HOME

 

A chat with Savanna Samson

By Cindi Loftus courtesy of Xcitement magazine

12/31/04

The first thing you’ll notice about Savanna Samson is that she is beautiful; the next thing will be her warm smile. After you talk to her for a few minutes you’ll discover her intellect, her sense of humor and how open and easy to talk to she is. However the BIGGEST thing you’ll notice about Savanna is that whether it’s performing intense drama, doing hard core sex scenes, or having a one on one conversation, she is giving you her all, her complete attention, at 110%. She is the porn world’s over-achiever and it shows. Last year she won AVN’s Best Actress of the Year award and she is nominated for the same honor again this year. She has co-authored a book, writes an on-line column, started her own production company, is working on a talk show deal and oh, she happens to be a Vivid contract girl making movies and appearances. I had the good fortune to talk to Savanna in the beginning of December.

X: When I talked to you last night you said you were in New York City at a party. Who’s party was that?
S: It was for Victoria Gotti. The cameras were all over the place for the show. (HBO’s Growing up Gotti) It was her surprise birthday party.
X: So will you be on the program?
S: Yeah, for sure. Gina Lynn and I got the boys (Gotti’s sons) all worked up at the end. They couldn’t really figure out who the heck we were and then at the end when they figured it all out. They were so cute, because they are so young. They all came around asking questions “ How do I get into this?” I said your parents will kill you.
X: I wanted to tell you I saw your movie “Bare Stage” and it was amazing.
S: Did you like it?
X: It is my favorite movie of the year. It was a very original concept for (Director) David Stanley to come. You were amazing in it. I know you take your acting very seriously.
S: I put a lot into my script. I really take it seriously. I do research background on my character. Some people think that is silly for porn. People do fast forward I know. But not when I’m acting hopefully. (laughs)
X: Well obviously all your work has paid off for you since you won the AVN award last year for best actress. How did that feel?
S: I was so happy, but so surprised. I thought I would have to pay my dues maybe? I didn’t expect to win at all. When they called my name I was like, what? It was a good movie though, “Looking In.” It has a good plot. My acting was pretty good.
X: Well now you are up awards for Bare Stage. What did you like about that movie?
S: I love how the sex is shot in black and white, in that scene with Dale Dabone and I. How cool looking.
X: He’s a hot guy. And the scene with you and Lezlie (Zen) was pretty good too.
S: You know what? They didn’t even catch the half of it. That sex was so amazing and we just kept going. We went crazy. When they weren’t filming, they missed so much good stuff because I had my orgasm off camera. So it could have been even better in the movie.
X: So you guys were having sex even when the camera was shut off.
S: Right. Up on the stage. I always shoot my scenes like that. It’s not my problem if you are going to do hard-core version, soft-core version. I don’t want to stop because it ruins the whole mood. I want it to be real and let the camera catch up to us. X: Tell the readers what you play.
S: I play a young country girl from the South. I had my accent. My boyfriend goes away to war and he doesn’t come back. So I go follow my dreams to be a movie star in Hollywood, but as soon as I get off the bus in Hollywood the whole play progresses on how Hollywood changes me.
X: You and Lezlie are amazing in Bare Stage. I don’t mean just the sex. I mean the acting. You guys were totally believable.
S: The whole Southern girl accent and everything?
X: Oh yeah. How did you do that? Do you have a Southern accent some where in there?
S: No I don’t have a southern accent and I didn’t quite know how to do it. I discussed it with my acting coach and we went to a lot of Tennessee Williams. I really prepared for it.
X: You know who else was great in that movie was Voodoo. Learning all that tough dialog and then talking in that funny accent, he really pulled it off.
S: He was fabulous.
X: He didn’t get a nomination though. I would have put him in the best actor category. So how do you feel about all your nominations?
S: It’s very exciting. And in three girl girl categories! One with Jenna Jameson in the Massuese. One with Lezlie Zen in Bare Stage and one with Tera Patrick in Tera, Tera, Tera.
