Domina Roxy Elixir is the co-founder and ‘queen bee’ of Carnal Productions, a Scotland-based, BDSM & fetish porn company currently switching up the game making artful queer porn. Running the company with her co-star Slave Mila, Roxy writes, directs and edits the films, whilst Mila is more on the production and planning side of things.
To me, what stands out about Carnal Production’s content is the combination of imaginative concepts but incredibly natural dynamics between the stars who are Roxy, Mila and often friends of theirs. The fun that they truly seem to have on the shoots makes the content feel very sensual.
It’s the first time I’ve interviewed a pro-domme, and the submissive inside me is suddenly kind of nervy. Even though I know it’s ridiculous, I can’t help but partly imagine my Facetime call being answered by a formidable looking woman sitting on a huge throne in the backdrop of an echoey stone dungeon.
And so when Roxy picks up the phone on Friday evening at home in her loungewear with a beaming smile and the most homely Scottish accent you’ve ever heard, I laugh at myself in my head.
Hi Roxy! How are you?
Hi! I’m just getting back in the groove of things after a quiet start to the year and oh my god- I’m getting so tired so easily. I did two sessions today and now I need a wee lie down to be honest!
But when you’ve got a mission, something that you know needs to be done, you just find energy from somewhere. Sometimes I’m so tired when my alarm is going off, and I’m thinking ‘Can I do this? Can I leave my bed?’ but I check my bank balance and that gets me up and moving.
Where are you now?
Right now, I’m at home in Glasgow, it’s freezing outside, it’s snowing. What’s it like down there for you?
It’s shitty here too, typical! It rained all day. But I’m really glad to be talking to you. I don’t know enough about the alt. porn industry, but I really like what you do.
Thank you, I love what you’re doing. I think Sensuali is absolutely amazing, and I wish I had something like this when I first started out all these years ago- I was very lonely before I started meeting other people in the industry. If I had something like your site, it would’ve been fantastic.
Thank you so much, I’m really proud to be a part of it. But back to you- can you tell me about your journey, from the beginning?
I started doing sex work pretty much as soon as I turned 18. I was working at a strip club, I think a lot of people start off there. If you’re a funny, flirty person, it’s kind of the place you naturally gravitate to. But I didn’t quite get it at first, this club is Glasgow, was rough- like rough and being an artsy type, I didn’t really fit in. So, I stopped doing that.
I went to Dundee and did my undergrad in audio engineering, but I found it very sexist and unenjoyable, so I started going down the film route, from an audio perspective. So if I was meeting bands, and doing the sound for them, I would take some photos and videos too.
And then, I also started working at a different strip club at this time, and by this point I knew myself so much more, so it was a much better experience. I had a house mother and the other girls were students too. On a quiet night, we’d all take our coursework with us- how cute is that? I then started to do fetish escorting as well.
Fast forward a little later and I got a scholarship to study a masters in film at the Glasgow School of Art. So I went back to Glasgow. I’m from a working class background, so there’s no way I would’ve been able to afford this course if I hadn’t got the scholarship. So I was very grateful.
The strip clubs had been getting more and more dead over the years, making the competition very fierce between the girls- so I was working a wee bit at the clubs and doing my masters but I wasn’t really feeling it.
Then one day I went to this yoga thing and met this guy who was talking about a place called The Glasgow Dungeon, and I contacted the head of it, and she was…fabulous, chaotic- everything.
So she took me in, and helped me a lot. I found a lot of new friends through that, and I hosted events like a like a queer film night called ‘fucked up film night’ and some general fetish events in this huge dungeon which was just round the corner from the art school-so I could go from a lecture, run down the hill and be at the dungeon in two minutes(!)
It was a nice way to go into the industry in a more serious way, with people around who were supporting me. That was where I made my debut film.
So here’s where you sort of combined your art degree with your sex work?
Yeah. I’ve always found a lot of mainstream porn to be ugly and not good with representation. you exist within a category, male gaze for the money basically. I wanted to make beautiful, erotic fetish art.
