LOS ANGELES — Maitland Ward has made her directorial debut with “Fame,” a new scene for Vixen Media Group’s Blacked, co-starring Ward and Isiah Maxwell.
Ward, who also scripted the scene, plays an actress confronting the challenges of celebrity culture and finding eventual solace in the sturdy arms of a trusted bodyguard.
Released today, the scene is being hailed by the studio as the first behind-the-camera outing for "fan favorite" Ward, a multiple XBIZ Award winner and reigning Performer of the Year. Beyond the adult industry, she is known for her mainstream acting career in shows like “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Boy Meets World,” and the movie “White Chicks.” Most recently, Ward became a bestselling author with her memoir, "Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood."
Ward has described “Fame” as an example of “art imitating life,” a lived-in tale of red carpets and paparazzi that overtly riffs on her real-life celebrity status.
The performer-writer-director and contract star for VMG’s Deeper spoke exclusively with XBIZ about the project and her experience as a budding auteur.
“I am very proud of my directorial and writing debut for Blacked, the first of several scenes I have coming out within the Vixen Media Group universe in the near future,” she revealed.
Since “Fame” was, in Ward's words, her “first jump into the pond,” she says she stuck close to what she knew after decades of being in the media glare. But unlike this year's multi-nominated “Drift” — the Kayden Kross-helmed featured where Ward stars as a funhouse-mirror version of herself — “Fame” depicts a different aspect of what Lady Gaga once called “the fame monster.”
“I wrote ‘Fame’ not about my actual life,” Ward explains, “but about fame and what I've experienced in all my years in showbiz — people chasing you and trying to take you down and paparazzi and everything coming at you hard, from all directions. I wanted to do a twist on that by also showing the story as seen by Isiah’s character, who is my bodyguard.”
In “Fame,” Ward's actress protagonist has become mired in a tabloid scandal.
“It's all over the press,” she explains. “As the scene begins, you could say I’ve done ‘bad things.’ And of course, TMZ is after me,” she laughs, adding that noted digital creator Liam Riley has a featured non-sex role as her head media inquisitor.
Maxwell plays the beleaguered actress’ bodyguard, trying to shield her from the intense scrutiny of the predatory shutterbugs and harassing gossip bloggers.
“My character has flings with my bodyguards, but Isiah has always been the one who's kind of aloof, and he's this presence that I'm enamored by,” Ward continues. “And he takes care of me, but there's something very mysterious about him. And then that fateful day, the mystery comes into my life, like it's some sort of force that I need to kind of protect me into escaping all the chaos I’ve created.”
Without giving the story away, Ward teases that Maxwell takes her to a premiere, and when people are hunting her, whisks her off in a car. She pauses, smiles mischievously. “And eventually, you know, we have this ... rendezvous.”
'I Caught the Directing Bug'
The novice director says she is immensely thankful to her producers at VMG, who ensured her first-time vision went uncompromised by budgetary constraints.
“It’s funny — when I was writing it, I put things in like fast cars and big sets and all this luxurious stuff I imagined. And when I arrived and saw it up on its feet, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I did put that stuff there!’ Like I wrote part where Isaiah picks me up and throws me around and we knock over like all this breakable glass in this hotel room that I'm holed up in, hiding away from the press and everything. And having Vixen behind me, they can and do put everything into it! So I had all this breakable glass, I had these hot cars, I had these sets. It was really amazing to see it all come to life. It's like you're just planning for something and then it all comes together and I can see what the thrill of that is. I caught the directing bug for sure.”
Although Ward worked within the thematic and stylistic tropes of the Blacked brand, she also says she tried to infuse it with “sort of a Deeper vibe,” especially in terms of the writing and the acting.
“I definitely wanted it to be true to the audience who watches Blacked, but I think it's also different and fun, because it's kind of cheeky, and sort of about my past and my acting career and all that stuff,” she elaborates.
A Wink to Her 'Wardiors' Fandom
Ward says “Fame” can also be seen as a wink to her legion of fans and people who follow her career closely.
“My hardcore fans know that ‘Blacked’ is where I really started with my first pro scene, before my Deeper contract, so it's kind of like a full-circle moment in that way, which I could never have imagined when I did that very first scene in 2019.”
There’s another, more personal wink to her sex work beginnings.
“I thought it would be a really cool idea to have Isaiah be the bodyguard,” she confesses, explaining that “Fame” offers a kind of twist on the protagonists of the 1992 Hollywood movie, “The Bodyguard.”
“Isiah was the first person who I really worked with when I started making my own content, before shooting professional porn,” she says. “And he's been so supportive of me in my porn journey. It was amazing to come so full-circle with ‘Fame.’ I mean, I gave him my first on-screen blowjob and look where we are!”
To watch Maitland Ward’s “Fame,” visit Blacked.com.
