HAVANA — Cuban mystique is a rare … cosmic phenomenon … and purebred Jenna Sativa burns with its intoxicating fury, most spectacularly. She inspires bona fide passion, wherever her islander exoticism strides confidently with a slayer’s nonchalance.
Few can summon such swagger, such sophisticated badassery, all the while glowing with that palpable warmth of excitement and extroverted charm, that utterly approachable, smoothly conversational grandiosity. She is not some petite wallflower, shyly mewling and praying for the hollow applause of noncommittal ogling. Quite simply, Sativa is the real deal … the moneymaker … and the star attraction.
Her name and style are distinct, because they reflect skillful artistry. No one forgets her face, or the memory of her magic, the very next day. They prize her frame-worthy masterworks, which could line the galleries of a beachside manse, gleaming with timeless power, as foaming waves crash upon the promontory and gulls cry out overhead. She is the lighthouse paving midnight asphalt with luminous sands, beckoning seafaring wastrels and uniformed captains alike to the crackling hearth of home.
Palms, silhouetted against the orange brushstrokes of a sunlit farewell, sway from her pleasant shade, for she is the hazy mirage of a Havana skyline, the curvaceous mystery of Camagüey alleyways and the hundred fires of Cienfuegos, the Pearl of the South.
Behold the authentic popularity of her creative works.
They are not tainted by store-bought social media action, nor are they cheapened by superficial, photo-generated likes … by casual passersby clicking their mouse, then scrolling right past the actual wares being hawked, reflections receding swiftly from glassy facades with nary a comment or reaction. This is a bountiful bounty, vastly superior to the tired churning of a miller’s grain, which grinds out flour unfit to rival flowers. Prune away the shrubbery and stiff weeds. This is a keenly cultivated vineyard … fields upon fields of wine-birthing naturaleza for truly discerning clientele.
In fact, Sativa’s stardom is wrought from the very fabric of eternity.
Her youthful exuberance is ageless, whirling with hand-clapping giddiness, like a bouncy dynamo. Whether crystallized in the stillness of magazine pages or digitally streamed via the liquid luster of adult cinema, Sativa brings such showmanship to her productions, that admirers will linger for hours, thumbing through the well-manicured gloss, the painstakingly etched intricacy and kaleidoscopic fireworks.
Is it any wonder she was crowned 2017 XBIZ Girl/Girl Performer of the Year and Penthouse Pet of the Year? Iconic diadems from the classiest brands in the biz … fit for celestial royalty … bejeweled by Sapphic sapphires. And like any high-rolling connoisseur of genuine finery, Sativa sought out the gilded artisans at XBIZ for an exclusive rendition of her newfound view from the Penthouse suite. Atop the diamond citadel of untouchable ingenuity, she casts a prismatic aurora, through the inimitable lenses of these words, which never lose their luster.
XBIZ: Tell us about your life before the biz and what led you to take the plunge.
Jenna Sativa: Well, before the adult industry, I was always into modeling and I’ve always been a nudist. I feel very comfortable naked, and I would go to nude beaches. My friends would actually always say, “Cover yourself!” And I’d have to say, “Uhm, no! This is a nude beach!” So, I’ve always wanted a place where I felt accepted as a nudist.
I tried nude modeling when I turned 18 with a close friend. We went to the Everglades. It was a nature shoot and I just fell in love. We shot more than he had ever shot with another model. I tried to go back to the Everglades as much as possible to shoot with my friend Lucky, and after that I was like, “Well, he can’t shoot me enough, so I’m gonna have to find another way to get my fix of taking off my clothes and getting photographed!”
I went on Model Mayhem and created a profile. I just started getting hits from that, but I still wanted more. So I started webcam modeling, which was really fun. But, then I was really into the girls who were camming. It was fun playing with the curious minds at home, but I wanted more! I wanted these hot girls to, like, explore myself. Not just on the internet.
