Tera Patrick – Goddess of the Sinners

Tera Patrick has led a remarkable life. She has been a top model, a worldwide feature entertainer, entrepreneur, fashion designer, adult entertainment mogul and ultimately the number one porn star in the world, crossing into mainstream as an international sex symbol. With the upcoming release of her autobiography, Sinner Takes All: A Memoir of Love and Porn, via Gotham/Penguin, Tera adds author to her growing list of accomplishments.

Tera Patrick has led a remarkable life. She has been a top model, a worldwide feature entertainer, entrepreneur, fashion designer, adult entertainment mogul and ultimately the number one porn star in the world, crossing into mainstream as an international sex symbol. With the upcoming release of her autobiography, Sinner Takes All: A Memoir of Love and Porn, via Gotham/Penguin, Tera adds author to her growing list of accomplishments.

Now, America’s exotic sweetheart reveals the details of her troubled childhood and her astronomic rise in the porn industry. Tera reveals all the details of her many sexcapades and everything you want to know about her wild encounters as the world’s greatest porn star. SINNER TAKES ALL chronicles Tera’s transition from nursing to posing for adult magazines to soft-core and then hardcore porn and then her first major deal with an adult movie studio that almost destroyed her career.

Filled with thrilling highs and deflated lows, Tera’s road to success wasn’t easy. In SINNER TAKES ALL she writes candidly about the obstacles she’s had to overcome – her strained relationship with her mother, her nervous breakdown, the road to alcoholism, suicide attempt and her painful yet liberating split from husband Evan Seinfeld. But Tera’s story is ultimately one of triumph and strength in the face of adversity. After an amateur mistake almost resulted in her losing the right to use her own stage name and image, Tera changed her business perspective. By following her new mantra, “I have my rules, I play by them, I make others follow them, and the consequence is that I don’t get hurt,” she built the hugely successful TERAVISION empire and continues to take the adult entertainment industry by storm.

Tera has graced the cover of every major men’s adult magazine and has nearly 100 adult film credits to her name and recently made a successful crossover into mainstream media gracing the cover of FHM magazine and with appearances in Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the video game Saints Row 2.

Tera is a divine and rare mixture of elegance, fashion, and smoldering sensuality. Recently inducted into the Adult Video News Hall of Fame, Tera has nearly 100 film credits to her name, and has graced the cover of every major men’s adult magazine. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Tera was a great interview! Besides being one of the sweetest and most humble of interviewees, she was very honest and open. I could ask her any question and Tera answered as though it was her duty to answer honestly….. but would she give us anything less? I had fun interviewing her. Read on for more Tera Patrick!

ASIANCE: Margaret Cho loves you. The following is something she wrote in the foreword of your book: “In this book you’ll learn that when Tera was a little Asian girl, she looked up to a blond goddess of her own: Marilyn Monroe. But what Tera realized even then was that it wasn’t Marilyn’s blond hair that mattered. It was her power, and the fact that the whole world couldn’t stop looking. Tera Patrick-as an Asian-American porn star-has shattered what people expected and demanded from Asian-American women. Because of her, we are seen in our entirety. We are seen as whole. Not only our beautiful faces and bodies but the forbidden things that we’re not allowed to show, our sexuality and our desire.” That’s a pretty influential statement. Asian American women look to you as pretty much a liberal Asian, when most are brought up in a strict household. What do you think of that?

Tera: Oh I’m like their JLo. I’m the JLo for Asian girls!

I chose Margaret to write the foreward. When I first started to write my book, I was actually working with another writer. He was a man. I just didn’t click with him. When I met Carrie Borzillo (entertainment journalist and author of Cherry Bomb and Eyewitness Nirvana), she basically marched into my office and said, “I want to write your book!” And I said, “Yeah. I need a female to write my book.”

When we were thinking about the foreword, I chose Margaret Cho because I had interviewed her for my radio show. I used to have a radio show for Playboy radio. She’s Asian and she’s female and I thought we had a lot in common. My upbringing wasn’t so Asian and so strict. My father is American. My mother (Thai) really assimilated into American culture, so I didn’t have that type of upbringing that so many Asian girls do have.

ASIANCE: What prompted you to write this book?

Tera: I wrote my book because it was time. I’ve worked in the industry, at the time it was 8 years, and fans basically kept asking me to write my book. They were like, “There is so much written about you but we don’t know if it’s true. We don’t really know who you are.” So I figured it was time for me to tell my story. I said, “ok!”

It was cathartic for me. I’ve been through a lot in my life, as you can tell from my book. I wanted to share that story with people. Hopefully, it’s inspiring to other women and other people.

ASIANCE: Do people notice you on the street a lot?

Tera: Oh everywhere I go!

ASIANCE: If you could be any celebrity who would it be? Girl or guy, celebrity?

Tera: Hmmmm. That’s a tough question because I’m pretty happy with who I am. I wouldn’t want to be anybody else actually but I guess for fun, I would like to see what it would be like to be Marilyn Monroe for a day.

ASIANCE: That’s right. You love her.

Tera: I do love her.

ASIANCE: Anything you regret or wish you could take back in porn?

Tera: It’s not that I regret it or want to take it back but I wish I would have been a little more educated. Teri Weigel (American pornographic actress and Playboy Playmate) was a really big inspiration to me and she’s a really good friend of mine. She came into my porn career kind of early and taught me a lot of things. I just wish she came in a little sooner and said, “Hey don’t work with this guy” or “Hey, work with this guy.”

ASIANCE: Do girls who want to get into the industry come to you? Do you mentor girls now?

Tera: Yes they do. A lot of girls come to me and say, “I’m thinking about getting into the business.” That is another reason I wrote my book. Girls do approach me all the time and want to know what the business is like. If I can help them and steer them in the right direction, then that’s very important to me.

