In this interview, filmmaker Erika Lust shares how her discomfort with mainstream porn and background in gender studies led her to pioneer a more ethical, emotionally authentic approach to adult cinema. Through projects like XConfessions and the immersive House of ERIKALUST, she explores diverse fantasies, centers consent and connection, and reframes eroticism as a deeply human and artistic experience. 

By Hillana Micolas

Can you take us back to the beginning of your journey—what first drew you to adult filmmaking, and how did your distinctive artistic vision take shape over time?

When I first watched a porn film I was teenager and I remember feeling a mix of curiosity and discomfort. Something about the way sexuality was shown didn’t seem right: it felt disconnected, mechanical, and only shaped by a male gaze. 

Later, during my Political Science and Gender Studies studies in Sweden, I read Linda Williams’ Hard Core, which helped me realize that pornography, like any cultural product, carries deep messages about gender and power. When I moved to Barcelona and discovered filmmaking, it felt natural to bring these ideas into action. I wanted to offer an alternative: a way of portraying sex that felt authentic, inclusive, and emotionally engaging. That’s how I made The Good Girl, my first short film—and when it went viral, it was clear that many people were craving a different narrative too. 

Over the years, my artistic vision evolved intentionally, but always with the same idea in mind: telling stories where intimacy is celebrated without shame and realness, diversity matters, and eroticism is filmed with the same care, respect, and in an artistic way, as any other form of cinema.

How does your approach to the "female gaze" transform how intimate scenes are filmed compared to the traditional "male gaze"?

Rather than simply replacing one gaze with another, I believe we need to explore a more human and holistic way of framing intimacy, a “human gaze” let’s say. At the end, it’s about capturing connection, desire, vulnerability, and mutual pleasure, and not just isolated body parts or scripted performance. Our work focuses on building tension, following emotions, and respecting the flow between performers. 

We pay close attention to the small details like the glances, the breath, the shifts in energy, because that's where real eroticism is. It’s about showing people as subjects of their own pleasure, with agency and complexity. At ERIKALUST our claim is “Own your pleasure”, and it’s definitely related to this. It’s about living and embracing desire, sexuality and intimacy, building connections, and experimenting with emotions. 

By approaching erotic scenes with this sensitivity, we create a space where viewers can feel genuinely connected to what they see, and perhaps even to parts of themselves they hadn’t explored yet. That’s where real transformation or difference is grounded in comparison with the mass-produced or male gaze pornography. 

As a scriptwriter, what are your guiding principles when writing erotic scenes that break away from traditional pornographic clichés?

At the heart of every erotic scene I create, there’s always an emotional truth. I start by asking what is the story of desire. I’m interested in portraying the emotional and sensual journey that brings people together. Authenticity, consent, and curiosity are my guiding principles.

I believe eroticism is much more powerful when it reflects real connection, vulnerability, and imagination.

When writing, I avoid scripts that prescribe every movement; instead, I set a mood, a dynamic, and then allow the performers to explore within those boundaries. This approach helps the scenes feel organic rather than performative, especially when it comes to showing sex on screen. 

We also challenge stereotypical dynamics by embracing diversity, in bodies, identities, and fantasies because sexuality is as varied and rich as the people who experience it.

Your project XConfessions turns anonymous fantasies submitted by audiences into short films. How do you select the confessions you adapt into films? Have any submitted fantasies particularly surprised you or pushed you to explore unexpected creative directions?

XConfessions is a truly collaborative and inspiring project. We receive hundreds of confessions from people all around the world, each one is a window into someone’s secret desires, fantasies or dreams. 

When selecting which ones to adapt, I look for narratives that feel genuine, imaginative, and emotionally resonant. I’m drawn to stories that offer a fresh perspective on intimacy, challenging clichés and, of course, that can be translated visually and artistically into films. 

It’s also important for me to choose confessions that contribute to our commitment to diversity and representation. I love working with fantasies that celebrate a wide range of desires, bodies, identities, and emotional landscapes. One of the most beautiful parts of XConfessions is precisely the element of surprise. Sometimes people share fantasies that are so tender, playful, or surreal that they completely shift the way I think about erotic storytelling. Other times, the surprises come from how ordinary settings can become powerful spaces for desire once viewed through someone’s intimate lens, such as a kitchen, a library, a natural space.

