One of the most prominent stars in contemporary erotic cinema, Erin Brown – better known under her pseudonym ‘Misty Mundae’ – has forged a career at the very forefront of the softcore industry. From her beginnings with the underground film company Factory 2000, acting in no-budget fetish titles like The Bizarre Case of the Electric Cord Strangler (William Hellfire, 1999) through to her more high-profile work in Seduction Cinema titles such as Lord of the G-Strings (Terry West, 2003), Erin Brown has managed to develop a hugely successful career in the independent film world.
Far away from the traditional stereotype of a porn starlet, with neither bleached blonde hair nor silicone implants, Erin has been celebrated widely for her naturalistic looks and a devil-may-care attitude that has set her apart from her contemporaries. With leading roles in a series of soft-core spoofs, from Play-mate of the Apes (John Bacchus, 2002) and Mummy Raider (Brian Paulin, 2002) through to An Erotic Werewolf in London (William Hellfire, 2006), Erin has developed a devoted fan following and a level of consumer awareness unmatched by almost any other soft-core star.
FIGURE 8.1 Not your typical soft-core girl: Misty Mundae
In the following interview, Erin discusses her ‘accidental’ career in the porn industry, the underlying gender politics involved in the genre, her move into more mainstream projects in recent years, and her thoughts on the possibility for socio-political commentary in the world of micro-budget cinema. It was a pleasure to discuss these issues with Erin and I would like to express my gratitude to her for agreeing to do this interview with me. Special thanks also to Paige Kay Davis and Seduction Cinema for coordinating the interview.
Iain Robert Smith: To begin the interview I’d like to ask about the early years of your career with Factory 2000. You started acting in no-budget fetish films at a relatively young age working with William Hellfire on titles like International Necktie Strangler and Peeping in a Girl’s Dormitory (both William Hellfire, 2000). Can you tell us a little about how you came to be working on these films?
Erin Brown (Misty Mundae): I initially found myself working in the fetish genre of the indie-film world as a total fluke. I never had any expectations of becoming an underground film icon, or soft-core porn star (as I’m more commonly referred to) whatsoever. I grew up in a sleepy little bumblefuck town in North Jersey, where my local entourage and I felt as though there wasn’t much to do with ourselves. Some friends of mine started a tiny little record label to promote some local bands. The mastermind behind this project, William Hellfire, got the bright idea to produce some no-budget, shot-on-video sexploitation films to help in financing and recording these musical endeavours. Really quickly the films developed a huge cult following, and thus the Factory films took over as the focus of our creative outlet. The rest is history. Before I knew it, I was starring in dozens of soft-core and horror-esque movies every year. It’s just something I kind of fell into; and at the time, I was really just fucking off and having fun. I never imagined a decade later that I would be reflecting back on those films as something significant or pivotal for my life experience, let alone, a respectable career.
William Hellfire has talked about how Factory 2000 was modelled on the Andy Warhol Factory. Did you see yourself as part of a counter-cultural artistic collective? If not, how would you characterise the group making those films?
Counter-cultural, perhaps; artistic, mmm, not so much! All along I think that we had the intention of doing something controversial. But because the films were, more often than not, something that we farted out in an evening or two, they were often rather lacking in any artistic integrity. In reality, any douche bag with a camcorder can make a ‘movie’, so, in order to make our movies stand out as something different or worth acknowledging within the underground cinema movement, we felt as though we really kind of had to push the envelope in a lot of ways. And oddly enough, the sheer audacity of creating such raunchy and offensive exploitation, for reasons beyond my comprehension, becomes perceived as artistic. Art is so subjective anyway, and it’s often such a fine line between what’s construed as pornographic versus artistic; who’s to say? I’m pretty certain that, for a group of kids with nothing better to do, we succeeded in shocking and offending people; and if the purpose of art is to evoke emotion, then I suppose it was mission accomplished…
Many of these early films were also deliberately provocative and controversial – from the notorious fetish films through to the Columbine satire Duck!: The Carbine High Massacre (William Hellfire, 1999). Do you feel there is an extra freedom for political commentary in low-budget independent cinema?
