Veronica Hart Porn acting reached its peak in the early '80s thanks to the efforts of thespians like John Leslie and Veronica Hart, probably the best porn actress ever. Sam Frank dedicated his book Sex in Cinema to her in hopes that she'd achieve mainstream success. She hasn't. Veronica's life changed at age 20 when she accidentally spilled scalding coffee on her side. Hart spent two months in the hospital. "You don't have to be a psychology expert to see why I got into porn. I've always liked sex but my life would probably have taken a different turn without that accident. "People in pornography are usually rebels or are trying to make up for some kind of deficiency or defect. It could be in their character...or they could've been beaten or sexually abused in their childhood...or their nose is crooked or some other physical defect. That's where it [motivation for entering porn] used to come from but now everybody gets everything done [surgically] so it's not so much the case. "At one point in the hospital, I felt that I'd never be able to take off my clothes in front of a man. "On the first night I spent with my English boyfriend after getting out of hospital, he turned off the lights. And I like to make love with the lights on. So that really hurt." With a BA in theater, and a background in modeling and straight films, Veronica moved to New York where she lived with a casting director. "He was nasty. I got out of that. Two music deals fell through for me. I was forced to become a temporary secretary. "It's tough to live on a $100 a week anywhere and in New York it's extremely tough. I was renting a room from a gentleman, Roy Stewart, and he had done X-rated films. He saw my modeling pictures and my acting credits. He said "You're an asshole." I said, "Yeah?" He said: "You're selling your brains, your time, your organizational ability, everything, for not much money." And I've always been sexually active. I enjoy sex. There wasn't any big moral thing with me that I had to get over. So I tried it. I didn't go in thinking I'd be a big porn star, but some people told me early on that I could be. "Most of the people I became acquainted with who did legit films, the supposedly moral people of our world, I found to be the most degenerate. Porn has its share of good and bad, too, but compared to legit people, they're more real and down to earth. "He [Roy Stewart] and I were fuck buddies. He'd get the girls to come to the films. He never could perform [on camera] but he'd try again and again. We did a week a live sex shows. And I literally blew my brains out. That was tough to fake with no hard on. And he continued to try. "My first [adult] film was with a guy [Leonid Kirtman, who used the porn name Leon Gucci] who had a reputation for fucking all his actresses, which he did with me. "I was having sex with a guy who was predominantly gay - Zebedy Colt. It was hard to get him up. After an hour of shooting, Lenny takes me aside and asks if I want to finish the scene. I didn't know what to say. So eventually I said "Sure." So Lenny bends me over, unzips his fly, penetrates my vagina, pumps me twice and cums all over me." "I didn't know much about the adult business at the time but I knew that wasn't right. Actors are paid to perform and that directors don't stand in for cum shots. He got to fuck all his actresses that way. "We run an upright business. I knew the big difference between a director and an actor. Actors are hired to fuck. Not directors. It wasn't professional. It was the only time I felt like shit in porn. "I ended up feeling sorry for him. If that was his only way of getting laid, that's sad. "I'm not a dumb woman, but most people don't have any guidelines when they first get into this business... Seka told me what I had to do, which is that no one has to do anything that they don't want to do... The producers will try to get away with as much as they can. To get as much out of an actress for the least amount of money. And that's strictly business." Veronica first performed sex in front of theater audiences on Broadway. "Even after I'd made a couple of films, I went back to doing the live shows. But I would never do them again now, because I respect my body too much. If you make love from four to six times a day, you lose sensitivity." Veronica enjoyed sex in front of the camera. "Film is the illusion of truth. What might look good on film is not necessarily what feels good. Still, I believe that the hotter you are, the hotter it's going to come across to the audience. A lot of girls in this business aren't into sex, or they aren't into making it with another girl. They play at it, and their coldness comes across on film. The more you can psych yourself up to be hot, the hotter it will appear on film." Bisexual, Hart loves "the warmth and tenderness that you get through ladies, but you can have that with a man, too. I love pussy and I love cock. Everybody is basically bisexual. People are turned on by feeling good. Screwing is wonderful, and its fabulous in itself, though there is more to life than sex. Love is also wonderful." Veronica wants more character development in porn. "Have the story tell how the couple gets to fucking. A lot of bad porn has fucking every other scene, and that's not how it is in real life. You don't fuck every second. There should be some buildup, a relationship established before sex. A good porn movie is one you could take all the