In her 16 years under contract with Wicked, Jessica Drake has worn just about every title on the company’s roster. As contract performer, director, scriptwriter, in-house sex educator and public spokesperson, she’s worked closely with Wicked founder Steve Orenstein through his company’s evolution from a decorated movie studio to purveyor of premium intimacy products.
Today, as the company focuses on Wicked Sensual Care as its sole enterprise, Drake brings her versatility to yet another role — that of brand strategist. With her long-time dedication to sex education, both onscreen and in-person appearances, the transition is natural; a new phase in a durable business relationship based on shared priorities and mutual trust.
“None of Wicked Pictures or my personal successes could have come without the amazing, talented and dedicated team we have had over all the years."
Dressed casually and kicking back in a conference room chair at the company HQ with her longtime canine companion, Bean, curled up in her lap, Drake’s observations — delivered in a confident, resonant voice punctuated with a rollicking laugh — pinpoint the qualities that inspire such enduring loyalty among those Orenstein employs.
“Steve is trustworthy. If he says he’s going to do something, he does it. He’s also accessible in a way many company owners are not. He’s never had a closed-door policy. He never stops with knowing just one part of what the company is doing. He’s always in different departments and different areas learning about them, making suggestions, questioning why things are done a certain way. He makes decisions in a very educated and deliberate fashion. He’s very analytical.”
It was that analytical thinking that led Orenstein to sell Wicked’s video production arm and solid gold catalog to Montreal-based Gamma Entertainment.
Which is not to suggest Orenstein is a humorless numbers cruncher — though he’s one of those natural executives to whom the numbers seem to speak — it is quite the contrary.
“He’s hilarious,” Drake says. “He’s quick-witted and his timing is impeccable. He could have been a stand-up comedian.”
According to longtime friend and golfing buddy Evolved Novelties founder Greg A.: “I warn people who don’t know him, that if they’re going to take a shot at matching wits, they better be ready because they’re climbing into the ring with Mike Tyson. He’s lightning-fast.”
Orenstein, smiling cheerfully as he generally does when reminiscing, characterizes his comedic chops as “a survival skill growing up in Brooklyn in the ‘60s and ‘70s with red hair.” Asked if he shares Drake’s belief that he could have made it doing stand-up, he responds in his characteristic rasp.
“It’s tough to think about being a comedian when your biggest fear in life is getting up on stage in front of people.”
Greg A. confirms that, “Steve never wants to be in the limelight. He flies under the radar personally but he’s pushing the company all the time.”
Former Adult Video News publisher Paul Fishbein says that on many occasions during his years as an awards show producer, he observed Orenstein’s knack for working the room without appearing to.
“Steve hates speaking in public so it was always fun to invite him to speak at a seminar and even more fun when he would win a big award and not want to speak on stage,” Fishbein said. “He is funny and when he speaks in public, he does quite well. I never found him to be shy, but maybe that’s because we’ve been friends for 35 years.”
There’s a measure of polish to Orenstein’s public persona just as there’s a certain practical calculus to his cultivation of long-term working relationships grounded in mutual regard.
“For me, personally,” Fishbein observes, “he’s just an honest businessman, someone with integrity, ethical in all his dealings. He was one of the easiest people to deal with because if you made a deal, it was set in stone and he honored it. Meeting when we were both young in a business with a bunch of older sharks, we bonded pretty quickly.”
Echoing Drake’s praise for Orenstein’s ability to delegate and loyalty to those who keep the wheels turning, Greg A. lauds his management style for “treating everyone in that building like gold.” The boss is more than happy to let others step forward and take the credit for Wicked’s many accomplishments.
Affable and self-deprecating, Orenstein describes himself as “a bit of a workaholic,” who’s still at the office late every night.
He does play golf when he can, with Greg A., Scott Taylor from New Sensations and Frank Koretsky of ECN/IVD fame, all of whom share Orenstein’s modest appraisal of his talents on the links.
“I don’t love golf,” Orenstein said. “For me, it’s about us all getting together and having a good time. I’m typically the worst golfer in that group.”
Anything but the flamboyant showman, he lives quietly and devotes most of his energies to managing and growing the company he formed in 1993 after leaving his previous partnership at Excitement Video. The decision to bet on his own resources was not taken lightly, and Orenstein’s thoughtful approach to business has become a signature trait of his.
