It's not often that you meet as refreshing and candid a person as Sharon Kane. Armed only with a small tape recorder, our eager emissaries hurried off to the preordained meeting spot - and proceeded to talk and talk. In fact, this transcript has been whittled down to an acceptable length; they talked for hours and hours and hours. Luckily, from the reels of the tape, we have managed to preserve for you the liveliness and forthrightness of the initial interview, cutting only those lengthy parts where food was ordered, hairstyles were pondered, drug habits were argued interminably, friends joined in unexpectedly, etc. What you have here is the nectar, the core of the conversation.
You'll notice that Sharon's personality emerges from the page almost immediately. Her startling attitude about sex is liberating and intelligent; her association with the mysterious church of Venus will surprise you; her positive, no frills attitudes towards life will delight you. You can see her in the upcoming Henri Pachard film, The Widespread Scandal of Lydia Lace, as well as The Playgirl, where she has a torrid sex scene with George Payne. Bright, cheerful, and healthily sexual, Sharon Kane is a refreshing and charming new friend.
CAV: Why don't we start by you telling us what movies you have been in?
Sharon: The first movie I made was "Pretty Features" the very first one.
CAV: "Pretty Features" ... it was a big movie, right?
Sharon: My very first starring role. Then there was "Fantasy World".
CAV: You've been in a lot of them?
Sharon: Yeah.
CAV: Have you played the lead in any films?
Sharon: "Expose".
CAV: Have you done much of your work out in San Francisco?
Sharon: Yes.
CAV: How did you get into this... The first time?
Sharon: Well, I was working live shows. I'd danced partially nude before. I saw the ad in the paper, "Dancers wanted", you know... $100 a day, and so I went there and applied. I was really shy, you know, to take off my clothes. It really took me a long time to get used to it. Finally, they asked me if I wanted to be in a film and I said, "Well, I don't know. I'm not really sure." I thought about it for a couple of days and then I said, "Okay." So that was how I got into a film. Then, I met other people who wanted to put me in other films and I ... then, you know, it snowballs.
CAV: Have you ever made a movie you were proud of?
CAV: Are the working conditions more important than the script?
Sharon: They're as important, I would say. The script is real important too. If the script is really awful and you get the feeling that people don't care, then I don't get enthused.
CAV: To you, the movie is a social event?
Sharon: Well, it's...
CAV: Or a business experience?
Sharon: It's both. I mean, it's a lot of things.
CAV: There's some aspect of this that seems to be important to you. You talk about the working conditions and...
Sharon: I think the consciousness of the people is real important. You know, that people are positive and that people keep a high, at least a positive state of mind and outlook on the work. I mean, if you're working with somebody really, you know, kind of negative...
CAV: You've done that?
Sharon: Oh yeah, I've worked with people who have had bad outlooks, been all drugged down and just come on without energy all the way around. It's not that much fun. You can't wait until it's over.
CAV: Who's fun to work with?
Sharon: Fun to work with? I like John Leslie. He's fun to work with. Oh, I like Richard Pacheco, and I like Michael, my boyfriend.
CAV: Is he in the movies?
Sharon: Yes.
CAV: What films is he in?
Sharon: Well, he's in films that haven't been released. One just got released. He's in The Playgirl. At the end of The Playgirl he does a small scene. That's his first film - and he's worked for John Christopher. You know John? He just filmed "Blue Jeans".
CAV: Has Michael worked with other women than you?
Sharon: Yes.
CAV: How do you feel about it?
Sharon: Oh, some parts of me don't like it, of course.
CAV: Are you going to see the films anyway?
Sharon: I never see the films. (Laughs) I've only seen two of my films. Two or three, you know. It's just not that high of a priority really. I get critical of my films and it's hard for me to watch myself acting.
CAV: Is he going to be in "The Devil in Miss Jones II" with you?
Sharon: Well, not with me, but he plays the part of a captain.
CAV: And you're playing the part of who?
Sharon: Mata Hari.
CAV: How long have you been making movies?
Sharon: Let's see... for about five years. Five years, off and on.
CAV: Is there some way you would have imagined yourself being in porno before that?
Sharon: No.
