LOS ANGELES — Nine years and several studio launches later, Nica Noelle told XBIZ it’s the performers that continue to spark her creativity.
“The performers always inspire me,” Noelle said from her home in Massachusetts.
“Meeting new performers or shooting the ones I’ve been working with for a long time. They’re the inspiration for new stories I want to tell or new characters I want to create. They’re an endless source of inspiration for me.”
The prolific producer/director is just days away from releasing “My Dad’s TS Girlfriend,” the first title from her latest studio endeavor, TransSensual. She is teaming with the Montreal-based distributor Mile High Media on the production company that will feature story-driven films featuring transgender performers.
“My Dad’s TS Girlfriend” stars Jessy Dubai, Wolf Hudson and Sunday Valentina in a movie about a middle-aged, single father who finds love again with a younger woman with whom his son is in lust.
For Noelle, a seasoned shooter and screenwriter with more than 250 film credits, this venture is no different than any of the other studios she’s created so far. The art of storytelling translates in any genre, she said.
“It’s really just presenting sort of universal themes and casting different types of people and showing different types of relationships. But the underlying themes are the same and the way I approach it is always the same,” Noelle said. “It’s really no different than when I started Sweet Sinner, Sweetheart Video or Icon Male.”
Noelle successfully launched each of those three studios with Mile High Media as well. In fact, since her debut in adult in 2006 the versatile filmmaker has established a track record for producing premium porn across multiple genres while building studio brands from the ground up. In October 2011, she teamed with AEBN to launch Hard Candy Films and Girl Candy Films, which paved the way for Rock Candy Films and then TransRomantic Films, her first TS studio, in May 2012.
Then last summer she introduced the gay romance label, Icon Male, which has garnered critical acclaim for its racy storylines and is already going toe-to-toe with the top studios in gay porn. Noelle intends to continue her production schedule for Icon Male while she forges ahead with TransSensual.
“Icon Male is a huge success. It’s really doing well,” she said. “I never really pay attention to the business side of things but I do get told what’s going on from time to time and everybody is really happy with the success of Icon Male. The website is doing well and there is no way we’re going to cut down on Icon Male content. That’s going to remain the same.”
Her plans call for releasing one new TransSensual title per month starting with the April 1st arrival of “My Dad’s TS Girlfriend.”
“If it gets to the point where the demand for content is really growing and it’s more than I can provide, then maybe there could be other directors that could help because I’m kind of at my limit,” said Noelle, who currently produces and directs three movies a month. “I also do so much writing and handle so much of the promotional side, and I have my writing career as well.”
While her first TransSensual title is already generating buzz, Noelle said she’s just getting warmed up. Her May release, which has a working title of “Her TS Student,” brings multiple genres together in one movie.
“People like to keep the genres separate. There’s lots of politics on the straight side and the gay side and there’s always backlash with any crossover activity,” Noelle explained.
“For my second TransSensual feature I have Chelsea Poe, who is a beautiful trans-female performer, and she stars with Rob Yaeger, who has worked primarily on the gay side; and Magdalene St. Michaels, who has primarily worked in straight porn and lesbian porn.”
Noelle continued, “Magdalene and Rob play a married couple who are kind of in a rut. I love those themes, a normal couple that is suddenly not so normal any more. So Magdalene is a teacher and she starts to have these inappropriate emotional connections with her student who is played by Chelsea Poe. It brings all the genres of porn together, and there is a threesome scene involving all of them, as well as individual scenes.
“For me it was definitely a gratifying moment to make that movie. And Magdalene has wanted to work with a TS performer for a long time, but she felt pressured to not do so. We kind of shut out all those voices and made the movie we wanted to make. When you can feel that you’re doing something special, those are the moments that keep you going. I think it definitely translates.”
The third TranSensual movie will be a showcase called “Jessy Dubai TS Superstar” featuring the breakout star who won Best Hardcore Performer and Bob's TGirls Model of the Year at the seventh annual Transgender Erotica Awards in February.
Noelle said Dubai made quite an impression on her during the “My Dad’s TS Girlfriend” shoot.
“She was like that actress Sofia Vergara. She sort of just oozes sexuality,” Noelle remarked. “She’s very self-actualized, very naturally sexy. She has this earthy quality to her where she really doesn’t care if her makeup is smudged or her hair is out of place. She very much has that real sex-goddess vibe to her.”
The director added, “She was very intriguing and I just wanted to see more of her. … I personally wanted to get to know her better and put her with different people and go deeper with her.”
If history is any indicator, Noelle figures to make some strong statements from the beginning of TransSensual. Her previous transgender-themed studio, TransRomantic, won the Steamiest Romantic Movie award at the eighth annual Feminist Porn Awards in 2013 with its debut release, “Forbidden Lovers.” That honor came on the heels of the film winning Best DVD at the 2013 Transgender Erotica Awards (formerly the Tranny Awards.)
Noelle said she believes the transgender genre “has changed for the better,” adding to her excitement about TransSensual.
“Which is a really great thing. When I started TransRomantic I was really… I don’t want to say shocked, but it definitely was disturbing to me that any films depicting transgender women seemed to be making fun of them, making a mockery of having a sexual encounter with a TS woman,” Noelle said.
“There was very little that portrayed a trans-woman as a person and that was disturbing to me and I think that’s starting to change. And I think the reason why it’s changing is the transgender community has become very vocal. They’re speaking out and becoming very visible in the media.
“I think we have a lot of very brave performers in the transgender community who aren’t afraid to ruffle feathers and who are demanding proper representation in adult films. And there’s still a long way to go but I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
