NSFW Advisory: Although there is no nudity in this article, there is frank discussion of sexuality. I would recommend you be 18 or over to read this. Reader discretion is advised.

Magdalene St. Michaels is an adult film star who I admire, not only for her work in adult film, but also for her tremendous heart. I was first introduced to her work several years ago, and I thought her to be a great talent. There’s more to Magdalene than her adult film work, though. Ms. Michaels is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, having made many appearances in mainstream movies and TV throughout the 80s and 90s. She takes care of cats, pets that are near and dear to my own heart because of how me and my brother have them as pets. Most importantly, though, Ms. Michaels is an activist and supporter of the LGBTQ community, and as this conversation took place shortly after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, the interview took on an added urgency.

I spoke to Magdalene on June 20th, and I hope you all enjoy getting to know more about this intriguing and fascinating performer in the latest installment of the Flashback Interview.

Say hello to Magdalene St. Michaels!

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Johnny: First off, as I always do, I thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to do this interview.

Magdalene: Oh, you’re welcome. No problem.

Johnny: Alright. I always start off my interview with this question. What were your pop-cultural likes growing up, like favorite movies and music?

Magdalene: Wow. Well, my time was the 70s and 80s. In the 70s, it was disco. (Laughing) I wasn’t into the heavy side of music. I loved Gerry Rafferty. He was probably my favorite singer-songwriter at that time. Earth, Wind And Fire, KC And The Sunshine Band…Anything that was kind of disco-y in the mid-to-late-70s. I would say those disco years were great with Off The Wall by Michael Jackson in 1979, and then, of course, the 80s. I don’t think there will be another decade like the 80s. I still listen to that today. When I’m cleaning my house, I put the satellite on and turn on the 80s. There’s just so much in the 80s I can’t even remember at this point. In England, where I grew up, you could go into clubs when you were 18, and that would’ve been 1975 for me. All that clubbing was great. I had a lot of fun. I love dancing, by the way…Total freedom. My favorite movie of all-time, actually, is Close Encounters Of The Third Kind from that era. The 70s had such great movies. Movies in general? Stargate is another of my favorite movies. There was a movie called Resurrection, with Ellen Burstyn, about a woman who has an accident and comes back to life and is a healer…A very powerful movie for me.

Johnny: Yeah. I liked that movie.

Magdalene: You did? Resurrection? Yeah. It came out in 1980. I’m not into fantasy films. I like thrillers. Thrillers are my genre. If someone were to ask me my three favorite movies, I would always say Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Stargate and Resurrection, and anything kind of spiritual or mystical.

Johnny: Alright. Long before you were an adult film star, you were entertaining in various ways. As I’m sure you did theater work, what were your favorite roles to play onstage?

Magdalene: Well, I started off in school, doing school plays and musicals. We did Oliver!, and I was in that in school. Locally, in my small town in England, there was a melodramatic theater company. It was very good, actually. Everything they did was pretty much musicals, and my first musical for them was South Pacific. I played the young girl in that, so I got to sing and dance. I did about 4 or 5 in my town. I played Hodel in Fiddler On The Roof. That was actually (laughing) my first experience in trying to get functional. It’s kind of a fine line. It’s one of the major parts, and there was a scene where I was saying goodbye to my father at a train station. I was like, “How do I get emotional about this? How do I get emotional?”. This was before my days of studying acting while I was in Los Angeles. I remember getting an onion and going backstage, trying to peel this onion to get emotional. It worked to a point where I actually had tears in my eyes when I went out to sing. I love to dance. It’s within me. I never studied professionally to dance. My mother, actually, was a professional dancer until she got married. From the age of 3 until 16, when she left home, and 18, when she met my dad and settled down, she danced professionally, and HER mother was an opera singer. She performed stuff like Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates Of Penzance, and HER father played the piano. From my mother’s side, I inherited those things. I love to sing, but I’m a nervous singer. I love to sing, and I love acting as well.

Johnny: Alright. According to your biography, in 1985, you made an appearance in the movie Turk 182. What was your favorite part of working on that movie?