I’d read this paper about the skin being a barrier between yourself and the outside world, and how within there’s our soul and our whole essence of ourselves, and the skin is our barrier.
So my first film was this experimentation of someone in a latex vac bed film and someone else with latex gloves on just touching bits of the body as the light moves across it. The latex was supposed to symbolise an extra layer of skin, and there was this imagery with the latex gloves and latex body of two people becoming one.
I spoke to my personal tutor at the art school about being a sex worker and wanting to do erotic art and I showed her the film. She went bright red in the face- she was profoundly uncomfortable. She asked where it was filmed and I told her it was the dungeon where I worked and she flipped her lid.
She started telling me that being a sex worker was dangerous and that the art school is responsible for my safety. I was like… ‘Excuse me?!’ She asked what safety precautions I took when shooting it, and I explained that everything was consensual, but she didn’t get that…So then I got referred to the fucking ethics committee.
I felt sad that what I was trying to do was met with so much aversion. It sent me into a spin where I started to question whether what I was doing was wrong. So, with a bit of help from my friends, I contacted Miles Jackman- who is the UK’s number 1 lawyer in the laws of obscenity. Yep, I did that !
I had the scholarship, I had money from the sex work and you don’t pay taxes when you’re a student. So I thought, fuck it, I’ll just pay for it to make them to shut up, I can get on with my life and then other people’s work hopefully won’t suffer the same kind of backlash. So, he sent an email to the art school and suddenly everything was fine…
All of this just drove me more to make sure my film was of such a high technical standard so they couldn’t fault me. Anyway, I ended up getting a distinction! So then I was ready to take on the world. But things don’t always work out that way do they?
The Glasgow Dungeon shut down and suddenly I didn’t have my base anymore and I was a bit lost. I used to love that place. I was used to spending 12 hours at a time there, sleeping over, waking up and filming more. It was a huge loss.
Eventually, I went to this queer party which is where I met Mila- my now business partner. We got on very well, and one global pandemic later, we took a big leap of faith and set up Carnal Productions.
It felt quite demoralising, as we were spending 6-7 hours making one film, and then there’s big companies just pumping things out and they’re making a lot of money. So we had to find a balance between what was going to sell and who we wanted to be, we had to really think about our brand.
Congratulations on the distinction! What was the initial vision for Carnal, and has it developed over time?
The initial vision was to start up a queer, feminist production house. My focus was on erotic art. That means not having it on Pornhub or Clips4sale because it would be art, and that doesn’t belong there.
But coming out of university and pushing through the pandemic, we needed to make money. So a compromise had to be made.
It then went a bit male gaze-y, just me and Mila with a camera there, doing it and selling it online. I didn’t feel good about it, but it was also helping me buy better film equipment. And then once we were making a bit of money, we started branching out and trying to do more of the kind of shoots that we wanted to do, but that was difficult as they weren’t necessarily selling.
It felt quite demoralising, as we were spending 6-7 hours making one film, and then there’s big companies just pumping things out and they’re making a lot of money.
So we had to find a balance between what was going to sell and who we wanted to be, we had to really think about our brand. We knew we needed to feel good and feel proud of ourselves, because I didn’t go through all of this just to churn out bullshit.
I was considered too commercial to be part of the alternative scene but also too arty to really make bank with the commercial scene, living in this no man’s land as a brand.
As we branched out, gained some confidence and met more people, we started to focus on collaborations and creating things we were proud of, but still had to make the shit that sells, because the art porn, just didn’t.
For a while I didn’t feel recognised by the wider queer art scene. I was putting in a lot of energy to make interesting films, but I was considered too commercial to be part of the alternative scene but also too arty to really make bank with the commercial scene, living in this no man’s land as a brand.
I had an epiphany when I went to the porn film festival in Berlin, that trip was very life affirming.
There were industry only days, where there was a talk from Aorta Films, Mhax Capacity is a total star. They talked about the magic triangle, a balancing act, of being able to sell what you want to sell, making things with good representation, and making good art.
