Angel told XBIZ that Bryan Postlethwait, Playboy's senior vice president of programming, first contacted her with the idea a few months ago to join Club Jenna and bring her style of adult content to the company. She said the two got along well during the meeting, and despite her initial surprise, she was game for the deal.
"I was a little confused," Angel said. "I was like, 'What the hell would Playboy want from me? It's the image and the size [of the company]; I don't think of myself as someone that anyone, like a top company in the world of porn, would have any interest in dealing with."
Angel said the deal will allow her the budget and the freedom to put her many feature ideas into production, something she couldn't do with her smaller alt-porn company Burning Angel. Features are her favorite kind of adult film to direct, she said, and she hasn't made a new one since "Porny Monster."
"[Playboy] obviously isn't hiring me to direct existing lines," Angel said. "They like what I do and want me to continue [it] over there. I really respect particularly Jay [Grdina] at Club Jenna — even though my girls are different than the Club Jenna girls and my style is different from the Club Jenna style, [the company] has the most sophisticated movies out there in porn."
Grdina said he's excited to add Angel to his team.
"She brings fresh content and creative vision that we appreciate and nurture at Club Jenna," Grdina said. "She really has some amazing ideas, and we cannot wait to get them on film!"
Angel said she most looks forward to working with a company that so clearly puts care and time into its productions, and has an attitude similar to that of Burning Angel's. Both companies would rather wait to put out a quality product, rather than put it out for the sake of having it on the shelves, she said.
"I like that the company is run by another director," Angel said. "Its not just like, 'OK, how quickly can you turn this around, and how fast and cheap can you make it?' which seems is how a lot of people treat their product."
Angel said that though she can't discuss her feature ideas, she did say that her next title will feature pickles.
"That's all I can tell you," she said.
