YNOT – Adult performer-director Jenna Haze has come a long way from the 15-year-old high-school dropout she describes as “a stoner chick from Fullerton [Calif.].” Now 29 and a 10-year veteran of the porn biz, she has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry. She won her first award, AVN’s Best New Starlet, in 2003, and has racked up a number of other awards since then. She launched her own studio, Jennaration X, in 2009, and in 2001 was among CNBC’s 12 most popular porn stars.

Here, she reflects on her career and gives a few hints about what she may do next.

YNOT: This year marks your 10th anniversary in the industry. How does that feel?
Jenna Haze: It’s crazy! It feels like just yesterday that I got in the business. I was 19 years old, and now I’m 29.

People always predict that if you stay in this business for more than two years you’re in it for life, because so many girls come and go. I never took it seriously my first couple of years, but then I developed a longing to really make this my career and really make something out of it. I never thought I’d have my own company and be directing and stuff.

When I first started magazines were big, and I was happy when I could get in a magazine — that’s how long ago it was. I never really planned to be here now and have a company; it just kind of happened. I just took the stuff as it went along and did what made me happy along the way.

The whole company thing is a new challenge for me. The dancing I’ve mastered for years; the performing I’ve mastered for years. I get so much more of a rush now out of directing than I do performing. I know it’s going to make some people sad to hear that, but understand that I’m not done performing. I’m just not enjoying it as much as I was enjoying it before, because there are other things that are interesting me more.

Tell us about directing and some of your recent releases.
I actually love directing more than I do performing now, which is crazy. I love seeing the whole thing come together. I’ll have a concept for a movie and then I’ll see a girl that I want to shoot for this movie and then I’ll find out who her favorite guy is to fuck. Then it’s the idea of putting them together in my fantasy, in my set-up and with all my dirty thoughts of what I want to see.

Also, I enjoy learning something new. I’ve been performing for so long that I feel like I’ve kind of mastered it, but the directing is a big challenge right now. So putting it all together and seeing it come together, from me picking the cast to choosing the camera angles and picking the wardrobe to getting the lighting set up I want, then seeing it all come together into a movie at the end is lots more rewarding than going to work, having sex and walking out with a paycheck.

Breast in Class 2 is still new and Just Jenna 2 just came out. [Both were produced by Jennaration X and are distributed by Jules Jordan Video.] The [latter] is the same concept as Just Jenna, and that came about because I have so many fans that enjoy a movie with just me in it, but it’s hard to do a movie like that.

I’ve been shooting all these exclusive videos for my website, or exclusive photos and what I call ‘jackoff encouragement videos’ where I talk to the camera and encourage the guys. I was doing a bunch of solos and one-on-one scenes for my website, so I decided to put them in a movie. Some fans really like all the hardcore stuff, but I have other fans who want a bit more of an intimate thing and aren’t interested in seeing me take two dicks or three dicks all the time. So I put out Just Jenna as a collection of one-on-ones of me and some of my favorite guys mixed in with solos and stuff, which I just kind of threw together. Then it ended up winning an AVN Award and I was flabbergasted, but now we’re putting out the second one and it’s a little different. It’s the same kind of format but there’s no set-up in this one. I do get to fuck one of my favorite guys [Scott Nails] for the last time because he’s now retired.

Is there anything you don’t like about directing?
Watching myself all the time really sucks when I have to go over the editing. My shortest movie is three and one-half hours long; my longest movie is five and one-half hours long plus a bonus scene. Once my editor edits the movie, he gives it to me and then I go over each scene, make notes on what I want changed, listen for sounds in the background, make sure the music’s right, what needs to be edited out, make sure the lighting is good. I decide all the things I want changed, and then I give it back to my editor who makes the changes then gives it back to me to watch again.

Watching myself repeatedly is not fun. I watch so much porn on my own that I make, I almost can’t watch any other porn because I dissect it. I think about how it was shot — even mainstream movies. I find myself taking them all apart, figuring out how they were done and if I could have done it better. It also takes a lot of the mystery out of movie making because I know how it’s all done.

You’ve recently been molded for a Fleshlight toy and also star in FleshLightning. How did that go?
I got molded, all three holes, for Fleshlight. Everything I’m doing with them is literally the best deal of my career, and I love it. They’re an incredible company, awesome people, and the product is great. Then we did this trailer for a movie called FleshLightning. It’s about a kid who’s a virgin and who’s obsessed with me, ends up getting a Fleshlight, and when he gets home and checks it out, he finds out it’s my Fleshlight. He gets all giddy and makes love to it, and when he does, lightning strikes a la Weird Science. The next morning he wakes up and turns on the news….

I don’t want to give too much away. It was a very big, professional production and it looks amazing.

Are there any performers you haven’t had a chance to work with?
Not really. I’ve had everybody I want. As I get older, I get more picky about who I want to have sex with. But there are always new girls that come in, and I think they’re really cute and I want to bang them. And I’ve heard that Xander Corbus guy is really good, but I haven’t met him and don’t know who he is. I don’t really have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, because I’m not really on other peoples’ sets anymore.

What are you working on now?
I’m getting ready to shoot Meow! 2 — which is the sequel to Meow!, obviously. Meow! won Best Girl/Girl scene and also Best All-Girl Release at the 2011 AVN Awards. It’s my all-girl line, and unless there’s anal, there are no toys in it. It’s really lesbian-y: lots of kissing, touching, real lesbian sex. I’ve got a huge list of 17 girls and like 10 scenes I want to shoot for it, but I’ve got to cut it down and just shoot eight scenes. These are all natural girls. The only time I shoot girls with fake boobs is for my Breast in Class: Counterfeit Racks movies; the rest of my stuff is all-natural.

Speaking of … my Counterfeit Racks movie is amazing. All the performers are so good, and the movie is probably the second favorite I’ve ever put out for my company. I’d been wanting to do this for awhile, because I have a lot of girlfriends with fake boobs that I wanted to shoot. The cast is awesome: Lisa Ann, Asa Akira, Kagney Linn Karter, Chanel Preston, Katsuni…. I’ve got a fuckin’ killer cast.

Which of your awards means the most to you?
That’s really hard to say, but probably Female Performer of the Year from AVN, because I was up for it like four times before and I lost. The year I finally won was the same year I hosted the award show and also won Best Tease Performance, so it was pretty amazing. That was a great year. This year was a good one, too, because the awards I won for my company mean a lot to me.

What award do you covet?
This year I’m going for the Best Legs Specialty Release with my Legs Up/Hose Down, but of course I’d like to win Best Director sometime. I was nominated for it the first time this past year, and I think that would be really cool. It was pretty thrilling to get my first director nomination.

All photos courtesy of Jennaration X Studios