Hearing that from someone who’s very successful, made me realise that this is not just my struggle, it’s everyone’s struggle in this field. I was very inspired to see the films during the festival , and I suddenly realised that I was a contender, and I deserved to be there.
I think right now there’s a war on sex it seems which can get us down. I’ve read papers from Betty Dodson and Annie Sprinkle where they talk about this magical inspiring time where people were just starting to do independent films, and I remember reading it and wishing I were part of something cool too.
And in Berlin, I felt like I was. People came from all over the world and were talking about sex education and activism, and I was reminded that there is a real purpose to what we’re doing.
So when I came home I brought back that energy from Berlin with me, and re-edited some old projects and reached out to friends who we could collab with. It’s all about empowering other people- it’s not just about me or you, me vs you, it’s me and you. We’re all on the same journey of trying to be seen and heard. That’s ultimately what anybody wants.
So where are you at now?
I’ve found my magical triangle. We’re in a good place of doing things that sell, and having money to also do really creative things. We started putting aside 10% of our profits for art porn, so we can fund a really cool project every once in a while and remind ourselves why we do this, and why we love it.
I’ve found my magical triangle. We’re in a good place of doing things that sell, and having money to do really creative things also. I’m not a masochist, so I’m not going to annihilate my life for the sake of my art…you know, I like brunch. I’m not going to sit in a freezing cold house eating a tin of beans am I?
I have more confidence to reach out to people now too, which is very important in this industry which only works through collaborating with others. Filmmaking is a team effort.
The vision going forward is to move more away from being in front of the camera. I’m in front of the camera right now as a necessity as it cuts down on model cost.
When you’re just a small unit you still have to do your best with the resources you have to make it look as good as large production companies because that’s what people are used to seeing.
#ArtistsDeserveBrunch. You are a good actor though, I just wanted to say.
I have a very…expressive face.
Who do you think that your porn is for? Who is your audience?
It’s for people that like a story, a fantasy and a real connection. There’s a lot of things that we’ve made purely for the Clips4sale audience. Then the more artistic shoots are more for the queer, alternative people. We’re just shooting out all cylinders hoping we can get a hit somewhere!
The challenge is that people are generally used to consuming high quality media. Gone are the days of micro budget indie films, we all watch Netflix. People aren’t used to seeing things from small production houses; they forget that there’s hundreds of people working on a high budget thing to make it look good.
When you’re just a small unit, you still have to do your best with the recourses you have to make it look as good as large production companies because that’s what people are used to seeing.
But the mainstream people don’t expect that from porn, however, the alt scene know that porn isn’t a lesser medium of art, it deserves to be cinematic and look aesthetically appealing, so that’s the challenge, trying to make it look as good as possible.
So whatever audience we have, our main priority is to be visually appealing at least because thats what’s going to initially turn people on or off.
How do your artsy films do with the Clips4sale audience?
In short, not great!
I like to work around the natural dynamics between people because then they genuinely enjoy it.
What’s your favourite video that you’ve made?
I really like ‘Training a New Pet’, with the two girls licking the cream like cats. Mila and Violet were very close at the time and so that’s helped bring that energy between them.
Sometimes the most interesting videos are the ones that don’t fit into one category. But videos that don’t fit into one category are hard to sell.
In mainstream porn, the acting is, for most of the stars, very disconnected from real pleasure- it’s purely business and very clockwork. They’re not actually turned on, is that the same for your shoots?
Not at all. When I’m working with Mila its very different because we’ve got a personal relationship, so we’ve got the real life d/s dynamic going on. We incorporate a lot of our dynamic and inside jokes into it. We tend to work with friends, folks we’ve met at parties- so we’re having snacks, we’re talking, then we go and do the shoot.
Mila is so easy to arouse, she always gets so excited, her pants get wet and I’m thinking Aw, I’m glad you’re enjoying your shoot. I met our friend Princess Aurora at a party, and she’s a very cutesy domme.
Mila always wants to be told what to do, she’s like ‘Mistress, tell me how to do my hair, tell me how to do my makeup’ which I’m not really that into, but Aurora loves that, she loves to make people into her doll.
