They call her “The Last Porn Star”: an endangered species from the time before the mainstreaming of adult entertainment; before Jenna Jameson wrote New York Times bestsellers and Sasha Grey became an indie sensation with The Girlfriend Experience. She’d been retired for eight years, but the way the crowd was chanting her name, phones ceaselessly flashing to take her photo, you’d have thought she was at the height of her career. This is Tera Patrick, ladies and gentlemen.
Patrick came to Manila for the recent Sole Slam Culture Trade Show last July 16 at the World Trade Center. The event, a sneakerhead haven for buying and selling the most-sought-after kicks on the market, seemed like a very unlikely event for the retired porn star; but hey, we’re thankful anyway. We caught up with Tera to talk about turning 40, going from porn star to chemist, and how to come out of the adult industry a winner.
PHILIPPINE STAR: So, what are you doing here?
TERA PATRICK: I started doing live shows in 2003. It’s very exciting. I’m very excited to be here at Sole Slam in Manila. One, because I’ve never been to Manila, and also because I love the live crowd interaction. I love meeting my fans.
You’ve long retired, right? But so many fans have showed up…
I’ve been retired since 2008 from the adult industry, but I own everything. I own all my movies, I own my website (terapatrick.com). I’m pretty active on social media. I still do my live shows. I love to cosplay. I tour with Comic Con. San Diego, San Francisco, I do all the shows in the US. I’m a big Star Wars fan, so hence my Instagram name: Yodasoda.
What do you usually cosplay as?
I do Psylocke, Black Widow, Viper, Madame Hydra. My big one is I’m a huge Hello Kitty fan, and I also love the Punisher. The Punisher was the first Cosplay that I ever did and so I have a Hello Punisher, which is the Punisher skull with the Hello Kitty bow.
Well, I think you’d make a great Psylocke.
Aww, thank you. You know, Olivia Munn is very beautiful. I like her a lot, but yes, I was on to you, Olivia, I wanted that role.
So why a sneaker con in the Philippines? Are you particularly close to sneaker culture?
Well, I shot for Supreme (shoe brand). I’m the only Adult industry girl I guess that shot for Supreme. I shot for DC Shoes as well. I think all these years a lot of the mainstream things that I did were lifestyle brands, and so this was a natural progression. I had my own clothing company for many years. I mean, I think that my brand as Tera Patrick encompasses all things, and my fans are in every arena, that’s why when I retired from the Adult industry, I was able to parlay bringing my business into Comic Con, and all these types of trade shows, because my fans are everywhere.
You’ve been retired for eight years now, right? But your fans are so loyal, they’ve stayed with you over the years.
Well, my fans stayed strong, honestly. You know, people think there’s this big secret, and I tell them nahh, I’m very humble. I have a lot of gratitude. I was a nurse, actually, I had a normal job, and my life changed when I posed for Playboy magazine, and then went into the Adult business. I’ve had a great career, and I’ve had a great life, and I really cherish all of that. And the fact that people still love to watch my movies and read my magazines and go on my website and really follow me, to me, it’s — I have to keep giving them things to stay interested. But it interests me as well and the best part of everything is that I get to meet everyone, and meet people.
And I think the industry has really changed. Have you seen that documentary, Hot Girls Wanted? A star’s life now probably lasts six months, and then you’re done. It wasn’t like with you and Jenna Jameson. It’s changed so much. What do you think of the Adult industry now?
You know, I’m in the business side now. I have a novelty line with Fleshlight through California Exotic novelties, I mean… listen, I knew from the beginning when I was starting to shoot porn that I had to own everything. In order for me to capitalize and take anything from the business I was going to have to go into business mode and I was going to have to create a business model to create residual income for my life. These girls don’t think that way; also because the medium, the same mediums I had don’t exist for them. You know, they don’t get the opportunity to own their content, because there’s not the same webmasters building the same websites. Now the companies don’t go into contract anymore, because there’s so many girls.
When I was in the industry, from 2000-2005, let’s say there was a thousand girls in the industry when I started; there must be 20,000 now. It’s completely oversaturated, so I think as a consumer, you have a lot more options. You don’t need to know who these girls are, but when it was in my day, you got to know me a little bit because we also put out, in my opinion, better content. Higher quality. You can tell, the movies from the scenes, that my budgets for my movies were very high. They were done very well. It was a production. It was very professional. I had the same cameramen for all my movies, the same makeup artist, the same crew. I think now, when I see what they call a “production,” I think this is some guy in his garage with an iPhone. It’s changed a lot, and not for the better, unfortunately.
What I really admire about you is you’re kinda like a role model to a lot of these girls.
My integrity was very important to me, and I feel like I left gracefully. It was very important for me to leave just my work, the best. And people ask me on Twitter, “When are you coming back?” And I’m like, “What do you mean? It’s been eight years, there’s no going back!” And to me, it would be only backwards, because I don’t need to shoot, ever again. There’s nothing to do, I feel like I did it all. That ship sailed, I can’t imagine what I could do that would be fresh and exciting.
That’s true. Is there something that you’re super proud of from those years?
Sure, because even some of the scenes that — I’ll be honest — I didn’t enjoy as much as others, it was all an experience. Because for me when I got into porn, I had been shooting magazines: I shot Playboy, I shot Penthouse, I was shooting glamour magazines. But when I got asked to do a movie, I basically made the same approach I have with life: why not? It was to experiment, I was younger, I was 23 when I started, so I had a very open mind at the time, and I thought I was getting paid to live out some fantasies and travel. Why not? I’m not gonna go back to nursing, you know.
Would you still recommend girls join the industry?
You know, if girls do ask, I don’t really say yes or no. The three pieces of Tera advice I always give them are: 1) Make sure it’s really what you wanna do, because it is something that will change the course of your life. If you decide to get married, if you decide to have a normal job, everyone is gonna see what you’re doing, so it may affect part of your life in the future, so just be very conscious of that; 2) I tell them to not sign anything without an attorney. I always try to get them to kind of look at it as a business, because it is a business. It’s your image, it’s your likeness; and 3) I always tell them to be safe and use protection, and take care of their body. It astounds me that a lot of these people in the industry work with no health insurance… it’s quite risky, you know. Maybe it’s the mother in me, but that’s the advice I normally give.
Last question: what does the future hold for Tera Patrick?
I’m gonna keep doing my appearances, I’m gonna keep traveling. I work as a chemist, actually, during the week. That’s why I moved to Italy — to study chemistry. And I’m gonna work in medicine composition. This is what I wanna do. I’m gonna be 40 in one week…
I actually knew that. I just didn’t know if I should ask you about the big 4-0.
Yeah, hell, yeah! Bitch, I’m Asian. (Editor’s note: Tera’s part Thai.) I’m gonna be like Pikachu, young forever. Good Asian genes! But no, I wanted to work in science and medicine, this was always a dream of mine. So I think when I slowly start to stop traveling and I get a normal job, I’m gonna work as a chemist. - Photos by CARLO CASAS