DAVE GAMMON: I’m sure you’re constantly approached by industry types and fans alike with varying versions of the following: Describe how you first got into the adult entertainment business. What was the pivotal point where you decided steaming up the blue screen was something you wanted to do for a living?

NIKKI NOVA: I was in design school. This is what I moved from Virginia to Los Angeles for. There was no housing at the school to which I was accepted. As a teenager, having to cover ninety percent of my tuition myself, and find a place to live, they would help you find a roommate and a cheap apartment…but there was no actual housing. As a teenager, I was working four jobs, and I still couldn’t come up with my tuition.

Before I started going to that design school, I had asked them ahead of time if the credits were fully transferable. There was a chance I would not be able to finish my schooling there, but it was one of the better design schools. So to have that on my resume would’ve been fantastic even if I only got to attend for a year or two. When it came time, there was no way I could continue going there, the tuition and cost of living in L.A. were insane. I was going to take off some time, and I went to transfer to a different school, they said, “Ohhh, those credits aren’t actually transferable. You must’ve misunderstood us.” A lot of the teachers had businesses and took a lot of the students work and marketed the designs. I was really frustrated because I was very, very good at what I was doing but I couldn’t afford to finish going there. I didn’t want all my work that I had poured into the place to get lost, so I started working at a night club.

I hate when people assume strip-club. It was an actual night club, and at the time it was the most popular night club in Los Angeles. At midnight on Thursdays, they would have a 10 minute burlesque show. And I performed there once a month –A burlesque show, not a strip tease. There was a photographer there from Paris who was shooting a model he was meeting there. He wanted to shoot me too, and used both of us for this French entertainment magazine that doesn’t exist anymore. It ended up being pretty awesome.

When he was in town he was also approached by Larry Flynt to shoot the very first issue of Rage Magazine. Being the Frenchman that he was, he wanted to shoot me for that, and due to La Femme Nikita, a French film, I was placed with props like a gun and a wig.

On that same night, there was a scout there for Suze Randall. When I was on a walk to the drugstore some female scout –who ended up being the wife of Hank Londoner– also approached me. Within that same two week span I was on Melrose Avenue when someone from Stephen Hicks approached me. I started thinking, “What the fuck is going on?” I ended up meeting with Suze Randall because she was a female, and if you’re going to take off your clothes on camera for the first time, you’re a little more comfortable with a woman. And that just kind of sparked it. There was another photographer, and another, and all of the sudden that was my career.

It’s been kind of hard to make a living in the sex industry without actually having sex. But that’s how it started.

DG: What would you say has been the most unappealing feature about the film industry thus far?

NN: Hmm, I hesitate in answering this one. I’m afraid that my answer to this would be an insult to almost everyone I know in the industry, and I don’t mean it to be that way, because it’s not their fault.

What I find most unappealing about the adult entertainment industry is that there is nothing truly hot about it. I think that is where a lot of my inner conflict is. If you look at porn –hard-core and even most soft-core porn– it’s extremely cliché. You might have higher budget porn vs. lower budget porn, but all that means is you have hotter chicks, better lighting, costumes and packaging. It’s like, “Okay we’re going to come up with these cliché story lines to get the girl into this position. Then we’ll take it over to this position, with this many people.” I mean it’s just the same shit, over and over, wrapped in different packaging. There’s nothing truly hot about it.

I think that Andrew Blake definitely stands out in that regard. Or at least, he did. His stuff has declined drastically, as well. I just don’t think I personally have ever seen anything that made me think “This person gets it.” I would love to get inside my mind and put that into a porno, but I know what a nightmare it is to make, produce, develop and market a xxx film. Especially in today’s economy. Everyone is just looking for free porn. Nobody’s making any money anymore.

DG: How would you compare the business in terms of acceptance and popularity in mainstream pop culture compared to 10-15 years ago?

NN: It’s definitely much more mainstream now. My good friend Ron Jeremy, for example, is an accepted sort of icon.

I was talking to a friend of mine over at Mosiac. They represent a lot of huge stars. I believe they even represent Will Farrell. We were talking about that very thing. Because I, myself, am attempting to and have been co-producing a reality t.v. pilot. Now what’s going to happen with it? It may not even get picked up. That was one of my biggest concerns was what we’re trying to do with it. I mean there are no actual rules in t.v. anymore. So don’t worry about that. I can give out a lot of examples of people that were in porn that are kind of everywhere now. And not only that, but a lot of mainstream stars—they have these sex tapes that come out. Ninety nine percent of the time that is no accident. It’s all a publicity stunt. So it’s almost kind of silly how vague the lines are within the industry. The irony of that is ten to fifteen years ago if you were in porn, you could make a lot more money than you can today. There just really isn’t nearly enough money in it. Especially for us software people, God bless us. Nearly everybody, I mean the internet has changed that dramatically. You’ve definitely got a balancing act now where everybody is trying to figure out on how to do that.

