By Peter Berton
CYBERSPACE – Has it really been 10 years since Vicky Vette began her adult entertainment career? Since breaking into the industry at age 38 courtesy of Hustler’s Beaver Hunt, Vette has become one of the most popular, most award-winning MILF performers in history.
Behind the impressive bosom, Nordic good looks and ageless sensuality, Vette is quite the entrepreneurial geek. She operates her own official website, VickyAtHome.com, as well as the Vette Nation Army network of websites for other performers and the affiliate program Sticky Dollars. In addition, she has her own line of branded sex toys.
As her second decade in porn dawned, Vette — still as energetic and sexually voracious as ever — sat down with YNOT for a remarkably candid talk about the past, the present, the future … and her war on content piracy.
YNOT.com: Has it really been 10 years since you got into adult?
Vicky Vette: It sure has! I can’t even believe it myself. What shocks me even more is that during the past seven years I have been “internet only” — that is, I stopped shooting for all the other studios in summer 2006 and have been exclusive to my website ever since.
Unbelievably, you are 48. What keeps you in the adult business?
I did the 9-to-5 for others until I was 32. I really hated the routine, hated living by other people’s rules, sitting in traffic, office politics, all of it. Didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t bring my dog to work. [She laughs.]
I really hated being on time in the morning, but didn’t mind lots of overtime. I’m a very hard worker, but punching a clock was not my thing. So I ran my own business until I was 38. That gave me more flexibility, but still not as much as porn.
What I love most about what I do is that every day is different. I come across people from all walks of life. If Wednesday is a beautiful, sunny day, I can go to the beach, and if it rains for five days nonstop — like it does here in Florida sometimes — I’ll work nonstop day and night. I can go to the gym whenever I like, and I can take time off to volunteer at a dog shelter whenever I’m needed.
How have you managed to stay so gorgeous?
Ha, ha! Thanks! I’m not sure I’m gorgeous, but I don’t drink — I crash-landed in [Alcoholics Anonymous] at 21 and haven’t touched a drop since — don’t do drugs, don’t smoke cigarettes, eat fairly healthy, if you count massive quantities of ice cream and chocolate as healthy. I work out a twice a week with a trainer, plus rollerblade and run with my dogs. I try to get enough sleep, but it doesn’t always work. [She laughs.] Oh, and Botox is my friend.
How does the adult industry today from the industry you joined in 2003?
The rampant stealing of porn is destroying what used to be thought of as the only recession-proof industry in the world. I can’t stress that enough.
We have to get piracy under control. It’s our number one impediment to success.
I know a lot of girls who are closing down their sites because they don’t have the time or staff to police the tube sites and send [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] notices all day long. Yes, you can hire wonderful companies to do it for you, but you have to pay for this service and that’s just one more expense solo girls with part-time sites don’t need. So they throw in the towel.
Even all the major studios are shooting less and less, so there is less work. It used to be you could work as many days a month as you wanted to shooting scenes.
So-called “fans” are taking the food off our tables. Fans, if you love us as much as you say you do in all your emails and tweets to us, then please support us with a monthly subscription so we can stay in business.
New girls just starting out nowadays don’t even bother with subscription sites anymore. They go straight to [sites that allow them to sell original content by the clip], and I don’t blame them.
How has your approach to the industry changed?
[The industry is] not just content-based anymore, because there is so much free content on the web. Interaction is where it’s at now. You have to offer as much live content as possible. That’s the only thing the motherfuckers — tube sites — can’t steal.
Lucky for me, I love being live and interactive. That’s always been a big part of what we do within the [Vette Nation Army network]. Our members-only forum is busier than a lot of free forums I have visited.
I have always loved the grassroots, one-on-one approach. Believe it or not, I really do like people and find them fascinating.
How central is the VNA Girls concept to your future plans?
It’s very central, I had a cam platform custom-built just for the VNA Girls, but then after standing back and looking at it, it made a lot more sense to open it up to solo-girl sites everywhere. We need to stick together if we are going to last.
So VNA Girls spun off VNA Live, and I’m happy to say there are 40 girls in the cam ring now. VNA Live gives a solo-girl site a lot more selling power.
Where do you think the industry is going?
Like everything else, it’s changing and evolving. We have to evolve with it.
Porn is becoming more mainstream all the time. Girls who make a name for themselves can be paid handsomely to represent companies, be the spokesmodel and/or tweet for them.
You can’t just shoot porn for studios anymore. You have to expand to camming, feature dancing, endorsements, start a clothing line, be inventive. You have to use your brain more than your body now.
It’s going to keep getting harder and harder than ever before to survive and flourish in this industry. This is a good thing. Competition brings out the best, and worst, in people. Only the strong will come out the other end.
