MANCHESTER, N.H. — Sicilia Ricci is featured in Wasteland.com’s newest ripped-from-the-headlines short film, “Sex Addiction in the Viral Age — A Corona Virus Film.”
The title co-stars studio head and director Colin Rowntree, who collaborated with Ricci on the script.
In the film, a sex-addicted female epidemiologist working on a COVID-19 pandemic becomes anxious, then aroused, about the state-mandated “social distancing” protocols.
Ricci plays Dr. Sarah Connor, a scientist with a Ph.D. in public health who works as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Sarah’s sex life is voracious, and she engages a variety of random IRL sex partners to satiate her sex addiction.
"Now stuck like everyone else at home, staring at a screen in an endless cycle of Slack messages, SMSs, DMs and video screens-within-the-screen, Sarah decides to also take her sex life online," a rep explains.
"Her strategy: while on cam, do as the cam girls do. Except that her original idea, which was to do naughty cam shows for a selected number of trusted partners, suddenly goes off the rails, as nothing in what used to be called the World Wide Web is really private — and nobody, certainly 'no body,' is to be trusted."
"When Dr. Jack Moriarty, a program coordinator for the Surgeon General in Washington, D.C., (Rowntree), slips into Sarah’s DMs — or is it her work Slack? — the lines between personal and public, and work and play, become hopelessly blurred."
Star and co-screenwriter Ricci, a Wasteland veteran recently seen in the George Bernard Shaw “My Fair Lady” parody “Fystmalion,” had a personal connection to the project.
“Being that I do have a Ph.D. and work in the field of viral immunology, this was a fun script to write!” Ricci revealed. “Colin called me up on a Sunday and by that evening we had a workable script.”
The creative collaborators believed they were merely working in the now popular genre of near-future dystopia (i.e. "Black Mirror") but then reality stuck in "its sullied little hand," according to the rep.
“We almost thought the whole thing was a wrap when Colin’s doctor advised against traveling,” Ricci explained. “But through the lovely advent of technology, we were able to get it done remotely via the help of Skype and FaceTime!”
The story intrigued Ricci; the whole reason for her education specialty, she notes, was the 1994 nonfiction bestseller "The Hot Zone."
Rowntree said he was “supposed to fly out to St. Louis, where Sicilia [lives], to direct it, using her cameraman [Director of Photography OHG Photo] who lives there. But, checking with my doctor, he said, as I am turning 61 next month, and a smoker, it would not be wise to make this trip.”
The veteran BDSM specialist then had a “Voila!” moment: he decided to direct the entire shoot from his office in New Hampshire over Skype using a phone on a tripod that Ricci and her DP set up in St. Louis.
"We got the entire thing shot in one full day and it is looking like it will be a winner!” the director exclaimed. He turned the film around in five days while both he and his star were practicing the "hot new public trend of the spring of 2020: social distancing."
“A virus-themed porn film that is serious in nature, has a lot of kinky solo girl sex, and offers an alternative to the current flood of gonzo porn coming out with people in gas masks and hazmat suits?” Rowntree observed. “What’s not to like?”
As a producer and director, Rowntree said he believes that adult films can be a vehicle for serious messaging on topics such as the current pandemic, climate change, the corruption of the news media and other hot-button issues in society and culture. And as any David Cronenberg or Hammer Horror vampire fans could easily describe, the connection between lust and disease has a long history, both on and off-set.
“It will be interesting to see what happens to the porn industry as this outbreak progresses,” Ricci said. “Hopefully performers will be able to make a lucrative switch to cam shows and selling media online. One thing is for sure, thanks to this movie, all the sex addicts in quarantine will know where to go for all their ‘medical’ needs — Wasteland.com!”
“That’s right,” Rowntree confirmed. “Wasteland.com — 'Just What the Doctor Ordered, since 1994.'"
"Sex Addiction in the Viral Age" is available as a members-only exclusive here.