movies. All those Dark Brothers movies and the stuff they acquired like Rinse Dream's Cafe Flesh, or Alex de Renzy's... They were adventurous. They were pushing to do stuff that meant something to them. VCA was a big company. Then...they churned out a bunch of boring stuff. They lost fire. I want VCA to be something special again.

"In my first movie, I put a couple of classic scenes on there. VCA has some of the best classic stuff."

Why doesn't anybody shoot a shot-for-shot faithful remake of such classics as The Opening of Misty Beethoven or Deep Throat?

Luke: "How has working in the industry affected your private life?"

Eon: "It's fine. I get a lot of stupid questions from people who don't understand the business. You don't ask dumb questions. But I get a lot of -- do you have sex with the girls? Where do you get these girls? Dude, do you ever get a boner while you're on set?

"I guess I run with a wild bunch, so it doesn't change that much. It seemed like I was going towards this anyway."

Luke: "Has it made you jaded?"

Eon: "No. The porn industry is rough. I don't know if I will ever be totally accepted. When something new happens, this industry tries to sign everybody up and write them a check and say, bring me one those.

"Right now Michael Ninn is making a movie of hard sex. So what's going to be the next thing?

"I'm excited to be working with Kat Slater [LFP's head of production]. There were some dark days at VCA. It's known. Why lie about it? I'm not happy about a lot of the stuff that happened. I don't understand that stuff. That was upsetting but I love the people who brought me up and I'm really into Kat Slater. She gets it. She recognizes the success of Art School Sluts and some of the decisions I fought for.

"I come to this from the internet. I don't go out and buy contemporary porn movies."

Luke: "Is your goth thing a mourning for a lost childhood?"

Eon laughs: "No. I like girls who cut themselves and write bad poetry."

Luke: "But dressing is traditionally a way of mourning. So do you think the goth look is a way of mourning a lost childhood?"

Eon: "I dated a lot of goth girls. I like indie girls, emo girls, punk rock girls. Any girl that has some kind of alt style. The kind of people I'm interested in putting in my movies... Girls that don't just buy their clothes at the mall. Male talent is my biggest problem.

"The goth thing has gone on unchanged for so long. Somebody told it is because you can't kill the undead."

Luke: "Did you mourn when you were no longer a child?"

Eon: "I did. I remember when I knew I was a man and not necessarily wanting to be. I definitely don't want to grow up.

"Growing up in Los Angeles, you lose your innocence to a lot of stuff quick. If you do anything creative, you get approached by older people who want to work with you. When I was young doing that stuff, I always felt I was being preyed on."

Luke: "Did anyone touch you inappropriately?"

Eon: "I wish. I had sex with a few older women [they were about 29 when Eon was about 18]... That was cool. One was a music industry girl. I wanted to get something done with the company she worked for. So I had sex with her."