LOS ANGELES — Glamour. Brett Rossi lusts for it. She burns, rapturously, with religious passion for it.
And like any true worshiper, Rossi has merged with the object of her ardent faith, becoming one with a higher power.
For there are no gods … no spirits … no ancestral vapors that ever truly ascend beyond the realm of thought, of man-wrought fantasy, of neural electricity arcing from brain cells to heartbeats to fingers joined in prayer.
Thus, is goddess made in the image of woman. Thus, is Rossi transfigured into a glamour girl, one last samurai raising high her katana, charging forth on a warhorse named Virgil, in this divine comedy we call adult entertainment.
Let the modern era chase madly after shallow titillations, devouring fiery moths like ashen exhalations, so soon forgotten. Let the galloping eyeballs surge through shallow social media streams, scrolling feverishly past a writhing pile of photogenic bodies, suggestive garments and coquettish expressions … all discarded unceremoniously. Let the masses swarm their chosen idols, singing praises with hollow voices and effusive comments, yet clutching tightly their purse strings all the while.
Rossi is far too savvy, far too sophisticated, to covet such noncommittal adulation.
Glamour, after all, requires utmost discipline — a dedication to craft and a creative caliber that, while not immediately apparent in its payoff, quietly and patiently cements enduring stardom.
And yea, though the ideal of glamour may seem a lofty mirage, a decadent throwback to ages long past, mankind never lacks for nostalgia.
Behold the ‘90s, the last true decade to fully congeal into an era … before internet-driven trends smashed 10-year spans into mere months, before the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and beyond. Now, with a populace tethered to a vast web of high-speed, fiber-optic cables, glamour girls may be precisely what the doctor ordered.
And as the newest performer to attain the rank of ArchAngel contract star, Rossi is strongly positioned to seize the day, discerning vintage from future fashion, straddling the glory days and coming heights alike.
With a zealous work ethic and a nascent directing career, she is more ambitious than ever … which is precisely why she sought out XBIZ, for this exclusive interview!
XBIZ: Tell us about life before the adult industry. What ultimately led you to join the biz?
Brett Rossi: I grew up in the Inland Empire, California — so I’m a SoCal baby. And everyone in my family, for the most part, was involved in showbiz in some way, shape or form. My grandma was one of the first Pepsi Cola models … used to work with Lucille Ball and all that stuff. She basically raised me and she’s very pro-Brett Rossi.
Ever since I was in high school, maybe even back in middle school, I wanted to be in the entertainment business. I wanted to model. I did lots of theater, musicals. I danced ballet for about 15 years and was really active overall, with gymnastics, softball and club water polo. Was all over the place, thanks to my grandma!
And at age 14, I was waiting tables at my mom’s restaurant, when this runway coach/director lady discovered me. She said, “You know, I do runway shows for Forever 21,” back when they used to do runway stuff. I said, “Yeah, yeah. Okay, whatever.” I always thought it was a scam, ‘cause my grandma raised us to believe that if you meet anyone on the street trying to get you into showbiz, it’s a scam.
Well, she ended up being legit and I started doing runway. I did that all the way up until I was 18. And since I was attending a performing arts high school, I was able to go to shows, do auditions, all the catalog work and such. But when I finally turned 18, that was when Playboy was in its heyday. Remember “The Girls Next Door” reality TV show? That was a really big thing. So, I was like, “Fuck this. I want to be hot. I want to be a Playmate. I want to be like those girls next door.”
At the time, I was driving a 1984 Honda Accord. It was an automatic and when you got to a stoplight, you’d have to put it in neutral, because even though it was an automatic, it would die if you stopped. So, I drove to the Playboy Mansion, where Hef was hosting his very first casting call. That’s when Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt, the originals, were still there.
Mind you, I didn’t know the first fucking thing about being hot, because I’ve always been a tomboy. I’ve never really cared about materialistic things. So, I roll up and I had no invitation to go. All I remember is hearing about this rock in front of the gates, and you talk to this rock and then it lets you in.
XBIZ: Haha, and did you actually sneak into the Playboy Mansion that way? Via the rock?
