Las Vegas Weekly

Bookworm/porn star: Q&A with Kayden Kross

Porn’s academic darling talks AVN, homework and big rocks

Kayden Kross is up for six awards at this year’s AVN Awards including Performer of the Year.

Photo: Sarah Feldberg

When the 27th Annual AVN Awards take over the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms on Saturday, a certain blonde will be center stage, hoping to take home a few awards and trying not to trip over her dress. Digital Playground contract star Kayden Kross is not only co-hosting the 2010 AVN Awards with fellow porn star Kirsten Price and comedian Dave Attell, she's also up for six of them. And she really wants to win. Really badly.

Not that she has an acceptance speech ready. Dressed in a black and silver sequined mini-dress at Day 1 of the 2010 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Sands Expo Center, Kross said she's been busy doing things besides writing speeches she may or many not ever give. Instead, she's reading books three at a time and working out with a trainer she describes as "brutal" and "horrible." Don't feel too bad for porn's academic darling, however. As Kross puts it, "This is not a bad job."

How does AEE and AVN fit into your yearly schedule?

Twenty-five percent of the year is spent thinking about AVN. Three months ago I said, "I have to start shopping." I'm under contract, but most girls are like, "Who am I signing with? Who am I going with? Where am I staying? What am I doing? Am I hosting parties? So much goes into it and even when you're here, it's nonstop.

How important is it in the industry to be a savvy businesswoman?

Kayden Kross

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Oh god, it's learned. You don't come in and you're off the bat, "OK, I'm going to do this, this and this." Cause the industry is nothing like it seems. Here's something ... I thought I was so original when I thought of this, but this has been going on for 30 years: I came in and I was like, "I think I'm just going to do a little bit of girl/girl and just work up until there's some demand." And they're like, "Yeah, everybody does that."

I've been reading your blog at Unkrossed.com. When did you start writing it?

I threw the blog up right when my site launched about a year and a half ago. At first I was really good about consistently writing, but the thing is, even though my day changes day to day, I'm doing a lot of the same stuff. Eventually you have to stop talking about, OK, I'm sitting in traffic today. And I'm sitting in the airport today. So now I just talk about unique stuff that pops up. It could be anything. I look for stuff to write about now.

Have you seen anything today that you're going to write about?

Well, I'm really happy with this (picks up her necklace and hits a small button). This is a vibrator necklace, but it could seriously power a small village. It is so heavy duty, and it has all these speeds and you can carry this around. This is better than the little lipstick vibrators that you take through airport security ... OK, it won't turn off. (Bangs it against the table.) It has all these speeds; it's just changing. I think that's blog worthy, really. This is innovative.

On the blog you were talking recently about juggling school and work, and that school has become kind of a hobby for you. Tell me about your schedule.

[As a feature dancer,] I will be sitting in a strip club and they will be reading my bio ready to announce my name and I'm f—king doing my homework. I'm jotting it down as quick as I can, and then I slam the text book shut, run up on stage, come back. It's just crazy, but it's fun. I'm not taking classes that are required; I'm taking classes that I want to take. They're interesting.

How do you see your school work fitting into your porn career?

Did you ever hear the life story with the jar? They say, "Take your big rocks and fit them in first. Then take your little rocks and put the sand in." Porn is my big f—king rock and school is the sand, and that's my life.