LOS ANGELES — Adult film stars Stoya and Kayden Kross appeared as special guests on “HuffPost Live” today to talk about their new venture TrenchcoatX.com.
The duo earlier this month launched the pay-per-scene platform, which they describe as “a curated collection of episodic, sexually explicit videos.”
The site debuted with the entirety of Kross and Manuel Ferrara’s XBIZ Award-winning “Misha Cross: Wide Open,” selections from Dana Vespoli’s critically acclaimed “Fluid” series, and the first scene of Stoya’s directorial debut “Graphic Depictions."
They have since added Kross and Ferrara’s “Screwing Wall Street,” which pays homage to the 80’s classic “Wall Street” starring former Wall Street intern Veronica Vain in her porn debut; and Vespoli’s XBIZ Award-winning title “Girl/Boy.”
"HuffPost Live" host Ricky Camilleri asked Stoya, who was in their New York studio, and Kross, who was speaking from L.A., why they started the site and about their vision for it.
“We wanted to create content that had value beyond raw sex, a story worth listening to and production quality on par with mainstream movies,” Kross said.
Stoya said that not unlike her career in front of the camera in which she has performed on her own terms, TrenchcoatX is content they can carefully curate without being subjected to any “corporate” influence.
“We have no investors,” Stoya said. “We completely funded this with our own savings and part of the reason for that is with investors you tend to give up some amount of control.”
She added Kross was “really good at business and the only person I want to answer to.”
They chose the pay-per-scene business model largely because it also provides for maximum creative license.
“The per-scene model gives us more room for it to be whatever it needs to be,” Stoya said, noting that some series may only run for a couple episodes, while others will go longer.
Kross added, “We’re essentially giving you a boutique experience for adult films. … It’s beautiful content, hot content and created with a huge amount of attention to detail.”
The 30-minute segment showed extensive footage of “Misha Cross Wide Open” that starred Misha Cross, the reigning XBIZ Foreign Performer of the Year, and Kross's fiancee, Manuel Ferrara; as well as scenes from “Screwing Wall Street."
Aside from TrenchcoatX, the group touched on several other topics, including the progression of performers who become producers, the stigma attached to sex work and content piracy.
Camilleri also asked them about product placement in movies. Kross recently utilized it for the first time with “Screwing Wall Street: The Arrangement Finders Play.”
In January she was named president of ArrangementFinders.com, a dating site that connects women with men offering financial support. Kross incorporated Arrangement Finders into the title of the movie after receiving funding to help produce the film and secure the notorious Vain’s first scene.
So far the strategy has led to media coverage by outlets such as Business Insider, the New York Daily News and HuffPost.
When Camilleri asked what kinds of other product-placement deals would be on their wishlist, Kross said, “I want to land energy drinks, that’s our crowd. I want video games.”
Stoya playfully suggested lingerie companies because “we’re in our underwear a lot.”
To view the full "HuffPost Live" interview, click here.