So, I hit them up and asked, “Hey! You wanna play with me?” It was very hard. Much harder than I thought. I was just starting to do research on porn for months and months. I really wanted to come to California to shoot, because I knew all the hot girls who were doing it here were tested and clean. These were the girls I was watching in porn, not the amateur Miami stuff.
I flew out here to do girl/girl and my first scene was with Goldie Glock. It was so much fun. Afterwards, we kept the same relationship we had on camera. We were two fun naked girlfriends who just happened to play sometimes. And that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want some label, like girlfriend — just someone who got me. Someone I could be naked around, and go to the beach and not have them tell me to cover up because they were ashamed.
XBIZ: Are you two still friends?
Sativa: She does a lot more work than I do. All over the place, like in Miami. She’s always going back and forth, so I don’t get to see her much. But when she was all-girl only, and we did the same amount of scenes, we just hung out all the time. I love her, she’s amazing.
A lot of other girls I’ve met in the industry … I love them. They’re hands down amazing. Basically from the beginning, I felt like this was home. I just want to stay here, even if I only work a little bit. It’s great to be a part of a community where people aren’t judging you because you’re a sexual being.
Everybody likes different things. It was cute to find a little niche where my fans still appreciate even though I only do girl/girl. But, you know, there are people that go nuts for it just like I do. There are all these different flavors, and even if you say lesbian/bi — even in there, there’s smaller little niches. I’ve figured out that I like a lot of lesbian things. I even like lesbian anal sex.
I had no idea I liked that before porn, because I hadn’t done that before porn. I had only played with girls with fingers and toys. So, I’ve always loved booty but hadn’t fucked a girl in the ass. And once I did, it was like “oh my god!” I was missing out on this whole other world. If it wasn’t for porn, it would have taken me even more years to figure out that I even liked it.
So, it’s just so cool that a lot of people get to discover themselves this way.
XBIZ: Both your parents are Cuban?
Sativa: Yes. Both of my parents were born in Cuba and they came here very young. They met here very young, and had me very young.
XBIZ: How old are you?
Sativa: I’m 24. I’m going to be 25 this year in November. I’m a Scorpio sun and a Gemini moon. I know me and my best friend, Shyla Jennings, are opposite signs. She’s a Gemini sun and a Scorpio moon. Our signs are flipped, which was so crazy because when I first met her, we were like “we’re soul mates!” We complete each other. It’s cool because I met her through porn. I’m so grateful for porn.
XBIZ: When did you get into the industry?
Sativa: Two years ago. At the end of 2014. I did this scene with Amara Romani for Evil Angel. It was like this peach booty worshipping scene, which was awesome. I love peaches, it’s one of my favorite fruits. I love fruit! In case you didn’t know. But, how I got into it was kind of weird. Aiden Riley was like, “Do you like Twizzlers?” And I said, “No, not really.” And then he said, “Okay, will you put some blue food coloring in your butt?” And I still said, “No! You’re gonna stain my insides.” And he said, “AJ Applegate did the scene with it!” And her butt was stained purple for a week. So I kept saying, “No! No. Next.” And he said, “I have some peaches.”
XBIZ: What did you do with the peaches?
Sativa: I got them really wet and sloppy, then slipped it in her booty. They just fucking disappeared! And then she had to push them out, and I had to eat them out of her booty. It was so sweet. It just tasted like peaches. She had the cleanest bootyhole. It was super cool that she let me do that. It was like, “Yes! Fucking fruit me up.” More fruit and more sex. Everybody should eat more fruit and have more sex. Doing both was my dream.
XBIZ: So, what were some of the titles that got you on the map early on?
Sativa: I started off on Girlsway. They made me the Girl of the Month very early on. I was super brand new. They met me, like, on my first week. Alan was like “be a Girlsway Girl,” right when he met me. So he actually ended up rescheduling that shoot, and made a bigger shoot. I became a Girlsway Girl really, really fast. So, I think that helped me out a lot, because you know it’s a lesbian site, and I’m the real deal.
Also Filly Films helped me a lot. I did so many movies for them. They put me on a ton of their box covers, too. It was fun. It was some real deal stuff. Because, I mean, there’s obviously some girls in there that didn’t like girls too, but it was a lot of real moments and real experiences, which is very nice.