Magdalene: Well, I was in New York at the time, with someone who was FROM New York. I was in a relationship with him for several years. He moved to Los Angeles, and he was also an actor. We would go back in the Summer to a little house his parents had on Long Island. We would also do things like extra work on movies, and one of the things we worked on was this movie. I was told they needed several reporters at the stadium where they had a scene. I remember they said you’re going to have this line. I had this line, but I’m not sure if it made the cut because, quite often, people who have really made it now, in the beginning will have a line or two and it’ll end up on the editing room floor. I think you can see me in the movie still, but I do remember being around Robert Urich, who was really, really nice. I remember speaking with Kim Cattrall, who’s actually originally from England. Timothy Hutton was a nice guy, too. I remember briefly talking to him. It was a hot Summer. I can’t remember if it was in Queens or in Manhattan or someplace else that we shot those scenes, but it was interesting.

Johnny: In 1996, you made an appearance in Executive Decision. Did your paths cross with Steven Seagal, and if so, is he the jerk that a lot of reports have made him out to be?

Magdalene: (Laughing) No, I didn’t. It was another one of those things where they needed someone who had an English accent and the director chose me from my picture & resume.. At that point, I’d been in the country since 1980, so my English accent was with me, even though it was Americanized. I remember an ex of mine said, “You don’t sound English anymore. Why do it?”. I said “It’s a couple of lines. I can do it” and I did. I went down to Long Beach for the scene in the restaurant, where a terrorist comes in and sets off a bomb. The scene was supposed to take place in London, but they filmed it here. The director was really nice. He said, “Okay. You do this. You do that. There’s going to be a Steadicam”. I actually didn’t see any of the lead actors on the set that day. Throughout my years on movies sets I had heard a lot of things about Steven Seagal and how he wasn’t nice to people in general. I did, however, attend the premiere of the movie. I made a call to Warner Brothers, said I was in the movie, and got to attend the premiere at Westwood. I think I spoke to Kurt Russell briefly. I don’t know if I saw Seagal, but I’ve heard that all along. I did a lot of work in movies and television in the 80s. Around 1982, I joined what was at the time called the Screen Extras Guild, which was for extras and stand-ins. It was kind of a big deal. It was so hard to get into. The guy I was with in the 80s from New York had a hard time with the producer of Knots Landing or one of those shows to get me into the Screen Extras Guild. It was kind of a close relationship with the family and friends of the casting people. At that time, there were only two or three casting companies that provided extras. Once I got my foot in the door and joined that union, it was great. The money back then, 30 years ago, was pretty good if you did overtime or stand-in work, or if you got what they call a silent bit, which was where you would interact with an actor or actress, but didn’t have lines. I got a few visible roles with those in the 80s. Some of the things that came my way at the time were just the result of being in the right place at the right time. I started acting lessons with a really great teacher who has since passed away. His name was Anthony Ponzini, and the method that I studied was the Sandford Meisner technique. In the mid-80s I did work in just about every episodic from The Love Boat to Dynasty to Dallas.

Magdalene: I appeared in movies like Body Double with Melanie Griffith. I had a lot of fun, even though I worked long hours. I learned a lot from talking to actors. It was a good time. Executive Decision was one of those freak things. There were another couple of movies I did. One was called Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter (laughing), which was around 1986. I met Paul Sorvino, Mira Sorvino’s dad, and he was a good friend of the guy I was with in the 80s. He was in that movie, and I was given a line or two in that. There was another movie I did, the follow-up to Fast Times At Ridgemont High called The Wild Life. That is how I got into the Screen Actors Guild in 1984. I was “upgraded” on set. I played a customer in a department store. I also did some stand-in work. I stood in for Daryl Hannah and Sean Young in Wall Street when filming on Long Island. Besides those mainstream parts, I’ve done theater here in L.A and British pantomimes, which aren’t miming. They’re more farcical with singing and dancing. Pantomime is very British. The boy is actually played by a woman. It’s a long-standing tradition in England that the leading lady is actually the principle boy, the hero, dressed like an Errol Flynn-type character with the hat and the feathers, fishnet tights and boots above the knees. They’re swashbuckling types, and they have a princess who actually IS a girl, while the dame is played by a man in a skirt or dress. There’s a lot of cross-playing in those plays. As previously mentioned, I’ve done theater. I’ve done a bit of everything.

Johnny: Although you’ve done all these mainstream projects, you aren’t credited for them on the IMDB. It’s not uncommon for a film talent to have works listed on the IMDB as I recently interviewed animator John Canemaker and several of the works I asked him about didn’t have IMDB listings. Had you used a different name in your mainstream appearances, or did someone else do your IMDB page and neglect to include your mainstream credits?