X: I guess that means you’re hot!
S: I guess so. (laughs) I was really pleased to get nominated as best actress. I won that last year. So to get nominated again made me very happy.
X: I know, you got nominated for best actress over all, and then best actress for Bare Stage.
S: Right. I’m not holding my breath for that one because I think the Masseuse; pretty much everyone is counting on the Masseuse at winning all the awards this year.
X: You were great in the Massuese. How was it to work with Jenna?
S: The first time I was with Jenna is in a not yet released edition of “Where the Boys Aren’t.” All the other Vivid girls played flight attendants except Jenna who played the movie star and I am part of her entourage. It’s all on an airplane. So the first scene I ever did with her is in an airplane bathroom.
X: Oh God, that must have been tough!
S: They cut a little of the back wall out so the camera could get in. There was no room at all. We are all done up beautifully and we were very tender, and all of a sudden I think, f--- this and I grab onto the handle that helps you hang on with turbulence, put my foot on the sink, pulled myself up and it got so hot and it is really a great scene! Then we did the Masseuse. We have good chemistry. Jenna is a great lover.
X: So you think Jenna is going to win for best actress?
S: Well I don’t think she should, (laughs) I think I should! Well maybe, she did an amazing job in Masseuse.
X: My prediction is that Jenna will win some awards, and so will you.
S: It would be a real surprise. Especially since I will be back stage since I am hosting. I just want to win one award so I can run out in between my change of clothes and just grab a towel and go out and get it naked. I don’t think anyone has accepted an award naked.
X: Run out in the towel and then when you get the award, hold the award up in the air and let the towel drop.
S: Yeah, let the towel go as I am running back stage. I am definitely daydreaming about it. Can you call me back in ten minutes? I gotta catch a train.
X: Sure! I’ll call you back in a few. TEN MINUTES LATER
X: Hi. It’s Cindi again.
S: Hi Honey. Uhmm. There are a lot of people on this train. Kids and parents.
X: What are you trying to say? (laughs) That this wouldn’t be a good time to talk about blow jobs?
S: Right. I won’t be able to talk freely. Can I call you back in an hour when I am off the train completely?
X: Yep. I’ll talk to you in an hour.
ONE HOUR (OR SO) LATER
S: I’m a little late, sorry.
X: That’s okay, so you made it home alive?
S: I wasn’t going home. I’m actually in the city. My husband and I split up but we had dinner tonight.
X: I heard you on Howard Stern talking about you and your husband splitting up. I am sorry to hear that. Are you okay?
S: Uhm, yeah. I’ve been kinda done (with the marriage). It’s an emotional roller coaster as you can imagine. He’s living with another girl for Chrissakes. It’s a big mess, ya know?
X: Sorry. Are you dating?
S: Yes. I’ve been laid more, and laid better. It’s good to be horny again. People love that feeling of something new and fresh and with one person it doesn’t stay like that forever. This line of work is perfect because you always have that newness when you work with new guys and there is all this brand new fresh chemistry. And you don’t have to bother wining and dining and you don’t have to wait three dates before you can f--- ‘em, ya know? You just get right too it. None of that bulls---.
X: I’m glad that you are having great sex. What is the wildest sex you’ve ever had?
S: I did five guys at once.
X: In what movie?
S: (pause) In Savanna Superstar.
X: (laughs) I was waiting for you to say in real life!
S: No I’ve never done that in real life and it’s something that I said I would never want to do in a movie. But then I think, well what haven’t I done? So I did the one thing I said I wasn’t going to do. The reason I did that movie was that in the book (How to Have a XXX Sex Life) is listed under my stats a movie called Savanna Superstar, I threw a fit because that was the Savannah with an “H” that used to be a Vivid girl that committed suicide. That was her movie. So one of her movies was listed under my movies. So I did a Savanna Superstar without the “H”. It’s a really hot movie.
X: What is the hottest sex scene you have ever done?
