WHACK! MAGAZINE Sheena, why don’t you give us a little bit of an introduction about who you are and what you do so that the readers know who they’re reading about?
SHEENA RYDER Well, I’m southern Californian, born and raised, twenty-seven years old. I’m going to be a lovely twenty-eight in January, but I don’t look it, so that’s definitely a plus! Sex is my biggest vice. I wanted to be a Playboy model when I was fourteen years old, but when I was eighteen, I joined the military instead. So I went into the service and got my medical training without having to pay for it, but after a while I got tired of being told what to do. I’d gotten in trouble for a few things and could get an honorable discharge, so I figured I’d just quit while I was ahead.
W! So you went into the military right out of high school?
SR Yes.
W! Wow. How made you decide to do that?
SR I wanted medical training, and I thought, why pay all this money to go to college for a lesser amount of training and experience, rather than the military, where I’d get more experience and get paid to do it? So yeah.
W! That makes a lot of sense. I’m surprised more people don’t think of that.
SR I consider myself “old army.” Unfortunately, with the last two presidents and the events that have occurred with the nation, the military has changed. Politics have taken over. So I definitely do not suggest the military to anybody else. That does not make me unpatriotic; I just feel that there needs to be a little bit of reform. They’re taking anybody off the streets, people with criminal records, with health problems…
W! Yeah, I’ve heard that. I guess you saw it firsthand. Do you think it changed a lot while you were in the military?
SR Yes. That’s another reason that pushed me out.
W! Were you planning to be in it for your career? I mean, I guess 9 years kind of is career, but were you planning to stay longer, initially?
SR Yeah, no, they told me, “You’re on year ten! It’s been nine and a half years, you’re halfway there! Just keep going!” I dedicated a decade of my life, but if I complain about work too hard for too little in the nurse job I have now, in the military it’s 24/7. It’s definitely working too hard for too little.
W! So were you abroad, or were you stationed here?
SR I never actually got deployed but I did travel around the US. I was at one of the big military installations in Texas, where the medical center dealt with a lot of the soldiers from Iraq.
W! Wow, you must have seen some crazy things.
SR You could show me things that would make a grown man crawl into a corner, go white, and start vomiting, and I’d be happy.
W! Wow. So… you’re tough. So you’ve always been interested in the medical field, but since we’re here to talk about your career in the adult industry, I mean… how did that come about?
SR You know, I have done a little bit of dabbling in the swinging lifestyle. I’ve never done a drug in my life. Alcohol, whatever. Sex is one of those things that… I’m just very sexually charged. I consider myself not bi, but bi-furious. When people ask me if I’m bisexual, bi-comfortable, or bi-curious, my answer is bi-furious! I feel that sex is my vice. I’m interested in what’s pleasurable for all parties involved, and not just for the camera. The only experience I’ve had with another girl aside from amateur stuff, I didn’t really do much with her. A scene from Evil Angel is with Katie Jordan and Rocco Reed, we did girl-girl anal for that one, but then again not so much real intimate things.
W! So you’d like to do something more, maybe along the lines of Girlfriends Films, with more of the long, slow, intimate work with a woman?
SR Definitely. I feel like I could definitely excel in that. I think I could steer it… If I’m doing more stuff with the guys during anal scenes and stuff like that, I could steer more towards that. And then I could save the girl-girl experience for the girls who orient themselves toward that.
W! So when did you get started in the industry?
SR Last July. I signed up with LA Direct for a while but I’m trying to go out on my own. I feel like I was mildly held back from certain companies, who go with certain other agencies. There are certain ways to go. I wanted to make myself available to everybody.
W! Tell me about the first time you did a scene. If you’d been in the swinger lifestyle already, you might not have many inhibitions, but is it different to have a camera pointed at you?
SR I was very comfortable with people watching, whether it’s in a crowded room or not. I occasionally would have sex at parties in the swinging lifestyle where there would be a room full of people, and I’d be able to still perform, not be shy, and put on a show. I used to be on a chat room where I’d put on late-night cam shows for everybody on the internet as well, so I was already kind of doing that before I ever joined the industry.
W! Ok, so have you actually done anything on film that you didn’t do before you got into the adult industry?