Magdalene: I think a die-hard fan of mine a few years ago created the IMDB page because I didn’t do it. Maybe they only knew about the couple of movies they listed. I used a close variation of my real name in mainstream. Even today, I still hold my Screen Actors’ Guild card. I keep my dues up because you never know. I’ve been a member of SAG since the 80s, when the Screen Extras Guild and the Screen Actors’ Guild merged to form one union. It’s still difficult to get into. It takes three credits to get into it. I was very fortunate because it’s hard to get into that. It’s a catch-22. You have to a role or a line to get the card, but then you can’t get the card without the line.

Johnny: Alright. Jumping into your adult film career, one of your first adult movies was I Like To Kiss, which was themed around LGBT marraige several years before it was made legal in the United States. As you’re very supportive of the LGBT community, was this made as a piece that would hopefully reflect reality someday, or was the wedding theme just part of the story?

Magdalene: I Like To Kiss was my first adult film. It was written with me in mind by the founder of Girlfriends Films, Dan O’Connell. It came about, because, it’s well-known by my fans how I got into the business. I believe in things happening for a reason and I believe that the universe has a plan for you and you don’t know it. Sometimes you’re put into places you’re meant to be at that time. Around the time of the Adult Entertainment Expo/AVN Awards in January of 2007, my husband and I flew to Vegas for a Winter break. We had bought tickets for the three-day convention. We’re both night owls. You know, Vegas is around-the-clock. It’s 24 hours. By the time we woke up, it was lunchtime. The convention was from 9 to 5, or 9 to 6, and we’d miss it. We had spent 150 dollars each on our tickets, so on the last day we thought we’d better get there to see at least some of it. It was much bigger nine years ago and more companies were there. At the back of the hall we saw a flashing light that said “Girl/Girl”. At that time, Dan had only been in business a few years. He had some nominations that year, but he was still kind of unknown. Girl/girl? There were no big companies doing it. I walked up there and he was packing up his stuff. He had a little booth and it was about five minutes before closing. He looked up at me and said “Hi!”, with a big grin on his face. I said, “Hi”. He said, “Are you a model?”. They use the term “model”, not “actress” in the adult business. I said, “I did some modeling when I was younger”, not realizing that his version of model and my version of model were two different things. “Why?”. He said, “We’re a girl/girl company. We do all girl scenes. Are you into women?”. I said, “Actually, yes. I’ve been with some women in my life”. I don’t know where it went from there, but I said, “Yes, I’m into women”. I have been since I was 16. I’ve always had a big natural breast fetish. I got it from my brother’s girlie magazines in England. He explained what the company did. He said, “We do a lot of romantic girl/girl scenes. We have lovely gowns and lots of kissing and eye-gazing and touching” I said, “I love kissing”. Kissing is how it all starts, you know? You kiss and everything flows from there. He said, “Would you consider shooting for me?”. It wasn’t like I had anything else going on at the time. Actually, my life had kind of come to a standstill. I was 49 going on 50, and I’d kind of come to a stagnant place in my life. I hadn’t been doing mainstream for a while and he said, “Would you consider it?”. I said, “Okay”. He asked me where I lived and I said Los Angeles. We discussed for a while what I liked about kissing and we talked about mainstream stuff and how I would like to apply my acting to that. I’d seen some porn before with my husband in the 90s, but it was not something I watched very often. It always just looked so fake to me and he said, “We’re very natural”. I filled out some paperwork and I said to my husband, “What do you think I should do?”. He said, “I think you should do it. I think it would be great for you”. I said, “Okay”. I got back to L.A. and Dan said, “Okay, I’ve written a story specifically for you. It’s called I Like To Kiss”, because we talked about kissing so much. He had this beautiful bridal scene in mind and it was part of the story. It was a movie where I was in every scene. It was shot in order, the way it appeared in the movie, which doesn’t always happen that way. I’m more nervous with the mainstream stuff because I’m a perfectionist. It stems from that, that I want to get it right. I showed up to shoot and there was a make-up girl there. I got the wedding gown. Dan was there with just one other camera girl and I remember he was setting up the scene. I walked in and he said, “Hey, Magdalene. How are you doing?”. I went, “Well, I have a confession to make”. He said, “Oh, what’s that?”. I said, “I’m really not my age”, since I fudged my age on the paperwork. I said, “I’m 49”. He said, “Oh, that’s okay”. (Laughing) Anyway, we started the scene and it just came so naturally to me. It was just so beautifully done. I did my thing. I did what I think most women want to see, foreplay and lots of kissing and not being rough and I loved the aspects of sensuality and being erotic. We did the scene and at the end I remember saying “Oh, wow. I got through my first scene”. The camera woman said “That was the first scene you’ve ever done?”. I said, “Yes” and she said, “Oh, wow”. Dan was very excited and he called a friend and said, “The scene was amazing”. I came home and I was really happy. I said, “This is my thing. I’m a natural at this”. It was just a weird chain of events that led to this. I kind of have to say this. In October of ’06 I decided to change my hair color. I’d been blonde for many years and I decided it was time for a change. I changed my hair color from blonde to dark, with a sort of urgency. I’d had a hysterectomy in 2005 and had put on a bit of weight, which is par for the course when you have a hysterectomy. I thought, I’ll get my breast implants redone a little larger and so I did that. I remember watching some soft core porn on TV, and I said out loud. “This is so bad. I should have been an adult film actress. I think I would have been really good at it”. I think it was destined to be and two or three months later, there I was in Las Vegas getting discovered at the ripe old age of 49. It just changed my life so much. I cannot tell you how good it was for me and then to apply my acting to these roles was great. I did nothing but Girl/Girl movies for Girlfriends Films for a year-and-a-half. I’ve done about 90 scenes so far with them. That was how that movie was done. It was written for me and I know Dan has given interviews and still says, “That’s my favorite movie to date”. I don’t know about the marriage. I think that was just the story that he wanted. Maybe he was ahead of the game with the marriage thing, you know?

