Author: Corva Siouan (via xPeeps.com)
When she met director Erica McLean in Berlin, “Girl Next Door Gone Hardcore” Sunny Lane probably couldn’t have guessed that this would lead her on a trip down the rabbit hole and into the middle of what’s sure to become a XXX hit with crossover appeal. The lead role in “Alice,” out next Tuesday, August 24th on Cal Vista Pictures and Metro Interactive DVD and available on VOD exclusively through AEBN, is one that Sunny was practically born to play.
“I was a fan of Alice in Wonderland, the children’s version,” Sunny says. “It was so amazing, such a fairy tale story. It’s me, it’s who I am, that’s how I practically just am: innocent but fun, curious, cute, and wanting to see what’s out there in the world. Yes, I’ve been amazed by it for years.”
Erica and Sunny, two Americans, must have been destined to meet – even if it had to happen in Europe. “When I met Erica in Berlin, Germany last year at the Venus Berlin show, Teresa Flynt introduced us,” Sunny says. “She’s just a sweet and adorable lady. The next morning I got to meet her [again] and I was like, ‘Good morning, Erica!’ She said, ‘Oh my gosh! You’re my Alice! You’re the girl! You’re the one!’ And I just said, ‘Whatever you want me to do, sexy lady, I’m yours.’ I was honored and thankful and just blessed, truly.”
In our conversation with Erica McLean last week, it was clear that she defies expectations of what a porn director is like. Sunny loved working with her. “Erica is so awesome how she communicates with people, and her take on the story and Clive’s, and what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go with it. It was so beautiful. It felt like I fell into a fairy tale and that was the life I was living, was Alice in this urban lifestyle of exploring and being curious. Now that I’ve stepped out of it, I still feel like I’m Alice at times, still talking about the movie. It’s remarkable how she brought it to life. She has such a great energy about her and she knows how to get that sexuality out as well, such a great artistic expression, what she does as a director.” The Erica you see is the Erica you get, Sunny tells us. “She’s genuine, she’s real. She cares and it’s nice. She thinks about everyone and who you are as a talent. She was checking you the whole time and it was a fun set.”
This updated vision of the Alice story takes the girl out of the country, which meant that Sunny took care to show some edge at the official casting. “I got my hair done that day a little bit blonder and I went in with this pair of cute little tight jeans on and a bright pink little dress that went over my pants, over my butt, and some boots. I gave it that urban feel of 2010,” Sunny says. “It’s not back when Alice was in the forest. Now she’s been out exploring the world… and seeing what’s really out there. That’s when they asked me how urban can I be. It’s who I am, I’m very real. I took this role on and I sank my teeth into the character and had fun with it. I know how to dance; I know how to move; I have rhythm and I bring cute sexiness to it as well, and ‘the girl next door gone hardcore.'”
Because the Alice stories didn’t have sexy bits, you might say it’s perfect for a porn remake (and decades have passed since the first one). It certainly gave Erica and her cast and crew the room to go wild with sex scenes. “This is a good one sexually. Wow! People are in store for a wild ride down Wonderland,” Sunny says with a laugh. “It is pretty remarkable, because you know in a lot of features the star gets to do one to two scenes? Well, in this one I got to do three boy/girl scenes with three of the hottest guys in the business… The sex scene with Evan Stone was fun, as the Mad Hatter, and that scene is gonna surprise people. As you can see in the trailer, ‘Where do you want me to cum, over here or over there?'” While Sunny and Evan were shooting the scene in the forest by Erica’s house, Erica wanted to catch the golden light of sunset, but in the movie you’ll chalk it up to the Mad Hatter’s madness. “It was magic hour, and we had to run up this hill like a mile to go catch it to get exactly the shot that we needed,” Sunny explains.
“Mikey Butders is the Cheshire cat and he blew me away,” she continues. (Butders is being billed as Michael Pacino for this film.) “We’ve had sex before, like in “Roller Dollz” and things like that, but those were group scenes and we really didn’t get our one-on-one time. He really sank his teeth into the character too. I think everyone that was part of this movie took it on and put a lot of love and care into it like Erica does with everything that she does and touches. He was amazing, that scene is awesome. That’s in the middle of an alleyway and we were behind a bus station. ‘Hey, uh, come in, come in! Get on the bus, get on the bus.’ It sounded like they were getting on the mike and talking crazy. It was insane in the middle of the alleyway. We didn’t care, we had lookouts and things like that and it was thrilling. That’s a great scene. And then the last scene is with Otto Bauer and he’s the Caterpillar.”
Although the Caterpillar sat on a mushroom in the original story, this being porn, the mushroom is in his pants and he sits in a little chair. “There’s a unique mushroom in that scene and the scene is on that chair the whole time, so you get to see me being very flexible, very limber, and working with the elements of what we have on set,” Sunny adds. As a former professional ice skater and yoga/Pilates instructor, Sunny is one of the most limber girls in the industry. She still does yoga daily and sometimes skates for fun. “That’s why when I get on set, people are like ‘Wow, this is so much fun!'” she says. “You want to use all your elements, you know, I’m a sexual athlete.” We at xPeeps think that Sunny deserves a Porn Olympics trophy, especially after seeing this Caterpillar and Alice scene.