CAV: What were you doing? Where were you headed?
Sharon: Singing.
CAV: What was this church thing you were involved in?
Sharon: That church was a... a lot of people thought that it wasn't legitimate. But it really was. There was a core group of people that really believed. See, the thing was centered around the -
CAV: The name of the church was -
Sharon: The Menusian Church
CAV: The Church of Venus.
Sharon: Yeah, but settled around the matriarchal religions. You know, like a feminine goddess type energy, and a lot of it was centered around life-spring ideas to make yourself more alive, and be able to express yourself clearly - as long as it didn't intrude upon the space goddess.
CAV: The basic ritual was the peep show. (Laughter)
Sharon: It was! The thing was that they were trying to show people that sex was sensual, and that it was an expression of creativity, and art, and that it was an expression of energy. Instead, the City of Seattle couldn't deal with that. They had a peep show, and there were people with feathers, they were with each other having sex. And, over that, there would be a voice-over and music saying, "Let yourself go!" "Feel the beauty of the sexual experience." "Sex is God," you know? And there would be people in the suits jacking off. (Laughter) This was in Seattle.
CAV: What is the little thing that you did in the show?
Sharon: It started out with a show with two women together. There was another woman and myself and we did sensual lesbian acts. We went around to each of the people in the room, and they had flashlights, and you'd show them different parts; you know, it was non-verbal, pretty non-verbal. And then it emerged into something else, where the other woman dropped out, and then it became more personal. I took classes...
CAV: How did you get involved in this church?
Sharon: A friend of mine that I knew in San Francisco knew these people really well. He found out that I was up there, and said, "Hey, you should go down and meet these people, because they're really good people, and I'm sure that you'd like them; they're where your head is, sexually" - I went down there.
CAV: Does it look like a regular church?
Sharon: There's like - you walk in, and there's sort of a...
CAV: Museum. (Laughter) Yeah, they have little exhibits and stuff.
Sharon: Yeah, yeah. They have all these candles on the wall that have pictures of the stars. And you enter this room where there's a screen, and pews, and people sit there and watch movies.
CAV: The movies are made by San Francisco porn people, right?
Sharon: Right, that's right, yeah.
CAV: It was an extraordinary thing - it was extraordinary! I'd never seen anything like it. I thought the stuff that you did was wonderful - I really did.
Sharon: Really?
CAV: Yeah, it was like a dirty peep show. It was very sensuous because she'd be saying things like, "I like to masturbate," "This is how I masturbate," you asked them; you said, "Do you like to watch me masturbate?" And you would talk to them while you were saying it.
Sharon: Oh, yeah.
CAV: And then when you were shining your flashlight up there, what you had was more than just a peep show, you had a real nice-
Sharon: Kind of a forum, yeah.
CAV: How did you get the job, on cable TV, of doing the underpants commercial - the underpants that vibrate? (Laughter) How did you get a job like that?
Sharon: A friend called me up and he said, hey, I've got this great thing you might like to do; it's for this guy who's selling vibrating underwear. There's a little speaker, like a little transistor speaker, that slides into the crotch of the underwear, and then it vibrates.
CAV: Does it work?
Sharon: You know - yeah. The first time I did it, it seemed like it was great, like it could really get me off. But the second pair that I had wasn't as strong. (Laughter) I don't know why.
CAV: How did you feel about doing the commercial?
Sharon: Oh, it was so much fun! Yeah, it was great! Yeah.
CAV: Are you naked in the commercial?
Sharon: Naked? Yeah.
CAV: Do you put on the pants, or do you take them off?
Sharon: I'm with this guy, and we're sitting on the couch, and I turn around and I say, "We boogie together every chance we get." And then you hear "You can get your Boogie Bloomers for $19.95." And then the last shot is I'm sitting on a bed, I have on my Boogie Bloomers and I say, "I wear Boogie Bloomers, or I wear nothing at all!"
CAV: But would you recommend anybody to buy 'em?
Sharon: Yeah, I think it would be fun. Sure.
CAV: Do they make 'em for men?
Sharon: Yeah. They fit men. One size fits all. (Laughter)
CAV: Is your permanent residence out here now?
