I had a chat recently with Sophia Lomeli. Lomeli used to bartend at the Rouge Gentlemen’s Club in Van Nuys and was one of their first dancers.

“And I was the first girls hired as a dancer,” Lomeli recalls.

Of her adult career which began about two years ago, Lomeli says, “It was so weird. I never thought it would ever happen. I always said not me, I would never do that, that I couldn’t have sex with strangers on camera.”

And now that she’s used to performing on camera, Lomeli says she’d never dance again.

“I say that because it’s such an emotional rollercoaster and having to deal with a lot of perverts, the hygiene among the men and what they’re asking for. It just breaks you down. At least in porn you know you’re going to work with this person and, at the end of the day, they’re not going to be harassing you, trying to get in your pants. It’s strictly business.”

Lomeli was asked to give some examples of really bad hygiene of guys who’d come into clubs.

“Oh my gosh,” she laughs.

“Odors- guys that seem like they don’t shower. I wonder if they do that on purpose because they’re against women.”

I told Lomeli what she mistook for body odor was pheromones- the scent of the sexual chase. She wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t think so,” she comments. “I find it completely disgusting. I’ve had some bad experiences. I smell good. I take a shower and get cleaned up before I give you a lap dance.”

“I would hate for you to be dripping melted cheese during a lap dance,” I tell her.

“Ugggggggggh!” she replies. “Gross!”

And, as you might suspect, sexual propositioning is a big part of the game that Lomeli didn’t appreciate.

“It’s a lot of that, says Lomeli.

“They ask you how much is a lap dance. $20, $40, whatever. Then they ask what do I get for that? Well, you get a fucking dance. They try to pick you up outside of clubs. It breaks you down and makes you feel like a piece of shit. I’m not a whore. Yeah, I’m a stripper but I’m not a whore.”

If she had those feelings about her past line of work, I asked Lomeli what convinced her that going into a porn was a step up the social ladder.

“It happened in a different way,” she replies.

“I met Derek [Hay] there and became his friend. I wanted out of the club. So when he had a person at his office quit, I began working there as an assistant. I was so against it at the time. I remember going to parties for Nicki Hunter and I was, like, I would never do this. I swore it and Derek said, of course, you wouldn’t. Right! I didn’t know what a Creampie was at first when I worked there. There were all these things I was absorbing.”

Little by little, then taken for granted porn things became normal to Lomali.

“And I love porn in my personal life- I always watched it,” she says.

“Once I became comfortable with it, I thought I can have sex with these guys that I find attractive.”

But once she began watching porn after she got to know people in the business [and fucked], Lomeli found it “weird”.

“I didn’t even want to watch it. Then I took time off for awhile but now I’m back. But it’s weird to think, oh, I know whose dick that is. Oh, I got fucked by that!”

Lomeli’s first time in front of the camera found her shaking and her heart pounding.

“I was really shy and nervous,” Lomeli recalls.

“But at the same time I was comfortable because it was Derek I was working with. He was obviously my friend at that point and helping me through it. He totally had my back and told me I’d be fine.”

“But you’re working with your boss.”

“I know,” Lomeli laughs.

“I think the hardest part was that it was for Naughty America and they had 12 guys doing lighting and assisting. I wasn’t just having sex with one person. Everyone was involved. That was pretty tough.”

“I would work with Derek in the beginning then found other guys I wanted to put on my list,” Lomeli continues.

“Now I don’t have a no-list. I have a yes list until I’ve had a bad experience.”

So far she’s had maybe two of those.

“Not because they did anything wrong but because I don’t like thick ones [dicks]. And I’ve had one guy who was smoking out on set and couldn’t get it back to where he needed it to be. He expected me to suck him there and I wouldn’t. It was too much work for me.”

What Lomeli especially likes about the business is the fact that she can experience the things she was always taught were bad.

“I was taught sex was wrong and you shouldn’t do this,” she says.

“Having fantasies and thinking about all these things is awesome but actually being able to live them out is the biggest thrill for me. Then I get to watch it, too. I just like new experiences and having sex with fun guys.”

“Sometimes you have good chemistry, sometimes you have whatever,” she concedes.

Asked if having sex professionally has altered the way she does it in her private life, Lomeli says she now appreciates it more in her personal life.

“Of course there are times when you’re tired and don’t want to do it,” she hastens to add.

“But I’m a very horny person, and a very visual and sexual person.”

Growing up, Lomeli said she was always a “princess” and treated as such.

“My dad always told me I was one and I swore it was true,” she chuckles.

“My grandmother spoiled me. My mom spoiled me. I was a little spoiled brat, really.”

“Are they aware of the fact that the princess is now a porn star?” I asked her.

“Honestly I can say I always wanted to be a stripper, even when I was young,” she replies.

“And I wanted to get my boobs done. Those were the goals me and my friend had. That’s what we were going to do with ourselves. And when I’d see a shirt that said ‘porn star,’ I wanted that shirt because to me porn star meant a beautiful, sexy woman. Not just anybody can be a porn star. In the back of my mind I always wanted it.”

Lomeli remembers the first time she found a nudie magazine. It was under her uncle’s chair. [Supply your own joke.]

“Me and my best friend ran down the block and we were looking at it. I saw these women and thought I can’t wait to look that good and be that sexy, to have a man kissing my boobs. It was hot. I don’t know what my mom taught me! I always said I get it from my momma.”

According to Lomeli her mother’s her best friend and loves her no matter what she does.

“She’s not one of those people who’ll say, what did I do wrong? She just knows that I am who I am and am a strong minded person. This is what I tell her. If you don’t like what I do, you don’t have to look at it. And if you’re disgusted by me, don’t be around me.”

Lomeli mentions that she’s the only girl in the family but one of her brothers has a strong opinion against what she does, while the other one’s supportive.

“And the other one is like my mom- they pretend they don’t know what’s happening. But they do.”

Meanwhile, Lomeli’s father’s not a big part of her life any more.

“I haven’t seen him for six years,” she says.

“If he knows, he wouldn’t say anything because he doesn’t have grounds to say it.”

“And friends don’t bring it up,” she continues.

“There was this guy who tried to date me and swore that he was in love with me. Then a little bit into it, I found out that he did know and that blew me away. I was kind of hurt because he wasn’t in love with me but the Sophia-part. That messed it all up.”

Lomeli mentions that she has two children and thought that their father would be the one to beat her up about her career. Instead he became her best friend.

Meanwhile, Lomeli is seeing Tommy Gunn.

“That’s kind of a balance- he knows me personally as me and then he knows what I do. We’re just dating and hanging out, seeing how it goes. He’s a very good guy. I always said I wouldn’t be be able to date anyone in the business, but he’s not just anyone. He’s very grounded and has other goals. He’s got a heart. He’s an emotional person and I’m an emotional person. It’s perfect.”