That’s why I love XConfessions, it reminds me constantly that sexuality is endless and its creativity. It invites us to stay flexible, open-minded, to let go of assumptions, and to approach each fantasy with genuine curiosity and care.

And at the end of the day, it’s about honoring those shared confessions, and creating films that feel personal and universal, while seeing something cinematically curated and thought.

Do you notice recurring themes or trends in the confessions you receive? What do they reveal about contemporary sexuality?

When it comes to fantasies and confessions, certain themes appear over and over, and it’s fascinating because of how much they can tell us about what people crave today. One major trend is a longing for connection: fantasies where intimacy, emotional resonance, and mutual care are central. In a world that often feels fast and transactional, many confessions reflect a deep desire for slower, more meaningful stories.

Another recurring theme is the exploration of power dynamics, but framed with consent, playfulness, and trust, showing a more nuanced and informed approach to BDSM and kink practices. 

There's also an increasing visibility of non-normative identities and relationships: queer fantasies, polyamorous dynamics, fluid gender expressions. It reflects a growing collective understanding that desire doesn’t fit into binary boxes. Contemporary sexuality, as revealed through these confessions, is much more diverse, intentional, and emotionally literate than the stereotypes would have us believe.

You work with both professional actors and ordinary people. What are your selection criteria, and how does this diversity enrich your productions?

We value authenticity above everything else. Whether someone has a professional background or not is less important than whether they bring real enthusiasm, self-awareness, and emotional presence to the project. Before casting, we hold detailed conversations where we get to know the performers as individuals: their boundaries, desires, expectations, and how they feel about collaborating in an erotic, artistic environment.

Working with a mix of professional and non-professional performers brings a beautiful diversity to the screen. People with less experience often bring a kind of rawness or vulnerability that feels deeply honest, while experienced actors contribute a sense of ease and confidence that can be invaluable on set. This combination allows us to explore different types of desire.

This mix allows us to create stories that feel layered and real, where viewers can see themselves reflected not in polished performances, but in genuine, relatable expressions of intimacy. Diversity in bodies,  personalities,  ways of experiencing pleasure is what makes our films feel alive.

How do you ensure that all participants on your sets feel safe and respected, especially non-professionals who may be less accustomed to a film set environment?

Safety and respect are the foundation of everything we do. We start with extensive conversations previously to the shooting, where we discuss boundaries, desires, and safety practices in depth. We never work with rigid scripts for sex scenes, instead, we agree on a general mood or concept, and leave space for performers to improvise naturally within their comfort zones.

We always have an intimacy coordinator present. Their role is to advocate for performers, facilitate communication, and ensure ongoing consent throughout the shoot. We also establish protocols like "safe words," regular check-ins, and an absolute right to pause or stop filming at any moment, no questions asked.

For people who aren’t used to being on a set especially when intimacy is involved, familiarity and trust are everything. And that’s why we keep the crew minimal and sensitive to the nature of the scenes, and we foster a culture where performers feel not only protected, but also truly seen, heard, and empowered to express themselves on their own terms.

Could you tell us about the House of ERIKALUST which opened in Barcelona in 2024? What inspired you to create this immersive space?

House of ERIKALUST was born from a desire to reimagine how we engage with eroticism outside of the private, often stigmatized, sphere.

After two decades of exploring intimacy and pleasure through film, it felt like the right moment to invite people into a physical, collective experience, where sexuality could be explored with curiosity, artfulness, and a sense of celebration rather than shame.

The space blends cinema, digital art, and immersive storytelling across different rooms, creating an environment where visitors can experience desire as a journey, using all their senses. We partnered with Layers of Reality to bring this vision to life, and it’s been extraordinary to see how people react. Many visitors have told us that it’s the first time they’ve felt truly comfortable engaging with erotic content in public, not as consumers, but as participants. 

