LOS ANGELES — Maitland Ward premiered her tell-all memoir, “Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood,” on Tuesday night at the Barnes & Noble store at The Grove in Los Angeles.
The book, Ward's first, was released Tuesday by Simon & Schuster imprint Atria Books and is already the No. 1 bestseller in retail giant Amazon’s “Study of Pornography” category.
At the live event, Ward read excerpts from “Rated X,” autographed copies and shared stories about the making of the book in a conversation moderated by director Kayden Kross, a friend of Ward and head of adult studio Deeper, part of the Vixen Media Group.
Kross extolled the Deeper exclusive contract star, telling the audience, “We’re really here because we have a successful Hollywood actress who was on multiple TV shows, who was in ‘White Chicks’ and had a career that was constantly put at odds with her sexuality, and she kept being punished for it.”
When Ward followed her sexuality to the adult industry, Kross said, she “found what she was looking for here, and wrote a story about it.”
Vixen Media Group execs and some of Ward's fellow adult performers and co-stars — among them Vanna Bardot, Codey Steele, Seth Gamble and Violet Myers — attended the reading to support her fledgling literary career.
The packed audience, including many of the performer’s fans, who call themselves “Wardiors,” was enthralled by her account of her unique transition from mainstream to adult stardom.
“Looking back on your past, just seeing what you did in your past, not judging it, but noticing things that you did, I wish I could have gone back and told my younger self, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that,’” Ward reflected. “But then I realized at the end of it all, really it’s your story and it makes you interesting, and multilayered and more fascinating.”
Ward described what she called the “very vulnerable journey” of sharing her experiences in print.
“I had to expose myself,” she said. “You guys are all reading my life! It’s a weird experience. I woke up today and realized that everyone today is going to be reading my life, my personal thoughts, things I thought I was keeping secret for years. When I was younger I tried to keep a lot of things secret because I didn’t think I could expose myself like that. I thought I had to be a good girl, had to be perfect, had to be what everybody else wanted.
“But as I found myself along the way, now I feel so free!” Ward added. “I just want to tell everybody! I thought people would judge me more ... come against me when I talked about my own sexuality and my own freedoms, but no — people are celebrating me and it makes me so happy. It’s just an amazing thing.”
Ward and Kross also spoke about how their new Deeper feature, “Drift,” is connected to “Rated X” and to the reigning XBIZ Performer of the Year’s personal journey.
For more about “Rated X,” visit SimonandSchuster.com.
For more from Maitland Ward, follow her on Twitter.
Images: Maitland Ward at the "Rated X" event Barnes & Noble at The Grove in Los Angeles. (Photos: Gustavo Turner)