Johnny: Alright. In 2011, you starred in My Girlfriend’s Mother, which was based on The Graduate, according to the plot description. As I’m assuming you’ve seen The Graduate, did Anne Bancroft’s portrayal of Mrs. Robinson influence your acting in this film?

Magdalene: I had seen the movie. I went out and bought it and watched it again. I was a bit influenced. The thing about the story is that, quite often in adult movies, you don’t get a script until you show up that day. As a professional actress, I like to always be prepared. I think I got the script the day before and I read some of the lines. That’s why it’s good to have a script and learn it, because you can bounce off the other actor. I got into character. I hadn’t smoked for 15 years, but I lit up a cigarette. I, unfortunately, had only one scene in that movie, but the box cover of that movie was my favorite box cover ever. I bought the DVD of The Graduate to Nica Noelle and the photographer and said, “We could do something like this for the cover”. There was me sitting in the chair, with my co-star, Joey Brass in the background, standing there like Dustin Hoffman’s character. It was very similar and it was a great shoot to do. It was nominated for Best DVD at the AVN Awards or a similar ceremony. It’s very rare to be a contract girl for a company like Wicked or Vivid and do bigger-budget movies. I wasn’t fortunate enough to do that, so a lot of good roles didn’t come my way, but when they did, I ate them up. If a movie called for me to be emotional, I would do that. Emotions have always been a strong point for me, since I’m always able to get there. That was a fun movie to do. I took a little from Anne Bancroft and although we couldn’t copy the story exactly, the premise was based on The Graduate.

Johnny: Alright. In 2012, you played the title role in Mother Superior, one of the edgier adult films of recent years. How did you get drawn to that role?