Rossi: Well, I pulled up and I parked, and there were a lot of girls walking in and out. I just made up a name — Brittany or something really white, a generic name — and I followed the girls in. There were a bunch of tents set up on the tennis courts and I waited and got discovered by Andrea Lowell, who was the host of “The Playboy Morning Show.” She finds me and goes, “Oh my god! You’re hilarious. Do you want to do the radio show? You’re a great talker, blah blah.” I said, “Yeah!”
I became a fan favorite somehow, and they kept having me come back, and back, and back. I would go once a week, and somehow I got introduced to somebody who got me a proper invite to the mansion. That’s when Hef saw a photo of me and chose me to be one of his painted girls, regularly at the mansion. I was 19 and still didn’t have boobs yet. During this time, I was also working as a mattress sales person. That was my day job.
So, I end up going to the mansion a lot … yadda yadda … and in the meanwhile, I fell in love with Twistys and Digital Desire … just their really beautiful, solo glamour look of stuff. I knew I wanted to be in Hustler and I just got this wild idea that I wanted to be this big glamour girl. I wanted to be like Riley Steele, Jesse Jane and Kayden Kross. But, I had no idea how to get into porn. Then, I somehow figured out that Holly Randall was shooting for Twistys and I wrote her this really long email about how I will do anything — I will let her shoot me for free if she will just submit my photos. So, she ends up writing back, tells me she saw a lot of her younger self in me, and that’s why she shot me for free. Then, she sent my photos to Twistys.
In the meantime, I meet Charlie Laine. She was a Penthouse Pet and she was transitioning to work for Penthouse as a production manager. It might have been Keiran Lee who had intertwined us. And Laine says, “You’d be the perfect Penthouse Pet.” I was like, “Oh okay! That’s close enough to Playboy. So, who cares?” She introduces me to the head of Penthouse and then, at the same time, Playboy lets me know, “Hey, we want to make you a Cyber Girl.” And I’m like, “Okay! Awesome! Best of both worlds. Fuck yeah, guys!”
And then, suddenly, someone reaches out to me on Twitter, named Ronnie Mund. He said he worked for Howard Stern and gave me his spiel. I’m like, “Oh great! Another fucking scam.” But, Ronnie was Howard Stern’s limo-driver-turned-security-guard/PR guy/best friend. He’s like, “Howard Stern is crazy for you. He wants to make you ‘Miss Howard Stern.’ Can you come to New York?” I was like, “I’m not going to come to New York for some random guy who says he knows Howard Stern!”
He was like, “No. I’m going to Skype interview you with our head of production for ‘The Howard Stern Show.’” I mean, it was still kind of risky, but I went with my gut feeling and flew out to New York. I met Howard and everything ended up just working out and it was real. That’s how I became “Miss Howard Stern!” And, I filmed for his “Howard 100” series.
XBIZ: With this massive influx of attention, how did that impact your adult stardom?
Rossi: After “The Howard Stern Show,” I truly blew up. I don’t know why, I just did. I came back to L.A. and that is when I suddenly started working a lot, even though I was just doing girl/girl at the time. And right when I got really, really popular, Twistys decided they wanted to contract me. That’s when I fell in love with being a contract girl. You had a sense of security and I finally felt like I was close to being, like, the glamour girls of porn. Today’s generation of porn stars is so different to the girls back then, even compared to when I started.
There were still a lot of contract girls then. There were the Wicked girls, the Digital girls, Adam & Eve … there was a really strict line of … you were either a gonzo girl or a feature girl. The feature girls were really pretty and had pretty sex, and the gonzo girls were like the hardcore, fucking two dicks in your ass girls. Like, messy. I knew that I didn’t want to be a gonzo girl. I was like, “I don’t think I can take two dicks in my ass!” Still, to this day, I can’t even take one dick up my ass. And while I was with Twistys, Digital Playground started going into a transitional phase. That’s when Jesse left, and Bibi Jones and Kayden and Stoya and all of their girls left. Then, there was Emily Addison, Taylor Vixen and me! Emily and Taylor were for sure not going to do boy/girl, but Digital was like, “We want you to be our next generation of contract girls. Do you want to do boy/girl?” And I was like, “Fuck yeah! I want to transition … but I still want to be the glamour girl.” I still had hope for glamour girls in porn, even though it was slowly dying.
