Behind the Scenes 210: Andre Shakti and Ruckus, edited for verbalized pauses and clarification
Offscreen: [Unintelligible]
[Andre and Ruckus kiss passionately]
Offscreen: Let’s hold right there and do the entrance again, now that I know—
[All laugh]
Offscreen: Now that I know that you’re going to sit on the bed; now that I know where to go.
Andre: Oh, yeah, I can do that again! [Laughs]
Offscreen: All right!
[All laugh]
Offscreen: Alrighty. Okay. And—Action!
[Cut to Interview]
Andre: So, Ruckus, [laughs] how’d you enjoy the shoot today?
Ruckus: I had a great time! It was a lot of fun for me. A really cool inaugural CrashPad Shoot!
Andre: Ah, it’s your first time!
Ruckus: Yeah! How about you?
Andre: It was awesome! It was really, really great. Everyone I’ve gotten to shoot with for CrashPad has been someone who was already really close to me, so I’m just really excited to keep cycling through my awesome, hot friends! [Laughs]
Ruckus: Awesome! Great place to do it!
[Both laugh]
[Fade to shoot; Andre on her back, legs akimbo of Ruckus’ waist; Ruckus kneels, ready to lower down onto Andre, in missionary position]
Offscreen: Can you clap?
[Andre claps twice]
Three different voices, offscreen, almost simultaneously: That was on! That was good! That was awesome! Now you do it.
Andre: Big hands!
[All laugh]
Offscreen voices: Aaah! We done. We done it. We got it? I got it. We good. Okay. Sorry, Shawn!
Andre: That luxurious hair out of the way.
Ruckus: Just fluffing it.
Andre: Yeah, it’s—
Ruckus: I actually forgot a bobby pin.
Offscreen: Whenever you’re ready, we’re ready!
Andre: Oh my god, I’ve got like a million of them. Did you see?
Ruckus: By the sink? I didn’t know whose those were, but—
Andre: Look at me! Like you’re all— [Laughs]
Ruckus: Yeah, I don’t know. We’ll be all right.
Andre: Yeah, okay!
Offscreen: I’m ready when you are.
[They kiss]
[Fade to Interview]
Andre: Um, so, was there anything that was challenging about the shoot today for you?
Ruckus: No, not particularly.
[Andre laughs]
Ruckus: I took a minute to ease down onto the strap-on, but I was anticipating that anyway.
Andre: Mm-hmm.
Ruckus: It’s pretty wide at the base, so—
Andre: [Unintelligible, laughs]
Ruckus: Exactly! You know? What about you? Was there anything challenging?
Andre: I don’t know if it’s challenging, I just still, I don’t know, you and I share the same sentiments about, stylistically, how different companies shoot porn. And so I’m very much used to, still, whenever like I need to reach for something, or like, you know, wipe my hands on a thing, for people to hold and then cut that part out. So, sometimes I languish in the awkward, non-sexual stuff, ’cause I forget the cameras are still rolling!
[Both laugh]
Andre: So that’s always a funny reminder for me. But otherwise, everything was pretty, pretty easy! [Laughs]
Ruckus: That’s what they call me!
[Andre laughs]
[Fade to shoot; Andre on her back, propped up on one elbow, wearing a nine- or ten-inch strap-on, giving Ruckus a hand job, Ruckus kneeling in front of Andre; Ruckus bends down and begins giving Andre’s strap-on a blow job, putting a condom on with their mouth; Andre moans, moves Ruckus’ hair out of the way, and keeps her hand on Ruckus’ head]
Andre, moaning: Fuck yeah! Nice! That’s better than I’ve ever done!
[Ruckus straightens up, adjusting condom on Andre’s strap-on]
Andre: Oh wait, is it inside-out?!
Ruckus, simultaneously: It’s inside-out.
[Both laugh]
Ruckus: It’s so hard to tell!
[Fade to Interview]
Ruckus: So Andre—
[Andre laughs]
Ruckus: What are your safe sex practices, and why?
Andre: And why! Well, I am in a four-person poly configuration, and I have two partners, and our little unit is fluid-bonded. And then we use, for recreational hookups we’ll use safe sex practices like dental dams and condoms and gloves and all the things with other people. But then, when I do porn, ’cause I’m the only sex worker out of the group, they pretty much give me free rein to choose wisely, and make my own decisions about my own practices and who I’m shooting with, and testing, and stuff. So you and I, you know, had a conversation yesterday about what our statuses were, and how we felt about exchanging fluids, and we made a decision that we felt really good about, so—
Ruckus: Yeah.
Andre: Yeah. So, what about you?
[Both laugh]
Ruckus: Well generally, with my partner and I, we’ll just, we’re fluid-bonded, and with other people that we’re either working or hooking up with, do barriers for penetrative stuff, and the rest we’ll play by ear based on their testing status, or, especially if it’s a shoot, as opposed to— But, in the work realm, off camera, with sessions and stuff like that, it’s very rarely that sort of contact anyway, but it’s always barrier everything, gloves, and all that. Which adds to the kind of looming dom mystique anyway, [Andre laughs] to just, you know, have that level of detachment. So, it’s, it’s pretty—
Andre: And you’re talking about your dom sessions—
Ruckus: Right.
