Tanya Tate caused a media ruckus earlier this year in Ireland when her show, "Tanya Tate's Sex Tour of Ireland," premiered. For the on-demand show Tate toured the island country with a motorbike, inviting fans she met along the way back to her Winnebago in an attempt to find the first Irish pornstar. Ireland's news media became obsessed with discovering who these volunteers were—-one of who turned out to be a professional Irish athlete. Despite her meteoric rise in the world of UK porn, Tate has branched out and made a splash across the pond in the U.S., though she still keeps her casting couch open in the UK for any fans who think they have what it takes to last more than a minute with the blonde bombshell. For a Liverpool native who decided to do porn out of boredom with her work and dating life, her gamble seems to be paying off. Tate will be coming to Tampa for the first time ever where she's up for Best MILF at the 2010 Night Moves Awards Show Oct. 7-10.
Shawn Alff: Do you have to have a child to be considered a MILF or has the term come to describe a certain look?
Tanya Tate: When I first got into the industry I had never heard of the word MILF. Then suddenly this label kept coming up calling me one. When you get cast for a scene, directors are looking for the MILF look, not whether you have a child. I think a MILF is a woman who’s a bit older, but a woman with hips and boobs. Luckily I have both.
SA: Was it strange having your chest nominated for Favorite Breasts in the F.A.M.E awards?
TT: It was kind of funny. People have commented that they're nice, they have a nice size and what have you. When I’m on set a lot people are like 'whoa' and they want to feel them. (laughs) I’m feeling them now actually.
SA: Are they all natural or do you have implants?
TT: They have had a bit of help
SA: If you had won the award do you think your plastic surgeon would want to add that plaque to his wall?
TT: (laughs) Yes, I'm sure my surgeon in Liverpool would love to put that on his resume.
SA: How did you get into porn?
TT: Working in an office and having just finished with a relationship, I was really really bored, wondering what to do next. I wanted a bit more excitement in my life. I was hanging out with this guy who put an adult movie on and I thought, I could do that. I thought about it a long time and decided yeah, okay, I’m going to do it. I had some photographs taken. I researched some UK based production companies. A couple of them invited me down to London. They liked me and shot me, and it went from there. I knew that once I shot my first scene and signed the papers there was no going back. You can’t really change your mind and say, 'Oh I don’t want to do it anymore.' I knew my family would eventually find out. So right at the beginning I told them. My mom was really cool. She was like, 'As long as you’re safe and you’re happy then that's fine.' Since then she’s come out to LA with me a few times. On her last trip she even went out for a meal with my pornstar friends. My dad knows what I do, he just doesn’t talk about it. But I didn’t tell my brother and one day he saw an interview of me in a newspaper at work and he started ripping the page out so no one else in the office would see.
SA: Speaking of newspapers, one of the things that launched your career was the Tanya Tate Sex Tour of Ireland in which you performed with several amateur males including the professional hurler, Greg Jacob. How did that whole thing come about?
TT: I got into one of the local magazines in Dublin called Hot Press. One of the things I talked about was how I wanted to make a movie with fans in Ireland, because I hadn't heard of any porn movies or pornstars that had come out of Ireland. They eventually ran part of my interview, but they focused on how I was looking to find the next Irish pornstar. Then the four major Ireland newspapers and the news stations picked up the story. Next thing I knew I was inundated with all these guys who wanted to become the next Irish pornstar.
SA: How did they apply? Did they just send you naked pictures?
TT: I’ve actually got the application on my blog right now, because I'm always looking for new guys. They have to send me some personal information and some pictures, clothed and nude, obviously so I can see what their cock looks like. I got Television X to back the project. They sent me around Ireland with a camera crew, my motorbike, and a Winnebago. I met some of the guys who applied at a certain place, then they were invited back to make my caravan rock. All these guys were having sex on camera for the first time. Unbeknown to me one of the guys was Greg Jacob. Greg was actually one of my star performers. He managed to keep it going. He did really well and was a nice guy. I thought no more of it. Went back to England and they started airing it in March and April of this year. In the meantime I was shooting a casting couch in April and one of the guys I wanted to come back and try out again was Greg. So he took a trip over to London and he did two more scenes on my casting couch. So that’s more exclusive content of him that I will release on my site. But when we started airing the original show, the Irish were going mad, trying to figure out who the performers were. They were asking me but I wouldn't give out any personal details. One of the newspapers advertised, 'If you know anyone from Tanya Tates’s sex tour, call us.' One of the guys was the brother of a big politician, and then of course there was Greg who was the professional hurler. There was this big uproar and he was shamed. At first I think he was denying it, and then he kind of came out and went, oh yeah I did it for a laugh. But then I think a lot of his lads were patting him on the back. A lot of people were saying well done because having sex on camera in front of a big crew isn't the easiest thing to do.
SA: Why do you think Ireland reacted that way?
TT: In my opinion it’s because Ireland is actually quite small. In LA, porn is big, and there's lots of production studios . It’s kind of known and accepted. You go to England and people are starting to accept it a lot more. Where as Ireland is a small country that is very family oriented. I mean Jacqueline Gold [CEO of the sex toy company Ann Summers] got death threats when she tried to open her first store in Ireland. Because porn isn’t very accessible and people don't really talk about it, when the story broke in the newspapers, suddenly people could talk about porn.
SA: Is there anything you personally want to do in Florida when you come for the Night Moves Awards Weekend?
TT: If I have time, I would really love to go to Disney World. I’ve been to Disney Land in LA twice, and it was so much fun. I’m like a kid.
See hardcore content of Tate at TanyaTate.com and follow her on twitter at Twitter.com/TanyaTate
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