From www.sexherald.com –

SexHerald: The first time I remember watching you perform was in Where the Boys Aren’t with Christy Canyon and Raquel Darrian.

Francesca Le: I think it was parts 4 or 5. I was in both of them. They would shoot them at the same time. One had Raquel and Christy Canyon in it, and one had Savannah and Jamie Summers on it, who were the Vivid contract girls at the time. Paul Thomas would shoot them at the same time.

SH: So, Paul Thomas shot the Where the Boys Aren’t series before Chi Chi LaRue took it over?

Le: Oh yeah, what are they on like number 50 now?

SH: For a gay director, he makes a really hot lesbian movie.

Le: Probably because he loves women and he wants to be one. He wants them to look the best, make them look really hot and gay guys are really . . . when it comes to sex they’re pretty nasty. [laughs] So, he probably does a really good job.

SH: Do you remember working on Where the Boys Aren’t 5 with Raquel and Christy?

Le: Yeah, I remember. It’s so funny that you like that scene because Raquel’s first words to me on set were, “I don’t like girls. Not at all!” And I said to her, “This is going to be fun.” [laughs] So yeah, she really didn’t like girls at all. I think I did a scene with her in a pool, like a Jacuzzi. And we had a train at the end around the pool. My friend Candy, who I stay in touch with to this day, she had her hair exactly like Savannah with the little bangs and the long blonde hair, I know she was in it. Besides the major contract girls, I don’t remember who else was in it. But I do remember that the original Savannah—because if you tell people Savannah now, they think Savanna Samson; they don’t think the original Savannah. She was really into girls. I mean she really liked girls.

She was kind of misunderstood. People really thought she was a tyrant, she was a bitch. They groomed her to be that. They gave her everything. So when she turned into a monster on the set that nobody wanted to be around, it kind of was their fault. She came to me and wanted to know why nobody wanted to be around her. It’s funny because Paul Thomas comes to me and says, “Francesca, you have to do the scene with Savannah.” I said, “Why?” He says, “Because nobody else wants to fuck her.” None of the other girls wanted to do it because she could be that mean to people.

They were scared of her and nobody wanted to have sex with her. Paul says, “Can you please do the scene?” And I go, “If I get on set and she’s rude to me, I’m going to be pissed. I might test her out.” And we did the scene together and she was great. She really loves girls, I loved working with her, we drove home together, and she was very sweet to me. But she was that type of person. It’s so funny. She’s so beautiful and nobody wanted to have sex with her. [laughs]

SH: How into girls are you?

Le: I used to be about 80/20. I used to like girls way more than I liked guys. After a couple of gay relationships, it made me more 50/50 now. [laughs] Bitches are crazy. I’m going to stick with the guys and have fun with the girls on the side. No lesbian relationships for me anymore.

SH: How did you come up with your stage name Francesca Le?

Le: It’s a funny story. They used to have these animated Halloween specials on TV, and Dracula, the Werewolf and all of them came over for like a monster mash at a party. And Igor had this beautiful, voluptuous redhead, kind of like a Jessica Rabbit character. And he just followed her around and I just thought she was so hot. Her name was Francesca. And I had red hair at the time so I called myself Francesca.

I was in Jim South’s office, who was my agent at the time at World Modeling—who was the only agent around at the time—and Ron Sullivan, AKA Henri Pachard, who’s now passed away, was sitting there and I said, “My fake name is going to be Francesca.” He looked at me and said that if that’s going to be your name you can’t just have one name. It has to roll off the top and it needs something. And he’s thinking and he’s thinking, and he says “Francesca Le.” And it’s going to have an accent over it. That’s what your name is going to be. So Henri Pachard gave me my last name, Le. That’s how the name came about. I love him and miss him a lot. I’m sad that all my directors I worked for all passed away. DeRenzi’s gone, Ron Sullivan is gone, Jim Holiday, Dick Miller. Now the young guys—they don’t even know any of these people.

SH: You definitely have an athletic build. How do you stay in shape? Do you workout every day?