Says Greg A.: “Steve’s extremely methodical. He really does his homework, cuts no corners and doesn’t rush into things. Sometimes it might seem like he’s taking too long to make a decision but the decision usually turns out to be right.”
Philadelphia-born Koretsky — whose side gig selling videos out of his van when he was an aspiring DJ, led to the creation of mega-distributorships International Video Distributors (IVD) and East Coast News (ECN) — said that his companies have sold vast quantities of Wicked product, first in video and now in lubes. He describes Orenstein’s decision-making process insightfully.
“Steve is very mindful of what he puts out,” says Koretsky. “He’s very careful, very systematic. There’s never a rush. It’s a long-term gig for Steve. It’s not ‘I’m going to make a killing in six months and I’m out.’”
Citing Wicked’s early entry into the women’s and couples’ markets, Greg A. characterizes Orenstein as “knowing about business and how to run one.”
“He targeted the right customers,” Greg A. said. “There’s no doubt that women and couples are the future of this business. They’re looking for more sophisticated, upscale products and consistent good quality. If you deliver that, they’ll come back for more. Steve took the high road and it worked out well for him.” Paul Fishbein describes Orenstein's navigation of that path succinctly: “Steve entered the business with the idea that quality would win out in a crowded marketplace. He placed the emphasis on great talent, good scripts, production value and nice artwork on the packaging. He was a lot like the other Steve (Hirsch) in that they were making real movies. Orenstein is not a pornographer in the creative sense, so he left it up to a slate of directors who shared his vision of quality. And he contracted with a bunch of major actresses, including Jenna Jameson, Stormy Daniels and Jessica Drake — three of the most successful and popular adult stars of all time, so he definitely had an eye for talent.”
For almost three decades, that road led through lavishly produced, story-centered adult films garnering countless awards and building a loyal audience for ambitious new titles promoted with elaborate ad campaigns. The dynamics of commerce, however, are never static. Dramatic changes began reshaping demand for adult entertainment in the new century.
Greg A., who had done better than well in adult entertainment for many years, puts it bluntly:
“The handwriting was on the wall for video.”
Greg A. began his own transition to top-shelf adult toy sales with the founding of Evolved Novelties in 2006.
It was from long, hard looks at the spreadsheets that Orenstein decided it was time to expand from making award-winning movies to creating a quality-driven line of body-care products for the enhancement of customers’ personal enjoyment.
“Until 2008, the expression everyone used to describe the adult entertainment business was ‘recession-proof.’ Then we had the big crash and that perception started to change. And then there was the advent of tube sites, which found us hiring companies to police the web and take down our stolen content. It became time to start looking at what else we could do to expand our brand that can’t be downloaded for free,” Orenstein explains.
“Ultimately, I looked at lube as a category. After looking at intimate apparel, pleasure products and other categories, we determined that lubricants would be the market for us. We were approached early on by two established lube brands to private label for us, but clearly that was not our direction. I didn’t want to take someone else’s product and put it in our bottle. Instead, we spent a year researching the lubricant market determining what issues, concerns and wants the distributors, retailers and consumers had. We created our approved formulas from scratch addressing all we had gleaned, putting out our first products in August of 2012.”
At that point Orenstein wasn’t looking to get out of video production or sell the company, but rather to expand its retail base. But he quickly saw the advantage of ongoing consumer demand.
“If you buy my movie, you buy it once,” he said. “You didn’t buy that movie again. With lube, you get customers buying the same thing over and over.”
According to Drake,“If Steve says he’s going to do something, he does it.” That has been proven with the creation of the Sensual Care line as well as in the production of Wicked features.
When Drake began to develop an active interest in sex education that would lead to a highly successful and highly praised instructional video series, she had the company’s full support, ultimately positioning her to become the visible face of Wicked Sensual Care.
Given such extensive personal contact with consumers and an established franchise of excellent instructional videos under the “Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex” imprint (including an installment on senior sex that garnered an award from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists), it would be difficult to imagine anyone better qualified to play an ongoing and pivotal role in shaping and presenting the Wicked Sensual Care line.
Jessica’s involvement with Wicked’s lube line dates to its foundation just as she was beginning to explore her potential as an educator. She echoes many of Orenstein’s views regarding the seamless match it makes with the Wicked identity.
