Porn Valley- Anyone who’s been on a porn set knows that it’s the make-up person who hears more sins than a parish priest and is almost bound by the same seal of confession. But Wankus, nevertheless, attempted to extract some gab from Malea when he had her on his show, www.ksexradio.com Friday night. Wankus, to his recollection, never had a makeup artist on before and called it “breaking the make-up cherry.”
Wankus said he’s met a lot of makeup artists both in porn and mainstream and finds them to be the most fun on the set- usually. “We have the least to lose,” Malea agreed. “If we’re offending the talent across the room we don’t have to sleep with them afterwards.” Malea has been working in the adult business nearly three years now. “I was privileged enough to get on an adult set before I had even broken into the adult industry. I’ve got interesting friends.”
Malea said a job like hers is a lot more business than you might imagine. “But there’s a little bit more relaxation than compared to a mainstream set. You get a chance to hang out, chill out a little bit, chuckle without having the director on your neck. You still have time constraints and other things, but it is about everybody looking like they’re having a good time. So you might as well have it. It shows up on camera if the girl’s not happy with her makeup, or the scenario or the guy’s she with.”
It was Wankus’ contention that porn actress must be accomplished because they can put on a fake smile when they’re fucking some guy they don’t want to fuck. “I think that’s your acting role right there.” Malea says the hottest scene is when the girl genuinely enjoys it. “You can see it. She’s enjoying the guy. She’s enjoying the way she looks. She’s feeling good. It’s evident.” Co-ho Katie Morgan agreed. “You got to look porn star to be porn star. You have to feel porno.”
Malea said being a makeup artist is a tough position to be in because you have to make so many people happy. “You have to make not only the producer who’s paying for the series; the director who has to stand by that, then you’ve got to make the girl happy and you have to creatively consider your own personal talents and what you’re willing to put in your books. That plus the time constraints.” Unlike mainstream, Malea said porn gives you the time you’re promised to do the job.
Wankus asked if “high priced escort” was the look most often sought. Malea said it depends on the producer’s outlook for that particular series. “If the girls are supposed to look 16 even though they’re in their mid-twenties, no matter what you do you cannot use dark colors- as dramatic as you might want to be- they better be sweet and soft- 18 at the most. You can look 16 and be 24. And once again it’s up to the makeup artist to pull that off without you looking in the mirror and go, you’re kissing me?”
Asked if she had to do clean-ups after a sex scene, Malea said absolutely but what makes adult better than mainstream is that adult shoots in scenes. “A lot of times they’ll get three scenes shot in a day. They’ve got nothing to do with one another. They’re independent scenes with a different girl. With adult features we’re you’ve got that same girl for three or four days, absolutely. Hopefully, and this is where you, hopefully, got smart producers on the line, they set up the scenes properly so I don’t have to do a full face over for one last shot at the end of the day.”
Luckily from her experience on mainstream, Malea said she learned continuity. “Or the feel for the way lights work on the skin.” Asked if she had no-no’s like touching up a guy’s ass zits, Malea said she was pretty fearless and okay with that kind of stuff. Malea said a lot of girls also don’t know how to take care of their hair and skin. “With hair, girls for the most part will kind of know what their hair looks best like. If they show up that way and it looks great, it’s one less thing for me to do. If the director is happy with it, fabulous.”
Malea said she actually gets more porn work than mainstream. Wankus said a friend of his who does mostly mainstream makeup had a horrible experience on a porn shoot. “The guy was such a cocky piece of shit…” Malea laughed and said they all are.
“The guy was talking so much shit and she thought he was the ugliest guy in the world,” Wankus continued. “Then he dropped his pants and he had a rash. It wasn’t a herpes-thing. But it was a really bad shaving rash. And he was like so cocky. Girl, girl, touch this. And he’d be, you like that cock and talking shit.” Consequently Wankus’ friend said she was going to back off on some of the porn stuff.