Andre: Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, for people watching! [Andre gives double thumbs-up, then laughs]
Ruckus: And off-camera world of work, and everything else, yeah, it’s very much just based around checking with each other, case by case.
Andre: Communication!
Ruckus: Yeah!
[Andre laughs]
[Fade to shoot; Ruckus shown from chest up, adjusts hair]
Ruckus: Always looks graceful at the very least!
Offscreen: Huh? Yeah.
Ruckus: I said it always looks graceful.
[Andre laughs, off camera]
Offscreen: Why, thank you!
[Ruckus leans back, laughing, then leans forward, shifting their weight onto their knees and getting on all fours; cut to other angle, showing Andre adjusting strapon, Ruckus crawling toward her on all fours; Andre laughs]
Andre: I’m sorry, are you ready?! Are you?
[Both laugh; Andre kneels on bed, starts bouncing up and down]
Andre: Can you catch a moving target?
[Both laugh]
Ruckus: Grr!
[Ruckus lowers themself, begins giving Andre a blow job; Andre grabs Ruckus’ head with her left hand and they both moan; fade to Interview]
Andre: So Ruckus, have you done porn before?
[Both laugh]
Ruckus, sarcastically: Once or twice.
Andre: Why do you like performing? Why do you keep doing it?
Ruckus: Well, I really like bridging a lot of the gaps that someone who passes or navigates the way that I do at this point in time. And a lot of people have really told me they appreciate the fluidity that I’ll bring to things, especially based on how I look. People are so used to men getting just like—
Andre: Grr!
Ruckus: Yeah, one hundred percent! Like, never emotions or anything like that. And, I don’t know. And whether it’s genders that I’ll work with, or express, or whatever, I don’t know. It’s been really gratifying to have different camerawork and stuff. To have people have feedback about like, “Wow, I really opened up, I realized, I realized I’m like some sort of poly, pansexual blah blah blah thing!” And I’m just like, “Good for you!” [Both laugh] Cool, that—
Andre: And my work here is done!
[Both laugh]
Ruckus: Yeah! Also, you know, what’s not to like? It’s the safest and most controlled environment you can be doing some of the really raunchy things that go through all our minds. Like right now. [Andre laughs] I do it for the nipple microphones!
[Camera pans down to show that Ruckus has clipped the lapel microphone to their nipple]
Andre: Yeah, how’s that nipple microphone doing? [Laughs]
Ruckus: It’s, uh, it’s still there.
Andre: I think we’re almost done. You got it! You got it! No blood!
Ruckus: What about you?
Andre: Well, I’m not wearing a nipple microphone, ’cause I’m not a masochist, usually. I have done porn before! [Andre laughs] I’ve been performing, I guess, for about four years now, and I feel like you and I have very similar bodies of work, in that we tend to work with whatever gender identities or presentations we want to work with, and don’t really take the advice of an agent or a company, or— in trying to steer us otherwise. And I like being a little bit of a rebel in the industry, I like being a condoms-only performer. I like being the performer who doesn’t take into account the ethnicity or age or gender or orientation of the person that I’m shooting with, because it very much reflects who I am attracted to in real life. And, yeah, I think the more I’m in the industry, I’m still really passionate about porn, but I find myself becoming a lot more discerning about who I want to work with. So, I’ve always done, you know, I think you and I also have mostly done fetishy, or kink, or queer indy pornography, so there are already those niches to begin with, but now I find myself in my [air quotes] my “old age” of late twenties [laughing], I find myself really gravitating towards people that I already really know, really trust, and just would do that stuff with anyway, so— Hey, money is great!
Ruckus: Yeah, absolutely!
[Fade to shoot; Ruckus on their back, knees raised in air, Andre kneeling in missionary position with strap-on inserted in them]
Ruckus [softly whistles]: That was great!
Andre: Made a mess!
Ruckus: Back there?
Andre [pointing at Ruckus’ stomach, where their penis has left semen]: Here!
Ruckus: Oh, okay!
[Andre laughs]
Andre: I’m sorry! Things you never say to people in the middle of a scene! [She lowers herself onto Ruckus’ chest] ‘Kay, I’m just going to, I’m just going to rest my sweaty face here!
Ruckus: Koala nap?
Andre: Mm-hmm!
[Andre kisses Ruckus on the cheek, then they kiss]
Andre: That was really hot!
[Fade to Interview]
Andre: Well, you said to talk about puppies, so, both Ruckus and I have really adorable dogs, who are very supportive of our sex work! The porn industry in general, I guess I just want to give a shout-out to Pink and White, because I’ve been doing a lot of writing and research around porn piracy the past few months, and I just really appreciate how difficult you guys make it for people to get this content for free! And also to applaud anybody who’s watching, because it means that you paid for your membership! So, that’s really awesome! And we love you! Thank you! [Both laugh] Anything that you wanted to add?
Ruckus: No, I mean, thanks for watching! People are already, obviously in a good spot, if this is the kind of stuff they’re looking up and gravitating toward, and it feels nice to be a part of it over here.
Andre: Yeah.
Offscreen: Thank you!
Andre: Yeah, thank you!
Offscreen: Yay! The hard part is over!
Andre: Woo-hoo!
[Fade to black]