Oh, absolutely. Working on these totally independent films allows for almost total creative freedom via socio-political commentary and whatnot. In fact, it was literally years before anyone was even willing to distribute Duck!, for just such reasons. But if your motive is to create political satire, or to facilitate some political commentary regardless of how commercially viable it renders your film, then, well, isn’t that sort of what it’s all about? The fact that Duck! was way too offensive and socially distasteful for anyone to want to put it out for the masses is, in essence, what made it that much more provocative and compelling for public consumption. And as they say, any publicity is good publicity; so, all of the hullabaloo surrounding that project ultimately worked in its favour. Despite it being the antithesis of what any studio would deem an audience friendly, marketable film, that crappy little movie has permanently staked its place in underground cult cinema, and folks will probably be watching it and talking about it for years. So, ha!
Under the pseudonym Misty Mundae, you then became the figurehead for Seduction Cinema – starring in the films, serving as the public face of the company at conventions, and becoming contracted to the company in a way reminiscent of the classic Hollywood stars. How did you deal with the move from acting with a group of friends to becoming contracted as a star?
Well, the Seduction crew was always somewhat incestuous with the Factory label. That is how I initially got involved with Seduction Cinema; because we had actually all already been working together for years, anyway. So, the transition was not really that intense; I was working with compadres all along. And I really wouldn’t have it any other way. Somewhere along the line I got somewhat jaded and money became my main focus in filmmaking, but for the most part, I endured in the industry because I was mostly working with close friends whom I instilled (perhaps too much) trust, and still just attempting to have fun.
Also, if this isn’t too abstract a question, how did you distinguish between you as an actress and ‘Misty Mundae’ the character? Did you see Misty’ as a character you were playing?
Misty Mundae is the indelible actress. Whether appearing in a film as Misty, or making a public appearance as the persona, it was always playing a part entirely separate from my true identity. My own reality is vastly different from the actress and her unhinged world; and so, for my own sanity, they have always remained mutually exclusive. I was always playing a character that was playing a character, twice removed. I’m a very private and extremely modest person, so anyone that knows me well knows that I am certainly a far cry from the alter ego that I maintained for so many years.
Many of the more successful Seduction’releases were spoofs of Hollywood blockbusters and other forms of US popular culture. How would you prepare for these roles? Would you watch the films/TV shows beforehand?
Nah! I never did my homework. Often I’d have every intention of watching the films we were spoofing, to get ideas for my character and whatnot; but then I’d like, fall asleep or something halfway through Spider-Man [Sam Raimi, 2000]. I’d be lucky if I even read the script before showing up to set, let alone doing any sort of research for my character or anything along those lines.
You also had a chance to direct some films for Seduction Cinema such as Lustful Addiction (2003) and Confessions of a Natural Beauty (2003). Do you think it affects things to have a fellow actress directing rather than one of the male directors?
I was just sort of cutting my teeth by endeavouring to direct those movies, so I had my perpetually all-male crew to help me out throughout, anyway. So it probably wasn’t so much a matter of a female director, versus the notion of a newbie director attempting to produce something coherent and hopefully somewhat captivating. But, from my memory and perception of those events, I doubt that gender played a role in the whole experience of making those films; but I could be wrong!
FIGURE 8.2 Pin-ups meet the primal: the poster for Play-mate of the Apes
Time for a more ‘academic’ question… Recently, some studies of erotic cinema have argued that these soft-core films are ‘post-feminist’ in that they use depoliticised elements of second-wave feminism, such as female agency, freedom and self-respect, to present their female central characters. Do you yourself think of these films as ‘female friendly’?
It all depends on the context of the situation. I mean, it is called ‘exploitation’ for a reason, ya know? So, do I feel as though I was at times exploited during my career as a soft-core actress? Yes. Hell yes! Do I also feel as though many of the experiences and opportunities were entirely empowering? Also, hell yes! So, if you’re going to get all academic on me, then I’ll just say, ‘Well hey, the chicks dig it, man!’
Much of the discussion of your popularity focuses on your perceived ‘normality’ – that you aren’t the clichéd ‘bleached blonde hair and silicone implants’ type of starlet. Did you ever find it strange to find yourself being hailed as one of the great stars of erotic cinema?
