Top Tier: Romi Rain on Performing With Passion & Adult’s New Era

This is the cover story of the June issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES — Romi Rain came into the adult industry armed with plans to create a legacy. “I always had the mentality of trying to take it seriously and make it into a career,” Rain says. “I said if I’m going to do this, I want to do it right. “I want to have a name for myself. I want to have bragging rights. I want to have success. I want to have covers… I want to have opportunities.” More than a decade later, the results speak for themselves. One of the prominent faces of the new era of adult entertainment, where empowered performers manage their brands on multiple platforms while engaging a global fanbase through social media, the ambitious native of Boston continues to demonstrate what’s possible in the business of pleasure. From nude modeling and exotic dancing to webcamming and headlining hundreds of adult movies, Rain has excelled at every phase of the game. And that’s not even the half of it. Her remarkable run also includes becoming a certified sex educator, brand ambassador, Fleshlight Girl, podcaster and hosting the 2019 AVN Awards in what has turned into a future Hall of Fame resume. “That to me is a dream come true—my adult life’s work,” Rain tells AVN. “It still brings a little bit of tears to my eyes. I never thought I could do as much as I’ve done. “I’m so happy I’ve contributed to the industry my whole life, so happy to be involved in so much of it. It’s crazy to be at this point where I can hire people who used to book me. “I’m so grateful and I still consider myself lucky. I pursued everything but there is also a degree of luck and timing.” If there was any luck involved, without question Rain took the necessary actions to make her own. When she made up her mind to do something, she didn’t wait for something to be handed to her. “Fortune favors the brave and the prepared—you’ve gotta go for it,” Rain reasons. “That’s probably the Boston Italian thing. I’m definitely a vocal person. I like to say what I want and go after what I want. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.” Rain took the initiative with four-time AVN Director of the Year Axel Braun, who recalls how she spoke up when they crossed paths in Las Vegas. Braun chose Rain for the lead role of Wonder Woman in Justice League XXX, a Wicked Pictures production that would go on to win the 2018 AVN Award for Best Parody, along with five other honors. “It was the spring of 2017, and I was getting ready to shoot what was my biggest undertaking to date: Justice League XXX,” Braun tells AVN. “As with all my parodies, casting was crucial. Finding people who can act and give a strong sexual performance is not easy, but finding ones who look exactly like a specific character and are willing to endure my notoriously long days on set is near impossible. Which is why, after an extensive casting call that saw more than 100 girls show up to audition at the Wicked offices on a Sunday afternoon, I still found myself without the perfect Wonder Woman.” Then he remembered his conversation with Rain. “I had only shot Romi once, in an all-sex movie a few years prior, but I suddenly recalled bumping into her at the AVN Awards earlier that year, and that she told me, ‘Hey Axel, keep me in mind for one of your parodies… I know everybody thinks I’m just a gonzo girl, but I’m a pretty damn good actress!’ “She wasn’t lying.” Braun asked her agent at the time to have Rain come to his office for an audition but she was out of the country and had to submit a video. “It was nothing short of incredible,” Braun continues. “She had memorized a lengthy monologue, and she conveyed so much raw emotion, strength and charisma that I instantly knew I had found my lead.” When they met in person a week later and he told her she got the part, “she literally burst into tears,” Braun adds. “That’s how much she cared about my project. ‘Thank you for this amazing opportunity, Axel. I won’t let you down!’ she said. And boy, did she keep her word.” Despite Justice League XXX becoming what Braun calls “the biggest nightmare of my 30-plus year career,” Rain proved to be “the glue that held the entire production together.” “Day after grueling day, she conducted herself with grace, class, patience, courage and incredible professionalism, all the while not only delivering a career-defining performance, but also showing everybody what an absolute badass she was,” Braun says. “The movie ended up being a huge hit, but while that experience gave me PTSD and made me drastically change my approach to filmmaking, the memories of working with Romi will always hold a special place in my heart, just like she does. She may have been dismissed as ‘just a gonzo girl’ until then, but after she became Wonder Woman, the entire industry realized what she had been all along: a fucking superstar.” Without a doubt, Rain knows how to make an impression. Fellow AVN Hall of Fame director Chris Streams recalls shooting Rain for the first time in 2013 for the ninth volume of his AVN Award-winning Oil Overload series, a Jules Jordan Video production. “I’ve been a fan of hers from the very first day I shot her,” Streams, a 26-year industry veteran from Annapolis, Md., tells AVN. “I was like this girl’s amazing and beautiful. And now I think she looks better than ever and she’s performing better than ever. “Beyond that, she’s a pleasure to work with. The professionalism is always nice and beyond that, the preparedness. She’s always like, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. Here’s my idea. Here’s what’s going to happen.’ For me, it’s a refreshing change. “Many times when girls show up on set, they have no idea what they want or how they want it done. With her it’s never like that. She knows exactly what she wants and knows exactly how to go about getting it.” Veteran photographer Marcos Rivera agrees. The Vegas-based shooter has known Rain for almost a decade. “Romi is one of my all-time favorite people to work with,” says Rivera, a native New Yorker who has been a professional photographer for the past 17 years. “She’s always on time, on point, looks amazing and is always the consummate professional.” Rivera met Rain on a set when he was shooting production stills for Brazzers. “As far as modeling goes, Romi is fantastic,” Rivera continues. “She knows her angles and her body and has been around a camera long enough that she makes my work easy. Especially in this world of content, we can get through a lot of work in a pretty short period of time because I know I don't have to do any coaching. “… Romi also has a long memory and values relationships, which is rare in this business. She's as reliable as they come and sticks by her word. I couldn't ask for anything more.” Romi, whose first job was as an ice cream scooper at a Friendly’s restaurant, remembers walking into the 4-Play gentlemen’s club in West L.A. for the first time when she was 19 because it was something she was interested in doing. It was at that club—one of the top all-nude establishments in Southern California—where she assumed the name “Rain.” “That was my stripper name. I was always Rain. That’s where that started,” she says. “Everything I’ve ever done in adult has been legitimately my idea. It was something I pursued personally. It was always me who walked into the clubs or sent the emails.” A natural born hustler, Rain embraced her sense of adventure in her early 20s. After a couple years of stripping, she got into bottle service in L.A. and Las Vegas at 21, finding out that “you get treated worse in customer service than you do in a strip club.” “People are more demanding and rude and they get away with it,” she says. When she was 22, she returned to dancing at Sapphire Las Vegas before moving back to L.A., where she found her way onto the Playboy Morning Show, appearing about a dozen times in various skits. “We would have this thing called Playboy Live—it was Playboy’s webcamming site,” Romi explains. “And that was the first time I did webcamming. Because it was Playboy we couldn’t even masturbate or do anything too graphic. We could get naked, but I was chatting and hanging out with fans.” Eager to take her sexual exploration further, she began doing research, reading blogs about adult, watching documentaries and personally contacting talent agencies before doing her first professional porn scenes in 2012. “I started with girl/girl and then went into boy/girl after a handful of months,” she says. “People love to use the word ‘energy’ when they describe my scenes. I didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad thing at first and I know it’s a good thing now. “When you attack people with passion it’s the best kind of aggression. I’m not a really slow lover. When I’m turned on and wanting something, I have chaotic good energy when it comes to scenes.” One of Rain’s first major credits was a spread in Hustler magazine. “I got to be a Hustler Honey,” Rain says. “Then I started shooting my first hardcore scenes. … It’s pretty crazy to still have a career and still be working and thriving after 10 years. That was kind of unheard of back in the day. “It’s a new era of performers and it’s really amazing. It used to be cliché that girls were in for three months or six months or a year, if you’re lucky. And then everybody’s going to forget about you and you’re going to have a hard life. “Now there are so many opportunities, so many places to dip your toes into. Girls have been in for three, six, 10 or 15 years all around me. Some are 15-plus—still kicking ass and taking names.” Rain’s ass kicking appears to know no bounds. Her track record with Girlfriends Films, a studio for which she has starred in more than 80 movies, ranks among the best of any performer with any studio in adult. Among her credits for the lesbian porn stalwart are five volumes of Women Seeking Women, four editions of Lesbian