sex scenes out and still have a good movie." By contrast, Al Goldstein says, "The plot of a porn film is like the frame of a painting. You don't look at the frame." Veronica did numerous scenes of anal intercourse. "When I'm hot, I'll take it any way I can get it. I just want it. I wouldn't say I like it more or less... It's just a different sensation. I think a lot of straight men would like it, but they may be afraid to do it because of the homosexual thing. "This business is in transition. People are trying to do different things, and make it more realistic. The women's market is untapped. "There are films that I dearly love [Amanda By Night, Scent of Heather, and Roommates]. They've been criticized and aren't played in theaters because they don't have all the open cum-shots. They're not considered explicit enough. "Amanda by Night was like a TV movie with sex in it," Veronica told me. "You [Luke] look at it as before he [director Robert McCallum] was comfortable doing sex and I look at it as when he was a real filmmaker." In Amanda, Hart plays a hooker who breaks free of her pimp and cares about her clients. Despite this cliche of the hooker with a heart of gold, the film's mixture of sex and violence keeps your interest to the romantic ending. Hart quit doing explicit sex scenes after four years in the biz, but she still makes cameo appearances in porn. She and Kelly Nichols appeared in 1995's Latex. Through 1995, Hart stripped in clubs. Mainstream has not been as warm and inviting as Veronica's on-screen vagina. She's mustered only small roles in big movies and only big roles in small movies. Like numerous other stars such as Linda Lovelace, Hart proceeded from porn to marry and give birth to two children. She produces under her real name - Jane Hamilton - at VCA and directs as Veronica Hart. "I don't have to kiss ass to a boss. I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. I get away with doing a lot less and getting paid a lot more than most ladies ever would. That's why I can't consider myself a feminist. I'm a people-ist. "There was an anti-porn thing, for example, in New York. What it really was was a bunch of dykes getting together hating men. That's not my idea of a good time. "I make pornography because I can...and because mainstream isn't beating down my door. "A writer from one of those classy women's magazines wanted to know what changes women had made in the business. And I said "None." "Maybe there's a genre that hasn't been developed yet. There are two women making sex videos for women. We've been neglected. You've either got the slut who loves fuck films like the guys or the woman who never wants one of those films in the home. Most women are in between. They do enjoy sex but they need to be courted...with production value and romance. And there are also guys like that. "I believe there's a whole niche for sex stores like Victoria Secrets with vibrators and selected videos... "I loved the The Big Easy with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin. When his hand disappears behind her and you just see her face. That got me so hot I had to turn it off and ask the kids to go in the other room because mommy was having a moment. That is much sexier than open-heart surgery. "It's always been an easy thing to say - "I've done porn films, they won't let me cross over." There are a lot of things that won't let you cross over. If you hadn't done porn, you'd still have no chance to make it." Veronica met her husband Michael on the set of Lasse Braun's American Desire. "I chased him. I was either going after him or the lady, Carol, who wrote the film. He was there with his little light meter down by my pussy and I was coming on to him. He was either going after me or Carol. We had the same taste in women which I thought was a good starting point." One of Hart's peers from the early '80s turned passionately against the industry. "Samantha Fox wishes that she'd never gotten into it. She's a victim. She said all this on a Phil Donahue show we did in 1995. She's in a twelve step program for alcoholism. I had no idea that she was that much of an alcoholic. "Coming off the Phil Donahue set, I said to Samantha - "One thing I never thought that I'd have to do was defend myself against you. I just feel sorry for you. I never knew what great pain you were in." "In the middle of the Phil Donahue show, I felt like saying, "Samantha, you looked like you were really enjoying it when I was eating your pussy." She was just vicious. "I was livid. I couldn't believe it. It also reminded me of why I don't do talkshows anymore. They just want to rehash old stuff. They don't want to hear about the new stuff we're doing. They want to hear about fucking. "I never had to fuck to get hired. It's sleazy to fuck to get somewhere. Believe me, I've tried it all over Hollywood. It doesn't guarantee anything. "Everybody who doesn't fuck the actresses takes great pride in that. They feel set apart. They don't feel as sleazy as the next guy. "I take pride in my high standards. No actress comes into VCA and fucks anyone to get a job. I hate to get lumped in with the Rocco Siffredis and Max Hardcores. Women should be treated with respect - not slapped around, spat upon and dunked in toilets.   *"I want everyone to get off and be happy in my pictures. I don't want sex to be an act that's imposed on the woman. Rather, I want her to enjoy it and sometimes initiate it."