Lisa Ann: How the iconic porn star fell out of love with the adult industry
When Lisa Ann started off in the porn industry in 1994, there weren't many that knew of the now pop culture icon. She was in her early 20s and had some big dreams that led her to do her first hardcore adult content in 'Flesh for Fantasy'.
She went on to become a worldwide phenomenon after she slipped into the shoes of Sarah Palin in the infamous 'Who's Nailin' Paylin?' but that wasn't before she took her temporary breaks from porn, only to eventually fall out of love with it. The reason perhaps was that there was a time when the porn industry had "value" for the women that were working in it, Lisa said in a recent interview with LadBible.
With the 2000s rolling in, it started to get aggressive, she said.
It was like "a fast-food chain" with companies doing illegal things like choking or hitting a girl — which wasn't allowed when distribution was only through VHS. "The internet is just the wild wild west and now companies are saying 'we never got to beat up a girl before, why don't we do that? Somebody will watch that'," she recalled, noting that it went on to become all about that "shock value" that "changed the dynamic the industry".
Just three years after she did her first adult film, Lisa quit porn after an AIDS scare in 1997, as health and safety issues became rampantly infested in porn. She then spent seven years working as a stripper and even owned a day spa for a while. But the demand she saw for herself made her return. However, it was short-lived.
It was like Lisa had dipped her toe back into the water and didn't quite like it as much as she used to. But not before she had played Serra Paylin, a parody of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, in Hustler Video's 'Who's Nailin' Paylin?' in 2008. It remains her favorite movie of all time that she's done, she said in the interview, and one of the reasons why was because she didn't want to do "violent" things.
"There were a lot of companies I didn't want to work for and it got to the point that there wasn't much work for me," she said recalling the time before the film. "I don't want to do anything violent, I didn't want to be choked, smacked or spat on, and when a company would call me for a gig I would look at the stuff they were producing and reach out to them and say 'hey, I don't do this and that' and they would tell me that I wasn't a good fit."
Released on Election Day, it got massive attention. She starred in its sequels too — 'Obama Is Nailin' Palin', 'Letterman's Nailin' Palin', 'You're Nailin' Palin', and 'Hollywood's Nailin' Palin'. She also went to star in Eminem's music video 'We Made You' like the character.
In December 2014, she told her fans goodbye once more.
However, she did do some more scenes in 2018, making a triumphant return at the age of 45 with Evil Angel, a production company, and worked with Isiah Maxwell for her very own website. She also worked in two VR movies and has tried her hand at directing and producing quite successfully. She is currently a sports radio show host on her own Fantasy Sports podcast on SiriusXM and she loves every minute of it. She never cancels a show, she says.