“For us as a company, considering our brand and our quality, as well as our demographic, it wasn’t so much a pivot to lube as an addition,” she said. “We’re a luxury brand. We craft our formulas in a very deliberate way. We also aim to accommodate everyone’s needs.
“When you start talking about lube it’s such an individual choice. Not only that, it’s also a matter of different lubes for different sex acts. I use everything I’ve learned from becoming a sex educator and from the community to develop new products. I’m a part of the creative team. I’m also in marketing (including her own blog on the company website). I advise on trends in the industry and in mainstream. If I see something I think is taking a not-so-great direction, I call it out immediately.
“Over the past few years my responsibilities have ramped up substantially as the company has grown. We keep on getting bigger and bigger by leaps and bounds.”
Confirming the observations of both Greg A. and Frank Koretsky, she’s seen a tremendous spike in demand during the pandemic’s long months during which homebound consumers reportedly explored their sexuality in new ways.
“As things open back up freely,” Drake says, “we have this growth behind us, this momentum that’s been increasing silently and I’m really optimistic for the prospects of this company. We are about to launch some very innovative products over the next two years. We have been active in research and development and it’s a really exciting process.
“It’s super rewarding in the way that directing a movie is rewarding. When you see that product and you know you had input with a team of talented people and made something that’s going to make people’s lives better and bring them pleasure, it’s so satisfying.
“We have one of the best bosses anyone could ever ask for, and over the years as things in society have changed and awareness has increased, he’s grown as a leader and a human being. He’s not resistant to change. He facilitates and enables people to be their best.”
When Drake talks about the team of talented people behind the success of Wicked Sensual Care with whom she works, none does a more mission-critical job than Marketing Director Cassie Pendleton, whose upbeat, telegenic presence and knack for explaining the intricacies of keeping body parts well-oiled are showcased in her presentations on YouTube. If you’ve got a question about lube, Pendleton has the answer.
A Pasadena, California native, she attended Sonoma State University with the intention of becoming an elementary school teacher. “So [instead] I ended up teaching adults about lube for the past 10 years,” she says with a contagious laugh. “I became a lube nerd.”
“Lube’s basic function is to reduce friction but that doesn’t sound very sexy,” she says. “We must acknowledge that that is lube’s main job, but then there’s textures, sensations, flavors. There’s so much more to compare to figure out your favorites. It’s a matter of tapping into the psychology of what people want lube to do. Sometimes it’s about educating people The idea that consumers might not want products that will improve the sexual experience is counterintuitive but, according to Pendleton, “it’s a generational thing.
“Lube stigma is real,” she said. “I’m in my 30s and I’ve had friends who just don’t get it — that lube isn’t only for older people. That’s where I have to tap into the fun part of it.”
Making that a credible sell requires an understanding of different kinds of lubes and how they work, giving a whole new meaning to the term “sexual chemistry.”
“I have not stopped learning about ingredients and what should or shouldn’t be in these products. We think of lube as intimate skincare, and there’s always more to know.
“Jessica, Steve and I basically come up with the ideas for what we want and then we speak to the manufacturers and formulators about how to create the perfect product. We have some non-negotiables. The product has to be vegan, so it can’t contain any animal products. It has to be cruelty-free, which means no animal testing. It has to be paraben-free. Paraben’s a preservative that’s widely used, but we’ve chosen to steer clear of it because of some potential concerns about links to hormonal cancers.”
But to earn the Wicked Sensual Care label, a product must be more than just safe or ethically sourced.
“It has to be effective,” Pendleton asserts. “We will not put stuff in a bottle with a pretty ingredient deck if it doesn’t work.”
Echoing the company’s unofficial motto, “it’s got to do what it says it will.”
Asked how effectiveness is established before something new goes on the shelf, Pendleton laughs.
“The team is willing to test [products] on ourselves. We try them out. We also have focus groups to test them. A lot of family and friends have been invited to check out different flavored lubes.”
The most important source of feedback is the consumer. Getting them to talk about what they do and do not like “requires some finesse.”