Magdalene: : (Laughing) How did I get drawn into that role? Writer/director Nica Noelle came up with the idea. She said, “I’m doing a movie called Mother Superior” and I ate that up, because I’m not a fan of organized religion at all. I consider myself a Gnostic Christian, as Jesus and Mary Magdalene were Gnostic Christians. I thought, “This is going to be great”. There’s a part of me that likes shocking people, making them wake up and say, “Oh my God!”. That role was amazing. (Laughing) I remember the scene where, I don’t know if you’ve seen the whole movie, but a young nun is getting undressed in her room and her door is open. I stop dead in my tracks, back up and I stop & eye her up. I remember Nica saying to me, “Oh, God, you look so creepy”. (Laughing) I think, in those kinds of roles, once you put on the clothing, whatever era or period, it kind of helps you. It makes you sound, or appear, or walk different. That scene I did with Mae Olsen? She actually put out two versions of the movie. She said, “Oh, my God. I think we went too far”, and I said, “Nah”. (Laughing) There’s a scene where she’s washing my feet and I say, “Higher. Higher, dear. Higher”, until her face is in my crotch. They did one scene where they stopped at that, and then there’s another one where I just grabbed her head and shoved it into my crotch and was grinding on her face. I don’t know which one that they released on vod. I think, on the DVD, they put the softer version out and they dropped the harder version. They have an awards show every year, Night Moves, and one is the Fan’s Choice while the other is the Critic’s Choice. The fan vote was for Mother Superior. I actually did do a Mother Superior 3 and then they did a boy-girl version, where there was a girl with tattoos and piercings and she’s a girl off the street that a Father wants to save and she’s blackmailing me. It’s been out on their site, but it’s not been widely released. Something happened that year with a change of producers and content, and so, because of politics, it didn’t get nominated. I had two scenes in that and I think it would’ve done very, very well, if it had been nominated in places. One of my scene partners, Nikita Denise and I, had a really intense scene. Anything I can do to shock people is great. I love to mess with organized religion, because of what’s going on with the priests and with pedophilia in the church and their moral code. I was happy to do the role and I honestly have to say, I think Mother Superior is my favorite role. I would love, love, love to do that again.

Johnny: Alright. On a more serious note, I mentioned this in a DM on Twitter, but a lot of your work has been LGBT-themed, with an emphasis on the L. Orlando, Florida was recently witness to a massacre at the Pulse Nightclub that was the deadliest terror attack on American soil since 9/11. I find myself thinking of what happened, and knowing you’re active in LGBT causes, I was wondering if you think the work you’ve done in adult film can help people to understand the community?

Magdalene: Yeah. I think it was a very tragic situation and certain things happen in life that brings attention to matters. Show business has such a huge influence and the outpouring around the world was so powerful in response to the LGBTQ community, as they say now. To me, it’s been a very passionate cause of mine. I did an interview with a critic who also writes for AVN, after having done a couple of transgender scenes. I spoke about movies I’ve been in and what I think. All my life I have been on the search for my own truth, my own spirituality. In England, there were nightclubs, lesbian clubs and gay clubs, in the 70s. I didn’t know anyone who was gay, or lesbian, but I really never gave it much thought. I never saw anything bad about gay, or lesbian people and that was before transgender was around. When I meet people, and as I said in this interview, I see past the physical and I don’t see their gender. I see their souls, the essence of who they are. I believe in reincarnation and if you believe in that, you can say you’ve been both male and female in past lives. I think you can be both within the physical body. Me? I’m bisexual. I’ve always been attracted to women and I’ve masturbated mostly to women. I like natural breasts and hair. There’s something beautiful about that. I also like men. I married a man, but I’ve always been turned on sexually by women. I’m a female in this lifetime, but there’s also a part of me that, I think, is male, and is attracted to females. When I look at someone, I don’t see their physicality. When I look into their eyes, I see their soul. Since I was a young adult, I’ve never believed in anything discriminatory. I have two passions in life. One is animals and the other, which I’m tremendously fierce about, is gender identity, sexual identity, and being judged for that. It’s a big deal for me and so I’ve had a lot of fans, especially female fans, that I’ve given my time to, to call on their birthday or Skype with them for free. They have stories about coming out as a lesbian and having their families kick them out, or they don’t know how to go about talking to people, but they feel they can talk to me. 75 percent of my work has been girl-girl, and 25 percent has been boy-girl. It angers me that people can’t be themselves. A woman wrote to me from Louisiana and said, “The church says lesbianism is wrong, and this is wrong, and I can’t be myself”. I said, “Look. The most important thing you can be in life is you”. You can’t live your life for someone else. If that means coming out, the lesson is for them to learn, not for you to learn. They have to deal with that. That’s their problem, and so, you ultimately have to be your own person, without apology to anyone and that way you can be happy, and you can find the right people you can move with”. In transgender, scenes in a romantic light weren’t out there for a while, but Nica Noelle, with Mile High Media, wanted to do some more romantic ones. She had done so many gay movies and a fan asked her if she would ever do a Transgender movie. Nica said to me, “I have a story called My TS Student. Would you like to do it?” and I said, “Oh, I’d love to do it!”. I’d heard that, apparently, in the “mainstream” adult business, people won’t hire you, or work with you if you’ve done “trans” scenes. I thought, “Screw this! I don’t care what people think. I did when I was 20. I don’t care anymore”. You have to be who you are. Nica wrote the story and created a storyline for the movie. There weren’t really any story-driven trans movies. They were mostly standard porno movies…We call them gonzo scenes. They were very matter-of-fact. I like to think I’m a little more accepting, but I like stories that are sensual and beautiful. I did a scene with Chelsea Poe and we did it as a girl-girl because that was the way she wanted it. The movie was doing so well for months on the VOD sites that it got a lot of attention and nominations. It was nominated for best DVD at the Transgender Erotica Awards in March. I was honored that the TEA’S asked me to co-present an award. In the 9 years I have been in the adult business, no one from the mainstream side had ever asked me to present an award before. The first award of the night was for Best Trans DVD. It won. I was so excited & another co-star and I went up on stage to accept the award for the company. During my speech I made the point of saying that, I hoped by me doing this movie and doing trans scenes, that other mainstream performers would do it and now more of them are. Nica said, “You’re a trailblazer for doing this, a trailblazer for women of your age”. Women don’t often do things later in life and it was a great honor for me to do that. There’s more transgender work being done and it’s awesome that more people are now supporting it. It’s so nice now that there’s so much attention towards the LGBTQ world, where people are coming out more and more and more. I get very touched and angry. I remember watching a documentary about a Navy Seal, I think her name was Kristin, who had retired and was in the closet, and then she came out. She was a Navy Seal who fought for her country, and she’s talked about being beaten up by 4 guys in Florida. She continued to live her life the way she wanted. I think with Caitlyn Jenner last year, and my movie coming out, and the interview I did with AVN, I think it’s opened up a lot about the community. I don’t judge anyone. People should be who they are, whether they’re male, or female. It’s a big deal to me. I’m starting to do my own movies now. I won’t just do any transgender scene. It has to be a romantic one. I won’t do wham-bam stuff. That’s not for me. (Laughing) I think you can make porn classy. I think it can be done in a beautiful way. There are some really good actors in this business, who do take their jobs seriously.

