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Brad ArmstrongIt was a good movie that turned out really well. It came together and I think it's B-Movie level with great sex to go with it. The horror works where it is supposed to and I'm really proud of it.
Roger T. Pipe Let's talk a little bit about your history. How long have you been in the business?
Brad Armstrong I'm creeping up on thirteen years now.
Roger T. Pipe How did you get in?
Brad Armstrong I came down here as a joke. I was a male stripper up in Canada and I met Erica Boyer. She was touring up there and had her way with me. She dragged me down here and I did three movies. I had already bought a house up there so I went back. A few years later I decided to come back to LA. I was going back and forth doing magazines and movies is the next natural step. I got into the business with Dyanna Lauren. We were a couple and we worked together for a while. As luck would have it, we did our first movie just as Vivid was about to sign her. I was walking around saying that Vivid had just bought my first movie. That was my in.
Roger T. Pipe What was the name of that movie?
Brad Armstrong They changed the title on it. It ended up being called "Check Mate."
Roger T. Pipe When was it?
Brad Armstrong 1994.
Roger T. Pipe That was a good start for you.
Brad Armstrong Yes it was. I happened to be at the East Coast video show and met Steve Ornstein in a bar. I told him that I was an up and coming director and that Vivid had just bought my first movie. It was a big deal because those companies don't buy outside stuff. Timing couldn't have been better. A few lunches later I got my first gig at Wicked.
Roger T. Pipe So Dyanna was a contract girl at Vivid while you were working for Wicked?
Brad Armstrong Actually no. We broke up a few weeks before my first Wicked movie.
Roger T. Pipe That was convenient.
Brad Armstrong I have dated Vivid Girls while working for Wicked. It's actually a good dynamic. You aren't together 24-7 like you are when you're both with the same company. It gives you something to talk about.
Roger T. Pipe How many movies have you directed so far?
Brad Armstrong I am creeping up on ninety. It is starting to make it tough to find new and exciting things to shoot.
Roger T. Pipe What sort of things to you look for in a new project?
Brad Armstrong With the vignettes I have pretty much tapped things out. I have shot everything from Morocco to Vegas, from sports to cars and I think I've done all the vignettes I can do. Oddly enough though my next project is a vignette. It's a Latin-themed so it's got Flamenco dancers, maids and a hot music-video feel. It's called "Caliente." The bigger features end up being a combination of a lot of things. Hollywood has done everything you can imagine so I often take a couple of ideas from mainstream movies and squish them together. I'm not particularly copying any one movie. I might take the good aspects from three or four movies and combine them.
Roger T. Pipe Do you write most of your own scripts?
Brad Armstrong Unfortunately I end up writing about eighty or ninety percent of them. It is the thing that I hate the most. It seems to be very difficult to get good, realistic scripts. As soon as someone thinks they are writing for porn they always seem to write down to the audience. That isn't what we do at Wicked. We would rather take a mainstream script and add the sex, but a lot of writers don't do that. I even had one guy write a script and one part was especially bad. In parenthesis he wrote "Come on, it's only porno."
Roger T. Pipe You should give me a call.
Brad Armstrong Do you write scripts?
Roger T. Pipe I've written about ten, only one for Wicked though.
Brad Armstrong Which one did you write?
Roger T. Pipe "Guilty Pleasures."
Brad Armstrong Who directed that one?
Roger T. Pipe Michael Zen.
Brad Armstrong I'll have to take a look.
Roger T. Pipe How many movies have you made as a performer?
Brad Armstrong I couldn't even guess. I'm deep into the three hundreds. I did a good number of scenes before I came to Wicked and then slowed down. Steve likes to keep the company as a family of sorts. He doesn't want to hire me as a director and then have me performing for other companies. That cut down on the number of movies I've done. We only put out 36 year so even if I'm everything we put out, that isn't that many. Some guys do that many movies in a month. On the flip side, the projects tend to be higher end and I'm getting recognition for them.
Roger T. Pipe Do you prefer the vignette movies or the big features?