Sharon: No, I don't have one (Laughs). Well, it's sort of in Seattle, because I have all my belongings there, but we're getting ready to leave the country, so-
CAV: Oh, and for where?
Sharon: Australia and Japan.
CAV: What are you planning on doing? Just traveling?
Sharon: Yeah.
CAV: Are you gonna work there?
Sharon: Yeah, we're getting a regular portfolio together, to see if we can go over there and do some work.
CAV: Do you want to stick with porn, or eventually get out of it?
Sharon: I don't know. I don't know. It depends on the direction that erotic films go in. You know, I really like working in films a lot, I like acting.
CAV: Do you get recognized in the street from any of the films?
Sharon: No, I don't. But I can change looks a lot now.
CAV: Are there any parts that you would turn down? I mean, certain things-
Sharon: Oh, that I wouldn't do? Oh, I don't like being humiliated. I don't want anybody to piss on me. I don't like that. I mean, I don't mind being dominated in a movie, but - not playing a real passive role, nothing that would really humiliate me, as a person. That I wouldn't do in real life, you know.
CAV: Do you like S&M? Are you interested in that at all?
Sharon: Well, you know, I've gone through the Hellfire Club a couple of times, you know.
CAV: What do you do there?
Sharon: I tried to get into the scene there, you know. A guy came up to me and said, "I found a whip, would you whip me?" And I said okay, because I wanted to see what it was like, so he found a really long whip, and took me into a back room. He pulled his pants down and bent over. I couldn't be serious. It was funny to me. I felt like I should be getting paid for doing this to him. You know, it was like I was working too hard. (Laughter) And then after I did it, all these little guys come in these little old men came running up to me, "Mistress, Mistress! Can I be next, can I be next? Five lashes! Three, two one!" No, no (Laughs).
CAV: Have you ever gone to Plato's?
Sharon: Yeah.
CAV: Which one do you like better? Plato's or Hellfire?
Sharon: They both seem to have an atmosphere. I think that I like Plato's because it's clean, and I like Hellfire because it's loose; sexually; it's not so heterosexual.
CAV: Not so heterosexual? Do you like male homosexuals to come in? I don't understand.
Sharon: Well, I mean, my experience at Plato's is, you go to Plato's and it's couples everywhere. Couples, couples, couples, you know? And it's sort of like - I don't know, it's weird.
CAV: Nobody talks to anybody else.
Sharon: Right. Nobody - and it's hard to get eye contact, and it's like - with the men, it's like a bartering system, or something. The men go to each other, and it's like a trade, you know. I don't like that.
CAV: Would you say that what you like about Hellfire is that you are a woman among all these men; is that what -
Sharon: No, no, that it sexually seems more okay, whatever trip that you're into. And I'm saying that, if you're - gay, or if you're a bisexual, if you're into S&M, or if you're into pissing on somebody, that's okay, you know. You go do that there.
CAV: And you're into all these scenes, obviously.
Sharon: I'm not into all those things, but I accept them. I have done a couple of things, just to experience what it was like, to see if I like doing it. Like, peeing in somebody's mouth, and he drank it. (Laughs) And I said, "okay". You know, "okay". It didn't do anything for me, you know, it was just like "well, I did it," and it wasn't a big rush. There aren't many things that excite me. Sex has become so personal for me, you know, in my intimate relationships, that I have to really feel something for someone. I can't just go and have sex with someone. I have to really feel an attraction, and like them a lot.
CAV: Were you very promiscuous before?
Sharon: Yeah, I was more promiscuous. I had slept with a lot of people, for a long time. Yeah, yeah. I was married when I was really young, so when I got a divorce, it was like a big blast of energy just turned loose, you know? (Laughter) You just go out, and you fuck a lot.
CAV: Well, what was your modus operandi? Picking up guys in the street, or going -
Sharon: Yeah, I did that. Pick up people on the street, on the bus, and go home and have sex. But that wasn't very fulfilling; I was just basically really looking for a relationship, you know?
CAV: Have you ever had a fantasy that you wanted to fulfill?
Sharon: Uh-huh. My biggest fantasy was having sex with women. And I've done that - I really like that.
CAV: You enjoy that?