Malea said you have to have a certain personality to deal with that.
“You have to be a little brash and not be so afraid to joke back with the guys and tell them to shove it where the son don’t shine,” she advised. Malea also thinks she should show up on a set with jeans that say off limits. “That way they just know off the bat.” Similarly, Wankus said in a strip club you want to fuck the cocktail waitress while on the porn set you want to fuck the makeup girl. “I’m guilty of that. I flirt with a lot of makeup girls on set.”
Malea figures the more clothes she wears, the more dangerous of a situation she’s in. But, again, she says, attitude counts for a lot. “My father was from New York. He taught me not to take any shit from nobody. What’s the worst thing that’s going to happen? The guy’s going to complain about you and you’re never going to work on the set with him again. Works for me.”
Fortunately for her, Malea doesn’t have to watch stuff that might gross her out. “Most of my work is scenes which means I take care of the girls; I set up, do the still photography-make them look as hot as they can for that boxcover, touch them up, send them on their way and work on the next girl or pack up and leave.” As far as providing touch ups, Malea said it’s preferred that girls look sweated-up. “It’s real. They want the makeup to run a tad and the lipstick to be worn off and the hair to be a little funky. The kind of sex they’re trying to portray is supposed to be hot and bothered sex. If they’re not sweaty, what’s hot?”
Malea said she started off in front of the camera, mainstream, as a child. “As you get out of things you kind of wonder what else is there.” Malea also choreographed and danced. Then she got in a car accident. “It led me to having to change my creative field. I couldn’t dance 8 hours a day. I couldn’t do those types of things.”
She then got job as an apprentice. “Holding and cleaning other peoples’ brushes and doing things that nobody wants to do for other people. I tried to build my book to show the type of work I’m capable of doing and I got into the mainstream field a little bit. I found I had to turn down work because I wasn’t qualified in special effects. I went back to school for special effects. I like to be able to look at somebody and turn them into anything. I can’t wait for some guy to have a budget and do a real horror-esque porn.”
Malea was asked if her family knows about her porn dealings, Malea said all her grandparents want to know is if she’s working. “Parents on the other hand I’m pretty lucky. As conservative as they are, I’ve kind of broken them. I come home tattooed from head to toe, the colored hair and the punk rock boyfriend. I’ve kind of broken them of every kind of shock. They knew for the past two years what kind of led me to want to go to school- that was the adult business and doing the adult makeup. They actually are proud of me. They’re like, great, you work more than half your friends who are union-industry. You’re happy and doing your thing.”
Asked about situations on the set that might not have made her happy, Malea said there was a girl one time who was sucking cock and swallowed it. “Then I had to re-do her lips for the boxcover. She was breathing a little too close. It had that warm spunk-smell. It was that funky splooge.”
Malea said she now carries breath mints for that purpose. Other situations warrant a sense of personal hygiene and Wankus noted that Iranians could never do the job. “I don’t mean to be racist but you can’t be Iranian and do this job. Iranians don’t use deodorant. It’s like against their religion.”
Aomng the performers, Malea said she really likes working with Sky Lopez and thinks she’s great. “I’ve been contracted under West Coast Productions for two years and I’ve done all their girls for the most part.” Among the men, Malea said she enjoys working with Mandingo. “Comedy hour. He’s great. For being a 15 inch-dick you want him to stay across the room on that level, but he’s the kind of guy where you don’t mind snuggling up, hanging out, watching a movie and being really cool with. He’s just a really neat guy.”
It was also assumed that Malea deals with bitch girls on the set from time to time. “I should [treat them with kindness],” she said. “But I’m tolerant to a certain degree. I’ll just go to the producer and say I don’t know what you can do about this girl but I’m going to smack the smile off her. If you don’t handle this I will. And i think you would prefer to. Then I get told I’m a horrible makeup artist and they don’t ever want to work with me again, whatever, because I don’t coddle their egos.”