Brad Armstrong Both have a place in my heart. I have an art direction background so the vignettes give me an outlet for that. I want to direct music videos to those movies give me a chance to perfect that craft. I don't have to worry about things fitting a particular character and it gives me a free hand to do art for art's sake. The features or "talkies" as we call them are the most prestigious projects. They are the ones that get the most recognition at the end of the year. They have a mainstream feel and that is why we have such a good relationship with Playboy. We are actually trying to make a movie and not just come up with an excuse to have people talking. We take our product very seriously.
Roger T. Pipe If someone hasn't seen any of your movies which ones would you recommend?
Brad Armstrong If they like the "talkies" then I would suggest the one you gave me this award for. "Eye of the Beholder" is a great movie.
Roger T. Pipe It really is a perfect combination of a great script, hot sex and good suspense.
Brad Armstrong It is a movie that hits on all cylinders. I'm very proud of how it came out. Any of the other big releases would be good also. "Euphoria" was good. "Fluff & Fold" was a good movie for couples. It is nominated for Best Comedy.
Roger T. Pipe That was nominated on my site opposite "Eye of the Beholder."
Brad Armstrong Everything kind of clicked on that one. The acting was solid and it makes you interested in how it turns out. It's cute enough to make people want to stick around to see how it ends. If people are just into the sex and the beauty of it all there are some nice ones to choose from. "Mirage" was good. "Red Dragon" and a lot of the other vignettes. If you like one, then you will probably like a lot of them because they all have the pretty girl, music video set up that leads into the sex. There is no talking to bog things down.
Roger T. Pipe Do you have your own web site?
Brad Armstrong I am just getting that together now. It's listed on the credits of most of the movies, www.bradarmstrongxxx.com but if you go to www.wickedpictures.com you will find more right now.
Roger T. Pipe How about some fun questions. Have you dated more porn girls than anyone in the history of the business?
Brad Armstrong How about some fun questions. Have you dated more porn girls than anyone in the history of the business?
Roger T. Pipe Let's run down the list. Dyanna Lauren, Jenna Jameson…
Brad Armstrong Kira Kenner, Stormy, Jessica Drake and the list goes on. I kept threatening to put the family tree up on my web site.
Roger T. Pipe How about the Brad Armstrong private collection.
Brad Armstrong There you go.
Roger T. Pipe That is a pretty good list.
Brad Armstrong It's not bad. Some guys may have had more, but not as many A Girls.
Roger T. Pipe Who is your favorite Wicked Girl to shoot?
Brad Armstrong I can't answer that question of course. It would cause me all sorts of grief. Let's just say that there is something good about all of them. Some of them have more good things than others and we can leave it at that.
Roger T. Pipe Can you tell us who gives the best sex scene?
Brad Armstrong Devinn Lane is the most sexually magnetic of our bunch. She is an animal. Jessica Drake is coming on strong. She just joined us and is putting sex at the top of her list. She is one to watch in the coming months.
Roger T. Pipe You and Jonathan have both been directing at Wicked for a long time and you've both won a number of awards. Bottom line, who is better?
Brad ArmstrongThat depends on who you're interviewing. Everyone at Wicked, Jonathan, Michael Raven and myself have our own positive attributes.
Roger T. Pipe You know that if I interview Jonathan later I am going to ask him the same question. He's probably going to say that he is better. This is your chance to get a vote in for yourself.
Brad Armstrong That is what makes me the better director. I would never say it. I'm confident enough to let my work speak for itself. (He laughs.) I don't need to blow my own horn.
(At this point Stormy strolls in, checks out the trophy and the Rog Rules T shirts.)
Roger T. Pipe Please take one.
Stormy Thanks.
Brad Armstrong That will look good on you.
Roger T. Pipe We'll have to get some pictures of you in it.
Stormy Sure.
(NOTE: Four months later and still not Stormy pictures in the T. No Wicked Girls at all!)
Roger T. Pipe Anything else to add?
Brad Armstrong I think we're done.
Roger T. Pipe Congratulations on the win and the great movie.
Brad Armstrong Thank you very much.
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