All experiences, even the acting ones, are nice. But I appreciate that I had that earlier on when I was first starting, because maybe doing one of the bigger movies would have been too much at the start. I feel like starting with Filly Films was great. They treated me really, really nicely and they helped me pick some girls that I shot with — like Goldie. I shot with her for Girlsway too. I have the most scenes shot with her. I think it’s nine scenes.
This was before Spiegler. When I first started, I was with Gabriel from Motley Models. But after both our contracts were over with Motley, I stayed with him for a bit. It didn’t work out and I had to basically book my own stuff. It was very, very hard work. Even though it was basically the same people booking me, I still wanted to get new people. I really wanted to shoot for Sweetheart — and I did later on — but it wasn’t until I got with Mark that all that came about.
XBIZ: Were you in L.A. at this point?
Sativa: At this point I was in L.A. with no agent, and I was trying to book my own work but it was basically with the same people. It was hard to stay an all-girl performer being constantly booked only by the same people. Dan O’Connell from Girlfriends would book me then too.
I met a photographer friend through Model Mayhem — I would book some work from there too. He was shooting me for nude glamour and he was like, “Oh, you have all this potential. I’m going to introduce you to a friend of mine that can help you in the adult industry.”
He introduced me to Adella Curry. Once I met her, she was like “You have to be a Spiegler Girl. You have to meet Mark.” And I was like “Oh! Mark. He doesn’t take all-girl performers. I’ve heard of him, and I would love to.” She said, “No, trust me. Just meet him, call him. He’s my friend. He’ll meet with you at least. If he won’t take you, he’ll at least give you some advice.”
So, I called him and he gave me a time. I was there at that time, and he was surprised I was there! Apparently a lot of girls aren’t there on time. He was like, “You passed the first test!” I honestly did not think he was going to take me. He asked me questions about who I had shot for and he said, “Have you shot for Penthouse? They’d love you.” And he gave me all these numbers for different studios, and told me to not take an agent and book everything myself and I would be fine.
When I went to leave, Dana DeArmond and Asa Akira came running after me. They were like “Come back!” And Mark has the longest hallway, and they were running down. It was the most dramatic thing of my life. But seeing Dana and Asa screaming my name was like a dream come true.
So I walked back inside, and Mark was like, “You’re a Spiegler Girl.” I said, “What!?” And he just said, “I don’t know, ask them.” And I turned around and both Dana and Asa were screaming “yay!” and they hugged me! It was the best hug of my life. It was a Spiegler sister hug.
Then I just looked at Mark and was like, “What?! I don’t get it.” And he said he asked them what they thought of me, and they both liked me and said he should keep me. They told him to make me a Spiegler Girl! This was two years ago.
XBIZ: How did this change your career trajectory?
Sativa: Immensely. Well, first of all he put me out to the press. You know, Spiegler Girl! It was the first time I had been in the press. I was so grateful, and I still am, to him, Adella and Steve. I thank them all the time, and they’ll say, “Girl, you did it. You’re a star!” And I’m like, “No I wouldn’t be anything without you guys.” Trust me, I worked my ass off really hard before I met you guys, but if you don’t have the right people that believe in you, you aren’t going anywhere. So I really owe it all to them.
XBIZ: What kind of shoots did you first do after getting with Spiegler?
Sativa: He set me up with Penthouse to do a go-see. Dana Vespoli shot me after that. She put me in great movies with great pairings. I made really good friends out of that too — like Jelena Jensen. I did this one movie with Jelena and Sara Luvv. It was an awesome movie altogether, because both the scenes were so strong.
I knew my scenes were strong, because I put my all into it and other scenes sometimes just aren’t there, but Dana knows what girls like girls. She’s good at the pairings. When I worked with Angela White, Eva Lovia and Riley Reid for their sites, these girls … shooting with girls is so refreshing, because you don’t have to really ask for anything since they’ve thought of this all before. They think about who you’ll be good with, they think about the food and whether you’ll be thirsty. Working with these women was just another step up, which I hadn’t been able to work with girls for their own sites before Mark. It was just smaller things. I really like working for them, because it brings everyone up.