So me and Mila organised a shoot with her where the premise was like a step-sister thing where the older sister is playing and dressing up the younger sister. Partway through the shoot you could see a little wet patch on Mila’s pants.
I like to work around the natural dynamics between people because then they genuinely enjoy it. In mainstream porn, you can tell it’s automatic sex. That’s not healthy in my opinion – for the performers to have such disconnected sex.
I know we all do that at work to at least some extent- it’s your job, you’re removed, but I don’t know how healthy that could be, as an image to propagnate to an audience.
When something is purely commercial it becomes a money making machine- it’s mechanical. It doesn’t mean anything to anyone apart from ‘I’m going to get paid and someone in the world is going to have a good wank.’
That’s valid, but I think there needs to be more situations in this industry where people are having fun on set and having a nice time- I think intimacy coordinators really help with that.
In this industry it’s very important to have ownership over your own image- a luxury we don’t always get right now. You don’t always know what’s going to be done with your image after a shoot.
Yes, intimacy co-ordinators are so important because they are there to make the actors comfortable.
Right? It’s a relatively new job, but it should’ve existed from the beginning! I was down at this networking event in London called SNAP- I went and didn’t enjoy myself.
I expected to meet queer people, people who wanted to do interesting stuff but I mostly met a bunch of guys who were very like ‘We’re men and we’re cool because we’re in sex work’ and I was like ‘Yawn.’
One of them was saying how he organises large shoots for big production companies, and I asked him about how the process works for him with intimacy coordinators and he literally didn’t even know what that was… which is problematic, for himself and most of all for the performers.
If he’s co-ordinating or filming a shoot where anybody feels remotely uncomfortable and doesn’t feel safe to voice it, that’s going to come back and bite him in the ass so fucking hard. And rightly so!
I like people that have got a bit of personality and are a bit strong. Because then I respect them and their submission more, because it’s not just given to me. Those people are being submissive to me specifically because they respect me and I respect them.
Is there anything else that you’re conscious of doing to make things feel good for the participants?
In this industry it’s very important to have ownership over your own image- a luxury we don’t always get right now. You don’t always know what’s going to be done with your image after a shoot. You don’t know how you’re going to be marketed later on.
So, we predominantly content share when we work with other people. We make the plan with whoever we’re going to shoot with, and say ‘Who are you, what’s your image, what’s going to sell for you, how do you want to come across?’
That’s a number 1 thing. We also ask for a list of likes and limits and make up the scene together and agree on how the shoot will take place, to avoid any miscommunications.
I think that’s great, and not only is it much more empowering for the participants, but it’s also a win-win situation, because people are always going to be the hottest in their natural states, in what feels good for them. So what would you say your image is?
I’m quite a sensual domme. I like to ultimately feel good. If I do humiliation, I want the person to feel good and make people feel good too. There needs to be something positive and healing about it. I’m not a matriarchy type person. I love feeling a connection, so an important thing to me is that people feel comfortable.
I love tie and tease, I think that’s my favourite thing to do because it’s quite sensual but you’re also visibly in control. You see them squirm, you watch their reactions and there’s just a really nice playful to and fro going on. So I’d say I’m very playful and very sensual.
As a kid playing cops and robbers and stuff like that was your way of understanding the power dynamics within society. So tha’ts all it is, we’re having fun and playing.
Does that sensuality come into how you direct the films?
Yes. I like to get ultra ultra close up shots of me licking someone’s face or whatever, because when you’re in the moment with somebody, that one touch is everything to you, I want the viewer to feel how intimate that one thing is.
And then there’s the outer body thing- the birds eye view, sometimes when you have sex you’re thinking about how it looks overall when you’re fucking- subconsciously- its like a voyeurs thing. So I then get those fly on the wall shots.
Then there’s the medium angle which is the sort-of normal shot. But these shots are all images that I think you sort half- consciously have in your mind when you’re having sex with someone.
I think I made people uncomfortable because I was so uncomfortable trying to be this ‘bitch’, when I’m actually so not. I’m like the ‘domme next door’ – just that slightly bossy woman that you know.
