Dylan Ryan: How about you Syd? What did you enjoy about in the scene today?

Syd Blakovich: I enjoyed shooting. This is my first Bay Area scene in over a year and a half.

Dylan Ryan: Since you’ve been gone? This is your return to this?

Syd Blakovich: Homecoming. So I enjoyed it. I am also in a monogamous relationship right now so this is one of my creative outlets where I can play. I enjoyed working with you. We have both been in so many movies together but have not shoot together. We both are very aggressive which seems really complimentary, but I also think that constraints we were given were fun. They made it into something that people didn’t expect.

Dylan Ryan: I was thinking “I wonder what it would have been like if we didn’t have secret direction,” how things would have just started?

Syd Blakovich: The bed would have broken in the first three minutes. It actually did break.

Dylan Ryan: If we would have just tackled each other. It’s funny we were talking about this before the scene when we talked on Twitter about what people wanted to see us do. Everybody was like “FIGHT, FIGHT, wrestle”…

Syd Blakovich: “Punch her in the face!”

Dylan Ryan: I wonder if that would have happened?

Syd Blakovich: Probably. I feel like I would have been more worried for the crew. I feel like they would have to have protective gear and bungees so they could jump around the room and move out of the way.

Dylan Ryan: I thought about that.

Syd Blakovich: But we also made our own parameters. We were talking. I haven’t been shooting so I don’t have an AIM test and I am on my period, which is why I was stone topping today. I am not a stone top by the way, but everybody probably knows that already. I was like let’s keep it really minimal and really safe with no fluid exchange. We also wanted to talk about how this ties into Thailand and the safer sex thing.

Dylan Ryan: So you and I both had worked at an organization in Thailand called Sex Workers in Group and both feel really passionate about that organization. For what that is for people who don’t know, it is an organization that works with sex workers and the general community to talk about safer sex, teach a variety of skills and provide resources to locals. I was there a while ago in 2005 in Bangkok.

Syd Blakovich: It was pretty amazing and a very different perspective on sex work. I feel what you and I do, that there is a lot of glory around it.

Dylan Ryan: It’s glamorous. It’s the upper echelons of sex work in terms of glamour, comfort, convenience, safety, discussions and treatment.

Syd Blakovich: And there is a degree of community respect especially in the queer community, but I think that outside the queer community it’s really hard for sex workers to get the respect that they so justly deserve.

Dylan Ryan: For sure. And I also think that there is a different context of being a sex worker in a foreign country. Because at least with the time that I was there, my experience with the workers in Bangkok was that their primary group that was patronizing them and wanting their services were foreigners, Caucasian men. So though there is that context within porn of who’s making porn, the male gaze, and all that stuff, there is a little more empowerment built in to the model of how pornography is made. I think that there is a lot more difficulty with that in a foreign context.

Syd Blakovich: Well there is a lot less dialog between the consumers and the people who provide the service. There is a lot less effort made to understand where people are coming from and there is a huge degree of entitlement that the patrons of sex work have. Working specifically with a lot of my peers and students, it just was a real bummer hearing about some of the issues they had, not even just within sex work, but within the tourism industry as a whole, and how a tourist can totally mistreat people. When it all comes down to it, if you work in a service industry, you know that people will come in and treat you like shit. We just need to understand that were humans. We all have to work. We all have to do our jobs, but at the same time, cut people some slack and try to understand where they are coming from.

Dylan Ryan: I think it’s just a different level of exploitation that I know and didn’t have a whole lot of understanding about until I was there.  So it’s a really important organization and people should know more about it.

Syd Blakovich: Support SWING Thailand!

Syd Blakovich: What was challenging about the shoot today?

Dylan Ryan: It was actually really fun sort of on both sides to play hard to get, which was what my secret direction was. As we were talking about before, that in most “Girl/Girl” scenes I am usually the more aggressive person. I am usually the person who is convincing the other to sort of join in queer or lesbian sexuality with me. So there is a little bit more of my playing the coercive role, though I do enjoy that. However, in life I am a bottom and I actually enjoy being coerced and encouraged.

Syd Blakovich: Pursued?