Dana Vespoli, Angela White, Eva Lovia and Riley Reid are amazing. They even have alkaline water and shit. They have really nice sets. It’s just nice that they’ll spend the extra dollar, ‘cause they want to give you the best stuff. On set, you know, there’s bananas, fruits and veggies. Not just candy and pizza, which I appreciate don’t get me wrong, but I appreciate even more when you take the extra step. It really shows, and I remember it. It’s an amazing experience, and I’m going to tell the world. They are badass bosses.
Aiden Starr too. I worked with her for the fetish modeling company XtremeRestraints.com. It wasn’t a girl/girl, but we like fooled around. I got to feel her vibe. She’s like a very, very horny girl. I’ve also worked with Sasha Heart. The scene was anal with a strap-on. It was really good anal. She knows how to move her hips, and she made me cum really hard. Dana DeArmond. Strap-on. Fucking mindblowing. It was for New Sensations. Ah-mazing. It was so good, I want to do it again! She also has the filthiest, dirty little mouth. But she’s also very light, so she’s very playful and she loves at herself. I love goofy girls. A girl that can laugh at herself is amazing. It makes my pussy wet. She can be domming and laughing at herself! I have goosebumps just talking about it.
XBIZ: Have you done any roles that have required you to do acting?
Sativa: I love when I have to act different than myself. It’s always actually really hard when I’m not the aggressor. That takes a lot of acting on my part! Domming comes naturally to me, I don’t have to act too much, you know? But when I have to tie my hands behind my back, it’s kind of like roleplaying to me and it gets me super turned on. Being able to mix acting with sex is really cool. I love bringing my character into the foreplay and the sex. Just pretending I’m a different person for like 30 minutes.
XBIZ: Tell me your approach to social media. Which are your main platforms?
Sativa: Social media was a lot of trial and error. I had to find out what works and doesn’t. I started off with Twitter, because you can post nudity. My Twitter was very, very slow in growing. I would post pictures and videos that would get high likes, but they didn’t engage too much. So I started just posting the good stuff, and no complaining. That’s not what the fans are coming for you know? They wanna have fun, so I’d post fun things like me showing a titty! Every now and then, I’d post a naughty video. But then it wasn’t growing enough and I was putting so much time and effort into Twitter and it’s not growing as fast as I’d like it to, so I started an Instagram. That was almost a year after Twitter.
Instagram blew up and passed my Twitter after, like, a month. I started neglecting Twitter a little bit, and taking more safe-for-work pictures for Instagram. You know, I had to start trying harder to look cute and stay safe for work. I’d post pictures in cute shorts, but bent over so it was still safe for work. I kind of became obsessed with Instagram. I had to start going back to Twitter, but I realized that people only posted things like, “I’m bored. I’m eating a taco.” So I was like, I have to do a mixture between lame stuff and videos.
I kind of came up with this schedule. I would take lots of pictures when I looked cute, and then I’d post a picture on Twitter every other day. I just had them ready to go. However, people were missing the “right-away” posts, but then Snapchat came. That became my obsession then. People used to say I had the best chat ever, and even encouraged me to start charging for Snapchat, but I didn’t want to do it. Then I had to make a new Snapchat because mine got deleted — I had one for nudity and one for no nudity.
Then I made a Periscope and got kicked off because they also didn’t allow nudity, unless it was artistic. So when I shot for Penthouse, it was allowed because that was artistic. I shot for Playboy, and it was also considered artistic. Then, I said, “Okay I’m gonna try a sexy shower periscope.” All you could see was my silhouette and they still deleted me!
So now, I just work with the platform with what it’s made for. On Twitter, I post all the dirty, dirty. On Instagram, it’s all the safe-for-work and Snapchat is the fun stuff but also some dirty stuff. I also use Fuze. That app blew up so fast. I have seven million followers. It’s like a 360-degree social media photography app.