That’s so true. I also feel that the more porn I watch, when I have sex, I’m sort of seeing myself in that bird’s eye view- voyeuristic way a lot more. Like I’m almost in a porno. But I really enjoy that feeling. So then how would you describe your dream sub?
Somebody who is very independent. I don’t like bringing mummy vibes. I like people that have got a bit of personality and are a bit strong. Because then I respect them and their submission more, because it’s not just given to me.
Those people are being submissive to me specifically because they respect me and I respect them.Someone that I can have good conversations with and who I can admire as a person.
I like someone who is strong inside and strong outside too because I want someone to carry my shopping when I go to Asda!
As a kid playing cops and robbers and stuff like that was your way of understanding the power dynamics within society. So thats all it is, we’re having fun and playing.
I’m not saying I don’t take my job seriously, but I’m not a domme who feels they have to hold themselves in this certain way, and speak a certain way. I just think that’s a bit unrealistic.
I tried to be that years ago when I was seeing people wearing strict clothes- long skirts, holding a cane, I thought that’s what I had to be, and that just wasn’t me.
I think I made people uncomfortable because I was so uncomfortable trying to be this ‘bitch’, when I’m actually so not. I’m like the ‘domme next door’ – just that slightly bossy woman that you know.
I feel like you come across the most dominant anyway when you are simply at ease with yourself.
You’re so right, and the older I’ve gotten, I’ve realised many people don’t have the confidence to just say ‘My food is cold, can you take it back to the kitchen?’ I do that. Because I’ve paid for that food, I want it hot and nice.
Even the smallest things like that- it’s confidence and that’s dominance to me. But thats a skill that is learnt. It comes with self acceptance.
It’s not about preserving my dignity, but preserving the dignity of others. If you tell someone something they can’t understand that they don’t have the capacity to relate to, they will think you are unsafe.
So leading on from that, it took a long time for me to get over the shame that I felt from people around me. Did you ever go through that?
I did see your article about shame and I thought it was very, very important. When I was younger and first started stripping, I was also going out a lot and having a lot of sex, but I didn’t have a personal computer at that point.
I remember my best friend saying to me, ‘How do you know what to do when you can’t watch porn?’ and I was like ‘I’m just horny’ but then it became almost a thing in my friend group like ‘Oh what’s she going to get up to now?’
I felt like people didn’t really get me and I felt a lot of shame. It’s been a long journey that I’ve overcome, but I really battled with that.
Even now that I’m so confident, happy and liberated, if I meet someone at a pub or make a new friend I don’t immediately say what I do because the guys want to fuck you and the women want to tell you about their sexual problems or start asking these ‘spicy’ questions like ‘What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?’
It’s too much of a novelty to a lot of people that they don’t necessarily see you as a person and that to you as the worker, it’s just an everyday job- you don’t want to talk about every detail of it because doing that is very repetitive and boring for you. So I’m not ashamed now, but I don’t want my job and lifestyle to be a novelty to someone.
How much do your friends & family know about what you do?
My friends are very clued up, no problems there.As for my family, well, I’ve told my mum about my job, but I don’t tell her every detail. I don’t see the need. It’s not about preserving my dignity, but preserving the dignity of others.
If you tell someone something they can’t understand that they don’t have the capacity to relate to, they will think you are unsafe, or judge you based on their misconceptions.
It doesn’t mean their love for you will change because you’re still the same person- your identity doesn’t come from your job. Who you are comes from within.
It was very awkward telling my mum. She said ‘If that’s what’s important to you, then that’s fine’ and then she started saying we’ve all got bigger things to worry about and started talking about global warming…and I’m just like ok fair enough Mum.
Since then, she knows, but she just doesn’t ask. I’ve got a roof over my head, I’m well put together, I’m friendly, helpful,and kind, these are the things that actually matter. My mum doesn’t need to know if I’m fucking someone up the arse with a strap on, you know?
It is a little bit sad that I can’t say ‘Oh mum I run this successful, feminine, beautiful erotic art porn production house and I’m actually making bank, I run a business and I’m independent.’