“It’s all about normalizing the conversation. One of our goals as a company is to destigmatize lube use in general. Prior to COVID, wholesale customers held ladies’ nights, couples’ nights and other events so we’d get the chance to talk directly to consumers. Most of what we do at the moment is educate distributors and retailers to talk with consumers.
“Another way we talk with the consumer is through our social media channels, especially our Instagram. We talk about lube, but we also talk about other things. It’s part of the conversation about health and wellness in general. Part of the process of normalizing what we offer is discussing it as just another element of life.”
Pendleton smiles at the idea of the current brand tagline of “Eat, Sleep, Lube, Repeat.”
Looking into the crystal ball, Pendleton sees plenty of room to expand “in the liquid space,” including stimulation products at one end of the spectrum and the glycerinfree “Simple” line for “the ingredient-particular consumer.”
“Orenstein launched Wicked Sensual Care with 13 products and now we’re over 50,” Pendleton said. “The idea is to give the buyer the widest possible range of choices.”
She also sees room for geographical expansion, as the line now has some distribution in Europe, though Pendleton admits that growth there is “a challenge” due to the availability of locally made products and the complexities of international trade.
As with everything else bearing the Wicked imprint, mission-critical decisions are ultimately made in Orenstein’s office. However, he places great trust in what Pendleton characterizes as “the dream team” of Drake and herself, who are close friends in real life and have done public presentations together to promote Wicked Sensual Care.
“If we have an idea for a social media campaign we want to try and can explain it to him, he’ll let us run with it,” Pendleton said.
”The Wicked Sensual product line is literally a way to bottle the quality and integrity that Wicked is known for. We still believe in the principles that are the pillars of the company. We believe that lube is for everybody, but not every lube is for every body.
“We never have to compromise integrity or quality because Steve’s at the helm.”
That’s how Wicked Pictures has rolled for a very long time. The foundational principles that carry over into Wicked Sensual Care date to Orenstein’s beginnings in the world of video production.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
“I think my story is not unique. Like most people from back in our days I ended up here by happenstance, not by planning. I’m in this business by way of moving to California, winding up in the [San Fernando] valley and my mom taking a job with an adult magazine publisher where I worked part-time in the warehouse.”
From there, Orenstein moved on to a related company with five adult stores while attending college from which he dropped out at the age of 19 to concentrate on his growing interest in adult product merchandising.
“This was just when VHS had come out,” Orenstein recalls. He became a buyer for one of the early video outlets, which led to an invitation to join the operations of Ruby Gottesman in the fall of 1984 at Xcitement Video.
“In 1990,” Orenstein recalls, “[Ruby] reminded me that he’d told me that one day I’d have my own money and we’d do something together. He wanted to get into production with me as his partner.”
“After I worked at his company for six years, we formed Xcitement Productions together, which we ran for about two years. I’d do my job at the office and then if we were shooting a movie, I’d go to the set at night and see what was happening.”
Eventually, Orenstein and Gottesman parted ways after producing a series of titles together.
“We had about 24 movies at that point. We split them and that’s when I started Wicked in 1993. I’d been in the business about 13 years at that point. I’d always been in distribution. Now, I was dealing with production. It was new. It was fresh. It was interesting. I decided I was going to follow this path.”
The name of the company was inspired by the title of one of its first releases: “Teri Weigel is Wicked,” which he acquired in the split with Gottesman, though he considers “Arabian Nights” with Porsche Lynn to be the first true Wicked Pictures movie. It was the follow-up, “Haunted Nights” that established another important precedent, winning the award for Best Feature, an auspicious start for a one-year-old company.
The company’s market entry wasn’t smooth and seamless.
“I did a lot of on-the-job-learning,” Orenstein, who was 30 at the time, remembers. “I didn’t come into this with a business plan — I came in with an idea of what I wanted to accomplish.”
With a few on-the-shelf flicks and $120,000 in capital, “I shot $15,000 one-day movies, eight or nine [of them] over a threemonth period.
“I had movies in the can, very few movies on the street, even less money to do more. My mother was now my bookkeeper and I looked at her and said ‘I had $120,000. Now it’s gone. I could have invested this money. What did I just do?’ ‘How is this going to work out?’”
Frank Koretsky offers a two-minute course in production economics that explains why, unlike most start-up imprints, Wicked made it past year one.
“Steve respected the distribution network. In the production business you can’t have one release and then a second one a year later. You’ve got to have a production schedule. He was committed to that.”
