“My favorite magazine to read was called Big Black Butt. I don’t know why, that was just my favorite,” she says.
What also grabbed her attention were some of the ads for director Eon McKai’s Alt-porn movies.
“I saw an ad for ‘Kill Girl Kill’ and ‘Art School Sluts,’ two of his first movies,” San Dimas recalls. “And I got really excited because I had never seen hardcore porn with girls that looked like me. And I immediately knew that I had to do it.”
Not long after that the impressionable Baltimore native mustered the courage to email McKai on MySpace. The email contained a blank subject line and no message. It was just a naked picture of her — the first one she had ever taken.
“And he wrote me back and asked me if I was interested in making movies. At the time I thought I had kind of jumped the shark, and I wasn’t ready to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ so I was like, ‘Why did I even send him that naked picture? Now he wants me to make a movie,’” San Dimas says with a smile.
She decided to go for it, debuting in “Dana DeArmond’s Role Modeling,” a documentary-style porn directed by DeArmond and executive produced by McKai for Vivid-Alt that was released on Dec. 19, 2007. She eased into things from there, flying to L.A. from her temporary home in Minneapolis to do occasional scenes before getting more serious about a porn career during the summer of ’09. Now a little more than a year and about 70 movies later, San Dimas has emerged as one of the most versatile and sought-after performers in the adult industry today.
The 23-year-old star last week wrapped another lead role in a big parody, playing the Man of Steel’s love interest, "Lois Layne," in director Axel Braun’s “Superman XXX” for Vivid Entertainment. That part came on the heels of starring as Sabrina Duncan in Will Ryder’s “Not Charlie’s Angels XXX” for X-Play/Digital Sin that will be released on Thursday.
And speaking of high-profile movies, San Dimas also graced the box cover — along with Sasha Grey and Kagney Linn Karter — for Miss Lucifer Productions’ “Malice in Lalaland” which Vivid released earlier this month. But perhaps what will go down as one of her most memorable performances of 2010 was her hilarious turn as Rachel in Hustler Video’s “This Ain’t Glee XXX.” San Dimas showed her talents for both singing and acting, belting out outrageous songs such as “Big Tushy Ho’s” and “Don’t Cum All Over Me” for another Braun-helmed spoof.
“It was fun to go into the recording studio,” says San Dimas, who once sang at the Maryland State Fair after she won a statewide singing competition more than a decade ago. “I’m going to be doing that for another movie that is a secret. I’ll be back in the studio singing original songs for another parody movie. That’s exciting. That’s exciting that people want me to sing more in my porn. So, I can be ‘Andy San Dimas the singing porn star.’”
In this exclusive interview, the hard-working performer reveals her thoughts on the Nintendo Wii, wearing a wig and working the nightshift at Bradley’s Books & Novelties in Frederick, Md.
On Eon McKai:
Eon was there for my whole first everything. I got into porn… I started doing it because I really wanted to be a Vivid-Alt girl. That was a goal of mine after I had become a fan of Eon’s. I wanted to be in one of his movies. After I saw 'Neu Wave Hookers,' his remake of it I thought it was a really, kind of a cute movie, and it seemed really fun. And I liked the way all of the girls looked. They looked like me at the time. I think I’m a little less Alt now than I was before when I was younger. I just felt like I had to be in one of his movies. I had to meet him somehow. And somehow I did. And now I’m here doing porn for everyone else. [laughs]
So you sought out Eon, that’s how you got your start?
Yeah, I worked at a porn store when I turned 18. I had always been a porn fan like even before I was 18, before I ever had sex I was a fan of a lot of '80s and ’90s porn stars. I was just really intrigued by them. I just thought this industry would be really fascinating.
I was never like a real slut growing up. You hear of all these girls that do porn that have like fucked 300 guys by the time they had graduated high school or dropped out of high school. Me, I had the same boyfriend all through high school. I was always very sexual with him, but I was never like a legitimate slut. So porn was something that I did, not out of desperation, not because I was forced into it or anything. I wanted to do it as a hobby at first, like just something fun every once in a while. But then once I started doing it more I realized that it really could be a career for me.
On landing several prominent movie roles year:
I’m really happy about that because I feel like I’ve earned it. I feel like I show up on time. I don’t go to set fucked up or hung over or anything like that. And I genuinely care whether or not I do a good scene. So in a way I feel like I’ve earned the roles that I get in an industry that constantly rewards bad behavior. So I’m trying to make it through… doing an OK job.
On working at the adult store:
It was in Frederick, Md. It was like our only porn store. It was like the size of a closet called Bradley’s Books & Novelties. And I was 18 when I started working there, just turned 18. And I was allowed to open the magazines and look at them as long as I taped the plastic back on the magazines. My favorite magazine to read was called Big Black Butt. I don’t know why, that was just my favorite. They had a lot of like erotic comics. A lot of just everything. They also had booths in the back of the store, ‘preview booths.’