SR Hmm… Yeah… Um. Actually… hold on… Yeah, you know what? It’s not so much… Well, with some film directors, they just let you go balls out, but others choreograph it. So I end up having to take instruction, which is a chore. It’s not even fun. The angles, and all that.
W! Yeah, I think that’s something that most people don’t even think about a lot of the time because when it’s all edited, it looks natural no matter what the situation really is. But it’s not natural when you’re on the set.
SR Yeah, and I’ll watch after the fact, and watch something that I thought looked good, and I’ll go and watch my own work, which is probably the worst thing I could do because I’m definitely my own worst critic. I’ll be like, “Oh, I shouldn’t have done that pose, I look retarded!” And then I’ll show it to somebody else and they go, “What are you talking about? You look hot.” And I’m thinking, “They’re just happy to be looking at a naked chick.” They’re not looking at what I look at.
W! Well when you watch a scene you’ve done, then do you try to avoid doing those things that you don’t like again? Or do you forget all about it when it’s going down?
SR There’s definitely practice. There’s definitely muscles in your facial features for the different pretty-girl photos for box covers and what not that you want to make a recipe for that so that you already know what your poses are so that your face goes with your pose. So I’m starting to learn that. I’m learning to put my face together, but then I look down and it’s like, “Wait a second, you’re body’s too stiff.” So then I get my body together, but then my face… laughing
W! That’s definitely a learned skill. I have all these pictures of me at parties with people who do porn, and I look like an idiot because I’m doing some stupid pose, but they always look good. They know what they’re doing.
SR It’s practice, definitely. And I have a photographer that does all the industry events, and he’s done a couple of my shoots, I told him, “Don’t let me get any pictures done at events if I’ve had a couple drinks!” Cause I just… I’m good on the red carpet, but don’t catch me later in the night! I also try to present myself in a more classy manner, so when the photographers are like, “Sheena, Sheena, show us something!” I’m like, “Ummm…”
W! Yeah, I had read that you like to keep it classy. So what’s your take on that? What does being classy mean to you?
SR Well, I’ve been watching porn for years. And I remember when it was all more glamorous. And I thought in my head that I’d bring the glamour back to porn, and I was gonna change it. But I’ve realized that everyone’s kind of, “Whatever,” about it. But now I’m actually a part of the Adult Performers Association, that’s starting to get porn people together. The standard needs to be raised, the bar needs to be raised. Not that we want to like flush people down the drain, but there are a lot of people who just jump into porn, and there’s already not enough work as it is, but they’re just letting girls get off the bus and putting them through on like conveyor belts.
W! But you feel that there are people, like you, who are adults and have decided that this a career move they’re going to make, and it’s not a very level playing field?
SR No. There’s preferential treatment. There are girls that say you have to “pay your dues.” But I say, pay dues? Why can’t you just excel from your hard work? Do you have to go through, like being a busboy before being a bartender? Definitely. I hear other girls complain about being double-booked, but I’m like, “I’ve gone two weeks without a booking. And you’re double booked in one day?” So they’re overworking some girls and others aren’t getting work.
W! So do you think that the Adult Performers Association is going to be able to help figure out ways to level that out?
SR That is one of the aspects… There are people who are high-risk as far as the whole HIV scares go. There are definitely some puzzle pieces that aren’t matching up. Eventually the truth will come out. That’s actually one of the reasons I haven’t worked as much recently is because of that incident. I feel that if those questions aren’t answered properly, I’m not settling easy with it.
W! Well that’s a scary thing. I hope that the APA can make more resources available to performers to answer those kinds of questions, so I hope it goes well.
SR Yeah, the prevention of situations like that incident, as well… Education. I mean, once again, with girls just off the bus, some of them don’t even know what to do with an enema. And they’ll be on set making fun of a girl because of that… I mean, the fact that they would sit there and make fun of someone for something like that… You know, common sense is not so common, and this poor girl drinks the enema and the shoot had to be canceled. She didn’t know what to do with it. Just professionalism, and conduct, and hygiene…
W! Actually, that’s something that I hear a lot from adult performers. Hygiene is an issue. But I guess I just have trouble imagining that anyone who is having their body filmed would not go through the steps it takes to have good hygiene. But… is that something you’ve actually run into? Bad hygiene on set?