Yes, I find it completely bizarre. In fact, just last evening my boyfriend and I were watching some cable soft-core, and I was wondering aloud how I ever became so popular in a genre of which I feel so very far removed from. I perceive myself to be the antithesis of every woman in the random porno movie that we happened upon whilst flipping through channels. And while most of the acting performances were utterly horrible yet still completely comical, especially in their pathetic attempts to be genuine, I felt that their sexual scenes were probably far more convincing than any performances I’ve ever turned out. So, even though I’ve been told that it’s my ‘unexpected’ qualities, and the fact that I’m so drastically different than the typical soft-core gal, which makes me stand out and thus, lends some popularity or credibility, or whatever… Yeah, it’s still fuckin’ weird to me!
How did you cope with all the attention this brought you?
I cope with all of the attention relatively well because, in the huge scope of everything, I’m still fairly anonymous. I still get recognised fairly often, but it’s infrequent enough that I don’t make a total spectacle of myself every time that I leave my house. And it also depends on the context of the situation. If I’m out at a bar and someone recognises me and makes some big obnoxious scene, I’ll usually be cordial and take some stupid picture with them on their camera phone and laugh it off. But when I’m out to lunch with my mother and our waiter won’t shut up about how awesome Lord of the G-Strings [Terry West, 2003] is … that’s a little annoying, bordering on humiliating. It is what it is; and if you catch me in a good mood, I’m usually pretty fuckin’ cool with it!
You have often said in interviews that you are quite a fan of cult cinema, namechecking everything from Alejandro Jodorowsky through to Damon Packard. I wondered if you had an interest in other forms of cult ‘erotic’ cinema?
Nope. Erotica is not really my cup of tea. Something along the lines of Vampyros Lesbos [Jess Franco, 1971] is probably as kinky as I get. But, hey, if you could turn me on to some good stuff, I am certainly open to the idea.
From interviewing Michael Raso, it seems that the production of ‘erotica’ wasn’t his initial intention for the company but rather something that the market dictated. Did you see these films as a similar means to an end – by allowing you to move later into horror/cult cinema?
Definitely. Like I said earlier, I never had any intention of becoming any sort of erotica/soft-core starlet; it’s just something I fell into. But once I recognised that I was, to a certain extent, taken seriously as an actress, and able to acquire roles that were not contingent upon me getting naked and grinding on those bleach-blonde silicone-implant gals we spoke of earlier, naturally I seized that opportunity to work in my preferred genre of horror/thriller cinema. It was only partially pre-meditated, considering that I was never entirely confident that I would ever be able to break out of the erotic film genre, after tarnishing the ‘Mundae’ name with all sorts of crazy titles and fetish films. However, the industry has been surprisingly forgiving, and all of those crazy fetish films that might have otherwise destroyed any potential mainstream career, have actually helped catapult me into landing a bunch of really cool roles that I would have never even been considered for, had it not been for my ‘B-movie Queen’ status.
In the last few years, you’ve dropped the name ‘Misty Mundae’ and acted in various other forms of cinema – from Lucky McKee’s Masters of Horror episode ‘Sick Girl’ through to the comedy All Along. Was this a conscious attempt to move away from working in ‘erotic’ cinema?
Yes. I made the conscious decision to get out of the ‘sex’ industry and attempt to cut my teeth in other genres for a shit-ton of reasons. Mostly, the whole soft-core thing was wearing me out. It really takes a toll on your personal relationships; like, with my boyfriend, and my family, and blah blah blah! But more so, I wanted to prove to myself and to others that there was more to my abilities than just humping and moaning, ya know! I don’t really feel like Spiderbabe [Johnny Crash, 2003] is the most flattering showcase for all my talents and attributes. And it was all beginning to feel pretty static; like every soft-core spoof was an instant replay of the film I had just previously shot. So, I decided that a challenge and some progression was long past-due.
Finally, could you tell us how the filmmaking process compares working on these different types of film?
It’s surprisingly not that different. All of the soft-core films are done so professionally, it’s pretty similar to working on other types of independent film. Naturally, some of the more mainstream stuff, like Masters of Horror, is inevitably way bigger budget and so, flying first class and staying in some fancy-shmancy hotel is a bit different than what I’m accustomed to. But, I could totally get used to that!
As could we all… Thank you very much for your time.