While filming for the movie, the cast and crew were also making a music video for the theme song. As an all-around entertainer with dance experience, Sunny enjoyed doing her first music video. “It’s in my blood, being an entertainer and being a skater,” she says. “I love it! I just turn on when the camera turns on. I’m in my element, no matter if I’m dancing, acting, singing, whatever it is.”
Though this is billed as Erica McLean’s movie and it is certainly her vision that she shared with her late husband Clive, the input and vision of co-director Carlos Batts shouldn’t be underestimated. Along with working beside Erica on some scenes, he directed Sunny’s scene with Mikey – one of the standouts of the film – and he’s the one who got Dirt & Bank to do the theme song. It was also a chance for Sunny to learn from observing two directing styles playing off each other. “They’re both artists and it’s neat to watch people in their own craft, in their own element, for me, because I aspire to it. I just directed my first one. I really want to do more and I aspire to make big things happen. For me it’s just fun to sit back and watch them, and to see his thoughts and her thoughts and how it’s all come together. I haven’t got to see the final product yet. When I do a movie, no matter if it’s with one director or two directors, I get the script, I break it down, I get into the character, Method acting, I watch what I need to do for my research, I make it happen. Then when I’m on set it’s like, wow, this is amazing, we shoot it this way, this way, this way, backwards and forwards, out of sequence… I didn’t understand maybe why we did a certain element at that time, or maybe why they were saying let’s do this or do that, but you understand when you see the actual product.”
It’s no surprise that features are the kind of movie Sunny enjoys making the most. “I got into this business to do features. I love them. People want to see that, they want to see a good story line. They want you to give them more than just ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am,’ so to speak. But I love gonzo too, I love features, I love the gonzo, I love the vignettes. I love them all: commercials, television, radio. For me it’s all fun because it’s challenging. In skating I did three different elements – freestyle, dance, and figure – I did all three. For me it’s fun to break it up and try new things and to be challenged, but I really love the features because then I can become a character, do something that’s different and add different elements to it and show people my gifts and my talents.”
Sunny has always been one of those performers who bring more than hotness to their movies. Seeing her take on characters makes you wonder if there are any others she’d love to play. “I have to say the ‘Dark Angels 2’ that I did for New Sensations was an absolute blast and I would love to do a third one, a vampire movie where I’m coming out and kicking ass like Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” she says, which for that matter would be a good role for her should there ever be a Buffy XXX. She adds that people have told her she would be great in a porn version of “Enchanted,” which from what we can tell is hypothetical at this point but you never know. “It was like a fairy tale, she’s a princess, cartoon, falls into this hole. Falls into a hole, go figure! That’s funny!” Sunny says. “I like all the little love story fairy tales. I feel like I was back in that era once before. I would love to do those types of movies, anything that’s challenging and fun that is out of the box.”
To further stretch herself, Sunny has taken up directing. Her first film, a Tom Byron Pictures all-girl flick titled “Strap-On Sunny,” will be released two days after “Alice” on August 26th. (Between the two high-profile releases this girl will have fresh and hot going into next month, you could call it Suntember instead of September this year.) It’s a takeoff on the original Strap-On Sally. “Tom Byron really helped me,” Sunny says. “I did the breakdown of the synopsis, got a scriptwriter and we went over it and he helped me with the directing and breaking it down. It was truly remarkable to put my vision down on film and video for the world to see.” Her upcoming “Sex and the City” parody, in which Sunny plays Samantha, will incorporate product placement with Screaming O. Filming for another upcoming TBP project called “Sexipede” took place the weekend of August 7th.
And finally, Sunny and Erica worked together so well on “Alice” that they decided to team up again. “I have another one that Erica just shot and directed. It’s called ‘Sunny’s Flying Pink Pig.’ The hottest trend right now is the catering trucks, the gourmet trucks,” she says by way of explaining that title. “It’s a fun movie that’s light, and hot sex that keeps you intrigued as well.” There’s no release date yet but we hope the Flying Pink Pig will alight in time for the holidays.
“It was like we were putting on a Broadway show, it felt like. It was that theatrical, it was fun, I love it,” Sunny says of making “Alice.” “I’m really excited about ‘Alice.’ Everybody gets to step into the fairy tale world of it, triple-X style. You never know where you’re going to see Alice pop up! I’m serious about that. You never know.”
As for where Sunny might pop up, she does a live cam show on her official website at 5 PM Pacific every Wednesday. It’s just one of the ways she gives of herself to her fans, for whom she has a special message: “I love my fans and thank them for their support, because I’m here to get ’em all off all the time.”
Visit http://alice-2010.com to see cast pictures, videos, and lots of other fun stuff about “Alice.”