A Summary of June Lovejoy's Interview with Asian Boss
June Lovejoy recently did a really insightful interview with Asian Boss about her career, background, the industry, and all things sex. Asian Boss is YouTube Channel focusing on news and culture within Asian countries and cultures. A great outlet that covers human interest stories and also getting the pulse on the ground from citizens around Asian countries on topical issues (Give them a look if you are interested). Anyways lets dive on into their extra long interview with June, which clocks in at over an hour.
June’s Background
June is an American, not European as some commentators keep saying. She has lived all over the US and was born in Florida. Her ethnic background is German. She came to Japan with the intent of becoming a translator. After studying and graduating in Japan, she landed her dream translating job with a big company. Which was a nightmare as she would describe it. After working for two and half years, experiencing a lack of job promotions and sexual harassment (which she reported with no action taken), she finally called it quits. Translations loss (deservedly so), was AV’s gain.
Starting out as an AV Actress
On a lark she googled AV agencies and reached out to some. Her experience with AV was a complete 180 to her last job. Much more respectful and professional than she had expected. The interviewers looking like typical salary-men, not the shady characters that she had in her head. She chose her agency based on their willingness to take on a foreigner and seeing her as her own person not just a foreigner. She didn’t expect she would be popular at all. She did not think there was a market/appetite for “chubby white actresses”.
There was no audition for agencies, in her case, but actresses must appeal/audition for different studios to work for. Studios interview with the actresses; finding out which acts that they will do, what kind of stuff that they like in bed, and what they don’t like in bed. There is no sexual audition, no they aren’t asked to have sex before hiring them. Actresses must get tested “bare minimum” at least once a month for STD’s. A clean bill of health must be presented by actresses and actors on shooting days. Her agency pays for her tests but male actors must pay out of pocket.
June asking if the AV Industry have ties to the Yakuza?
“We don’t make enough money for them”
June's Preferences
June would consider herself as queer. She likes both men and women but prefers women more. She prefers femdom roles slash more assertive ones. Usual roles she gets are teacher roles or perverted women roles. Recently studios have asked for her to be just herself. She won’t play childish roles, it is not her thing. Recently she has struggled with her weight. Online commentators about her weight prompted her to lose a lot of weight. However her managers and fans have told her they like her how she is. “Why would they tell you to stop” says the bewildered interviewer. Which June responds with acknowledging her appeal as a chubby girl with a big butt.
"I have a very big butt and that’s my selling point" – June (Yes June, yes it is)
Salary
From what she has done and heard of; “a super simple 2 hour shoot” could pay $400 USD and the highest she has ever heard of someone being paid was $5,000 USD for a shoot (which seems like a crying shame for the best in JAV). Lesbian films do pay less and anal pays more when you first start out. Hardcore BDSM is very niche and not very lucrative. A regular feature length shoot would pay her $1,000 to $2,000 USD. This is with agencies taking a big cut for themselves. June’s agency used to take 70% before she talked them down to 50%. The pandemic has tightened the purse strings of the industry. June has seen her earnings decrease since. Before the pandemic she could shoot for 5 times a week, now if she is lucky she could shoot 4 times a month. A big loss has been physical fan events where actresses can appeal themselves to fans (A reminder to please pay for your porn if you can).
A Typical Day and her most Memorable Shoots
A typical day of shooting a video for her begins at around 7-8 am. Showering, getting ready, and doing make up follows. After that is signing consent forms and having staff meetings going through what the shooting schedule will look like. After that is line reading and finally they get it on and shoot the video. Lunch and dinner breaks to come as needed. Shooting days can go on for very long, she might finish at 9-10 pm.
“Why do people care?” - June on fans trying to figure out if the sex is real or not with things raw sex or creampies (We Care!)
Her most memorable shoot took 24 hours long, 6 am to 6 am. A grueling work day that had her ragged but still is her most memorable and favorite shoot. It’s about her as an exchange student moving into a haunted house and being fondled by a “ghost”. Which they simulated with air can dusters, fans, leaf blowers, and her acting. A ghost themed video with lots of simulated sex.
(The video in question)
Another memorable and emotional film for her was with an inexperienced lesbian virgin. The actress which came from an abusive home and had hidden her lesbianism entered the industry for one film only. Never having kissed a girl, she requested June by name for her girl on girl experience and gentle reputation. The shoot was very personal for June when she learned all this by from the actress.
Retirement
She knows/sees her JAV career with an end point. At some point she will have retire, she sees a long career as unsustainable (what about Yui Hatano and Yumi Kazama?). In the future she might want to work on her YouTube Channel (which has some great interviews) or even produce porn later on. For now she plans on working for as long as the job offers come in.
“I would say most actresses and actors are married and/or have kids. Usually within the industry”
Would she recommend this job to others?
While she doesn’t regret going into AV it did come into it at a bad time with the pandemic. When others ask if she would recommend it to others, her response is a hard “NO”. Not because of the industry but because of the rigors of the job and mainly the stigma of society as a whole. As an adult video actress it will be difficult for her to get another job without discrimination for her past. Another hurdle is the loss of privacy and living as a public figure. A difficult job with societal stigmas that make it hard for her to recommend to others.
Outro
If you have the time check out the full video, it is very long but is also very insightful for the industry and June herself. I thought June was the best debut from 2020, not only for her looks, body, and “very big butt” as she would put it but also for her honestly and candidness about being an AV actress. Not only for her perspective as a foreigner and ability to communicate with English speakers but for her willingness to talk about AV so openly.
Juicy Tidbits
She has only one actor blacklisted because he kept asking her out.
She doesn’t like actresses who shoot lesbian films but aren’t into women at all. “Lick me on my thigh” they say to her when she is supposed to go down on them.
Femdom spike during the pandemic, which both June and the interviewer try to speculate as to why. Is it because of the sedentary lifestyle during the pandemic or the more open sexual attitudes of newer actresses.
Well I can see why this was such a memorable shoot for June. A majority of it has her being fondled and “fucked” by a ghost. There is one full on sex scene where we can see a guy fuck her but most of the video is June reacting to a ghostly figure having their supernatural fun with her body. A truly inventive, fun, and creative title that I would recommend to viewers looking for wild plots. When people mention JAV having great/fun plots, just remember this one.
Based on what June said, I am about 90% sure this was the lesbian title she mentioned. The woman June mentioned goes by Mikuni Akane and only has one title to her name. As a porno it is not the best to be honest. However the backstory about how this was her genuine first time with another woman might interest you.
Comments
It's not like there are that many non-Japanese actresses in the industry though.
50% was what I heard as well. I'm very surprised it sometimes goes up to 70%.
Physical sales on the day of events. Buy multiple titles for better access. One movie for a handshake, Two movies for a group photo, Three for a solo with her, etc. And do note movies doesn't necessarily mean multiple copies (or usually it doesn't), but just movies from the same studio that is holding the event.
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