Axel Braun Goes Inside His Wicked Vision as Head of Production

LOS ANGELES — Axel Braun admits there is a degree of irony regarding his current relationship with Wicked Pictures founder Steve Orenstein. “I probably talk to Orenstein more now than when I worked for him,” Braun says with a laugh. The AVN Hall of Fame director, who now is the head of production for Wicked, finds this stage of his career to be a different kind of challenge—but one that has inspired him just as much as, if not more than in any previous one during his three-plus decades behind the camera. Braun took over the creative direction for the iconic studio in late December when it was announced that Orenstein sold the company and its extensive catalog of award-winning content to Gamma Entertainment.  Prior to agreeing to his new executive role, Braun had been an exclusive director for Wicked for the past seven years—which is the longest he has ever been with one company. The only four-time winner of the AVN Director of the Year award says Orenstein, who started Wicked in 1993, has made a profound impact on him both as a person and as a professional. “He has definitely had a huge influence on me. He's changed me as a person,” Braun tells AVN. “Because when you're confronting somebody else's perspective, somebody that you admire, somebody you look up to, somebody who just makes you see things potentially in a different way—and it might not be his way—but it might be a little bit different from the way you were seeing things before, it helps. “The more perspective, the better. I think that it's important to have that.” Braun says Orenstein is “always striving to do the right thing.” “Because he's such a righteous man,” Axel continues. “He wants to do right by everybody. You know, it's impressive and I was raised like that. But along the way you kind of lose it because you are so focused on yourself and what's convenient for you… “Here's a guy who will constantly try to do that and try to be a better person, and he has made me a better person, that's for sure.” Prior to joining Wicked in 2014, Braun spent several years at Vivid Entertainment Group, New Sensations and Elegant Angel, creating buzz-worthy movies and receiving industry accolades at every stop. But when he arrived at Wicked, he felt like he was home—and it showed. “I mean, it's not like you can just find a guy who you can sit down with and say, ‘Hey, listen, I want to make this movie in black-and-white CinemaScope,’ and he goes, ‘Go for it.’ So I give him credit for that.’” Braun is referring to The Possession of Mrs. Hyde, a movie that was three decades in the making which won the 2019 AVN Awards for Best Action/Thriller, Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Movie of the Year. An instant classic that was Axel’s first original feature in 15 years, the screenplay for Hyde marked a special collaboration with his late father, Golden Age legend Lasse Braun, and his son, rising adult director Rikki Braun.  “That movie was so emotional for me, and I thought, man, I should’ve retired there and then [on the AVN Awards stage in Las Vegas] because that's it,” Axel recalls. One of the main reasons he kept going though is because he still has projects he is looking forward to bringing to fruition. “The new Wicked is such an exciting time—to see the company that you love that you've been part of for so long, instead of shrinking, we can actually expand and do more and do better,” Axel says. “It's exciting and especially being head of production and being in charge and having a vision and being able to implement it, it's great.” Braun left nothing to chance with his vision for Black Widow XXX: An Axel Braun Parody for Wicked Comix—the final of scene of which debuted on Wicked.com in August. Starring Lacy Lennon as the title character, with supporting performances by Elena Koshka (Yelena Bedova), Ramon Nomar, (Taskmaster) and Seth Gamble (Deadpool), the high-end featurette entailed custom-made costumes worth between $6500-$7500 each. “For me everything is always a passion project,” Braun says. “And that's why I try to surround myself with people that feel that way, too. That it's not just porn—that want to do something really cool.” It’s why the ever meticulous moviemaker, who knows what it takes to lead a team to AVN gold, decided to shelve two elaborate projects that he was fully intending to make going into the summer months this year. Even though the scripts were ready and he has porn superstars attached, the logistics of producing both of them within a short timeframe became unrealistic, so he made the difficult decision to postpone principal photography until 2022. One of the projects—a dramatic thriller—he first wrote to be the follow-up to Compulsion, his 2003 feature for Elegant Angel that won 2004 AVN Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Couples Sex Scene. The script has undergone several revisions as Braun devoted a lot of time to fine-tuning the narrative during the height of the pandemic in 2020. “So the original concept was literally 2004. It’s been 17 years,” he explains. “I started Hyde in 1988, so it was 30 years. This one is 17 years. It takes me a long time to get to the features.” Braun in 2020—prior to agreeing to becoming Wicked’s Head of Production—actually took nine months when he didn’t work at all. It was something that was so foreign to him that he wasn’t sure if the same fire would burn inside of him again when he was ready to ramp up. “I have to say I actually enjoyed that