Sharon: Yeah, it makes me feel good.
CAV: Is that acceptable in your relationship?
Sharon: Mm-hm. Yeah.
CAV: You have a very open relationship?
Sharon: Basically, yeah. We're very understanding, and I'm - Michael's much more open than I am.
CAV: Do you and Michael ever get into threesomes?
Sharon: Mm-hm. Yeah, we've done that.
CAV: When was the first time you ever went to bed with anybody?
Sharon: No, I was actually a real tomboy. Then I thought, ah. I'm never gonna have sex. (Laughter)
CAV: When was the first time you ever gave head?
Sharon: When I gave head? I was probably about 18.
CAV: When was the first time you ever had an affair with a woman?
Sharon: Do you mean a real heart-to-heart affair?
CAV: Yeah?
Sharon: Probably when I was 23.
CAV: Did you live with her?
Sharon: She lived with - yeah, in the house that I lived in.
CAV: Did it go on for a long time?
Sharon: No, uh-uh. We were real good friends, but it only lasted for six months. She moved away, and I moved away. It dissolved.
CAV: Do you have any fantasies you'd like to fulfill?
Sharon: Oh, God! You know, when I go to Japan... I really love oriental men, especially tall -
CAV: So wherever you lay your hat is your home? Do you like to be that type of traveler? Get up and go?
Sharon: I like to be able to do that right now in my life, because I haven't found a place that I really wanted to live. It's hard to find a place that you can just really adjust to. I mean, it's sort of an art to be able to travel - you know, carry your home with you. I'm just learning how to do that. I've been going back and forth to New York for the past year, and I'm just learning how to survive living that way. I'd like to find a place, maybe Australia, or Japan, because right now my lifestyle is very zen, anyway. And I like Oriental cooking. (Laughs) I mean, I like Japanese tea and I"m into macrobiotics and stuff - I try to follow that.
CAV: Are you more or less a back-to-nature person?
Sharon: An organic? Yeah, I am. I'm that way.
CAV: Do you have any vices?
Sharon: Huh? (Laughs)
CAV:Ok, you admit you do drugs. And you're not ashamed? It's not like it's a big habit of yours?
Sharon: No. I do it - Now I hope nobody comes looking for me because I say all this stuff. I do it because people for thousands of years have been doing mushrooms. It's sort of a ritual. I don't do it just to get high, and go out to a party. That's not what it is for me. I use it for mind expansion, and to raise my consciousness, because it's natural that people want to find ways to get into a different level of consciousness. I have an Indian guru now, Swami Senage. He was doing a tour of the United States, but I missed him. I'm gonna live there - probably at the ashram for a while. I think that the main quest in life, the bottom line, is that people are spiritual beings. I want to be able to give people some energy, and to learn a lot about feelings, and just energy in general, like, my body, and what makes my body work, how to be calm.
CAV: Do you feel that when you have a sex scene? Do you try and express that to the person you're working with?
Sharon: Yeah, I feel that I do, more than I used to, because I've gotten into it more. I just worked in a film where this Indian guy and I did it, and it was on confident sex, and sensuality. It was really great, because he was trying to express everything: the loving energy side of sex, and the consciousness side of sex - it was great. You see, in a lot of films, it's kind of hard to show that on camera. I mean, because of the scenes that they want. You can give the person you're working with good energy, and not be negative to them, because it just makes the scene harder.
CAV: Do you like to sit down with the person that you're gonna have a scene with, and talk to them before?
Sharon: Uh-huh.
CAV: And develop some kind of relationship? Do you find that it makes it easier to do the sex scenes?
Sharon: Yeah, I guess so - in some cases. In most cases.
CAV: I guess in some cases you want to shoot him! (Laughs)
Sharon: It's sort of an abstraction of this society, the way this society looks at sex. It relates back to Christianity, and Catholicism, the whole thing is sexually repressive. You know? And pornography is an outgrowth of that, to me. It's like showing society that hey, it's not bad. Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.
CAV: How do you feel, knowing that when people go and see your films they're getting off to 'em, sitting there jerking off? How does that make you feel?
Sharon: Beautiful.
OCTOBER 1982
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