House of ERIKALUST is about reconnecting with your body,  fantasies, and your sensual imagination. It’s a cultural space where pleasure becomes a form of art and self-discovery. After its overwhelming success in Barcelona, we're now preparing a tour to bring it to new cities: we’re excited to continue expanding this sensorial journey and invite more people to experience eroticism in a radically different, immersive way.

Your company offers daily 30-minute "masturbation breaks" for employees. How did this wonderful initiative come about, and have you observed any change in employees’ well-being and productivity?

This initiative came from a simple but profound idea: pleasure and well-being are not separate from work life, they’re deeply connected. In 2021, we decided to offer 30-minute self-pleasure breaks to normalize conversations around sexuality and wellness in the workplace, and to promote a culture of self-care and autonomy. Just as companies promote exercise or meditation for mental health, why not acknowledge that sexual well-being is equally important, right?

The response from the team has been open, curious, and in many cases, transformative. Team members have shared that they feel more relaxed, less stressed, and more creatively energized throughout the day. But beyond productivity, it also sparked meaningful conversations about a more holistic vision of work-life balance.

It’s a small gesture, but one that speaks about the kind of environment we want to build: one where people’s full humanity, including their erotic selves, is respected and supported. 

How do you approach the issue of pornography being accessible to young people? Do you think there’s a "right way" for teenagers to discover adult content?

The reality is that young people will inevitably encounter porn, especially with how digital access works today. Instead of pretending we can shield them completely, I believe our responsibility is to foster media literacy and open conversations about what they see. That's why we created The Porn Conversation, a free educational initiative that helps families and educators talk about porn critically, without shame.

I don't think there’s a single “right way” for teenagers to discover adult content. What matters is context: that they have guidance to understand the difference between fantasy and reality, consent and coercion, representation and stereotypes. Porn is not inherently harmful, but the lack of education around it often is.

Porn can be a powerful tool for exploration, but it’s not a substitute for comprehensive, inclusive sex education. We owe young people honest conversations, not silence or fear. When we give them tools to question, to reflect, and to feel safe asking, we’re not encouraging them to watch porn, we’re encouraging them to grow into adults who understand their own sexuality with curiosity and care.

What challenges remain in transforming the adult film industry toward more ethical and inclusive practices?

There’s definitely progress happening regarding more transparent, more ethical alternatives, but many challenges persist. One of the biggest is the dominance of free tube sites that prioritize click-driven volume over consent, representation, or performer well-being. This business model devalues the labor behind ethical adult content and makes it harder for responsible creators to succeed. It reduces sex to content, and people to metrics.

Another challenge is deeply cultural: decades of harmful norms about gender, race, body image, and sexuality that mass-produced porn has perpetuated. Changing the industry means changing the narratives, and that takes time, persistence, and collective effort.

It also means supporting independent creators, respecting performers' agency, and building more spaces where diversity isn’t an exception, it’s the foundation.

Ethical porn isn't just a genre; it’s a movement towards a broader cultural shift in how we see and live our sexualities.

Tell us about your dream project. Are there new creative or commercial territories you'd like to explore?

There are so many dreams still unfolding. One dream project would be to continue bringing erotic cinema into public cultural spaces. We've already started exploring this with House of ERIKALUST, but I dream of pushing it even further and expanding the language of erotic storytelling into every medium possible, because in the end, eroticism belongs in culture. I’d also love to keep exploring how AI and emerging tools might help us tell erotic stories in new, unexpected ways, not to replace the human experience, but to enhance it, to deepen it. 

I'm passionate about expanding all of our projects. My dream is to keep creating spaces—physical, cinematic, and digital—where people can encounter eroticism as something beautiful, liberating, and deeply human. There’s still so much to discover, and so much work ahead!

Erika Lust is an award-winning filmmaker creating sex-positive, indie adult cinema that portrays sexually intelligent narratives, relatable characters and realistic hot sex. In an industry that often fails to show a true representation of sex, Erika's focus on female pleasure, cinematic values, diversity, and an ethical production process, have helped to change how pornography is consumed.

Follow ERIKALUST initiatives:

XConfessions
The Store
House of ERIKALUST
The Porn Conversation
Instagram