XBIZ: What was it like winning the 2017 XBIZ Award for Girl/Girl Performer of the Year?
Sativa: When I first got into the industry, I’d go to the XBIZ Awards just to get a sneak peek. I didn’t think that would ever be me on stage. It was like a fire started under my butt, and launched me forward. The excitement is still there. Sometimes I’ll be driving and think, “Oh my god! I crushed that goal.” I do a lot of happy dances.
XBIZ: Speaking of major milestones, tell us about scoring Penthouse Pet of the Year.
Sativa: I had been shooting with Penthouse for maybe a year before they asked me to be Penthouse Pet of the Month. Every single time I would shoot for them, it was basically a mini go-see. They were looking at me for that since the beginning, because Mark told me that I would be a Penthouse Pet. So I was always on my best behavior, I mean I always am!
Basically, I just owe it to them. After Kelly bought the company, it was basically her decision who the Pet is. The crew knew me and they would say, “Jenna is good! Jenna is nice.” So she agreed to meet me, and then we went to this dinner because she liked me. She wanted me to meet some of the finance people because she was acquiring Penthouse then. We went out to dinner with Mia Malkova and Christiana Cinn. After dinner we went to Jumbo’s, this very classy gentlemen’s club. The girls are professional dancers and pole dancers. We were just the Penthouse Pet sisters there.
I feel, based on the first time Kelly met me, that dinner and the experience the company members had with me, made her offer me the Penthouse Pet of the Month. It was ridiculous. I got to shoot my set in nature, and I’m a nature lover. Like, going back to my first shoots, they were always in nature. Most girls don’t get to pick that kind of stuff, so I was like “God, thank you.” It was great. I got to climb trees, and I got down in the dirt with wildflowers. It was a super nature-y shoot.
After my magazine came out … it was kind of like becoming a Spiegler Girl all over again. Congratulations from everyone. It was nice, because I got my key! I got my first key in April of 2016, and now in April 2017 I got Penthouse Pet of the Year. So, it was an upgrade. You know, the second time around was even crazier. Getting Penthouse Pet of the Year is even crazier.
XBIZ: What’s unique about Penthouse? How different is it from being featured in other magazines?
Sativa: Penthouse just means so much to me, you know? I’ve been featured in others but it just doesn’t feel the same. When I got my first Penthouse Pet of the Month magazine, I called my mom and she told me to bring it over so I could sign it! She was so excited too. My mom is super stoked about my Penthouse Pet of the Year too! She wanted me to send her the magazine as a Mother’s Day present! She’s so funny. She wants to frame it. My mom is actually in a polyamorous relationship, and it’s really cool. She’s been very open since I was little. Basically, I grew up with that environment.
My mom always had girlfriends and there was never a label on it. My mom would just be naked around the house, and I’d never think twice of it. When I was three, she’d have open anatomy books with penis pictures, and she would just be like “Don’t close it! Let her learn. Let her read!” Her being more open like that definitely let me be more open like that, despite everyone else trying to close me in.
XBIZ: Who are some of your closest peers in the biz?
Sativa: Shyla Jennings. She stays with me whenever she’s in L.A. She’s from Texas. Misty Lovelace, who is also from Texas, always stays with me. She’s also a Penthouse Pet, but she only shoots with me. So, I’m really lucky. I keep trying to convince Misty to have a threesome with Shyla and I! Oh, and Riley Reid, AJ Applegate and Skin Diamond — even if she isn’t in the industry anymore. Those are my girls.
XBIZ: Who has been most influential, career-wise, in the industry?
Sativa: Well my mentor, Steve — the photographer I met on ModelMayhem — was very influential. He introduced me to Adella. I met him very early on, and I feel like working with him was very professional, and yet I could have a good time. I felt like everything after that, should be fun and productive. He’s super productive. Nothing with him is forced. I kind of carried that mentality with me to other sets, where I didn’t want to feel rushed. I would show up to set an hour early and get food. I would take a book to relax. That behavior carried on through everything, that whole relaxed feeling but still being productive. It helped me not feel drained all the time. I conserved my energy. It just helped me in life. Everything. Definitely Steve.