Dylan Ryan: Ah exactly. So on one hand it was really refreshing to play that role, because it’s something I don’t get to do very often. On the other hand, it was the most challenging part, because I wanted to fuck. I don’t want to play hard to get.  I was like “I want to just do this!”

Syd Blakovich: And there’s time constrains. I was like, “It’s been 2 hours!”

Dylan Ryan: I was like “were trying to shoot a scene here” in my head. “Oh my god this is so boring.” “I feel like I am in junior high” and also there was this live feed the whole time so I felt this subtle pressure to be providing something for people to watch so they weren’t getting really bored. There was all this dialog, talking and chit chatting where I was like “No, let’s just be friends, let’s just talk.” I felt like the people, I could just hear them through the camera, being like “Don’t talk! Just take your fucking clothes off! Do it!”

Syd Blakovich: I just kept saying things to you and I was like “God, I hope I don’t say those things in real life.”  That’s all I could think of and that they came out so easy.

Dylan Ryan: The bad one-liners? You were very convincing. Seriously, when we first kind of started and you were like “Get on the bed,” I was like “I know where this is going.” But then you were like “No, I just want to be friends.” You were very convincing.

Dylan Ryan: What was the most challenging part for you?

Syd Blakovich: I think one of the things that is consistently challenging while shooting is being aware of perspective and space. I was really aware of the live feed camera this time. I asked where are the sight lines? Where am I supposed to stay? Often times on sets where the cameras don’t rove, I’m told “Don’t move past this line, this light is really hot so don’t put your vagina there.” I am trying to make it really accessible to the cameras but also have a degree of intimacy you and I. Ultimately that’s what makes it hot. Even if you can’t see so much, it’s the chemistry that’s the primary and the secondary is angles. It’s about trying to balance it.

Dylan Ryan: What was interesting was that today was the first time in recent memory that I cannot recall doing what you are talking about. I am usually very conscious and doing that too, but I think because I was working with you I was like “Well you’re in this setting the more dominant role, are a professional and have just as experience as me.” I was just remember lying there and being like “whatever”. You kept on moving, especially my vagina, where it needed to be. I wasn’t paying attention to the cameras at all, which is pretty rare. I am usually really aware of that.

———-[ portion of sex scene is shown]———–

Syd Blakovich: I feel like I get cast in roles that I am the out-of-town dyke, I’m the plumber dyke, I am the fucking gardener dyke and that I woo this married, suburban women, but I like it. I am a much bigger sleaze bag obviously in movies than I am in real life. It’s a good outlet for me to let that out and let it play. I do appreciate it, to be able to ham it up and take it to this level of “You gotta be kidding me”.  I think in regards to the camera awareness, working with you definitely eased the stress around it, but the parameters were hard. Shine was like “Only use one finger” and I was wondering how long it was going to last. We had to stop and Shine said you had to let up on the hard to get and I had to be more aggressive. I was then “Ok, we’re too good.”

Dylan Ryan: I’m glad when Shine said to do that, that we were fulfilling our duty. So tell us a little more about your secret direction, because everyone knows what mine was.

Syd Blakovich: I was aware that you were going to play hard to get, the idea was to coerce you to give it up and at that moment kind of reverse it and be like “Oh, but no”. I was tempted when you said you wanted food to get up and walk out but that would have been really confusing. Be like [—fingering gesture–] “Ok let’s go get food now,” but we still have to be conscious that there are people watching although I love coercion play. I like the idea of teasing someone for hours and hours until they flip out and go “Just take me!”

Dylan Ryan: Yeah. I’m into that too, but I am not really good at that. I give in pretty quickly.

Syd Blakovich: I know that’s why I can’t be the bottom in that, because I am like “OK” [—laying back–]. But if I have someone who’s resistant then that’s really fun for me.

Dylan Ryan: Well then it’s good that it was in a professional context, because in my private life they’re like “Beg for it” and I’m like“Yeah PLEASE! Ok yeah I’m on my knees!” I don’t have a very strong line of “No, whatever.” That’s the interesting thing too as I was thinking about going the sassy direction of “Yeah you want it? I’m not gonna give it up,” but instead I went this awkward, I am pretending to be a prude, Christian type girl, that you met at a party somewhere that I was in my underwear.

Syd Blakovich: Well, I have definitely seen you at parties for real in your underwear.