SR There are people who don’t… The second the shoot’s done, ok when the pop shot’s done, I’m in the shower. If I don’t, I have problems. I’m in the shower right after. But there are people who, after performing, will be sitting there all cum-soaked. I’m like, “Are you joking, really? You’re not gonna go handle that?” It’s one of those things. Like not douching before, even though I know that there are issues with people who might douche every day, they’re going to mess with their natural bacteria. There’s definitely all this preventative care that’s not common knowledge.
W! Yeah that must be difficult for you to see, because as a medical professional, you know how these things work.
SR I’ve said some things to some people to their face, but they always want to think they know it all. Like when they’re 18 or 19 years old. But I’m 27 and I’m a grown-ass woman.
W! Well, you know, nobody wants to hear it.
SR That’s why I like the idea of like Porn 101 videos to show people what’s going to happen. A few girls told me how afraid they were on set their first scene, and eventually they break the ice. But there are these little dark corners on set where things happen, and that’s where the professionalism aspect of the Adult Performers Association is going to come in. You know, you don’t need to warm up backstage before the scene. Like, you’re coming in to do a job.
And, you know, not talking bad about each other on Twitter. People often just go on Twitter and go on these rants. I am definitely not innocent of that, but you’ve got to keep it… Everyone just bawls out and calls each other out. I mean between that and preferential treatment, sometimes I can’t believe that people would go on a social networking site where people are already judging you, and then act like that.
W! Yeah, social networking is such a relatively new thing that I think some people might not realize yet how their use of it can reflect upon them.
SR I know this one. I was getting out of a relationship, and I had a day where I went on a rant on Twitter. And I realized that, that day, I lost a bunch of followers. They just tend to get a bad taste in their mouth when you’re not meeting that image of, “Oh I want to take a big cock!” laughing Keep it to links to hot pictures, and wish everybody a happy Hump Day, all right?
W! laughing Yeah, keep up the image! And speaking of image, I have heard that you’re known for your booty. Your measurements are ridiculous.
SR laughing Yes, I have an ass. I’m Puerto Rican and Greek, so…
W! Ah-hah! Well can you tell everyone your measurements so they know what I’m talking about?
SR Well actually, I do tend to fluctuate depending on muscle. Like I said, I went to the gym earlier. I’m trying to get a little thickness without the flab, you know what I mean? My bust can range from a 34 to a 36…
W! I’d imagine that having a booty like that gets you a specific kind of work.
SR Yeah. I’ve been featured in Assets for Zero Tolerance, an Evil Angel video, where I’m not sure exactly what John Leslie’s idea was for it, but it has something to do with big ass bitches or something, but unfortunately he passed, and my content got rearranged to something else. So it might not be focusing on that, in such a manner. I did a little thing for Booty Bonanza. Something like that. So yeah, that was featuring… that.
I have more pictures on my phone of my bum than I do of my face! Laughing
W! Well, you know, if you’ve got it, use it.
SR That’s one of the things that I feel sets me apart. There’s some women like Kelly Divine and Alexis Texas, girls like that, and if I can be put up there with the likes of them, by all means! I definitely want to get some boobs to go with it, but I was advised to go big or go home.
W! Oh, really?
SR I only want something that’s going to look good. Right now Victoria Secret’s trying to make me feel better by telling me that I’m a 44B, but I’m like… No… I don’t know. Again, because of the military training and the weight training I do at the gym, I actually tend to have pecs. So I’m more muscle mass than I am actual breast, unfortunately.
And when it comes to, you know, getting enhancement to my breast size, being able to get it either under or over the muscle, I want to do what’s gonna look good. And when it comes to the silicone versus the saline… I definitely know what I want. I don’t want to go bigger than maybe a 36C.
W! I think that the small boobs, big butt is not really a shape that you see often in porn. Maybe it could be like your niche market.
SR Oh, definitely! I feel in eventuality, that’s probably one of the next things that you want to cater to. Small boobs. And then there’s a whole other “natural girls” category. I’ve actually been going back and forth about getting implants way before I got into the industry. We’re talking like age 16. I was afraid I was never going to get any at all. I was definitely a late bloomer in that aspect.