And Adella. She’s definitely one of my close friends now. I hang out with her for holidays and we go out to eat. I’ll run into her at the farmer’s market. We’re very alike, and people with the same energy just keep bumping into each other. Apart from introducing me to Mark … she’s just very well-balanced. I kind of learned from her that I need to create a lifestyle that basically complements everything: I have to be fit to be in porn, I have to eat healthy … She’s been vegan her whole life, and I’m vegetarian.
I kind of look up to her, because she has this balance between being healthy, being in the industry, she has a lot of friends. And seeing people around me have that, made me want to incorporate it too.
Of course Mark and the people that shot me. I’ve learned a lot from performers like Abigail Mac. I really, really looked up to her. She really enjoys what she’s doing. Even though people would direct her, she still found a way to be herself, please herself and please people. Being able to work with her really early on was really lucky, because I got to see that you didn’t always have to follow the director and be robotic. You can do both. Even to this day, she’s amazing. She’s so humble and goofy. She’s been like that from the beginning too.
Dani Daniels. I admire Dani a lot. I admire how she started her career, and she did things when she felt like she wanted to them. Like, she doesn’t want to do anal so she doesn’t do anal. She does what makes her happy. She’s proven that you don’t have to do things you don’t want to do, to be successful. And she’s got success outside of the industry!
Holly Randall, too! She shot me from the beginning. When I first came into the industry I had a babyface, and I was a little bit chubby. I did eventually lose weight in a healthy way — like going to the gym and eating healthy, but Holly always saw the beauty in me. She told me I was great, and she never asked me to change.
Jacky St. James! She is amazing. Working with her is so fun, and professional. She’s great to work with, and she’s great at pairings too. She paired me with Kenna James at first and that was so awesome.
And Dean Capture. He’s amazing. He shot me for my Cherry Pimps, Cherry of the Month. He shot me a lot for Twistys and paired me with my girl Misty Lovelace. After she shot with me, she said, “Man, I don’t want to shoot with anyone else because it’s never gonna get any better.” So, I’m the only girl on her list, and he shot me with her again! We have two scenes for Twistys.
Sky Blue. She used to direct me a lot for Penthouse. I really appreciate her. She doesn’t shoot for Penthouse anymore, though. Wherever she is: I appreciate you, girl! She’s really good at directing. She’s like really into real sex and orgasms. So, she would basically try to set everything up beforehand. She was like this master puppeteer that had everything ready, so once you would go… you would go and no one would stop your orgasm.
But these people, Dean … Holly … they’re just amazing photographers, directors and just all-around. They’re great to shoot for and I definitely respect them, and hopefully our relationship continues beyond porn.
XBIZ: What are your main sources of revenue?
Sativa: I don’t do dancing, but I’m not opposed to dancing. I’d like to feature dance, like on stage, but not have to do the lap dances. I’m going to look into it now, especially since Penthouse has its Penthouse gentlemen’s clubs. I’ve also been shooting for my site, which is coming up. I do web camming every now and then on CamSoda.com. I used to do camming on SugarInstant.com — they do these contests and I was named Sugar Instant Performer of the Year based on the votes. It was fucking awesome. I also got a toy through Penthouse.
XBIZ: What are your goals for this year?
Sativa: I’d really like to help Penthouse expand their brand. I know they’re really well known, but it’s more through word of mouth. I want to help them with social media, since my numbers are higher. That’s what I’m focused on right now. I have a lot of tips I want to share with them. I’m actually scheduling a meeting with their marketing and social media team.
Also, my site which is also in the works, but right now? It’s Penthouse, Penthouse, Penthouse. Everything Penthouse. I want to make the most of it while I’m Penthouse Pet of the Year. I definitely want to help Penthouse be the best that they can be. And since I speak Spanish and Portuguese, I feel like I can tap into markets that they aren’t really tapping into right now.
Featured image courtesy of Penthouse and Tammy Sands.