very much. It was like wow, this is amazing. And so I was on one end like, maybe I can just do this and not work anymore?” Braun confesses. “I'm driven more by ambition than I am by financial gain. Luckily, after 30 years, I'm in a position where I don't really have to work for a living.” But after going this far the just turned 55-year-old shooter says he’s not ready to bow out, not with the weighty material that he still has in his briefcase. Which brings everything back to the Gamma deal. For Braun, what happens with Wicked Pictures has become personal. “I just don't want the brand to die. I'm very attached to the brand,” Braun says. “I told them I’ll stay on board if I can do certain things. And they agreed. And here we are. So the first thing I did as soon as the ink was on the paper, I was like, ‘OK, I would like to take out the condoms.’” Wicked’s first non-condom movie, Going in Raw, did record sales for the studio; he followed that with Glamcore, which was another commercial success. Braun applauds the Gamma executive team for being receptive to his ideas and management style. “They're very mindful of the brand. They didn't just say, ‘Let's just buy the company for the catalog,’ they appreciate the brand,” he continues. “They understand the value that the brand has, which is just a little different from other things. “It’s not a generic brand. They understand that not only in terms of legacy, but also in terms of profitability. You buy something, you don't want to turn it into something else. Otherwise, what's the point? “They have all the content they want. So they're interested in keeping Wicked what it was. I call it Wicked 2.0. It’s like the core of what Wicked is, but with removing some of the things that were—I’m not talking just about the condoms—but also leveling the playing field with everything else. “Not just in terms of condoms, but in terms of the content that you can put out. And of course, Wicked is known for story-driven features and other stuff—and the parodies.” Braun says it’s more of a “misconception” within the industry than outside of it that Wicked is going to only shoot “internet scenes” now that it is under the Gamma umbrella. “That's not what happened and that's not what's happening,” he adds. Braun says he has been shooting almost all of his own projects since taking over, but that he would like to build a team of crews who are not only competent, but also ambitious. And that’s no easy task. “It’s not like back in the days when you have the same five people and you know who they are and you know what they shoot,” he reasons. “Now there's so much emerging talent not from the usual places. I mean there are performers—who I see the projects that they actually shoot—and I’m like, wow, this looks really good. “Now with everything that's been happening with OnlyFans, you have girls who are their own production company. They book trips, they go to exotic locations. It’s impressive. “So I think it's an interesting place to be. And look, I love a challenge. So for sure, it's challenging. On one hand, you have the usual suspects who need to fill their schedule with 25 days of work a month. “On the other hand, you have possibly very talented younger people who might not be interested in [studio work], they just want to do their own thing. Also because they make so much more money from their own content.” However, Braun believes a legacy brand such as Wicked holds a certain cachet that ought to give the next generation of creative talent plenty of motivation. “There is a certain type of performer that understands that and appreciates that,” he adds. “I don't want to shoot everything myself, first of all, because we want to diversify. But really my role is to try and find people who can actually shoot features and shoot something of quality and who actually care about their product the same way that I care about mine. “So, that's the goal.” Speaking of caring about their product, Braun says it was a no-brainer for Gamma to sign Seth Gamble to an exclusive contract in March. A 15-plus-year veteran, Gamble has won AVN Best Leading Actor three years in a row. “It's not a mystery that Seth is an amazing actor, as shown by the three consecutive AVNs,” Braun says. “Also, as a performer he has been especially great in the past couple of years. I think he’s been put in more performance-driven roles, too, which has enabled him to showcase that. He’s been incredible. “And we're in a place where in order to make plans we need to have certain people that we can rely on and you have a guy who can do it all and do it great. “Why would I want his potential to go to another company if we can afford him? So we found a way of making it happen and I’m very excited about that.” Braun says talent like Gamble’s does not come around often. “The truth is that I have a small group of people that I use all the time because they deliver,” he continues. “It's not that I use Seth because he’s my BFF. I use Seth because holy shit, this is a guy who in the same day—I mean, when we shot Deadpool and Mrs. Hyde—two of the days, we shot some Deadpool and then shot some Mrs. Hyde in the same day. It's like powerhouse performances on both ends.” Braun says he is also shooting more anal scenes, which has not been a staple of Wicked. “And there's more production value, there's more money spent,” he says. “I’m literally excited because there's goals, and there are things that can be done with the company, with the brand, that were not part of the equation before."