Jacky St. James and I are on the phone to discuss “Toxic,” her new feature for Sweet Sinner that follows the dramatic tensions that erupt between a troubled romantic couple — mismatched and yet sexually compatible, played with raw intensity by Aila Donovan and Quinton James — who find themselves deeply at odds when they explore opening up their monogamous relationship. It’s been a minute since St. James and I have been able to connect in person and the prolific writer, director and producer laments that I was unable to visit the shoot in the flesh due to strict COVID-19 safety protocols.
She rhapsodizes about the visual palette of the feature — designed in collaboration with veteran lensman Mike Quasar — that subtly changes to reflect the emotional temperature of the action on screen. She notes that Quasar enjoyed the opportunity to use more painterly strokes.
That’s the other dilemma: How do I get to four sex scenes with a 14-page script?
“He loves and relishes the chance, when he’s working with someone like Joanna Angel or myself, on a story like this, where he can be creative and take his time,” St. James said.
Donovan also spoke to XBIZ about the project and echoed her director’s praise for the crew.
“I love when Quasar is behind the camera because he knows exactly what he’s doing and always gets the best shots. I always have a wonderful time on set with this Sweet Sinner crew,” she said. “I know that they will effortlessly pull the best performances out of me.”
Donovan described “Toxic” as “a timely film that focuses on open relationships and the struggles and learning curves that come with this type of relationship that is becoming more and more popular in our generation.”
“We humans naturally want to physically be with more than one person, but often our natural instinct, emotionally, is still to attach ourselves to one person and therefore cause an unbalance within ourselves,” she continued. “‘Toxic’ will be very relatable to many people who are in this situation themselves and it will hopefully help them understand how to balance deep connections and genuine love, while still being sexually free.”
Donovan also described St. James as her “favorite industry director.”
“There’s something about her that is just warm and welcoming, and yet inspiring and encouraging, especially as a female director,” the performer said. “She’s been someone I’ve looked up to since I started in this industry a year ago and has been a huge supporter and lovely friend both on the set and off.”
St. James echoed the enthusiasm of her leading lady.
“She was so committed and so outstanding in this part,” the director said. “I was so impressed.”
“Toxic” was conceived when Donovan and James separately asked St. James to write them emotionally meaty roles. “Quinton wanted to play something more angst-y because he always plays a good guy,” she recalled. “I had no idea what to do. I’m usually dealing with a shorter script than the bigger studios where they get to do a 40-page screenplay and really develop it.”
St. James realized her solution was right in front of her.
“Aila and Quinton are so talented as actors that I realized I could [introduce] them right in the middle of their relationship. We don’t see their history,” she said. “There are a lot of flashbacks to explain why these people are together, but it’s a volatile relationship. The sex is great but everything else sucks. The sex is keeping them together. The story is about Aila’s character and how she comes to terms with what she would rather be in her life: complacent but happy, or have great sex and feel miserable all the time.”
The storyline is ripe with potential for dramatic fireworks and also lends itself to a variety of sex scenes, from fiery to tender.
“That’s the other dilemma,” St. James noted with a chuckle. “How do I get to four sex scenes with a 14-page script?”
Among her underrated talents is St. James’ eye for casting. The small-yet-potent cast of “Toxic” also includes three heavy-hitters: Ryan Mclane, Crystal Taylor and Victoria Voxxx.
“Ryan is one of my closest friends in the business. He’s super-talented. I know his work ethic. Whenever I can use people like that, I do. It was a no-brainer,” St. James said.
“Crystal Taylor is an incredible pole-dancer and I needed somebody to pole-dance and perform some really cool tricks and she was my first choice,” the director noted. “And I love Victoria. She has a hippie vibe. She and Ryan play this open couple that [represents] the ideal of what people would look for: they’re happy together but they’re also in an open marriage and they get along really well. Aila and Quinton are the couple that are trying to stay in a committed relationship but he’s a chronic cheater and they’re just miserable.”
St. James and her cast enjoyed digging into a fundamental question that is often overlooked at the start of a new relationship: Do you really want to be monogamous?
However, Donovan’s character experiments with an open relationship only to discover it doesn’t work for her on an emotional level. “The ‘open’ thing only works if you’re with somebody you trust,” St. James said, noting that Donovan eventually has to face the difficult truth that she doesn’t trust her partner.
Given her time constraints, St. James carefully prepped the look of the film with Quasar and crew to produce maximum bang for the buck.
“It comes down to location,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of time. So I had to focus on whether the story held up, given it’s a [short] script. And with this one, I deliberately booked a location in downtown Los Angeles I’d never booked before. I mean, I don’t usually like to drive 90 minutes to get to the set,” she said with a laugh. “But the aesthetic of the location was so spot-on for this story. It’s urban, there was a lot of noise and energy and that kind of thing going on in the background. For me, it was perfect.”
She said Quasar enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with such techniques as handheld camera shots.
“All of the time [involving] Aila and Quinton and their fights and arguments was handheld. I wanted that disoriented feeling because they’re so unstable — their characters, that is. And all the time spent with Victoria and Ryan — the stable, happy, loving couple — it was on sticks,” she recalled. “I’m excited to see how it plays.”
St. James is keenly aware of a fundamental flaw in many features, in which the acting abruptly stops when the sex starts. With “Toxic,” in particular, she endeavored to have her cast carry the emotional state of their characters directly into their sexual behavior. It’s a small detail, easily overlooked, that St. James uses to try and heighten the emotional payoff of the story and hopefully hook an audience.
“We talk about it beforehand,” the director said. “The sex scene that you’ll see between Aila and Quinton is right after a fight. I took her aside and reminded her, ‘This is your last time with him.’ I wanted her to remember that.”
The effort will occasionally backfire in amusing ways.
“I was working with Nathan Bronson on another project and he was supposed to feel really guilty about fucking the girl because his character was cheating,” St. James recalled. “The whole time he was acting disinterested and I had to tell the girl afterwards, ‘Don’t feel bad! It’s Nathan. He usually has a big smile on his face!’ I try not to micromanage the sex, but I do make sure they have a very clear understanding of what their headspace is supposed to be. I think when actors are invested in the characters and the story, it’s easier to carry it through the sex.”
“Toxic” has a late-summer release planned from Mile High Media.
