The one explicit incident you describe is such a scream -- dressing up like a horse for a Japanese spanking club.

That was so vivid to me. It was so bizarre.

Who even imagines that stuff goes on?

Exactly.

Is that the tip of the iceberg?

That was the strangest thing that happened to me. I just had no idea that people had those forms of fetishes. When that whole "Japanese Pony Girl" thing happened to me, it was just bizarre. You know I have to say that was the least dangerous thing that I did during that time.

Did you ever encounter anything like Dominick Dunne's alleged Saudi Arabian sheiks that kidnap young American girls?

No. But I would say the porn world is a weird place. I wouldn't say it was a normal place.

The most devastating scene was the one when you came back and found your cat killed by your boyfriend's dog.

I'm such a cat lover, and Mister Steve was such a good buddy.

And then the guy who called serious "acting" your "hobby."

My first husband, Brook. It took me a while to forgive him for that one. Years later, we're friends. I did bring that up to him once and said, "You used to call acting my 'little hobby.'" He said, "I never said that." I said, "Yes, you did." He goes, "That's so horrible!" I went, "Yes, it was." We actually had a laugh about it. He said, "I must have just been on something. I was just out there." I said, "You were 'out there.' You were mean." He's much nicer now that I've divorced him.

I should have asked you this sooner. When the FBI started hounding you -- there was the time when you woke up on the floor and a porno producer was threatening you by standing on your hair. The whole porno industry was worried that you'd squeal them out?

There were a lot of threats in the grapevine. There were a lot of rumblings. I would hear all of these horrible things, but I was basically just hiding. And praying that I was going to live through it.

Did people get arrested?

Absolutely. The biggest cases that I remember in '86/'87 had to do with one distributor who had sold out his entire collection to a federal agent weeks after it was all over the news that I was a minor, which was pretty stupid. People were pretty greedy.

You're not in danger anymore, are you?

I'm not sure exactly what kind of reaction the book is going to get from the porn world. I can imagine they won't be happy. I was really appalled to see that "Dateline" actually interviewed the agent I call "Tim North" in the book. I made a point of changing his name, not to protect him, but to protect other people from him because I think he is a foul human being. "Dateline," in their discretion (or lack thereof) decided to go ahead and publicize him and his agency. I just thought that was irresponsible. It pissed me off, I can tell you. Because some girl out there who is confused will be able to find this idiot, and he is a menace. The point of the interview was for him to say, "Traci was this wild, sex-craving girl and she did blah blah blah." And then some other girl came on and said, "I don't really know, but it always looked like Traci was having a good time." And basically the reporter tried to discredit me and make me look like a fool. Meanwhile, it's never been in question that I did these movies. I have never said that anybody held a gun to my head. I told the truth. This is what happened. And I did these movies. And yeah, I did drugs. And yeah, I was aggressive. And yeah, I was wild. And yeah, I was tormented.

And "Yeah, you were 16 years old."

Bingo. I was 16. I was 15. And not only that, do you know what I found so outrageous? They never asked him was he sorry. Whether or not, as he claims, he didn't know. OK, you didn't know. Let's just say he didn't know. But now he knows. Is he sorry? Does he regret that he had this role in exploiting the life of a 15-year-old child, does he regret that? You know, I would say that was really lousy journalism.

Is there a blame factor against you?

You're right on, there. I really felt, I really feel like I was put on trial. It goes back to "Let's burn the witch." "Let's hang the whore." I mean, how horrible is that. You hear it all the time with rape victims. They're put on trial. Their sexual history -- you're this, you're that. The bottom line, as you just said, I was a 15-year-old kid. What was really interesting about the "Dateline" piece was that Maria Shriver was the one who introduced it. I could tell by what she said that she got it. She understood my book. I wish the piece had stopped then. The other reporter was out to trash me. I didn't fit a certain bill. I think I deserve better than that.

Have you helped underage girls get out of the industry?

God, I hope so. I dedicated my book to Children of the Night. It is an L.A.-based nonprofit organization that I've been working with for about 12 years. It's for children who have been victims of the sex industry. Most of them, let's see, right now there are six girls at the house between 12 and 16. Most of them have been molested. All of them have been prostitutes. Now they're back in school. They are fed. They're clothed. It's a safe haven. It's a wonderful organization that survives completely on donations. These girls have all read my book. I go in and talk to them and hang out there. It hits you like a ton of bricks that there are so many girls out there with this story, just feeling hopeless at such a young age. So the comment that I got from them is, "Wow! You're OK now." At a time when you think a 12-year-old would be thinking, Someday I'm going to grow up and be a nurse or doctor or I'm going to step out at graduation. They're thinking, Wow. Someday I'll grow up and be OK. Pretty intense.

If you were president, would you ban pornography?

I don't believe in government censorship. Where does it end then? I believe what adults do with other adults is their business. Where the responsibility lies is that we, as adults, must protect our children from this kind of exploitation.

Can you imagine selling the film rights to this book? Have you already done that?

No, I have not. That's very scary. A lot of people have called about the rights. You know where I'm at with that? If I meet somebody who is absolutely incredible that I think can make this a real honest movie without zoning in on any particular part, and make this a real film about this journey, then I would be persuaded to do it. But I have to tell you, it would really have to feel 100 percent right for me.

As an actress, are you ready to play Lady Macbeth?

I haven't really thought about it. I still have some time, don't I?

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