Nina Mercedez

Q: I know you went from feature dancing to photo shoots to hardcore with Vivid. Can you tell us a little bit about that process and what made you take the leap from dancing and photography into hardcore sex for the cameras?

Mercedez: I started out house dancing in Corpus Christi, Texas. I was a house dancer and I did that for about two years. I got to a point as a house dancer where guys would come in and ask "Why are you doing this?" "You're so beautiful, you should be doing something else!" I saw another feature dancer - Vanessa Young - and I saw her dance on stage and found out about featuring and decided to go ahead and do it. Being on stage is just something I'm really comfortable with. When I was in Jr. High I used to do talent shows, and I won first place for doing Vogue on stage at a talent show - so I've always wanted to be on stage in front of people. So I started featuring and doing magazines (photoshoots), and I started doing pageants. When you do pageants, the more titles you have, the more your pay rate goes up. I went out one year and decided to hit all the pageants. I did Miss Nude North America, and I won. I did Miss Nude International, and I won. I got invited to the Golden G-String Awards, which is an invitation-only competition in New Orleans - and I won that competition. Then I went to Miss Nude Universe, and I won that. That year they gave me Entertainer of the Year. After being in Penthouse and winning all those titles, there's nothing else you can really do featuring...you've hit the peak. So the next step to getting more pay is porn. So I decided to set up a meeting with Vivid, and I went in and 10 minutes later I had a contract.

Q: Do you remember who you did your first sex scene with?

Mercedez: It was with Mario Rossi.

Q: What was the experience like? Were you nervous or did you feel comfortable from the start?

Mercedez: I was nervous...I had a drink to calm my nerves. 10 minutes prior to that, I had seen for the first time two people having sex in front of me, which was awkward. If you have the DVD of So I Married A Pornstar, and you watch the behind the scenes, they countdown to my sex scene. So you can see me getting ready for it. It was awkward...but it was great - I enjoyed it.

Q: Do you prefer working with girls or guys?

Mercedez: No, I like doing scenes with both. Especially when the girl is really beautiful, like I get to work with Devon Michaels and Cherokee and I think they're just amazing and beautiful women. I like working with both evenly.

Q: Any favorite performers to work with?

Mercedez: I enjoy working with Cherokee. I enjoy working with Nicole (Sheridan) and Voodoo. I like Evan Stone - he makes me laugh on the set all the time.

Q: Any performers you haven't worked with yet that you'd like to?

Mercedez: Yes, I'd love to work with Gina Lynn. Some of the girls that work for Vivid I still haven't had a chance to work with. Briana...I'd love to work with Briana Banks. I'd love to work with Tera (Patrick) in a movie. We did a photoset for our website, but I'd love to shoot a movie with her.

Q: Do you have a favorite position or scenario that you love to do on camera?

Mercedez: People ask me my favorite position, and it's hard to answer. When I'm shooting a movie and I don't really know the guy or we just met...sometimes I don't really want to look at him...so doggy's my favorite then! Because I don't have to look at him...I can use my imagination! But at home - I have a really beautiful boyfriend and he's got a great body - so at home it would be missionary. I like watching him on top.

Q: Any fantasies you'd like to play out on camera that you haven't been able to yet?

Mercedez: I'd like to do a movie called "Men In Uniform". I did one called Women In Uniform, but it was me in the uniform. I have a thing for men in uniform - like the cop, or the soldier.

Q: What's more enjoyable for you - making movies or performing for a live audience feature dancing?

Mercedez: I've always enjoyed being in front of an audience. Featuring and dancing on stage is something that I feel is just natural for me. It's not work...I just love being on stage. That's my love, that's why I do movies...so I can go out and be on the road and meet my fans.

Q: You've been with Vivid for a couple of years now. Are you starting to get recognized when you go out in public...and what are those experiences like?

Mercedez: I've never had anyone come up to me and say "You're Mercedez," but get that kind of double-look where somebody looks and they look again. Mercedez is kind of a different person...that's me dressed up in heels. I live in California, but I live in a small suburb. Where I live, I don't think a lot of people watch porn.

Q:In your free time, what are your interests and hobbies?

Mercedez: I did Muscular Development for like a year...in 2003 I did a cover, and I did four layouts for them. And I picked up working out, and I do that often. I'm always on the Internet...but I really don't know what other hobbies I have.

Q: Tell us about your website and what fans can expect to find there.

Mercedez: Well, that's kind of an exciting subject for me because for the past three years I had somebody running my website and I was hired on as a model and had no input as to when updates were made, what was up there (on the site), or anything like that. A few months ago, I bought the website (www.mercedezxxx.com) from the people - so now the website's being run by me, and it's getting a whole new redesign in about a month. The website is now more personal. There's interviews, it gets updated every two days, I pick out what I want updated on it. During the break I had with Vivid, I was not contracted for about a month...so for that month me and my boyfriend shot a whole bunch of P.O.V., so that content is exclusive on my website - and that's going to be going up. I've already put some of the P.O.V. up, but the rest of it is going to be going up.

Q: Any upcoming movies that you'd like to let our readers know about?

Mercedez: I have a movie called Take My Wife that came out and it's a really great movie. There's another movie called Who Do You Love? that's about girls talking about their first loves. And that movie was very emotional...everybody cried - so it's different, and I want to see what the reviews are going to be of that. My Little John movie...the movie I shot last year in Vegas with Little John - that's coming out in January or February. And Where The Boys Aren't 17 is coming out, and I'm excited about that one because it's the last Where The Boys Aren't that Jenna (Jameson) participated in, and I actually got to do a scene with her in that movie.

Q: Out of the movies you've done, do you have a favorite to recommend to fans?

Mercedez: I have a few favorites. I liked Bellisima, because I got to play a Spanish actress and I thought everybody did a great job in it. Emotions was a great movie. I did a scene with Ben English - I got to dominate him, so that was a great movie. It's up for AVN Best Film, and I got a nomination for Best Anal Scene with Ben in that movie. I like Diary of an Orgy also.