Johnny: I would definitely say, based on what you’ve told me, the stories you relate of helping those in the LGBTQ community by speaking to them, if that if any of these adult film ceremonies had the equivalent of the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, I definitely think you would win one for your kind heart.

Magdalene: : Oh, wow. That’s very sweet of you. The biggest thing in the world, to me, is kindness, compassion and understanding. I’d like to think there will be more of that in the world. I’ve had my own struggles in my life. In my 20s, even though I was working in movies, I wasn’t happy. I was a lost soul. Funnily enough, when I came to this country, I spent time at the Playboy mansion. I tested for the magazine in 1980, but didn’t get chosen. I was really a late bloomer in a lot of ways, not only growing up in my teens, but in life in general. In England, at 15, I was 5′ 2” and by the time I was 21, I was 5′ 8”. I even started my period really late as well. My life got better as I got older, although I’ve suffered from depression all my life. It’s always there below the surface. There’s a lot of suffering out there in the world, and so I think people need to get more in tune with others. It’s a selfish world today with all these devices, and nobody really seems to talk anymore, or have conversations with people. It’s just such a messed-up world, that people need to stop and think. A little bit of kindness in any gesture goes a long way. With what happened in Orlando, they lost their lives, but…How can I say this? It’s not in vain in a way, because their lives have been magnified. I think they would be so amazed, up there in the Universe that there was this outpouring of love. I Tweeted this picture last week. It was at L.A Gay Pride after Orlando, and I’m getting emotional about it now. It was a deputy sheriff and an LAPD officer, and they were holding hands at the parade. That spoke volumes about how united we are. There’s hate in the world, and there’s misunderstanding. Like I said about religion, I get very angry at organized religion, especially the Catholic Church. I could go on about my beliefs, but I believe that if Jesus were to return to Earth today, or if he was here in the flesh, I think he would be horrified at the way people treat each other. It’s all about love and acceptance, and the church and other religions are not accepting of these people, of who they are. It’s discriminatory and, I think, very critical of these people to do this. That’s why I get angry at organized religion. I also think, “What would happen if there was no religion? How would the world be different today?”. People wouldn’t know any better. They wouldn’t have these stories passed down from the Bible. Would they hate and be disapproving of people if they didn’t know any better? I’m very passionate about that. I think the reason why I wanted to do this interview is because I can get my voice to reach people. I actually have fans of mine who are lesbians, who have said, “Oh, I would never watch a boy-girl of yours'”, and then they end up watching me and saying, “Oh, I really like it. It was lovely”. Fans will say, “Oh, I would never watch a transsexual scene with you”, and then they watched it and say, “I like it”. I did My TS Student, and I also did another movie, as a boy-girl scene, with Nina Lawless in TS Massage. It was a really beautiful scene. We made love on a massage table. The stills and everything were beautiful. Girls in this business will do scenes with guys, and they’ll do scenes with girls, but they won’t do a scene with someone who has both breasts & a penis. I don’t get it. I just don’t get that reasoning. For some reason, I don’t see the physical in somebody. I just see past that. I see who they are.