S: Probably one with Manual Ferraro. The guy made me squirt okay, and I do not squirt. It ‘s in the movie “ Woman Under Glass.” The problem with that scene, it was so hot and intense and everything, it’s an amazing scene, and my biggest regret is that I didn’t stick that huge thing in my ass. Because when I am watching a movie I never want to cum until it is an anal scene. And then when I am watching that hot scene and then it ended and it never goes to anal. I was so horny and I didn’t realize I needed to take control of scene. I just thought if they wanted an anal they would say. But now because of that scene I’ve learned I’ve got to take control of my own scene.
X: Plus they may not have felt like they could TELL you to do something.
S: True. I like to be directed. I remember Stephen Hirsch said to me that we want your scenes as hot as the scene with you and Rocco, and I said well get me Rocco then.
X: Well you are Vivid’s Bad Girl! What do you think was your best acting ever in a movie?
S: Oh, “Devil & Miss Jones”. It’s Jenna playing the devil and me playing Miss Jones. It’s not released yet. The director, Paul Thomas says open the door, slam it and scream. So I am standing outside trying to find a way to scream. Finally after the third time of him yelling action, I just opened the door and let out this scream and then I was so embarrassed I started crying. I kept that emotion up through the movie. That was my best acting.
X: So that’s the movie that will be nominated for next year!
S: I hope so.
X: What new stuff are you up to?
S: I am shooting my own production. I will be the little Love Fairy. I’ll be blowing dust on people and making them fall in love and things like that. It’s going to be shot on a green screen. It’s never been done before. It’s going to be amazing. I’m writing the scripts too. I’m so excited to start production on it. I’m also in negotiation for my own talk show.
X: You would be good at a talk show.
S: It’s amazing. If I am sitting next to someone on a plane and they ask me what I do. I say I am an actress and they say really, what have I seen you in, and I say well, the naughty kind. It’s amazing how people open up to me, women, men, as soon as they know what I do. I guess I don’t look typically like how someone would expect a porn star to look, especially how we are in everyday life. They’ll talk about whatever bothers them. It’s amazing how I have that ability to make people do just that. They feel at home. They’ll tell me they rented a movie last night at the hotel, or complain about their husband or their wife. It’s a release for people to be next to someone who is so free sexually.
X: It’s because you are so friendly and down to earth and non-judgmental.
S: Non-judgmental that is a huge part. Thank you!
X: You are like the Oprah of porn stars! You have that girl next-door, easy to talk to quality. What channel will it be on? Playboy TV?
S: No. It’s going to be completely mainstream. It’s too early to even talk too much about it. Oh I have a new website called the UniversityOfSavanna.com. It’s like a whole university website where you pay tuition instead of membership and check out my coeds. And my sorority is called “ I Eat A Pi.” It’s something really completely different and new. But the problem is that there is a Savannah with an “H” University. I’m kinda hoping that there will be controversy, because that would be positive for me!
X: That is because you’re such a positive person and you bring positive things to you. I can’t wait to talk to you again!

Fans can see more of Savanna at UniversityOfSavanna.com, SavannaSamson.com and Vivid.com

Naked Came the Vintner

From The New York Times 2/26/06:

Savanna Samson — her real name is Natalie Oliveros — is a porn star, and a noted one at that. As a Vivid girl, one of the actors whose work is produced and marketed by the goliath Vivid Video, Savanna Samson is a porn celebrity.

She is the star of 25 sexually explicit films, a two-time winner of the Adult Video News Award for best actress, and her work with Jenna Jameson in "The New Devil in Miss Jones," a remake of a classic, won last year's award for the best all-girl sex scene.

"My parents are devastated by my career choices," she said. "What really troubles me about what I do is the pain I've caused them."

Mark Kernes comments on AVN's blog:

Still don't know what fetish impels mainstream publications to refer to actresses by their real names — I don't see the Times' classic DVD reviews adding, after a reference to Joan Crawford, " — her real name is Lucille LeSueur—" — but what the hell; it's got a couple of cute photos of Savanna, and a testimonial from "wine expert Robert M. Parker" that Savanna's 2004 red Italian "Sogno Uno" ("Dream One") is "a very fine wine — awfully good... It was really opulent and luscious and it had a personality."