(At this point Nikki’s cell rings: “Hello? Hi, I’m going to have to call you back. I’m right in the middle of an interview on Skype right now. Hold on, I’ll put you on speaker so they can hear you. Dave this is one of my best friend’s Roxy.” Roxy: “Hi Dave.” Nikki: (laughs) “He says hello Roxy, he’s typing it. Okay let me call you when this is over.” Roxy: “Ok, bye.” Nikki: “Ok, bye, bye. That was Roxy. (laughs) She’s like a little sister.”

DG: What would you say your most comical or embarrassing moment on a film set has been?

NN: I’m going to have to say…. a shoot I did with another girl. It was actually Hank Londoner that was shooting us, this was many years ago for a magazine. And I don’t remember the girl’s name, even if I did I’d never tell you the girl’s name as it would embarrass her. She was blonde. We were doing a set in a kitchen. Typical kitchen set you know—flowers, little chef’s hat on this sort of stuff.

At one point I was down on the ground and she was standing in front of me. He wanted me to go in and kind of grab her ass looking back at the camera. Those were my instructions. And I did so. He told me to really pull her ass apart. I did and she farted in my face (laughs). And the thing is most people would just laugh at that because it’s funny! She was so uptight, embarrassed about it. And it wasn’t loud. Only I could hear it. So I mean they didn’t know ten feet behind me. She just looks down at me and says, “Holy, you really pulled it apart didn’t you?”

I just kind of like pretended nothing was up so they wouldn’t know anything was up. But I mean it was really hard not to crack up laughing. I would say that would be… you know…

DG: In November 2005 on set, you had an accident and had to be hospitalized. A site was generated for contributions against medical expenses and get well soon wishes aptly named www.getwellnikki.com. Has this experience allowed you to be more personal with your fans? What is your typical fan interaction like?

NN: When 911 was called the paramedics said I was never going to make it to the hospital. It was a lot more serious than anyone has any real concept of.

A drunk producer put me on a rodeo horse and then would not let me get off when the horse became agitated. The horse then came down on my skull. My skull was broken in several places and my brain was hemorrhaging. The producer left me there like that under the horse.

The make up artist was screaming: “Someone call 911!” The paramedics said that I would not make it to the hospital, so they called to have me airlifted to the trauma center.

I was in a coma for a while. They didn’t know what I would be like when I came out of it. I’m still kind of trying to recoup from all of this. I still haven’t gotten the surgery that I needed.

My webmaster built a website to raise medical funds. And thank God for it because I was out of work for over a year. All that was gathered was probably close to nine thousand dollars which helped me with a few months of my mortgage.

As far as interactions with my fans? I didn’t have interaction with anyone at that time. It definitely hasn’t enabled me to be more personable with my fans. As a matter of fact it took me away.

People joined my site and would not see any updates and not having interaction with me and it damaged my reputation as far as that goes. So now we finally got the site opened properly the past couple months, but it’s going to take a while to establish that kind of trust again. Even in those few years, the past three years, the industry itself has changed so much that I lost essentially the last part of my career. In a big way, that is how I feel. So no, it definitely has not helped me get more personable with my fans. It’s definitely done just the opposite.

DG: Since our last interview You’ve engaged in a number of pursuits from assuming the role of hostess on Playboy T.V.. You’ve delved deeper into the realm of web cam interaction; please elaborate on your most recent endeavors.

NN: It’s mostly behind the scenes stuff really. Life has been chaotic since my accident. I’ve been stuck in layers upon layers of the legal world. Which incidentally: I’m really not at liberty to say what it’s all about at this point in time.

Right now I’m simply trying to take the positive out of everything. I’ve lit the fire under my ass to get into a better environment. Living in this house and everything that’s taken place since I was in a coma five years ago resonates negative energy.

I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t talk. I was having anywhere from thirty to fifty seizures a day. In fact I wasn’t even expected to live. The only reason I was supposed to be discharged from the hospital was to be in the homecare of a loved one. My mother and I are not on good terms. We’ve been this way for years. My stepfather and her mother were complete sleazes to me growing up. It took years for me to get the courage and tell her about it. She refused to believe me and basically disowned me. So once I was out of the hospital I believe she stayed for all of one day.

I’ve made the decision to pack up my four bedroom house and down size into a two bedroom in California. Living in Arizona really has just kind of sucked, and I look forward to being around positive energy, friends and loved ones.

I’ve been writing for actually two magazines now: Playtime and Uniq. I have a column in each of them, an advice column.

DG: So people contact you for advice on dating, sex, that sort of thing?

NN: Yes, dating, sex, relationships. I also maintain my blog regularly on my website NikkiNova.com with regular site updates, new photos, cam schedules.

I’ve been getting a lot more involved with art direction. I’ve always had a real talent and passion for anything associated with that, whether it is set designs, painting, layouts or wardrobe. In fact, this is going to sound a touch on the arrogant side, but anyone that comes into my home and sees how it’s decorated, the layout, even right down to the furniture says this completely embodies all that is Nikki Nova. This is a Nikki Nova home. So I’m really pleased to be getting involved in that aspect.