Psychodramas and three volumes of both Twisted Passions and Lesbian Seductions. “She’s amazing—one of the biggest names in our roster of talent,” says Moose, the owner of Girlfriends Films. “Romi Rain is a powerhouse actress and a dynamic force in our industry. “She brings something unique to all of her roles. She’s a stellar actress and a true professional. She has even mentored some of the newer girls when she’s on our sets. She’s always willing to share her knowledge. “When the history of adult film is written, I think Romi will be remembered as one of the true greats from her generation.” Brazzers agrees. The studio asks rhetorically, “How can you sum up someone who has had as much acclaim and success in their career as Romi Rain?” "Romi has had numerous achievements over a 10-plus year career and is one of those rare performers in our industry that can be considered peerless,” the Brazzers rep says. “It’s difficult to pick out one single moment that defines her time on ZZ, but winning the inaugural Brazzers House and taking on the leading role in her own series Deadly Rain come to mind. “With over 80 scene credits on Brazzers alone, her fans have had many opportunities to see her demonstrate her wide range of talents and versatility in a multitude of scenarios. Whether it’s using her comedic timing to parody pop culture or showcasing her sultry seductiveness as a succubus, Romi has proven she can excel in any situation. “We are all excited to see what comes next for Romi, but there is no doubt whatever project she is a part of will be something special.” Rain says she is devoting a lot of her focus this year to producing content that she owns. “I’m focused on my director hat, honing that skill of being a director and producer of my own content and set,” Romi says. “There is such great power in owning your own content.” Last year, in another milestone, she trademarked her name. “That was really cool—a big accomplishment. I legitimately own my name. That was a big day for me,” Romi says. Rain also has been staying in touch with her fans—and attracting new ones—on Twitch, where she plays RPGs, survival and horror games. Final Fantasy 7 was the first game she played on Twitch, while Dead by Daylight now is one of her go-to’s. “It’s a great way to connect with my fans,” she says, admitting, “I’ve always been kind of a geek. I love playing video games. I started almost four years ago. At first I didn’t promote it at all. I was kind of embarrassed because nobody was on Twitch. “But I wanted to play games and chat with people. It’s a great place to show who you are on a personal level. “People don’t get to know your personality for real, they only know a character you played in a movie. I’ve gotten a lot more fans and people interested in my content on Twitch. I’ve always been an advocate for being on as many different platforms as you can. It’s really going to work out to your benefit overall. I’ve had more joins on my OnlyFans on a Twitch stream." Rain hops on Twitch seven to 10 days every month—sometimes for 10 or 12 hours at a time. In terms of shooting for other people, now she likes being selective. “I am thinking about doing one or two big projects and a handful of scenes a year just for fun, just to keep people entertained. I love shooting. I love performing. I love sex. I love to show off and dance and create this erotic fantasy. And I’m still doing that with my own content and brand,” Rain explains. “It’s hard to say I’ll ever officially retire. This is my life’s work. I’m always going to be part of the industry to a degree. I’ll still be wanting to contribute to this life and this lifestyle. Because it’s one that should be respected more than it is. Recently, it’s finally getting the attention it deserves for the right reasons.” Rain cemented her place in industry history on January 26, 2019, when she and MyFreeCams model Bailey Rayne teamed with comedian Esther Ku and Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B as the first-ever all-female lineup of hosts and entertainment for the 36th annual AVN Awards at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Three-and-a-half years later, Romi considers her entire show experience extra special. “Any time people want me to speak or host, whether it’s performer panels or an awards show, I always say ‘yes,’” Romi says. “I didn’t realize that was an interest of mine but I really have a great time with it. “Hosting the 2019 AVN Awards was such a dream come true and one of the biggest accolades of my career. It was such a rare opportunity so few people get—from the promo to the actual show and then the afterglow. And then it aired on Showtime. “It was such an amazing, drawn-out experience for me. I enjoyed everything we did and it all came off really without a hitch. Everyone really cared and took the time and energy to make that a great show.” Photography by Marcos Rivera in Las Vegas (1-3, 10-11), Chris Streams in Malibu, Calif. (4-7) & Justin Price in Miami (8-9)