Le: I go to Barry’s Bootcamp. If you go to ClubFrancesca.com, my site, I write blogs and all I ever do is go to the gym. I’m in the gym all the time. I got certified as a personal trainer because I could actually be at a gym for three hours a day. I’m one of those crazy people like that. I really like to workout. If I don’t workout, I get real anxious. I think I’m in better shape now than when I first started. But of course when you’re just 20 years old you take for granted that you’re thin and look good. When you hit about 28 is when you realize you have to work to look like that. [laughs] I didn’t start seeing wrinkles until I was about 35. I hear about girls getting botox and I asked them how old they are, and they say 23. I’m like, “Wait, trust me. Don’t even worry about it until after 30.” Stay looking young still. You have a lot of time before you become an adult.

SH: The young girls never listen.

Le: They ask me, “Francesca, when did you start doing porn?” I say, “When were you born?” They say, “1990.” “That’s when I started doing porn.” [laughs] They say, “You’re not that old,” and I say to them, “Yes, I am. Unfortunately, I am.”

SH: You’re 38 years old?

Le: Yes, and I have it posted on my site. I’m cool with it. I’ll be 39 this year.

SH: You have no hang ups about getting older because you still look great and are a top performer.

Le: I don’t see the whole MILF thing as an insult. I know some of the young girls say they’re going to retire if they get hired for a MILF movie. It’s all over, they’re done with porn. I’m like, “Hallelujah, I’m so happy they’re hiring me.” [laughs] They can call me whenever they want, I don’t really care. The MILF thing is a big thing right now. I think a lot of the older women take better care of themselves just because they realize they have to put the work into looking good. I think that’s why some of them look really good. Also, the MILF girls remind me of the girls from the 90s. The jewelry, the big hair. I like that porn look. I’m not into the girl-next-door look. Back in the 90s they looked like a porn star. Now all the girls look like reality, the girl next door. They’re wearing normal clothes, and it’s not really the porn fantasy, per se; it’s more reality based.

SH: I remember you said something similar in another interview. Do you miss porn stars being and looking like porn stars?

Le: I do. It’s a different time, too. When gonzo came in it made it more amateurish, where you’re just knocking out the stuff. You weren’t doing the big feature-type stories with elaborate sets and all that jazz, like the Andrew Blake style. I still have makeup for the girls on my own stuff that I shoot. I have jewelry for them, I try to do a sexy tease with them. I try to make it like it kind of was, but I also work on the Internet stuff where they prefer you not to look like that. So, I got to tone it down. [laughs] If you’re paying me, I can do whatever you want. But I prefer the big, TADA factor. I also like in the 90s that there was a smaller group of people, so it was more like a family base. It was fun. Now, you may never work with the same person twice because there’s so many people.

SH: Was there more camaraderie back then?

Le: There for sure was. We used to hang out off the set with a small group of people. We used to get together. Now, it’s a little more business. Everybody is about business now. It’s not as close-knit.

SH: There seem to be more porn cliques.

Le: I believe that has to do with agencies, too. Like Direct Model girls, they’re close-knit because they do a lot of events together. So all the Direct girls are close because that’s their umbrella, their home right there. The Goldstar girls are close. Then you have the feature people and the gonzo people. They don’t really cross over. My husband (performer Mark Wood) and I know them because we’re pretty good at staying abreast on what everybody is doing in the business. Some people don’t know who people are. Even if you don’t know these people, you should only to know what everybody is doing and what’s going on in your business. I might not ever meet those people but I know who they are if you tell me their name. But some people seem not to know anybody.

SH: You have your own successful production company, Le Wood. When casting girls for your movies, what do you look for in talent?

Le: Number one, girls that like sex not just girls that say they like sex. [laughs] It just depends for what I’m casting for at the time. Pretty much the main thing is personality and likes to fuck. There’s not really that much criteria. When Mark shoots for Red Light, I actually get to see a lot of the performer’s work before I cast them in my films. So, that’s always good because you can see who’s good or not.

SH: Why did you want to start up your own company? What challenges did you face in the beginning?