Johnny: Very noble. On a lighter note, the production company for the films you direct is called Offworld. Was that inspired by Blade Runner?

Magdalene: (Laughing) Yes, that’s where it’s from. That was the production company we started. Very good. (Laughing) That was another great movie. Harrison Ford would have to be my favorite actor hands-down. I mean, there’s a lot of favorite actors I can name, but if someone were to ask which movie star would you ever date, I’d pick Harrison Ford.

Johnny: Cool. You recently celebrated your 60th birthday, and a belated happy birthday by the way, by visiting Disneyland. During your visits there, has anybody ever recognized you from your adult film work?

Magdalene: (Laughing) I’ll be 60 next year.

Johnny: Oh, my apologies. Sorry

Magdalene: : No problem. There was Disneyland’s 60th anniversary (laughing), and they’re celebrating it, so maybe that’s what you were thinking. I’ve been recognized in a couple of places, but I think if people did recognize me they wouldn’t say anything. I was recognized one time at my local supermarket. I’d come from my hairdresser, so my hair had been done and I had no make-up on. It was in the daytime and I’m always casually dressed. I get home, and someone had just created an e-mail account to write to me and say, “I was just standing behind you at the market. I’m a fan of your work. I love your work, but I was just too afraid and nervous to say hello”. I went to write back and say, “Oh, no. You should’ve said Hi”. I love to meet fans. They mean so much to me, and I love them”. I’m meeting another one next week when they’re visiting L.A., just for dinner and stuff. There was also an incident a couple of Christmases ago where I was in Beverly Hills doing something. I don’t go there often, and I went into a jewelry store to buy a gift for a friend of mine. I walk in wearing jeans and a coat because its winter. I don’t have make-up on and my hair is pulled back in a ponytail. I walk in and a man in a dark suit comes over to me and asks if he can help me with anything. I say that I’m looking for charms and he preceded to walk me to the back of the store. I’m looking in the display case and I said, “Can I have a look at this one please?”. As I’m looking down, he said, “Maggie?”. I said, “Pardon?”. He said, “Magdalene. You’re Magdalene, right?”. I think I blushed and said, “Yeah”. He said, “Oh, I’m a big fan of your work. I love your work”. I said, “Oh, thank you. I can’t believe you recognize me”. He said, “Of course”. I couldn’t believe it. Some other guy came up at that point and said, “May I help you?”. I said, “Oh, yes. I’m looking at this”, and then the other guy kind of sheepishly walked away. He was a security guard, not a saIesman. I think he recognized me when I walked in the store and came to help me, but he shouldn’t have been doing that. It was kind of cute. People have asked me that a lot, and I think if people do recognize you, they’re not sure, because they think it may be insulting to say, “Are you Magdalene St. Michaels, the porn star?”.

Johnny: Alright. Since you’re a British performer, and Shakespeare is one of England’s most famous literary icons, if not THE most famous, some say that many of Shakespeare’s works, once you get through the formal language, are as raunchy as an adult film. Have you found that to be true?

Magdalene: Quite honestly, I haven’t really read Shakespeare. I mean, I grew up in England and I’m sure I may have read some stuff in school, but I can’t say other than watching the movie MacBeth, that I can draw that comparison. I haven’t read a lot of Shakespeare, so I can’t really answer that.

Johnny: Fair enough. I do have another question related to British culture. Which did you prefer, Monty Python’s Flying Circus or The Benny Hill Show?