On the preview booths at the store:
I never, ever had to go back there. I had a little camera where I could just see if someone was going back there and waiting around. Like sometimes we would have guys that went back there and just wait for another guy to come back. And then they would try to go into a booth together and we had an Intercom and I would go on and yell at them, ‘Only one per booth please!’ But I never had to go back. And we had a guy that came in once a week and would clean it for free.
On meeting Eon McKai in January of 2007:
He saw me in person and thought I was a little too chubby to be wanting to do what I told him my plan was. My plan was to make a living doing girl/girl porn and not living in L.A. I was naïve and I thought that that was possible. But he told me I was too chubby to just do girl/girl and that I needed to lose weight and he would not fly me out from Maryland for a girl/girl scene, which is totally understandable. At the time I was a little heartbroken. But now being in the business I understand.
On her first time on camera:
The very first time I did it I had a different boyfriend who was not into me doing porn whatsoever. But he knew that I was such a big fan. And he knew that I wanted to do it so badly. It was something that I talked about a lot. I watched a lot of porn. We watched a lot of porn together. We were both big fans of Eon McKai and he was really against me doing it. And I valued his opinion more than my own and I think what made him accept it and kind of say it was OK, was that Eon and Dana actually came to Baltimore and interviewed me and this other girl and they kind of hung out with us for a few days. And they earned my ex-boyfriend’s trust and made him feel like he was a friend and everything and so he became OK with it.
But when it actually came down to doing the scene, like the day that I did it he freaked out and got really upset and told me he wanted to die, which is all in the movie ‘Role Modeling.’ It was like a documentary porn. It was all reality and they were filming me on the phone with him as he’s telling me he wants to kill himself. Other than that, other than that little tiny thing I was really excited about it.
On being watched:
It felt totally natural. I didn’t mind having sex in front of other people. I had been a stripper for a few years, so I was totally comfortable with my body, being naked in front of other people. It was actually pretty exciting for me to have sex for a movie thousands of people were going to jerk off to. That excited me. I didn’t sleep the night before because I was so excited. But I think the scene turned out well for my first scene. It was with Jordan Ash, who’s a lot taller than me, just a lot bigger than me in general. And my boyfriend that I had back home was kind like a smaller guy, so I was really kind of intimidated by him, but he was a really good guy for my first scene. He wasn’t scary. He wasn’t scary-acting. Like if I ended up doing my first scene with someone like Nick Manning or something I might’ve cried. You know how intense he is. That would’ve been a little scary just because he’s so intense. Now I could handle Nick Manning. But back then, no.
So you were stripping while you were working at the adult store?
Well working at the adult store kind of led into stripping. I worked at the porn store for about six months. I realized why they don’t usually hire young girls to work at porn stores. I had a lot of stalkers, creepy guys that would just come in and try to hang out in the store. People would come in and take the business card for the store and like call the store after they left so they could talk on the phone with me. I just realized it was unsafe for me when winos started coming in and cussing me out, asking me to be their girlfriend. So I left the porn store. I was only making minimum wage there, too.
Stripping seemed more lucrative and fun, like you just get to party for your job and wear cute outfits that you can’t wear walking down the street even though you’d like to. But stripping is also very competitive and I’m a competitive person, but I’m not a hustler. I can’t con people out of money. I just can’t do it. I can’t pretend that I want to be somewhere and hanging out with someone that I have no interest in. I just can’t do it. So I was never a very good stripper. I did that for four years. I was stripping and doing porn for a little while at the same time, but now I never want to step foot inside of a strip club unless I’ve seeing one of my friends feature dance or I’m feature dancing.
When did you make the move to L.A. to make this a career?
I had been planning it out for the past two years. Part of that plan was to live in Minneapolis for one year where my last boyfriend was from. It was just kind of a way for him to say goodbye to all of his friends and family before he moved onto to L.A. He knew he would never want to move back home. So I thought it would be cool to live in a random state. I’m from Baltimore, Md., so the Midwest was totally foreign to me. And I never want to go back there ever again. The weather is brutal. The people are nice, but I don’t really get them. I have a very East Coast mentality. Midwesterners seem to be very naïve and think that everyone in the world is good. And that bothers me. I can’t handle that. But I moved out to here last August. So I’ve lived here for a year.
On joining Spiegler Girls:
I think getting with [agent Mark] Spiegler really, really helped my career. Really took it in the direction that I wanted it to and took it to the level that I wanted to be at. I just looked at his roster of girls and they were all girls that I was either friends with or that I knew were ridiculously smart and not some 18-year-old crackhead that they had to baby-sit. That’s essentially why I chose him and just his reputation. And the fact that they had been an agent for successful, responsible talent like Sasha Grey and Bobbi Starr, Kimberly Kane, girls like that. That’s the direction I wanted to take my career and Mark has done wonders for me so…
What is your feeling about how fast things have happened?