I used to be more bothered by that when I thought that I was defined by my job, but then I just grew up a little bit and had a little bit more inner security that I didn’t need to seek the approval or validation from my family.
As you get older you understand that if people don’t accept you, it’s fine, just get a pizza. If someone doesn’t want to listen to you that’s fine, do you know who does want to listen to you? The pizza place taking your order.
You’re kind of onto something there…Compared to other porn that’s queer and in your circle, what would you say defines your porn and makes it yours?
To be frank, nothing. There are so many incredibly talented, hardworking, free-thinking, sex-positive people about there and I’m just happy to stand among them. Getting one of our films accepted to be part of Aorta films, to be on a truly queer platform, that’s amazing.
I guess what makes everyone unique comes from what inspires them. I draw my inspiration from a lot of normal (non-porn) movies, like Funny Games inspired our film ‘Home Invasion’ .
I really love film noir and I grew up watching a lot of western movies. The creative mind is like a sieve and its what you catch in your sieve. I could watch a film and be very inspired in a way that’s totally different to others watching the same film. What makes it unique, in the same way that anything is unique, it just…is. It’s ours, it’s what we made.
Do you watch much porn?
I don’t really to be honest. When I masturbate I listen to music and think about abstract stuff. Like I’ll be there listening to classical music and imagining myself rollerblading in some forest or some shit.
Every now and again I’ll get a subscription to Erica Lust or someone I really support and like and get influences there. I think normal films could do with a lot more spicy moments in them. What do you think about this whole discourse about sex scenes not furthering the plot line and therefore being irrelevant?
I think it’s just people hating on sex. Not everything in a film should drive a plot forward. I love when things are there that are just fucking random and purely for entertainment. I feel like modern films and tv have lost some of the spontaneity and playfulness that existed in older films.
Viewing should be about feeling emotions, not everything should have to drive the plot forward. I don’t understand why there should be rules like that.
You have to know the rules to break them. I do think that every detail is important. You can use symbolism to evoke a whole load of imagery. But, ultimately, sex in films is very important, and it certainly drives the plot forward, like in life, who would ever stop and think that the sex and intimacy in their own life wouldn’t be important in their own story? No one, I hope.
What’s next then for you and your films?
Well, interestingly, off the back of my Berlin trip, I found out about the Vienna porn film festival, I re-worked two of our more artistic films, perfected the colour grading collaborated on some of the sound design, and applied.
Astonishingly, both films were accepted. I honestly couldn’t believe it! I was beside myself. Finally the recognition I wanted to see for Carnal Productions, on a big screen in front of an esteemed audience! The films were ‘Domina’s Ball Games’ and ‘Mila’s Service Hangs in the Balance’.
The first film’s premise is simple, it involves firing pool balls at Mila’s genitals- I got that idea from Jackass! We filmed it in this beautiful location, had this huge snooker table, it was very grand looking. Already, it had that hint of class.
We spent time on it looking aesthetically beautiful with the lighting and colour grading, when I re-worked it, I just added music, some slick editing and Mila made the title sequence.
The second film is about devotion and involves Mila balancing golden cups on trays filled with water, it looks quite ceremonious. Myself and a good friend made the sound design together.
When I was originally planning the film’s concept, I was thinking about the wedding vows in Tim Burton’s film ‘Corpse Bride’ where the main character says ’with this hand I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine.’
It’s a very poetic line, and I wanted to capture that feeling. Anyway, it feels good to have the festival to look forward to. Even more so because I will have some friends there to support me, and of course Mila will be there too, and we can be inspired for the next part of our journey.
I think you, your attitude and what you’re doing is incredibly cool- thank you so much for this conversation.
It’s been such a pleasure to speak to you. I love what you’re doing too, let’s keep it at it, huh?
Iso
Iso is a writer and filmmaker based in East London. She is passionate about all things erotic and leads a sexy, shame-free life in hope that she can inspire others to do the same. Originally from a Northern seaside town, she is naturally drawn to the best things in life: candyfloss, trashy karaoke bars and heart-shaped sunglasses.