Magdalene: Oh, Benny Hill. (Laughing) My husband is American-born, born here in Los Angeles, but he always had an English sense of humor since we met 21 years ago. He knew about all the Carry On movies, like Carry On Up The Khyber, Carry On Cabbie, and Carry On Nurse and so on. He loved all the old radio shows like, The Goons, and he loved Monty Python. I just didn’t get it. There were a lot of great comedies in the 70s and 80s that he finds funny too. British humor is pretty raunchy, and I think we get away with a lot more in England than you do here. Benny Hill got a lot of flack for his work. There was a famous English novelist who wrote that she thought it was demeaning for women to be jiggling around on the show and slapping their bottoms and chasing him around the park, but he was actually a genius and a very sweet man. He was a very kind man who didn’t live high on the hog or anything. He was very kind to people, and he was funny as hell. He was great with accents, and so many of the segments had me in tears, laughing hysterically. Monty Python? I never really got, and I think a lot of men seem to love Monty Python, including my husband. I just don’t think the show was very funny.

Johnny: Alright. Now I come to my final question. I end every interview with this question, and it’s this: If you could go back to your youth with the knowledge that you have now, would you do anything differently?

Magdalene: Ooooh. I’d like to say yes, but then, believing as I do in things happening for a reason, and having to deal with that, part of me would say no. It’s like playing a game. You go down Row A, Row B, Row C, and you make decisions. I was actually thinking about this just last night. If I could go back, I would’ve made the move to London earlier in my life. I didn’t go up there until I was 21.

If I could go back, I’d wish that I had found a way to go to drama school up there and remain there to do theater. I would’ve gone to RADA or one of those places and studied there. I took some photos and walked around to a few modeling agencies and was told by one to lose about eight pounds. I think in hind sight, I shouldn’t have given up so easily. Part of me wanted to get out of England. My mother, who actually just passed away on April 27th, had come on a vacation to the states and while she was visiting New York she met her second husband and she moved to Los Angeles. I missed her and I wanted to get out to Los Angeles too. That led to the relationships that I had here and learning by working in movies, which I wouldn’t trade because I learned so much and had such a great time. How many people get to come from a small town in England and come to Hollywood and see famous people, or talk to them, work on movie sets and see so much? I’m blessed in that regard, but I sometimes think what would’ve happened if I’d gone to London and really pursued the acting part when I was young? I just didn’t know. I had a job in the civil service out of school for five years doing data entry before I moved to London, where I did similar work for a medical company. I wasn’t one of those people who would just leave home and go out into the world. If I had to do it over, I’d like to have gone and really pursued acting, or musical theatre I think, but like I said, I ended up here. I did all the things I did here, and so that was the path that was chosen for me. When I’m down, and hard on myself, and when I don’t think I’ve accomplished a lot professionally in my life, my husband will remind me that money’s not everything. I’ll say, “I didn’t have that successful of a career”, and he’ll remind me of how many people’s lives that I’ve touched. I’ve had fans who are now friends say, “You came along at a crucial time in my life”. “I thought my life was over”. I was suicidal, and then somehow I found you magically through the Internet”, or I found you this way or that way. When I hear that, it touches me deeply. I receive amazing e-mails from people all over the world, men and women and couples who say they love my work. I think I’m doing something in the world. I’m into astrology, and I just had my yearly reading done on my birthday by my astrologist who’s very, very good. In that reading we talked about a couple of things and he said, “If you can change 1 life, 10 lives, 20 lives, then you’re doing something good in the world”. That’s what makes me feel good and makes me feel happy. People say they’ve learned from me, or they’ve learned how to make love to another woman, or how to approach another woman, and now they feel they can come out. Those are the things that make me happy.

Johnny: I must say that, coming into this interview, I knew of you as a performer, but now that it’s wrapping up, I have to say that I really do admire your tremendous charitable spirit. It’s very heartening. I find you to be a very good heart in addition to an excellent performer, and it was an honor to speak to you.

Magdalene: You, too. Thank you so much for the interview. I just love talking to people. I love talking to fans. It was awesome to talk to you, because I’ve read some of your interviews. I’m honored that you wanted to speak to me.

Johnny: In summation, I thank you for taking the time to do this, and I look forward to your future output.

Magdalene: Anytime, and thank you so much again.

Johnny: No problem. I hope you have a good afternoon.

Magdalene: Okay. Have a good evening.

Johnny: Okay, bye.

Magdalene: Bye bye.

———-

I would once more like to thank Magdalene St. Michaels for taking the time to speak to me. For more on her life and work, visit Magdalene on Twitter (Warning: NSFW content).

Who will I flashback with next? Stay tuned.