Well to me it doesn’t feel that fast because I’ve been trying to do this since 2007 and I looked very different back then. I was a really porcelain, white-skinned, kind-of chubby girl. I felt like I looked really good back then in my own head. I felt like I looked good, but now that I look back on it I’m like, ‘Well, no wonder no one else wanted to shoot me. Because I wouldn’t have shot me now, I wouldn’t have wanted to work with me.’ [laughs] But I think over the past year, that’s when I count my real porn career starting, like right when I got with Spiegler. ... It makes me happy because I feel like I genuinely care about whether or not I do a good scene.
On job satisfaction:
It’s always about money for everyone. I can’t lie when I say that money is a big factor in why I love doing porn. It’s how I make my living and everything, but at the same time I care about it a little more than money. It’s just something I’m passionate about, something that I’ve wanted to do. I’m very happy with where I’m at right now. And I’m happy that people actually paid attention to me despite the fact that I don’t have fake boobs. I don’t have big boobs. I don’t have a big butt. I have a few really crappy tattoos.
And it makes me feel good about myself because there must be something good about me that people have looked through all of those slight imperfections and things they necessarily would’ve looked for when shooting a girl. That I kind of have persevered through that and have gotten roles that you would think that someone who is a classic porn girl would get. Or a stereotypical porn girl I guess I should say. It makes me happy because it must mean that I’m a good performer.
Did you grow up with singing?
Yes, I did. When I was little I used to compete in 4-H singing competitions. And I actually won a statewide competition in Maryland when I was I think 11 years old. I sang Madonna’s 'Don’t Cry for Me Argentina' from the Evita soundtrack. And I won all these little awards. I got to sing at my state fair. It felt like a big deal to me at the time and I always sang in my mirror and stuff like that. I’m not the singer I used to be because I started smoking. Now I’m going to sound like Bea Arthur by the time I’m 30. I just know it.
On Charlie’s Angels:
My wig looks a lot better than it felt for those five days, five 18-hour days. At the time I was thinking this can’t possibly look good because it feels like shit. But in the trailer it actually looks like it’s my hair and people were writing to me, ‘Oh you cut your hair?’ Like, ‘no.’ I would never get my hair cut like that. That movie was so fun to make. ... I think out of any feature that I’ve done, any parody, this is the one that I’m in the most.
On her new blog at AndyXXX.com:
I feel like I have more interesting things to say than what I actually do on there, but risking pissing people off and risking people thinking I’m a weirdo…I try to make it what I’m actually doing. Everything’s true on there. I think that’s why I have a lot of fans that are girls that aren’t necessarily into porn. I think it’s because I’m a real person.
What do you do in your free time?
I’m kind of a home body. I don’t really go out a whole lot. I’d say I don’t really hang out with that many porn people but I’d be lying. I hang out with other porn people that also say they don’t hang out with other porn people. But we just kind of hang out at each other’s house or apartments like we’re not… I kind of found the other home bodies.
I mostly hang out with the other Spiegler Girls. There’s just kind of a camaraderie, almost like a sorority that we have. We’re all a bunch of sisters who love and hate each other. … I don’t know… I like to play video games. I play Wii a lot. I have this program on my Wii where I have like every Nintendo and every Super Nintendo game so I like to play a lot of old-school games.
What is your ethnic background?
I’m Native American and German. I’m 5/8 German, 3/8 Native. Almost half, not quite. My mother was born in Germany. Augsburg, Germany, which is like southeast of Munich. That’s a big part of my life is being both German and Native because they’re both things I take pride in. Most people think that I’m Hispanic because of my porn last name. My hair isn’t really black. I’m blonde. I’m a liar. …But I think girls with dark hair are just more interesting, sexier. … I wanted to spice it up a little bit and not just be a blonde in porn because there are already enough of those. Now it seems like black hair is the new blonde in porn.
What jobs did you have before the adult store?
I was one of those kids that had a million jobs. I worked at a few video stores, just regular video stores. I was a babysitter for a million different people. I worked at a putt-putt golf mini course. I was a telemarketer for a little while. I didn’t sell anything I was just taking surveys. But you know you still get cussed out every day, five, six times a day. I think that was my favorite job in high school because it paid really well. I could go in whenever I wanted to and you could make your own hours. It was like the dream high school job where I’m from. So that was my favorite.
I used to live on a farm for a brief period of time and my job was scraping out cow poop with a shovel in this big cow yard and I think that’s when I realized that I wanted to get out of my hometown. At that point when I was eight years old and my job was shoveling cow poop after school. I was like, ‘You know what, I don’t want to live here any more. I kind of want to move somewhere one day where things seem different.’ And to me that was always California. The fact that the porn world is primarily based out of Southern California is perfect for me because I always wanted to live here.
On being a porn star:
I definitely think that porn has been more of a positive thing in my life and I definitely think that it’s opened more doors for me than anything I’ve ever done. The negatives, there have been very few negatives for me. I always recommend it when people say they want to do it.