Le: A lot of people didn’t really know who I was because I had been gone for so long. That was a little bit of a challenge. Also, when you’re starting a company and you’re just a mom & pop, it’s pretty difficult to compete with the big dogs. We were distributed by JM Productions, which was good. They have a big following. We jumped onboard with Jeff Mike over at JM, and we were distributed there for two years. Then we moved over to Exquisite. The challenges were, we weren’t doing it fulltime. Mark was directing for Legend and was talent, and I was still working and dancing at clubs and doing all that stuff, so it was hard to get the movies done—time and everything and keeping deadlines—so we would never be late with a release. That was pretty much the hardest thing.

SH: What challenges are you facing now in the current economic climate?

Le: Well, the Internet pretty much screwed it up for everybody—the free porn sites and all. When VHS went away, it hit our pocketbooks. So with no more VHS your numbers went down, and now with the free porn sites that’s a little bit of a problem. Sales aren’t as good as they used to be but you can still make money. There are always new people to shoot too, so that’s always good. There’s really no problem producing the stuff still. Sometimes, it’s just getting it all done.

SH: As one of the top MILF performers in the business, is there anything you like and dislike about the term MILF?

Le: I don’t dislike anything about it except that people get upset that you’re supposed to be a mom. Kylie Ireland and I were discussing this on set; we have to come up with another term for us because we’re not cougar because we don’t really go after young men. And we’re not MILFs because we’re not mothers. So, I don’t know what to call us, but I’m not insulted by it all or offended. I think it’s cool. What I like about it is that it’s a term that now . . . because porn is about booking girls 18-21. So after that there really is no place to go. It opened up the market for a lot of beautiful women that still like to fuck and look hot, and still release their sexual aggression and still be able to perform. I think that’s pretty cool.

SH: So you’re comfortable with being labeled a MILF?

Le: Yeah. I got MILF of the Year from CAVR. I’m cool with it.

SH: Is there a performer you’d like to see come back as a MILF?

Le: I’d love to see Jeanna Fine. She’s like my favorite, favorite performer. She was so fucking hot. So either Jeanna Fine or Ashlyn Gere, totally hot. Samantha Strong, she was beautiful. It’s really nice to see . . . like I’ve hired Shayla Laveux twice for my own company, and I’ve worked with Kylie Ireland who I never worked with in the 90s, which was crazy that we missed each other. Brittany O’Connell and Shayla I hired to be in When MILFs Attack. And I had the chance to work with Tiffany Mynx again. It’s so funny because when you see them we get to catch up on what we’ve went on to do, and how life is and all that good stuff. It’s fun to actually get to see them years later and see how everybody is doing. That’s always really fun for me.

SH: When you perform with younger girls, do you feel protective of them?

Le: No because most of the young girls, they’re pretty wise nowadays. They’re not so young. They know what they’re doing. Some of them I do. I try not to get attached to the girls too much because I’m a busy person and sometimes they’re overly dramatic, and I don’t have the time to be taking care of the young girl. [laughs]

SH: Which era of porn do you prefer, the early 90s or today?

Le: I like both eras. There’s good and bad things I like about the early 90s and now. So I really can’t say I liked it better back then than I do now. I think I’m having more fun with it now than I was before. I can’t really choose which one I like. I probably have to be done with it now and then get back to me.

SH: You once told Luke Ford in an interview, “Girls today would never have worked in the early 90s. They’re more sloppy.” What did you mean by that statement?

Le: That’s that one I got a lot of beef for. People were really irritated by it. I just think that when the teen phenomenon hit and the whole girl next door, something happened. It opened the door for all types of girls. Girls in the 90s were overly tanned, big boob, and today’s girls wouldn’t have been able to work in those days. The girls really took care of themselves back then to be in the movies. That’s what I meant by that. To me, they just didn’t look as much as the part as they did back in the 90s. There are some girls that look like that now, I’m not saying every girl.

SH: How many more years do you plan on performing?

Le: Probably a year so, we’ll see how it goes. Maybe this year but for sure, probably the next year will be the last. I’ll probably be gone.