The question everyone longs to ask of an adult film star is, How did you get into the business? It's an honest question, but also a loaded one. It smacks faintly of disapproval, as if the questioner were really asking, How did you stray into a life of crime? In Juliet Anderson's case, the answer is complicated, and she's open and chatty when she talks to me on the phone from her home in Berkeley, Calif.

She grew up in Burbank, Calif., "in the days before smog and NBC," she says, the daughter of a jazz musician and an aspiring actress. Her father traveled with a 40-piece orchestra, playing gigs and doing what musicians on the road do -- staying up late, smoking pot, drinking, playing poker. Her mother, she says, was "strong, practical, frugal. She took things in hand but she loved second-hand glamour." She adored being in the spotlight near her husband and being near the famous people who often came to hear his music. It was an upbringing that some might have called bohemian at the time but according to Juliet her family led a conventional, quiet life. "They fit in real well with the neighbors, got along." And the lesson she took away from her upbringing was that "you can be different, artistic, and not be an outcast."

It was also an isolated childhood, due largely to illness. Juliet (when you've watched someone have sex, it seems too formal to refer to her as Ms. Anderson) suffers from Crohn's disease and, like her father did, from a highly allergic condition that can make such common things as ammonia fumes, exhaust, perfumes and smoke dangerous and even lethal. Her life, she says, was "shaped by years of illness. I had one woman friend in all of junior high and high school. I never went to a party or dance or senior prom. My face had swollen because I had massive doses of cortisone. And I limped because of the very bad arthritis that accompanies Crohn's disease." What changed it was discovering holistic medicine in college. "When I found out I wasn't going to die and wasn't going to be crippled, I said I'm going to live, make up for all the years I was an outcast in high school."

What bloomed in her was a sort of wanderlust that began when she met a man who she describes as "one of the great loves of my life, and my first great love that was consummated." He was in the Navy. "We had this amazing relationship. Every weekend he came up from Long Beach to San Diego." In college, she was working 30 hours a week and taking 14 credits. "I hardly ever had time for sleep, but I had time for sex." Their whirlwind romance was cut short when her naval love was sent to Japan. "He suggested I come over and visit him and experience the beauty and friendliness of Japan." Tired of working so hard and wanting to have some fun, she went. He had rented a traditional Japanese house in a small village.

They were married soon after she arrived. He would go on his ship and be back months later. And so, she said, she made a life that was not dependent on him. When he was transferred to Florida, she went with him, and the two found themselves around each other too much. She decided to stay on when he was transferred again. He told Juliet there was no need for her to get a divorce until she felt like it. Staying married allowed her to stay on the military payroll and took care of medical coverage. They were finally divorced, though still in touch, and Juliet began a life lived in Europe, the Bahamas, Mexico, and in Greece where she met the second great love of her life, a respected commander in the Greek navy. She describes the relationship as "not based on sex but a real friendship." Eventually, though, "he had to choose marrying me or living in Greece and serving his country. I would only be allowed to be his kept woman," she says, and that is something she has never done. She had begun teaching English as a second language in Japan and found out she was good at it.

Eventually she made her way to Finland where she found a job as a radio program producer, and continued teaching English to people ranging in age from nursery school students to high school kids to civil servants. Believing that sex was an intrinsic part of staying healthy, she had to confront that Finland wasn't offering her much in the way of partners. She says she had one good lover in the country where the women outnumber the men three to one. "I would have to go and pick up foreign businessmen and take them home and have sex. The Finnish men were very passive and the married women would say [to their husbands] 'Why don't you go to the hotel and find a nice woman and have sex with her?'"

The combination of the cold climate and of not being part of a family caused her to return to the States in 1977. Settling in San Francisco because of the arts community, she found herself needing to make money and finally selling advertising on matchbook covers. Eventually a co-worker showed her an ad placed by the porn filmmaker Alex DeRenzy: "Women over 18 wanted for soft core sex show. Short hours, lots of fun, good pay." Juliet remembers, "I almost slugged the guy who showed it to me." But after thinking it over, she decided it didn't seem so bad. Juliet went to be interviewed by an 18-year-old who couldn't believe she was 39. "You're fabulous," she told her, "but my boss, Mr. DeRenzy, will have to OK it." Which is how she came to make her first porn film, "Pretty Peaches," in a role written as an Asian maid but changed to a Scandinavian. DeRenzy told her to rewrite the role to suit her, took her shopping for lingerie, and had her driven to his and his wife's house where the shoot was to take place.

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