Koretsky is quick to add that “the product was also good. If the product’s not good and the product doesn’t sell, you’re not getting reorders. The consumers are not stupid. They know their own niche. Steve was very good at making couples’ movies. He didn’t make fuck movies. He made couples’ movies with fucking in them. He was confident in his abilities and in what he wanted. He knew how to hire the people who would get him pictures that could take him where he wanted to go.”
It was that aptitude for assembling the right personnel that would shape Wicked’s image more than any other single factor.
SHE’S JUST THE GIRL
Careful always to give credit where it’s due, Orenstein admits: “Clearly I did not invent the contract-girl model. You’re talking to customers about what you’re making, but it’s hard when you’re saying what you have is great. The contract-girl model is a shift. Now you’re saying this girl is great and this is where you get her pictures.”
Just three months in operation, strapped for cash and waiting for his first titles to earn out, Orenstein put down another wager by signing a striking, dark-haired beauty named Chasey Lain. A dancer from Florida, Lain had never performed in an adult video, but when she did, she loved the camera and the camera loved her.
After her first release, “The Original Wicked Woman,” Orenstein recalls saying, “I got to say this girl is the best and this is the only place where her movies exist.”
Chasey’s glamorous look and sensual onscreen presence were ideally suited to attracting the viewers Orenstein hoped to draw.
“At the time, only a small percentage of the [worldwide] audience watched adult movies. So why should we go after the 5 percent instead of the other 95 percent? Why not make the pictures female-friendly with high production values, a storyline – the things that would bring us as close to mainstream as we could get in an adult movie? Why not reach out to those who had whatever preconceived notions they might have about adult movies and try to change their minds?”
Of all Orenstein’s insights, his appreciation for the untapped potential of women in the adult products market may have been the most prescient.
“Today,” he says, “women are the driving force in this business. Mostly women work in the stores. A lot of the stores are owned by women. The shoppers going into the stores are mostly women. In the early ‘90s, we were not even close to that level of female participation. Pitching to certain retailers, I’d hear that what we were doing wasn’t of any use to them because all of their customers were men. [But] even if only men came into the stores back then, they were buying movies either to watch alone or with a girlfriend or a wife, and she was going to determine what gets watched.”
What Wicked discovered in its outreach to women viewers was that presentation was as important as content, if not more. This was where the company’s uniquely effective promotion of contract performers proved a major success factor. Wicked titles weren’t just accessible to female audiences, they were built around powerful female personalities, of whom Chasey Lain was the first in a long succession.
The next Wicked contract performer was Jenna Jameson, who defined porn stardom for a decade to come.
Jameson had ideas of her own that she brought to the courtship between performer and producer. Determined to be the contract girl as opposed to just a contract girl, she wanted to know if Orenstein was planning on signing others. He’d only had one contract girl to date and saw no reason to change that approach, which had much to do with Jameson’s decision to come onboard at Wicked when she was being actively courted by other, larger studios.
“She came into the office looking just as sweet as could be. Part of her success is that what she looked like was not all that she delivered. Jenna very much understood the value of her unique appeal right from the start.
“We went to the Cannes Film Festival before Jenna’s first title had even been released and I told her I was ready to resign her for a second year on the spot. Of course, she thought if that was the case, she should get more money even though she hadn’t sold her first picture yet.
“But that was when things started to explode. We took out an ad that had a sepiatone picture of her face on one side which folded out into a full-length shot of her posing like Marilyn Monroe. We got that face shot on the free giveaway magazines at the festival, inviting everyone to come meet the new American porn star. After that, the phone just blew up with everyone wanting to know who this girl was.”
The E! channel was one of the callers wanting to interview her. That started a long, good relationship with the network that helped Jameson become a highly visible presence in mainstream media as well as in adult films.
“One of the things Jenna had going for her was that she could talk. She could give a great interview. Until you said stop, she’d keep going. That early exposure really started the ball rolling. By January 1996, it was Best Actress, Best New Starlet, Best Video and everything proceeded from there.
“There are plenty of beautiful women who are ready, willing and able to shoot sex. I’m not signing someone to have sex, though that is the job, I’m signing a company representative. Wherever this person goes, they’re representing Wicked.”