So, I shot my first boy/girl scene with Erik Everhard. Jesse Jane was in my movie, and I think that was one of the last movies she shot. Bibi Jones was in it. This was roughly in June of 2013. Then, something happened and they decided they were going to take time off from having contract girls and reevaluate. That’s when they offered me a deal with Brazzers, and at this time there was still a hard line between gonzo and feature girls. Brazzers wasn’t what they are now. At that time, they were still really just about gonzo. Now, they’ve evolved much more, and I wish I would have known then, what I know now. But … it is what it is.
They were offering it to a lot of girls, like Madison Ivy and Mia Malkova, and I’m like, “No. You guys promised me Digital.” All I had in my mind was Digital, Digital, Digital. I wanted to be the next Digital girl, I didn’t fucking care. And they said, “No, but Brazzers has this many views! Brazzers is very popular.” And I was like, “I am not a fucking gonzo girl! What don’t you fucking get?” I was angry. I was like, “Fuck everything. I quit. I’m going to nursing school.”
So, I retire and all the money I saved from Twistys, I used for nursing school. While I was there, I met a guy named Charlie Sheen and we had this really whirlwind, volatile straight-out-of-a-movie romance. We got engaged, and shit didn’t work out. That’s pretty much all that needs to be said about that part of my life.
After we broke up, literally, over night, I turned into this tabloid sensation. It was really hard for me, because girls would kill to be what I was at that time. But I refused to be like Bree Olsen or the others. I refused to capitalize on that part of my life, because I loved that person and I was heartbroken. So, I was like, “Well, what the fuck am I gonna do now?” I was supposed to be a housewife, haha, but that didn’t really work out, so now what?
Then, this company named Artistic Jeans was like, “Hey, do you want to do runway for us?” I was like, “Alright! I’m really tiny right now.”
XBIZ: And did you leave the nursing career behind you?
Rossi: I couldn’t go back to school, because I had no personal life anymore. So many people in the adult business are so lucky they have this alter ego, and suddenly Brett Rossi and “Scottine Sheen” became one person. I couldn’t run away from it. Like, most people, when they retire, or when they leave or go out on the streets, they’re one person at home and they’re an alter ego at work. Unfortunately for me, it was just like … a huge adjustment … for me to go into grocery stores and see my name on tabloid covers, and have people follow me as I’m walking outside of Starbucks. It’s awkward, because all the photos look like shit.
So, I started doing runways for Artistic Jeans and other companies. I did Fashion Week. After a year of that, I was like, “What am I doing? I still want to be a glamour girl! What am I doing?!” I only know one thing, and that’s to be a glamour girl. So, I was like, “Fuck this mainstream nonsense.” I had gotten cast as the lead for a mainstream music video, and mainstream TV show. And it just wasn’t me. I mean, I’ve been naked since I was a little girl. My family used to say I would either be a stripper or a porn star. I can’t deny my fucking roots!
Here I was, trying to be this cookie cutter image of what I thought the world wanted me to be, because the tabloids were beating me up so much. But, I had this epiphany and was like, “Fuck this! I need to just accept myself for who I am, and fuck what everyone else thinks.” People are going to think what they’re going to think anyways. They already think I’m a gold digger. They already think they know me. But who fucking cares? You can’t fight that. So, I was like, “Why don’t I start making money? This is stupid!”
XBIZ: How did you jump back in?
Rossi: Well, I’m really close friends with Kayden Kross and Manuel Ferrara. I’m like a family friend to them. They have always been there for me. Even during my whole time with Charlie, they were really the only people that I could talk to, because I knew they wouldn’t sell what I was telling them. It had gotten so bad that I couldn’t even talk to people because they would fucking sell, run off and make money off of personal shit.