Dylan Ryan: Yeah that’s true. In real life, I am at parties where I am in my underwear, but I am definitely not a prude. I’m all about casual sex and identify as a slut so that’s fine. The whole “No, I have to keep my cupcake dress down over my underwear. I can’t show you my panties” was pretty great.

———-[ portion of sex scene is shown]———–

Dylan Ryan: You have been in the sex work industry for about as long as I have. We started around the same time. I am going on eight years now and you’ve been gone for a little bit, sort have taken a break and come back. I imagine you have had some sort of evolution. So what is porn to you now?

Syd Blakovich: I left last year late February, but essentially the whole year before I left I started getting a lot of work in LA, up here, everywhere and New York. I was traveling all the time and shooting. It was mind blowing how much work I was getting and then I just started to want to have a break. It’s really good to do self-care, regenerate, start figuring out what makes you passionate and creative. So I definitely just sort of took off and left the country. I spent the time really thinking about my relationship to sex work, porn, and all these things. I do a little bit of everything, behind the camera, in front of the camera, outside and artistically. I definitely needed a break. At one point we were shooting in my apartment. It was just all integrated.

Dylan Ryan: A big part of your life.

Syd Blakovich: Yes. Now it’s definitely more contained. I am not going to take every shoot that I am offered. I only do it when I really want to do it, with people who I really want to do it with. At this point I know that I need a little more space from porn, but at the same part it’s a really big part of my history and who I am. I am just trying to get an even balance in my life.

Syd Blakovich: How is your relationship with going back to school and finishing school in relation to porn?

Dylan Ryan: I lived in Toronto for just under three years, and I just moved back to San Francisco about three months ago. What was interesting and also challenging about doing porn around that time when I was in Canada, was that I was traveling to Los Angeles or San Francisco about once every six weeks for a matter of days. So similar to what you were talking about, because I was located there I was traveling a lot. It was always something where I would go out of town and do it. There was this real life / porn life separation and on some level that was really good. On another level it wasn’t great, because traveling a lot and not being home really takes it out of you. It can kind of manipulate you mental in this way where you’re like “What is real life and where is my home and where am I grounded?” Every time I would have to come back and center myself, and I would have a paper due or something I needed to do for work. Having that dichotomy was a little bit difficult for me. But the biggest change for porn for me specifically now, for what the watchers may or may not know, is that for a good portion of me being in the industry I was in a relationship with the same person. That was a monogamous relationship outside of porn, similar to what you’re in right now. In my private life, I was with the same person and then shot. Since that relationship has ended almost a year ago now, that is what has really changed super dramatically. I am in a different monogamous relationship now with someone who has different feelings and perspectives on porn. Now for the last five-six months, I’ve been in a place where I have been able to be really introspective with porn. I am able be really open with exploring, looking at and discovering what it means to me personally, what it means to me as an art form and form of expression. Regardless of what happens to me in a given day, I have the space to walk away from that and ask “What happened today, what did that mean to me, what does that mean to me as a person, and how am I developing as an artist and performer?” There’s this much bigger space than maybe I have had before to think about it and the role it’s played in my life, in who I am, where I am going with it and where I want to be going with it. Also I think a lot of this about that I just turned thirty.

Syd Blakovich: Me too!

Dylan Ryan: Being in porn at thirty is crazy. It’s totally crazy.

Syd Blakovich: Most LA performers retire by what? 23?

Dylan Ryan: 21, 22 something like that. It’s really young. I started when I was 22. I am not really doing MILF porn or pigeon holed in a specific category. But being that age and having my priorities shift and change for me, I am starting to think, well, where is this going and how is this going to be a part of my life?  That’s kind of what grad school was about, studying and working with sexuality, figuring out how being a sex worker for so long can really inform the kind of work I do in the future as hopefully as a teacher, professor, artist and public speaker. I am figuring out what a transitions going to look like. It’s all really new. I think more than anything I am really comfortable with it as an active part of my life now in a way that I that I haven’t been for maybe the whole time I have been doing it. This is what I do, and I really like what I do. I am very positive about it. It has its ups and downs, but it’s a part of who I am and who I have been. To be able to say that with confidence is a really big thing. So who knows where it’s going to go.