Tuesday night, I drive to Sardo’s Bar in Burbank.
I interview deaf porn star Savannah Jane.
A social worker by training, she entered porn four months ago.
"I want to get my degree as a sex therapist and write a book," she says.
Luke: "Why did you get into porn?"
Savannah: "Being a social worker doesn’t make any money. Twenty five thousand dollars a year doesn’t cut it."
Luke: "Have you lost any friends from your decision to get into porn?"
Savannah: "A lot of my friends don’t know what I do for a living. My family doesn’t know what I do for a living."
Luke: "How are they going to react?"
Her face becomes horrified. "Forget it! Oy ve!"
She comes from an Orthodox Jewish home.
Luke: "Did you celebrate Rosh Hashanah?"
Savannah: "Unfortunately, I did not know what shuls to go to. Don’t ask me that. It’s too personal."
Luke: "How would your best friends describe you?"
Savannah: "Very outgoing. Very honest. A good friend. Very protective."
"As a child, I was going to be either a firefighter or a police officer."
"I went to a private school until I was ten [I think she means yeshiva] and then went to a regular school… Then I associated with metal bands. Not so bad. I was never a troublemaker. I always had good grades."
"I had it hard growing up. I had a good family, a very supportive family. Very strict, strict family… I moved out when I was 15."
Luke: "What made your life so hard?"
Savannah: "I don’t want to talk about it. It’s too personal."
Luke: "What has surprised you in the porn industry?"
Savannah: "Some of these guys, they go hard. That’s the one bad thing. It’s only happened to me once or twice… There are always going to be one or two bad apples."
Luke: "Have you ever gotten hurt in the industry?"
Savannah: "Saturday night somebody put GHB in my drink. I don’t even want to go into it."
"And another girl’s drink. In a bar at a porn [Club Jenna] party."
"I’m not a drinker… I had two shots all night long. There was no way I could be drunk. I knew something was not right. The other girl was face down."
Luke: "What do you love and hate about being deaf?"
Savannah: "I can sleep all night and nothing wakes me up. I’m completely deaf. I’m 100 decibels deaf in my [right] ear. The other one has a cochlea implant. What I hate about it? I miss a lot of what is said. I’ve had a couple of producers discriminate against me because of my deafness. I’m a sensitive person. It hurts.
"I won’t show it to your face but when I walk out, ‘You motherf—–. You shouldn’t discriminate against somebody because you’re black or white or deaf or blind.’"
Here’s Savannah Jane’s MySpace.
Other porn stars from an Orthodox background include Joanna Angel, Alexandra Silk, Mila Shegol (I believe she’s a graduate of Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy)…
J. emails: "I had a brief reconnect with a i was friends with growing up – she was in yavneh – and me in hillel. Anyway, i heard rumors over the years that she became a stripper and possibly more – she was always the little jewish hottie 🙂 when we recently reconnected she had mentioned she spent about 4 or 5 years in the industry doing movies. Needless to say i was blown away – but she wouldn’t tell me her stage name but mentioned if you google her she is all over. After a couple calls we lost touch again and i never got that stage name. Any chance you may know or able to ask around some? her name is alyssa deckel she is 30 years old and now out of the biz."