Whereas, when I tell Kayden that I’m going through this weird thing, she’s like, “Dude, why don’t you come back? Why don’t you come back better than ever?” And I was like, “Well, how do I do that? I already did boy/girl.” And she said, “You only did one boy/girl scene. And that was like two or three years ago. No one will remember that. You left right afterwards.” And she kept going, “Look, I have this new company, Trenchcoat X. Why don’t you be our contract girl?”
I was like, “Okay.” And she said, “We’ll give you a showcase, and we’ll do whatever you want. Whatever your limitations are. Whatever you’re comfortable with.” And I was like, “Okay. I want to do this showcase, and I want to suck seven dicks. I want to do a gloryhole! I want to fuck two guys at once. I want this to be an evolution of Brett Rossi.” And it was cool, because “Delicious” starts off really clean, with a really white scene with Manuel. Then it transitions to like, more of a minx, and it’s a vignette series. After that scene with Manuel, I did a scene with Charles Dera, which was also one of his first scenes back in the business. And the next scene, the boy/boy/girl, it was Charles Dera, Tommy Gunn and myself. That was more like a Brett Rossi is opening up and exploring phase. For the last scene, it’s this hardcore, amazing gloryhole sequence — which, to this day, I still think should have won something, because that was a killer gloryhole scene. It was so nasty and the dicks were painted pastel, haha. One guy would cum in my mouth, and I’d spit it on another dick, and another would cum … and then I rubbed it all over my body, and then I jerked myself off and called it a day. Overall, it was totally, completely different than what I had ever done before.
So, after Kayden brings me on as a Trenchcoat X exclusive contract girl, she was like, “Why don’t you hit up Greg Lansky and do a Blacked scene. Blacked.com is becoming this really big deal.” And I was like, “But I’m contracted with you.” And she was like, “Fuck that. I don’t care.” She cared about me and she wanted to make Brett Rossi a brand. She realized her company is very young, so she wanted her contract girl to get the most exposure, because … it’s the circle of life. I end up shooting a scene for Blacked.com. I’ve known Greg since… he probably shot my second scene in the business with Sammie Rhodes and Kirsten Price way back in the day.
XBIZ: “Reality Kings Greg,” as they say?
Rossi: Yeah! That was a different Greg than he is today. But hey, everyone evolves. So, I shot the scene with Flash Brown, and it was ironic because it happened to be a scene out of “Pulp Fiction” where Marsellus Wallace makes a phone call, because his girl is having issues with a psycho ex-boyfriend stalker, and little did I know I had to get a restraining order against Charlie during the same time … it was weird! It was like I was living my fantasy life and real life, like, in parallel.
I did that and the scene came out, and I locked myself out from doing any other IR scenes for a year, because that was the deal Greg and I made. So once that scene came out, every single day I would get 20 to 30 requests asking me to do more. I was like, “I can’t! I don’t know what to tell you guys.” I started getting a lot of backlash. People were like, “Brett Rossi is racist. Brett Rossi only did it for the money.” Then girls in the industry started talking shit about me, too. It wasn’t my fault that thescene was the top-rated scene. I don’t even know what I did that was so great. His schlong was like the biggest schlong I’d ever been with in my life. I’m pretty sure it went in through my vagina and went out of my mouth.
What’s crazy is, I’m a very authentic person. I believe everything you do should be authentic, which is why I haven’t done anal yet. I physically can’t do it in my personal life. It doesn’t feel good. I don’t like it. And so, that would not be authentic of me if I did it on camera. So, when I did my first IR scene with Greg Lansky, that was my first time being with a black guy period. That was real life. Once again, my fantasy life was being paralleled to my real life.
Eventually, Kayden and I decided to end our contract early that summer on amicable terms. I was a free agent again, all of a sudden. This was the first time that I was not contracted. This was, like, going out into the wild. It was fucking hard for me, because I’ve only known contracts since forever. I shot for PornPros, I shot for Naughty America, then I shot for Brazzers. I wasn’t technically a free agent, because I had Sandy from OC Modeling, but I felt like a free bird.
XBIZ: When did you get with OC?
