by Brad Warner
“When sex is your job, you really cannot let work suck.”
-Nina Hartley
If you came of age during the video porn boom of the 80s, I dont need to explain who Nina Hartley is and not just if youre a guy, either. Since she was openly bisexual and not just performing her girl-on-girl scenes for the cash, she had a far greater female following than most porn stars. But for those of you who werent pleasuring yourselves to her work, Nina Hartley was one of the biggest actresses in X-rated film throughout the 1980s, appearing in over 400 porno pictures, beginning with Educating Nina in 1984.
Unlike most porn actresses, Nina didnt spend a couple years in the industry only to vanish off the face of the Earth. She stuck with it and these days puts out a series of How To videos covering subjects as diverse as how to organize the perfect orgy and how to take it up the bum.
I spent many a lonely night with Nina Hartleys videos in my 20s. But thats not why I wanted to interview her. My interest in her was piqued when a friend lent me her book Nina Hartley’s Guide to Total Sex and pointed out that on page one she mentions she was raised in a Zen Buddhist monastery. How many porn stars can you talk Zen with? I had to meet her
Read our exclusive interview with Nina Hartley on SuicideGirls.com.
