LOS ANGELES — The Road Queen is preparing for her final drive.
Deauxma told XBIZ Tuesday that after 10-plus years as the star of one of Girlfriends Films’ most popular series, “Road Queen,” the final four episodes would be her last.
“It went by fast,” said Deauxma, who starred in the original “Road Queen” in 2005 and will begin shooting Parts 32 through 35 today with producer/director Dan O’Connell.
“I can’t believe it’s been that long, but when you’re having fun it goes by fast I guess. It’s just another chapter in the book — a big chapter — and it’s kind of sad.
“I have a little sad feeling. I’ve enjoyed it so much — the people that we met, the girls, and Dan…It’s like a family, it really is.”
The long-form film series follows Deauxma, a kindhearted dancer in the autumn of her career, as she travels through the rural Southwest region of the United States in her signature custom car. While dozens of co-stars have come and gone throughout the life of the series, Deauxma and her purple ’51 Ford Coupe have been the constants.
“Her character has always been about goodness,” O’Connell told XBIZ. “She doesn’t worry about money. She’s just traveling, just an itinerant dancer that’s sort of in the twilight of her career and not able to get the big gigs in big cities. So she goes out to tiny Podunk towns.
“She goes places where money doesn’t really mean a lot and people are usually happy."
Places like the fictional town of Leviticus, named after a chapter in the Bible.
"There’s no materialism involved. Life is simple. Prices are unbelievably low," O'Connell continued.
“With this old motel from the last couple episodes it’s 7 to 12 dollars for a motel room for the night. Nobody ever has any money and nobody ever worries about it either. It’s a little bit of a utopian, mythical place.”
The car she drives is also special. The customized ride not only has been in every episode of “Road Queen,” it has also graced every box cover along with Deauxma. O’Connell said that once he decided he wanted to create a porn series in the spirit of the classic 1991 film, “Thelma & Louise,” that he set out to find an “old beater” for maybe $5-6K.
“I found it on Ebay,” O’Connell recalled. “This guy had a collector’s car dealership in Canoga Park and he was asking like $29K for it. That was way beyond the beater I wanted to spend $5-6K on.”
An admitted “hot-rodder at heart,” O’Connell didn’t buy the car that day, but a month later he received a call back from the dealer with a better offer, and he made the deal for $21K.
“It was a good choice. It’s very emblematic of the movie series. It looks good and she looks good driving it,” O’Connell said, adding that he figured with a fresh coat of paint and other improvements that the car was “going to sell some DVDs.”
Now the car has Cadillac tail lights, a DeSoto front grill, Pontiac side trim, a Chevy engine and running gear and Mercury headlights. It sits in O’Connell’s garage between shoots.
“It’s a real nice custom car,” O’Connell added. “Deauxma’s the only one that can really drive the car with authority. Not every girl could jump in there and look right.”
After overcoming a shaky start, Deauxma said she fell in love.
“I just can’t wait to get behind the wheel,” Deauxma said. “She just rumbles and purrs. The first thing I do is walk up to the hood and give her a big old hug.
“Dan, [Girlfriends Films President Moose] and I are the only three that drive it. Any time it needs to be moved I say, ‘I’ll do it!’ Any chance I can drive her I want in there with her.
“When we first got it, it didn’t have very good brakes, no turn signals. There wasn’t even a rearview mirror. It’s a huge, big wheel with no power steering. We were in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and I’m going down this snaking road, winding down with no guardrails. I’m [microphoned] up. I thought I was going to go off the edge. I thought for sure he’s not going to want me back.
“My first very first pick-up was Brianna Love. My nervousness played well into the part, but it was really the car that was making me nervous.”
O'Connell & Co. have shot “Road Queen” in rural locations in Arizona, Nevada and California, going as far north as past the Bay Area and the Yosemite area.
A military brat who was born in Germany and has lived in Europe, Deauxma now calls San Antonio, Texas home. She got into adult in 2001, building a fan base online before she started making movies in 2004. Now she has more than 200 movie credits, almost half of which are for Girlfriends Films. In addition to “Road Queen,” she has also performed in nine volumes of “Lesbian Triangles,” seven volumes of “Lesbian Psychodramas,” eight volumes of “Women Seeking Women” and more than a dozen other titles for Girlfriends Films, the adult industry’s largest lesbian studio.
Deauxma also produces her own clips and videos with her husband of 35 years, Larry, for their studio Backdoor Entertainment and their site DeauxmaLive.com. She sells those DVDs exclusively through her online store. By the end of this year, she’ll step away from performing for other studios and will only be working on her own productions.
“My husband and I are going to be producing our stuff. We’re just taking a step back and focusing on doing our own thing,” she said.
“I have good, loyal fans from all over the world. The ‘Road Queen’ series has given me exposure to a lot of international fans. They really like to see where that car is going. It gives them a glimpse into the U.S. I don’t take the mainstream routes. I go through the small towns.”
That small-town vibe carries over behind the scenes, too. Deauxma not only stars in the movies, it’s also not uncommon for her to wash the bedsheets for the next day, plan meals for the cast and crew or do the dishes during a “Road Queen” shoot.
“I’m going to miss it, I know it,” she admitted. “I’ll miss Dan... the camaraderie of Girlfriends Films. They are wonderful people, the best people by far to work with, and for.”
O’Connell said the plan is to release the remaining episodes of “Road Queen” every two-to-three months for the rest of 2015. This week he’ll make a lot of progress but will not finish the last four parts.
“I think as far as a movie series that has one performer starring this may be the longest movie series in the porn business," O'Connell said. "I don’t think any other movie series starring a single performer has gone that far."
He'll decide with Moose what to do with the series after Deauxma’s climactic episode, Part 35, hits the street.
“We have at least eight months to decide and then we’ll see what happens. It’s a big series for us and I sort of somehow think it will continue in some fashion but I don’t know what,” O'Connell said.