Rossi: I got with OC even before I got back into the business. Because I was going to do girl/girl only. So, now that I didn’t have a contract, I was shooting and I was like, “Damn! This is competitive.” I mean, you see “Best New Starlets” working for rookie rates, just because they want to get like shoot after shoot after shoot. That, to me, was so hard, because back when I started, “Best New Starlet” charged up the wall. People wanted that person. Girls were not undercutting their rates and fucking it up for other girls.
I was still stuck in this, “I want to be a glamour girl.” And people kept telling me glamour girls in porn were dead. I kept saying, “No, fuck that!” There may not be a lot of us left ... now that porn has transitioned into the girl-next-door look, or young teenyboppers, or MILF. When I fucking started, you never called somebody a MILF. Unless you were Lisa Ann, Julia Ann or Nina Hartley … the real MILFs, but they were the legends.
Now, I was feeling the struggle where you’re not a teen anymore, and you’re not yet a MILF. So what are you? I’m stuck in this weird in-between. And, people were balking at my rate. My rate wasn’t even high, but according to everyone else, it was higher than the most recent “Best New Starlet.” So I’m like, “I don’t care if you guys call me a MILF. I don’t care. All I care about is that I’m going to bring back the glamour days of porn. I don’t care if it kills me. I think we need to bring back glamour girls.”
XBIZ: As far as your definition of “glamour,” would you consider Lansky’s filmmaking as glamour, even if it’s hardcore? Or is it more of a “couples-themed” vibe?
Rossi: No. Like, glamour is not defined by whether it’s hardcore or not, or whether you’re doing boy/girl or girl/girl. That’s not how glamour is defined. Glamour is defined as … when you think of a porn star, who do you think of? You think of back in the day, let’s say, Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick, Jesse in her heyday. You know, all the old contract girls in their heyday. They had curves, but they were not thick. They had big boobs, they had gorgeous looks, they had beautiful hair, they took good care of themselves. They didn’t look like they just graduated high school. They were your ultimate bombshell fantasies. That’s what I mean by glamour. Whether they did boy/girl or girl/girl, it didn’t really matter. It was just they had that glamour look. When they were all done up, it was like bombshell.
XBIZ: And now, you’re making a bold move, with ArchAngel. How did that come about?
Maybe two months ago I told Sandy, “Call up ArchAngel.” And she was like, “For what?” And I said, “To tell them I want a contract.” And she was like, “You don’t just call up a company and tell them you want a contract.” I’m, like, “Yes, you do. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.” She replied, “I don’t think they’re doing contracts, but alright … what do you want to do?” I was like, “Well, offer them IR, ‘cause then they’ll have all my IRs.” She kept saying that she didn’t know what they were going to say, but she still said alright and asked them.
And I was right! Because, I was at this plateau. I was breaking down, you can ask Erika Icon. I was like, “What the fuck do I do? I’m becoming irrelevant.” I actually hired Erika in November, because I was disappearing quickly. I would cry about it to my man, A. Slayer, and he would be like, “I don’t know why you’re crying, I mean look at me.” I would yell, “I don’t want be like you! You don’t understand what it’s like. You’re a director. You’re on the other side of the camera.” It’s not an ego thing. It’s just how you make your money. And nowadays, the business is so competitive. You have to be in people’s faces.
XBIZ: Talk about the conversation with MimeFreak and co. before you signed on.
Rossi: Gabe (Guzman) and Lyndell (MimeFreak) had me come to this meeting a few months ago. When they explained to me what they were trying to do, they shared their vision and how they haven’t had the best experience with what they were trying to do with contact girls. But they believed in it and they wanted to rebrand it, and they wanted to create … basically what I have been saying the whole time … they wanted to bring it back! I mean, back in the day, contract girls were on a pedestal. If you were like, “I’m a contract girl,” It was like, “What!?” It’s not like that anymore. So, Gabe and Lyndell start pitching all these ideas. It was weird, they were telling me all these things and in my head, I’m like, “This is what I’ve been telling people.” They had the same vision as me. So, they told me everything they were looking for and I told them everything I was looking for. It was like we were mirroring each other. It was the same thing. All three of us had the same visionary track.
