LéWood Productions has been producing its brand of quality, unassuming smut for more than a decade, but according to Francesca Lé, who runs the studio alongside her husband and business partner, Mark Wood, some people think the company launched last year when Evil Angel released the debut volume of their fetish-oriented anal flick “Gag, Gasp, and Gape.”
“It seems like more people are aware of us now that we are at Evil Angel,” Lé told XBIZ. “We have been around [as a production company] since 2002 but a lot of people seem to think we’re new. I guess it is true what they say about the porn industry not having any memory. I suppose it is because there are always so many new people in the business.”
The way she moves with the camera is better than I move. I think she’s the better camera person but I think I’m more responsible for coming up with the scenes. -Mark Wood
Lé and Wood have nearly four decades of experience between them as performers, videographers and directors. Lé began her career as talent in 1990, and Wood started 15 years ago; LéWood was formed after Lé and Wood became an item. At the time, Lé had retired from mainstream porn, although she worked in various capacities behind the scenes and still appeared in bondage and wrestling videos. With the launch of their own company, Lé returned as on-camera talent but within a few years, Wood began teaching her to shoot stills and the basics of videography.
“I always tell women who are interested in staying in the industry that their time in front of the camera will end but there are still plenty of things they can do,” Wood said.
Yet even 23 years after she debuted, Lé’s time in front of the camera still has not to come to an end, although she readily admits that she finds herself in front of the camera less and less these days. She limits her hardcore appearances to scenes for her own company. She appears alongside her husband in “The LéWood Anal Hazing Crew” and “Facial Violation,” two series where the couple initiate young women in the joys of hardcore humiliation. The latter is essentially a spin-off of the former series that focuses on oral instead of anal sex. Both series deviate from the standard LéWood formula in that they include set-ups that provide the context for each scene.
“That is something you do not always see at Evil Angel but [owner John Stagliano] said he likes a bit of story from time to time,” Wood explained. “There’s no script. We come up with a storyline for each scene that is all ad-libbed. We usually base it on something the girl says or does.” For example, the scene featuring Lily LaBeau as a ballerina in the debut volume of “The LéWood Anal Hazing Crew” was inspired by LaBeau’s background in ballet.
“Lily told me that she was a ballet dancer and that she was once very serious about it. I saw her on a set doing a couple of steps in front of a mirror and I thought that seemed pretty cool and we took it from there,” Wood said. The resulting scene was LaBeau proving she was willing to do whatever it took to be a ballerina by allowing Lé and Wood to double-team her in a hardcore three-way.
However, these days Lé spends far more time behind the camera. In fact, her videography skills have surpassed those of her teacher, Wood, who readily admits his wife is now a better shooter.
“The way she moves with the camera is better than I move,” he said. “I think she’s the better camera person but I think I’m more responsible for coming up with the scenes.”
At the time they started with Evil Angel, the market was saturated with parodies and couples porn. “There wasn’t really any hardcore raincoat, jerkoff material and so we set out to make some,” Lé said.
Prior to signing with Evil Angel, LéWood was distributed by JM Productions and then Exquisite Multimedia. Wood notes that their move to Evil Angel did not result in movies that differ much from their earlier work. “We’ve been making these movies all along but we did not really get the same level of attention,” he said. “With Evil Angel, it is more anal intensive and maybe a little more intense but we shoot it the same way we always have.”
The LéWood style is eloquently simple, no-frills, anal sex. Their productions always emphasize the women in the scene, typically on simple sets. “We don’t have a big crew on our sets,” Wood said. “A lot of the time it is just me and Francesca. I think that sort of environment leads to the best sex. It’s just me and the Mrs. and that creates a relaxed environment where everyone feels like they can have fun. That’s the way it should be.”
Lé notes that while many things have changed in the adult industry, one thing that hasn’t changed is that people still love porn. “They are never going to get enough porn,” she said. LéWood intends to provide people with what they want for years to come.
Recent LéWood releases include “Butthole Barrio Bitches 2” and “The LéWood Anal Hazing Crew 4.” One of their next releases is called “Anal Required,” which features Bonnie Rotten and Savannah Fox, who performs her first DP and her first double vag.