ASIANCE: Do you still talk to Evan? What does he think about this book?

Tera: I don’t know what he thinks about the book. We’re separated. I don’t speak to him at all actually. I was married to him for seven years. We had our ups and downs. I’m actually going to send him a copy of the book so he can read it. I don’t know what he’s going to think about it. We don’t hate each other. We don’t love each other. It’s kind of one of those, I wish him the best.

Here’s Tera when she was on VH1’s Supergroup with former husband Evan, along with Sebastian Bach and his wife.

ASIANCE: What was your favorite Playboy cover? Who was it with?

Tera: I would have to say it’s the one I did with Dasha and Kira because that day was so fun! I got to meet my idol, Janine. I wrote a chapter on it. It was just a fun, fun day. The one I did for Playboy Croatia was really beautiful as well. That was shot in a nightclub in New York. It was fun!

ASIANCE: Do you talk to Janine a lot?

Tera: I just saw her actually. She came to my dance show in Los Angeles at the Spearmint Rhino. She came to see me and she looked as beautiful as ever. We had some giggles and laughs about the business and we talked about working together. I hope it happens.

(Janine is currently going through a custody battle with her former husband Jesse James and Sandra Bullock.)

ASIANCE: Did you follow or notice any Asian women in media?

Tera: I love Margaret. She is amazing and so inspiring. I just love her. Asian women in media? Hmmmm, I don’t feel like there are any out there. I remember Lucy Liu was hot for awhile when she was doing Ally McBeal but we don’t really have any big Asian movie stars for women. I think I can change that! (laughs)

ASIANCE: Do you want to get into mainstream movies?

Tera: I don’t know about movies but just being in the media like writing some more books, my dance show. Movies never really appealed to me. I love working.

ASIANCE: Tell us about your Vegas burlesque show? Will you be incorporating any Asian themes?

Tera: I will actually. I’m actually doing a geisha number. We’re hoping for a Valentine’s Day launch. It’s basically Pussy Cat Dolls meets Cirque du Soleil. There will be a geisha number.

ASIANCE: What lessons did you learn about your marriage to Evan and what lessons did you learn about your breakup with Evan?

Tera: I would have to say that marriage is sacrifice. You give some, you get some. Sometimes people just outgrow each other, which is what happened with us. I grew up and moved on and he made me recognize a lot of things and I made him recognize a lot of things. I do believe in marriage and I know I’ll get married again.

ASIANCE: Do you have a crush on anyone? Is there someone you would like to date?

Tera: Oh my god, I’m so in love with Christian Bale. I’ve been in love with him forever. He’s married. But he’s cute. Isn’t he cute?

ASIANCE: Oh yeah. And even when he went off on that Director of Photography on the Terminator set that one time, he was still really hot!

Tera: I know! I KNOW!!

ASIANCE: He’s like the ultimate man.

Tera: Yes he is!

ASIANCE: Weigh in on the Tiger situation. What are your thoughts?

Tera: I think that if it was one woman, then maybe you can understand and work it out. I mean, he was just a lousy husband. I’m really glad she’s divorcing him. I’m glad she found her inner strength.

ASIANCE: Do you think she’ll go through with it? News today is he’s in rehab and she doesn’t want to divorce him.

Tera: Really? Well shame on her then! (laughs) I’d leave him. I’m sorry. Any man that cheated on me 30 times, GOOD BYE!

ASIANCE: In your book, there’s a bit about Jenna Jameson and Evan. (Readers will have to get the book!) Do you get along with Jenna now? Did that bother you about what she said to Evan?

Tera: That was in the past. We’re not really in each other’s lives. I live in Vegas and she lives in California. We’ve talked on occasion and it’s always been friendly. We’re both in different phases of our lives too.

ASIANCE: Is there anything that you want to do that you haven’t done yet?

Tera: Yeah! I want to go to Nepal. I want to travel more and climb Mount Everest. I want to have sex near the Pyramids. There are a lot of things. I want to meet Christian Bale and have sex with Christian Bale! (laughs)

ASIANCE: Anything coming up for you?

Tera: I have my show. So I’ll be here for awhile. I have the book tour. The book tour starts January 3rd in New York City and ends January 22nd in Jacksonville, FL. I’ll be going to a lot of cities. I’m really excited. The tour dates are on my MySpace and facebook.

ASIANCE: Do you have advice for women who are going through a divorce?

Tera: Absolutely! It’s to focus on your future and to be positive and to not look back and say, “What did I do wrong?” It’s just to move to the future and not think about it. I don’t think about my divorce on a day to day basis. My friends tell me that they forget I’m going through a divorce because every day I’m so happy and positive. I think it’s just that I surround myself with good people and look to the future. That’s the most important thing you can do.

ASIANCE: Did it take a long time to reconcile with your mom? What advice would you give to girls who are in the same situation you were with your mom?

Tera: Well it didn’t. My mom and I didn’t speak for 17 years and then 2 years ago we started speaking again. I do remember when the first phone call was made from my mother to me. Forgiveness is more for you than the other person, is what I’ve learned. You only have one mother, you only have one father. Someday they’re not going to be here anymore. My mother did the best she could and I love her to death. She’s in my life now. She’s an amazing woman and we’re very close.

The hardcover version is currently available for pre-orders at www.Amazon.com www.barnesandnoble.com
www.borders.com
www.indiebound.com
and The book will be available in retail outlets nationwide wherever books are sold on Jan. 5, 2010.

See Tera’s www.myspace.com/terapatrick

Photography by Josh Ryan (Main photo, above)
Animated cover photography in order of appearance by Josh Ryan, Josh Ryan, Chris Fortuna and Michael Vincent