Likening it to a job interview, Orenstein admits that he didn’t get it right 100 percent of the time. You don’t hear everyone’s real story in a job interview.
Reflecting on his search for contract stars, Orenstein said, “These would be long conversations because I was trying to get to who this person was, and how they were going to be at the job. I want to know if this person is right for the company. In 28 years, I don’t think we signed 25 girls.”
While Jameson had the biggest impact on the brand and helped propel it, Orenstein calls Drake the ultimate contract girl.
“That’s why she’s been here for 16 years,” he said. “The company always came first to her. She probably turned down more offers over the years than anyone else because she didn’t think they were the right thing to do for the company.
“I signed her right after Stormy Daniels, who was the ‘big-boobed blond’ porn star, and a little more in your face. But Jessica’s career didn’t take off instantly,” Orenstein said. “Hers was more of a grassroots appeal. Every time she would show up for an event or do an appearance, she would make new fans. Every year we would bring a girl for IVD’s warehouse show. Frank Koretzky would always want somebody new until Jessica went and then it just became ‘send Jessica.’
“From the beginning she had very specific thoughts about what she was going to do and what she wasn’t going to do. If she didn’t think something was right, she didn’t do it.”
Drake confirms Orenstein’s appraisal of the importance she assigns to setting boundaries in her advice to new performers.
“The most important thing is to be able to make your own decisions. Whether it’s about reading the release you’re signing or being aware of the risk associated with the thing you’re agreeing to do, knowing your worth, charging a fair rate and sticking to it. Remember that you call the shots with your body.”
Drake also shares her long-time employer’s understanding of the economic element in building a sustainable brand. Having seen many performers fall prey to the curse of the designer handbag, she emphasizes the importance of taking the long view.
“You need to be really educated in the financial aspects of the job. Find a good accountant. Get a financial advisor.”
At the same time, she acknowledges the risk of burnout in an occupation far more demanding than her audience realizes, underscoring the need to “just have fun” along the way.
“Learn what it means to take care of yourself, mind, body and spirit.”
Drake’s own professional trajectory from dancing at clubs while studying psychology in her native El Paso, Texas to marquee name in adult entertainment reflects that thoughtfulness.
Her onscreen work didn’t begin at Wicked but she remembers her first impression while attending a trade show.
“I walked by the massive Wicked booth with the lines of people waiting all the way through the convention center. I saw the beautiful women, the signs and banners, and I was looking for a contract at the time. I ended up having a real meeting with Steve and left knowing we were on the same page, believing that he cared about the performers and directors he contracted, as well as everyone he employed.
“He asked me what was important to me and I told him. I wanted to make product that I was proud of. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed as just a performer. I wanted to exercise complete autonomy about what I liked and who to do it with. I also wanted to be a condom-only performer because that’s what makes me feel safe and Wicked was 100 percent condom-only. In my heart I knew that this was where I needed to be.
“In retrospect it was the best decision I could have made for my career. We’ve been through a lot together with the changes in the industry, good and bad. When you’re able to successfully navigate through all that it brings people closer together.”
Drake, who isn’t afraid to acknowledge her emotional vulnerability, pauses to tell an illuminating story about that closeness she hasn’t previously recounted to the public, eyes tearing and voice breaking in the narrative.
“I lost my dad while we were shooting a really big movie, ‘Eternity,’ a massive period piece with a massive budget, a very important movie. My dad and I were really close and my family was in East Texas. When I got the phone call that he’d passed, I drove directly to the set. I was in shock, but I wanted to be around the people who understood me the most. I spent that day being with people because I didn’t want to be alone.
“Then I had to go back to Texas to take care of things and when I came back from that, I found I really couldn’t do anything. I do not handle death and loss very well and, unfortunately, I’ve had a ton of it. I didn’t want to go on the road. I didn’t want to dance. I wasn’t thinking about shooting movies. I didn’t come to the office for a while, and I wasn’t taking any of my contract checks. Steve called me and told me I had a stack of checks sitting at the front desk. I told him I was not going to take those checks when I couldn’t do anything. He said ‘No, you come in and get these checks. When you feel capable of working again then you’ll work. Come and get this money. It’ll be OK.’
“I know he hasn’t done stuff like that just for me. He’s done it for everybody. He’s provided for us as whole people, not just as our occupation.”
