There is something about Nina Hartley that makes her so much more than just a porn star. A legend in the adult industry, Hartley has been rockin’ the screen since 1984, bringing us over 400 movies and the fabulous “Nina Hartley’s Guide To” series from Adam and Eve. But tons of chicks have starred in as many movies, so what makes Hartley so freaking awesome? She’s not only super sex positive and been teaching men and women how to get off for years, she has advocated for the adult industry’s right to exist since she started and refuses to back down, even when the villagers bring the flaming torches.

In a nutshell, Nina Hartley is amazing. Go check out her movies and expect to learn something great… even if it’s only that she has the best ass in the business.

1. How (and when) did you get started in the industry?
I started dancing at a club in San Francisco in 1983, while I was attending nursing school. I intended to become a midwife. I danced once a week and went to school full time. My first gig was doing a hardcore g/g act in a peep room. Tons of fun! I had wanted to do on-camera work since I saw my first adult movie as a teenager. In 1984 my then-boyfriend ran into Juliet Andersen at the supermarket and got her card. We sent her some pix and she put me in “Educating Nina,” from Atom Home Video. It was released in 1984. I graduated in ’85 with my BS in nursing and went into video full time. It was the culmination of an eight-year dream of mine to do this work, and I’ve not been disappointed.

2. If you weren’t in the adult industry, what would you be doing?
I’d be a nurse-midwife, likely with a book out, as well as being a pro-midwifery activist and educator. If not that, then some kind of therapist.

3. What’s the best thing you’ve learned or best advice you’ve received from industry?
Best thing I’ve learned: We must take care of ourselves and not depend on others doing it for us. You need to fight and work for what you want, but also know when to let things go. People are powerfully drawn toward sexual confidence. Plan for Life After Porn, ‘cuz it’s coming! Sex entertainment is as much fun as I thought it would be, overall.

Best advice: I actually got very little. I give the following advice to all newbies. Some listen, but most don’t. If you don’t do it at home for free and for fun, DO NOT do it on camera for money. LEARN TO HANDLE YOUR MONEY WISELY (I wish I’d learned that, oh, twenty years sooner!). Don’t date a man without his own car, his own job and his own place to live. Don’t let any partner shame you for your sexuality or for how you make your living. What, is HE going to take over paying your bills? If you have to get drunk or high to do this job, GET ANOTHER JOB. Pay your taxes. They always get you on the tax beef.

4. What’s the funniest thing that’s happened while filming?
Too many to recount, but it usually involves either silly costumes on the guys, or flatulence.

5. What do you think is the biggest misconception about women in industry?
That we’re all stupid. That we’re all survivors of abuse. That we have low self-esteem. That we can’t do anything else. That we’re exploited in some particularly horrible way that other working people don’t experience. That we’re spineless victims. That we’re trashy. Some of us do live up/down to the stereotype, but the women in the industry are, as women are everywhere, extremely varied in their histories, experiences, reasons for being here and in their desires for the future.

6. What did you do today?
Had a business lunch. Shopped for dinner for the next three nights (guests two nights in a row). Answered email, including this one.

7. What would you rather have done today?
Had playtime with my husband. We prefer sex before dinner.

8. If you could do a movie with anyone (living or brought back from the dead) who would it be?
Errol Flynn. Elizabeth Montgomery. Halle Berry. Brangelina. Will Smith and Jada Pinket-Smith. James Cagney. Fred Astaire. Gene Kelly. Oliver Reed. Ginger Rogers.

9. Who is your favorite adult performer?
To work with: Shayla Laveaux; Marco Banderas; Byron Long; Mika Tan; Richard Pacheco; Justine Jolie; Marcus London.

In general: John Leslie; Kevin James; Sean Michaels; Georgina Spelvin; Porsche Lynn.
I’m sure there are more, though.

10. You’ve got 20 bucks left to your name; what would you do with it?
Call my husband!

11. If you were president, what’s the first thing you’d change?
The health care system, from top to bottom, particularly sex-ed. Then energy/environmental policy.

12. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?
Forgetting the name of someone I’ve worked with. Just because I fucked you doesn’t mean I’ll remember your name!

13. Which is your favorite project you’ve worked on?
My sex-ed Guides from Adam&Eve. The “O” projects for A&E directed by my husband, Ernest Greene. The fun TV spoofs that have been coming out recently. I made a great “Eudora” on “Not Bewitched XXX.”

14. If you could have 1 superpower what would it be?
Either flying or invisibility.

15. Meat or veggie?
I can do both. I like meat, but I grew up around Buddhists, so I’m good with vegan, as well. I’d never cook vegan, but I can do ovo-lacto. I would never, though, give up bacon!

16. What is your favorite book?
Gosh, I’m a huge reader and can’t pick just one. Besides all the great books I read as a kid are the ones I’ve read recently. Geez, you really know how to flummox a person, don’t you? I’ll completely cop out and mention the one I wrote: “Nina Hartley’s Guide to Total Sex,” from Avery. My recently-read book list is quite long. Fiction-wise, I just finished the “Golden Compass” trilogy, by Pullman. Amazing. Non-fiction, “Death Benefits,” by Jeanne Safer; “Loving What Is,” by Byron Katie; “Outwitting History,” by Aaron Lanksy.

There are also four books from early in my life that are vitally important to who I am:
“Birth Without Violence”
“Spiritual Midwifery”
“The Happy Hooker”
“Sex For One”

17. What is your biggest pet peeve?
People who smoke around children. Anti-porn cultists of all political persuasions. Abusers.

18. What is your best piece of sex advice for women?
Get out the books, toys and tapes, and learn to get yourself off, alone. Only then can you tell your partner what’s what. As they told me in the early 1970’s: Take responsibility for your orgasm. Learn to forgive both yourself and your partner. Anger is a desire/intimacy/pleasure killer.

19. What is your favorite adult movie?
I guess it’d be the first I ever saw: “Autobiography of a Flea,” from the Mitchell Brothers. I tend to prefer individual scenes over whole movies. The scene between Adrianna Nicole and Evan Stone in my
Advanced Guide to Anal Sex.

20. Tell me one thing you’ve never told anyone else.
Bungee jumping seems like fun.

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