I’m also writing a book. Although it’s an autobiography, I’m hesitant to label it as such, as it’s completely different from anything done in our industry before. Yes it will cover my life story, but it’s much more than that. It will be presented in a relief of spirituality and the different cycles and patterns of abuse I personally have gone through. It will cover everything from my relationship with my father, who was murdered when I was eleven years old, without getting into too much detail; it will all be in the book.

DG: As a web starlet there of course is a certain element of being susceptible and vulnerable to the public. What provisions can be undertaken to avoid unsavory attention?

NN: Well unfortunately in the day of the Internet there’s not a whole lot you can do as far as avoiding it. Meaning the way we all essentially make our living now, you have to kind of do the live webcam stuff and there’s no real filter as to what comes at you. What I learned from my experiences as well, the law has not caught up with technology.

DG: Not at all…

NN: They’re always a step ahead. You know people will go on, and they’ll send you stuff. You can block them, but you can’t even trace their IP’s usually because they use proxy servers. I’ve had somebody sending me death threats, really graphic death threats, even going so far as to say he can’t wait to bust a nut inside my cold, dead corpse.

DG: Oh my God!

NN: He’s done very graphic pictures of naked, female corpses. Now here’s the interesting thing though: I’ve been dealing with this stalker for over five years. I know who it is. The police know who it is. The FBI knows who it is. But they couldn’t do anything to him because of his use of proxy servers.

Turns out every rude thing I’ve gotten from May until now was not my stalker of five years. It’s someone I’d befriended on the Internet over a year and a half ago. They were helping me build a case against my stalker by screen capturing everything. I thought this person was helping me. It turns out it was him doing it all along. My actual stalker apparently hasn’t posted anything since my attorney’s last conversation with his attorney.

Just don’t trust anyone you meet on the Internet. That’s a horrible thing to say because they are some really great people out there. It’s not worth the risk.

DG: Pretty disturbing. One of the larger than life aspects of Nikki Nova is your vivid array of tattoo work. Just a brief rundown what are some of the significances of your work?

NN: Oh gosh. There is no real short answer for that. Sort of a long answer and it’s kind of personal, but they’re all original. They’re in relation to my beliefs.

It’s kind of like writing my book. The older I get I can look down and think oh yeah, I remember that part of my life.

The one on my back is kind of a combination of a phoenix and mythological bird I used to dream about all the time when I was a kid. It is what it is. Like many others I’ve been through a hell of a lot in my life, but I’ve learned in relation I should’ve been dead countless times. And I’m still here. So that’s kind of what that represents; I’m a survivor. It’s coming out to what looks like to most people as a blue butterfly. It’s basically about transformation. So my phoenix is coming out of that which should explain itself.

On my mid-back, there’s a jaguar I have with asian dragons coming out each side that obviously the Pagans say that’s my father. I don’t want to get too into that, but it’s very representative of my father.

On my shoulders are just two ohms, which are pretty self explanatory, with a tiny elephant. I’m going to be slightly vague about that and just say that it’s representative of my father’s mother, my grandmother.

The one on my right outer arm is like a combination of young Buddha, old Buddha and Shiva. So kind of like a younger Buddha with many arms, basically; holding up a purple heart. Purple rays of light shine off of it and just all this is the cycle of changes and beginnings and endings. Even in death or heart break, or just something awful, there’s always something new being born after it. The belief and representation in Shiva and Hinduism, for example, is the Destroyer of God, but it’s a good thing. It’s kind of like sometimes things have to be broken down in order to be rebuilt.

So that’s it right now. Anything else I’m supposed to have, I haven’t done anything in years, and it’s all still unfinished, but I figure by the time I’m ninety I’ll be finished.

DG: An increasing trend within our industry is wishlists enabling admirers to purchase and send their favorite starlets gifts. What are your views on them? When is extravagant too extravagant?

NN: Well I don’t think that it is a little too extravagant because, I mean, it is a wishlist not an “I expect to get” list.

I didn’t have one forever. People wrote me, “Hey do you have a wishlist?” the past couple of Christmases. So I finally created one. I have things on there as big as a Plasma T.V. and as small as hair conditioner.

Who cares? I don’t know. I think they’re fine. But I think the girls that constantly post them like, “Here’s my wishlist, here’s my wishlist…” that’s annoying even to me. It’s sad. It’s like gimme, gimme, gimme. It’s like “Oh I’m in a bikini, buy my something.”

DG: What’s on the horizon for Nikki Nova in 2012?

NN: I wish I had something exciting to tell you. I’m still writing for a couple magazines under the name Nikki Nova and another name I don’t want to say. And I’ve been art directing.

I’m just basically putting more into things because those things last and this doesn’t. I have two more years as Nikki Nova under contract. Whether I continue to work in this industry after that, I don’t know. I’m more focused on what’s next than what has been.

DG: Looking forward; that’s a good sign.