Dave Navarro: The Mr. Skin Interview

Have you always had a desire to direct a sex film?

It was an idea that was presented to me by the people at Teravision. It seemed like an interesting thing to do. I've always had a desire to direct a film, and the content in this particular case happens to be adult. I thought it would be a fun experiment, and it was.

What is Broken about?

There's a loose story. It's about a girl's struggle with her personal power. She is going through a powerlessness at home and when she gets to work—she happens to an adult film star—she ends up taking out her anxieties on the other actors. When she gets home she takes things into her own hands. She finds her own personal strength throughout the process.

Did you choose the actresses in the movie, such as star Sasha Grey?

Yes, I did. I've known Sasha prior to the project. I think she has an interesting aesthetic, everything from her personal appearance to her fashion sense to the music that she likes. She's a different breed. The other thing I really like about her is that she looks as though she could live down the street from anybody.

A lot of adult film stars look like adult film stars; she looks like a girl that's down the street. There's something about that that allows for there to be a little bit more fantasy, and frankly she is an incredible actress in this film. I gave her a really intense, emotional moment at the open of the film and she blew everybody away.

You wrote the screenplay with producer Sancho, so what's different about your brand of porn?

To be honest with you, I don't really watch a lot of adult films, so I really don't know. There are some tongue-in-cheek moments, there's some tipping of the hat to the old-style '70s adult films, there's a very loosely structured plot line, but it's loose intentionally.

One of the things I like about it is that there's a huge portion of the film that takes place on a soundstage where there are four or five different scenes going on simultaneously and the camera cuts between those scenes. It's kind of like a Caligula (Picture: 1) sex scene.

If the viewer wishes to watch one of those sex scenes in its entirety and say "fuck the story," they can go to the menu and choose whatever scene they want complete without interruption.

Now that the film is finished and about to be released, was there anything about making it that surprised you?

Simple: how quickly this whole industry operates. What starts as a concept and a phone call ends up being a finished project in about forty days. Whereas in any other industry I've worked in—television, music, books—they're all so time consuming that I had absolutely no idea that the thing would be turned around as quickly as it was.

As an artist, as someone who wants to inject artistic flare into something, a lot of times that inspiration is short lived. Sometimes with music you write a song and you find yourself working on that same song nine months later in a studio when you've kind of forgotten the essence of what it is you're doing. With this, its turnaround is so quick that the initial inspiration isn't lost throughout the process.

Did you get turned on making the film?

Ironically, not, I was more concerned with lighting and angles. I had major concerns with audio bleeding from one scene to the other since we were filming simultaneously. But I have to hand it to our editor, Axel Braun, who really did a magical job with the editing of this thing, because it could have been a complete and utter nightmare.

Do you like directing beautiful women in intimate scenarios or, as a rock star, is this something that you already have a lot of experience with?

I would love to tell you yes, because it's more of an interesting answer, but the truth is when it came down to the actual scenes with the couples they were much more skilled and knowledgeable about what would read best and play best than I would have been. I left a lot of that up to Sancho and the actors.

I let them do what they did. I was more interested in the way it was put together, the way that it looked and the story. There are some elements to the film that some might consider disturbing maybe, but as far as the actual choreographing of the scenes that didn't have as much of my stamp on it as the project did in its entirety.

You've said that you don't watch a lot of porn, but you do offer an homage to the classic era of porn. What are some of the films from that time that inspired you?

Behind the Green Door. There's a huge scene in that film where there's all kinds of action going on at once, one might say there's a tipping of the hat to that in the film.

I did a parody scene of the typical pizza guy walking in—you know what I'm talking about? There's all this dialogue and then they get to it. But the film, once the pizza guy walks into the scene, it fast-forwards through the dialogue on its own. It fast-forwards for the viewer. Saves the viewer from picking up the remote. We actually shot the scene with about four minutes with all this dialogue and then in the finished product it fast-forwards on its own. You see the FF come up in the corner and it goes straight to the sex.

You've stated that this project reminded you of your beginnings in the music industry when it had a sense of danger and an edge. Does this mean you're going to make more porn movies?

No, not necessarily. Just to correct that comment, I don't think the music world itself is lacking in edge, I think the corporate structure that gets music out to the people is lacking in edge. There are a million bands out there that are incredible, but their outlets are limited. I'm happy that I could work with a company that was all about edge.

Would you ever perform in an adult film?

That would be a no. I have what you would say are cameos in this film, but I'm covered from the waist down.

Speaking of movies, do you recall the first nude scene you saw in a mainstream film growing up?

It's so hard to remember; I'm forty years old. The one that came to mind when you asked, though I don't know if it's actually the first, is the film 10 (Picture: 1). It wasn't so much the scenes with Bo Derek (Picture: 1), as it was the scenes where Dudley Moore is looking through a telescope at a party. Remember those scenes? That's the one that struck me, those free-for-all '70s sex parties that were going on across the way from him.

Before you go, tell me about your new Internet show.

I do an Internet-based talk show called SpreadEntertainment and it's on ManiaTV.com. It's a live talk show that happens once a week. We have different bands, actors and musicians, avant-guard performance artists, and an in-house psychotherapist for when we have anorexics, cutters, and people struggling with addiction. It's an interesting palette of subjects.

Any subjects that Mr. Skin would be into?

There are some clips on YouTube when we covered Erotica L.A., which might be interesting. There's an interview with Evan and Tera there. That's just one of the things that we did. It's not really an adult-oriented show; it's whatever is interesting to us at the time.

Any final words for the readers of our site?

I'd like to add that the original score was done by a band out of New York called KHC, and the score was done by Poll, who is the guitarist of KHC. I chose one of my favorite bands to be featured.