W! I actually wanted to ask: being in a military life… Since you weren’t deployed you weren’t in as much of an isolated situation as you could have found yourself in, but I wonder… what was your sex life like in the military? Is it hampered or better?
SR It’s so funny, allegedly the only position you’re allowed to do is missionary or you can get in trouble. And I’m like, “Who’s gonna monitor that?” I mean are they gonna come down hard on you if you cheat? But no, definitely, I had my booty calls since I was seventeen. I was seventeen and doing it to twenty-three year old. Movin and shakin it! But when I joined the military I had slept with maybe seven people, and ten months later I’d doubled my number to fourteen! laughing
So, yeah, what you go through all the physical and mental stress of the military, you definitely need to release it. Honest to god, I was recorded with one of my booty calls, and I didn’t know that he had made copies of that tape. This was actually back in the tape days. So I did my first technical “porn,” an amateur video. It was in Texas, it was in New York, and Colorado. And then my boyfriend at the time saw it in his military installation when he was in Korea.
W! Oh my god!
SR I did not enjoy that phone call, when he said, “I just saw you in a freaking amateur sex tape in Korea.” Yeah. We’re talking like two years later.
W! That is so funny! Was the tape just making the rounds of army bases?
SR Completely. Yeah, you share it with your buddies or whatever. And the reason he knew it was me was because of my shoulder tattoo. I’ve had that since I was eighteen years old.
W! That makes me think, I bet back in the day there was probably a huge underground black market for amateur porn in the 
military.
SR Well there definitely is in Afghanistan. And unfortunately some of the soldiers will buy what they think is boy/girl porn, and they put it on, and… the girls never come. laughing There’s definitely that. You’re not actually allowed to buy it, but they’ve gotta do something with themselves over there.
They do have a black market, but as far as soldier-to-soldier? Yeah. I was definitely some bad behavior on my part and I got in trouble for doing that.
W! I can’t believe that. Korea. Wow.
SR Yeah, and the person who had it and showed it to everybody wasn’t even the person who made it. So I was like, “Who gave you a copy?! Seriously?! How much did you pay for it?”
W! Did you ever find out how that all happened?
SR No. It just became a very sore subject at that point in time. Now, when I look back on it, I’m like, “Oh well.” But at the time when that phone call occurred, I definitely was bawling and embarrassed.
W! Well, but hey, it was practice. I guess you’ve just been doing porn for longer than you thought!
SR laughing Yeah, definitely. And you know, when I told my mom, she was like, “You can’t find any other way to make money?” And I said, “No, mom, you don’t understand how much I can make for just four hours. As opposed to busting my ass for forty hours a week.”
W! Well, and you’re doing something you enjoy, which is a real gift.
SR I’ve got people from high school that somehow found out, and they’re all finding me online.
W! Oh yeah, I bet they’re all coming out of the woodwork. I bet your ten year reunion is coming up, huh?
SR Oh my god, yeah.
W! You should just get a whole posse of porn people to come with you. Nobody would be able to say anything.
SR I don’t think my hometown would be able to handle it.
W! But it’d be so funny! Anyway, think about it. I might do the same thing for mine.
SR Oh yeah, definitely, you’d make the party that way!
W! Yeah that’s the idea! But my hometown couldn’t handle it either. They’d run away screaming.
SR It’s definitely still taboo to some people. Some people out there who actually have problems, and say, “How could you do that,” and blah blah blah. But I say, “Yeah whatever, go ahead and go make all your mistakes and then wake up in the morning and live with yourself.”
W! Ouch!
SR The difference between what they do and my promiscuity, is that I get a paycheck.
W! There’s a lot to be said for that. It just depends on who you ask. Ok, we should wrap this up because we’ve been on the phone for a while! Is there anything we can direct our readers to, scenes, websites, public appearances?
SR That scene I did with John Leslie, the last one he did before his passing, with Katey Jordan and Rocco Reed, was just released for Evil Angel. As far as appearances and what not, I don’t have anything planned right now. My Facebook is Sheena Ryder, and no, not the one from the UK. She’s a musician! And for Twitter it’s @SheenaRyder1. There will be a website in the future.
Thank you very much for your time!
W! Thank you, Sheena!
—Sinterview conducted by Miss Lagsalot