Brittni in 2010
In 2010, Maxim Magazine named her one of the top female porn stars in
the world. Little did they know, she was already on a rocky road to
sanctification as a new creature in Christ.
Brittni, who used the professional name Jenna Presley, started
dancing to earn extra money as a freshman at Santa Barbara City College
in 2005. Two men approached her after one of her performances and asked
if she would like to make “romance movies.”
“You mean porn?” she joked. They nodded affirmatively, but it was no joke.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she admits now. “At 18, I was only a baby. I was looking for love in all the wrong places.”
Brittni was insecure as a result of her upbringing in a home with a
“verbally abusive” mother and passive father. For the first time in her
life, she began to receive positive affirmation, and it felt good. She
traveled to L.A. and shot her first pornographic scene.
“I felt so loved that day because they did my hair and make-up. I was
told I was beautiful and that I was going to be a star. In the first
few months it felt good.”
Producers worked her relentlessly in the early phase of her career
because of her youthful, fresh appearance. “I already looked like I was
12,” Brittni recalls. They dressed her in “little girl” clothing and
pigtails, which made her uncomfortable.
The inescapable conclusion is that filmmakers wanted to appeal to the
depraved fantasies of men with pedophile tendencies. “It’s disgusting
how they can portray you as a little girl,” she says today. “It’s
complete perversion.”
During this period, she worked as much as 60 days without a day off,
shooting two and sometimes three sex scenes a day. “I didn’t know how to
say no,” she notes. “I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. Before
this, my mother made every decision for me.”
The youthful spark that made her such an attractive commodity began
to fade. “It left me feeling drained,” she says. “I was so robotic I was
like a rubber Barbie doll. I had no emotions.”
Initially, she made $900 for each sex scene she filmed, but the money
quickly disappeared. As hopelessness and emptiness overwhelmed her, she
turned to drugs to numb the pain. “I started with cocaine. Then it
became a downhill spiral to heroin.”
“I had many lonely nights when I cut on my wrists. I tried to kill myself. I spent all my paycheck on drugs.”
After three years in the adult film industry, she was fed up. She
placed a 911 call to her grandmother. “I need you grandma,” she said.
“I’m done with this. Come and get me.”
During her stay with her grandparents, they took her to the Rock
Church in San Diego, led by Pastor Miles McPherson. Brittni was
“bawling” through most of the sermon. In response to his invitation, she
raised her hand to receive Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.
The
church gave her a Bible and after she got home, she devoured Genesis.
“I always wondered how we became human. Finally I had the answer and I
was so excited. I couldn’t put it down.”
She began to date a man she met at church, but the relationship had a
tragic ending. As they sat together at Los Panchos restaurant in San
Diego one evening, men from a rival motorcycle gang approached their
table and began to beat her boyfriend with brass knuckles. “He got
murdered, stabbed in front of me,” she recalls. The attackers were in
and out of the restaurant within minutes.
Traumatized by the incident, her burgeoning faith was derailed. “That
began another spiral into more drugs and suicide attempts,” she says.
She began to date someone close to her former boyfriend. He
encouraged her to get off drugs and get baptized, and she began to get
involved with church again.
In another bizarre turn, this man turned out
to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. “He ended up being a pimp and got me
back into the adult film industry,” she says.
Brittni began to straddle two worlds ruled by opposing powers. “I was
on the Howard Stern show preaching the Word and I was preaching on the
set.” She kept making adult films for two more years to make ends meet,
as she battled contradictions that left her weary and dry. “It was a big
mess,” she admits.
“The devil wanted me back, but God kept tugging at me,” Brittni says. “The devil had a plot, but God has a plan.”
The ministry of
XXX Church,
which employs creative outreach strategies to the porn industry, caught
Brittni’s attention at a porn convention. Their booth at the Exotica
convention blares to attendees, “Jesus loves porn stars.” Remarkably,
they distribute hundreds of Bibles at these venues.
One of the young women who ministers to the girls, Rachel Collins,
made an impression on Brittni. “She brought coffee, Bibles, lip gloss to
the girls in the industry,” Brittni recalls. “She was so sweet and
loving; there was a glow to her.”
After Brittni saw Rachel’s photo in one of their magazines, she
contacted the ministry and eventually filmed an interview with Rachel
about her experience with adult films.
In November 2012, Brittni filmed her last sex scene. “It was seven
long years,” she laments. “I hated what I was doing, but I wondered what
I would do next.” After Brittni left adult films, she found work with a
limousine company and makes a decent income.
“I look forward to waking up every morning,” she says. “There is life after porn; there is life after drugs and prostitution.”
Brittni also reconciled with her parents and has a wonderful
relationship with them today. Recently, her entire family sat together
in church. “I love my mom so much,” she exclaims. “My sister got
baptized with me and my brother prayed the prayer of salvation with me
on the phone.”
“God is alive and He is working!” she says. “He is in the business of
miracles. I have finally encountered the unconditional love of God and I
will never go back.”
Mark Ellis
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