I just wanted to feel like I belonged to something. But I am also still a businesswoman and I am aware that most companies can’t afford to “100 percent” contract a girl. So, I was like, “You guys can have this, but can I still do x, y and z.” So they were like, “Alright. We will still give you guaranteed boy/girl scenes, but all of your IRs are with us. You can still shoot boy/girl or girl/girl or whatever for anybody else.” So even though it’s an IR contract, they’re still giving me guaranteed boy/girl scenes, too. And that was really cool. They want me to progress just like they want to progress. They want to expand their brand, and I want to expand my brand, because I’m here at a plateau. I thought it was cool, because Lyndell was like, “We want to resurrect your name.” It’s not necessarily that I died. It’s just business.
XBIZ: And how has your relationship with A. Slayer influenced your career?
Rossi: So, we’ve known each other for like eight years. When him and Quasar were “Mike and Mike,” they used to shoot me all the time before I got contracted. We’re really close with Quasar. I love Quasar, because he was one of the few people when I left the industry and shit was going down, who hit me up and would be like, “Hey, are you okay? I just wanted to make sure you were cool.” That means a lot to me.
Anyways, this was like January of 2016. I hadn’t dated anyone for a long time. Slayer asked for my number. He was like, “We’ve been friends for so long, but I don’t have your number.” I’m like the guy’s guy, so I don’t take signals well. I have no idea when someone is hitting on me. He got my number and then we were texting every day. Soon enough, we’re pretty much married. Now we live together and have five dogs, a rabbit and my horse.
For the longest time I wanted to direct, since I got into the business, and I asked other companies, and I was offered directing gigs but it was, like, a joke at how much the budget was. I told Slayer I wanted to direct, but I want it to be mine. I don’t want you to slap my name on the box cover. So he was like, “Okay, do you want to direct for Deviant?” And I was like, “Alright!” And he said that he had to be able to guide me, because I wasn’t too into the BDSM world. I was totally happy and open with that, but I wanted full creative control. I wanted to be able to pick the talent, the location and dress the girls, and the sets. I wanted control.
Eventually, I do really want to direct full-time. There’s going to come a time when I can’t perform anymore, because maybe I’m too old, ugly or get hit by a bus. We argued for a month on the cast, until finally, he caved, and we got some big names. We got Abigail Mac. We got Lyra Law, AJ Applegate, Tia Cyrus and Karlee Grey. And I really wanted to do this milk thing, but Slayer was like, “No, that’s stupid!” And I was like, “Dude! If I’m directing this, I’m doing this.” And that ended up on the cover. We’re going to start having me direct more eventually.
XBIZ: Tell us about your beloved horse, Virgil. What inspired his name?
Rossi: Virgil was a rescue, and that was his name! I got him from a crazy lady who thought she knew how to take care of him. What I love about my horse — and I’ve ridden horses all my life — is that he has his own personality, especially if you aren’t an advanced horse rider. Like, Slayer cannot ride him. It’s not that he’s disobedient, he just needs a strong person. Virgil kind of does his own thing, unless it’s with me. I think he’s perfect, but doesn’t every parent think their child is perfect?
XBIZ: Give us a glimpse of your future. What’s on the horizon?
Rossi: I would like to get more into photography. And, every fan that ranks me five stars on FreeOnes, I will send them something. Each week I’m going to do a different contest, I’m going to do like, a three day membership to my site and I’m still thinking of more!
I enjoy doing comedy. I want to do more stand-up, more cameo roles. Look, I know I’m not going to be an Emmy award-winner, but I could be in stuff like Ron Jeremy. He does cameo comedy roles all the time.
Eventually, this is also a project I want to start working on. I really want to start utilizing my YouTube. I want to start reviewing donut shops, because I am a donut connoisseur. I travel a lot, so I want to go all over the place, not just the fancy places … I need to write a letter to Krispy Kreme because they’ve disappointed me! I want to review these donut shops, but also make it comical and funny.