Orenstein, says Jessica, has also allowed those occupations to expand.
“When I came to him to talk about doing educationals because I thought it was the right time, he allowed me to write, direct, produce and narrate ‘Jessica Drake’s Guide to Wicked Sex.’”
Jessica’s senior sex guide won her an award from AASECT, a unique honor for an adult title. The series has addressed topics such as oral sex and sex for the plus-size to consistently positive reviews.
THE VISION THING
Understanding the importance of what went into his pictures as well as who performed in them, Orenstein was one of the first producers to put directors under contract. He held onto those who could deliver “a Wicked picture” for as long as they continued to do so.
“It’s a matter of timing and talent,” he explains. “We had Johnathan Morgan, Brad Armstrong, Michael Raven, Axel Braun. Stormy directed and Jessica also. You need to be able to trust the person who’s in charge of what’s happening on your set. When the company and the director are bought into making something great, good things happen.”
Perhaps no director is so closely identified with the Wicked brand and the lavish, ambitious features it released than Brad Armstrong, whose list of credits, award winners and commercial hits includes “Fallen,” “Conquest,” “Flashpoint,” “Euphoria,” ”Manhunters,” “Coming Home, “Speed” and “Underworld.”
With such laurels upon which to rest, Armstrong is in the midst of moving to The Bahamas to retire. Canadian-born, he’s made his living in the adult entertainment business since his early days as a male stripper. He’s not a bit coy about his personal history. After graduating business school he recalls pondering whether to “start out as low man on the totem pole in marketing or advertising, or keep stripping for a couple of hundred chicks a night and having all the sex I wanted. The obvious choice won out.”
A fateful encounter with porn legend Erica Boyer would then set him on course for the San Fernando Valley.
“I found myself in so many bad movies working as a performer, I figured there’s got to be a better way to do this.
“I met Steve Orenstein at a bar during the East Coast Video show when he’d just started Wicked Pictures and I’d just sold my first movie as a director. I started shooting one movie a month for him and after the first year he offered me a contract. We shared the vision that porn could be better. We both wanted to elevate the game. He gave me my first big shot, which was ‘Conquest.’”
The working rapport between producer and director, growing out of similar mindsets, proved consistently effective.
“I’d come up with an idea and give him a laundry list and he’d go ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ ‘maybe,’ ‘give me more information on that,’ ‘what’s the budget?’ He had a sensibility for where he wanted the company to go,” Armstrong said.
Noting the realities of market change through the decades, Armstrong says he understands Wicked’s move from entertainment to physical products.
“New is good and besides, you can’t pirate lube,” he said.
SLIP-SLIDING AWAY
If the invention of the home VCR had helped create the market for high-quality explicit adult entertainment, another small appliance, the personal computer, would help throttle it. Though some companies, Wicked included, saw favorable early returns from their own presence online, the ability to download vast amounts of adult content for free eroded audience willingness to pay a premium for luxury-class features.
“It became harder for us to do what we do,” says Orenstein. “Those decisions to spend $200,000 on this movie and that movie became more and more difficult. It was getting harder to be who we are and who we want to be in the market. Then came COVID. We weren’t shooting. We didn’t know what the conditions would be to shoot or when we’d be able.
“Meanwhile, the lube business was growing and growing while the movie side of the business was not in a growth pattern. Ultimately, I came to the decision that I needed my mind 100 percent clear to concentrate on the side that was growing. The conversation came up about possibly selling and finally, we got to the end of that conversation. We’d done a lot of great things over 28 years, things I was proud of. It was hard to let go.”
What regrets Orenstein has mainly concern the people he couldn’t take with him into the new enterprise, but if looking back is bittersweet, looking forward is exciting. “Today if I said I was going to be in another segment in tangible goods in the adult business it would be toys, but they’re not in the works now. I can see us producing toys that we’re proud to put our brand on, but we’re not there yet.”
Meanwhile, Orenstein will continue to oversee Wicked Sensual Care according to the same principles that have served the company so well for so long.
“None of Wicked Pictures or my personal successes could have come without the amazing, talented and dedicated team we have had over all the years. Surrounding myself with a strong team is what has also propelled Wicked Sensual Care and will continue to in the future.” he concludes.
