Dismantling Labels and Embracing the Taboo With Model and Actress Caprice Elise
Caprice Elise is an actress, model, and film fatale. She is sultry, edgy, wild, and free. In the winter of 2020, prior to the pandemic, Caprice posed for Honeysuckle in a sexy shoot on a snowy night. Sam C. Long, Honeysuckle’s creative director, wanted to create a “cheeky” shoot, one that built upon Caprice’s natural 70s vintage porno aesthetic.
Elise frequently stars and performs in her life partner and partner in crime, filmmaker Roy Stuart’s sexually explicit films. However, she does not consider herself as a porn star or sex worker.
Originally from the deep south, Caprice was in an ultra-religious, monogamous marriage for years. As a result of her experiences with conservatism, she gravitated towards freedom from labels such as “sex worker” or “adult film star.”
Understanding Labels
Through a series of revelatory emails, Elise discussed the nuances of sex work and pornography with Honeysuckle.
“I don’t consider myself an adult actress. Roy doesn’t label himself as an adult filmmaker. We just are. We view ourselves as “an actress,” period. “A filmmaker,” period. We don’t subscribe to the definitions and labels society has created for us. However, the designations that society and critics create do have an impact.
I wouldn’t want to declare myself as a “sex worker.” I’m an advocate. Fortunately, I don’t need to fight for my rights as sex workers do in the United States. I left the States for France’s comparatively more progressive scene.
Though France has its flaws, things are a bit more open; prostitution, sex clubs, and sex doll brothels are all allowed.
Our ‘sexcapades’ that Roy films from time to time, are meant to display more the subversive and political than just ‘n’importe quoi.
I don’t sleep with other guys for a living. I sleep with other guys and dolls for pleasure. If he (Roy) films any of this, it’s for the contemporary aspect first, the sex second. Roy prefers the term ‘contemporary’ filmmaker if he must be categorized at all.
We have an interesting, alternative sex life. However, the encounters caught on tape are rare and are meant to display something beyond the sex.
In our opinion, the prohibited [in society] is designed to be realized. This is the mindset with which he approaches his work and I, my acting and films.”
In this video, we speak with Caprice about her photo shoot in NYC. She opens about about her experience quarantining in Ireland before her role in Ridley Scott’s latest film, The Last Duel, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and of course, her legendary firefly red pubic hair!
** In the United States, sex worker is still criminalized. Sex work, defined as “adults who receive money or goods in exchange for consensual sexual services or erotic performances, either regularly or occasionally,” have to fight for basic human rights and dignity. Much like users of cannabis, they are marginalized and stigmatized, even though sex is a part of most peoples’ lives. This is excluding the billion dollar industry of pornography.
People in the sex industry cannot get bank loans or have business bank accounts. They have a hard time securing property leases; often having to pay several months in up front, in advance, in cash. Sex workers did not qualify for COVID-19 relief funds, although they do pay taxes.
Catch more of Caprice Elise in our Everything issue this winter.
** All photos by Sam C. Long