Meet the ethical porn producer creating female-friendly erotic films

Entrepreneur and married mother-of-two Anna Richards had no experience making erotic movies, but went on a mission to produce empowering, ethical porn with a focus on female pleasure. Here's her story...

"I can remember the moment I decided to take the plunge and launch my business as an erotic film-maker – something I never dreamt I’d do in a million years!

It was early 2015 and I was in a cinema packed with women to see Fifty Shades of Grey. Before the film even started, the atmosphere was electric. These women were bloodthirsty for sex – you could sense it.

Unfortunately it wasn’t an 18-rated film, so everything was rather tempered, and there was a sense that the women were left feeling short. They’d read the books; they were ready for some earth-shuddering sex… but they didn’t get it.

What that signified to me, was that women were just as sexual as men, we just hadn’t been catered for. That included me.

At that time, I was in my 40s, a marketeer, entrepreneur and a married mother-of-two. I’d been with my husband since 1992 after we’d met at a party. My kids were getting a bit older (they were 12 and 15 at the time) and like a lot of women my age, I wanted to rediscover my sexuality.

I’d always had a good sex life and been interested in erotica, yet I was struggling to find any movies online that I felt comfortable with. I was turned off rather than turned on.

Everything was created from a male point of view, for the male gaze. There was no lust, no real desire or erotic creativity. I was looking for something that portrayed unabashed pleasure for sex from a woman’s point of view, but couldn’t find it.

This is why, the year previously, after my husband and I sold the company we owned, I’d been working on a new project: an erotic site that addressed this gap in the market.

I’d been busy getting my first films made and approaching authors for erotic stories. Seeing Fifty Shades made me realise that the time to launch was now.

And so my website Frolicme.com was born – a resource of female-friendly erotic films, stories and audio.

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Becoming a porn producer had been the very last thing I expected to be doing! But it started to happen.

The only thing was, I wasn’t in the industry. Luckily I’m from a creative background and so was already pretty prolific with a camera.

I had no idea how to make an erotic movie however, so for my first shoot, I reached out to George, a Czech producer I’d found online whose style I admired. I had no reservations about it: I just saw it as work.

He gave me some invaluable guidance on filming and also sourcing models – something I’d never done either, but once the site was up and running, models started to come to me and I very quickly found my feet.

My husband is an I.T. director so he was able to help with that side and we funded the start-up ourselves.

I only told the kids when I knew the site was up and running. It was incredible how chilled they were, but then nothing had changed at home. I was still their mother. My son, who is now 19, just said, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool’ and my daughter, who is 22, now finds it fascinating.

Friends were intrigued too. We’d discuss ideas over dinner and many joined the site. They were very sweet, they didn’t say, 'Can we have free membership?' They just subscribed.

I had a very clear vision from the start: It was very fantasy driven: voyeurism, a bit of kink, ‘hot wife’ sex, group sex, female masturbation – and I nearly always use sex toys.

The majority of women need some form of clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm and this is where toys can really help. Let’s not forget, you don’t need a partner to enjoy them either. So I use them a lot in my solo masturbation films.

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I needed to build up my confidence before officially launching and so we made 20 films – which I thought was a lot; now I have nearer to 350. They’re shot here and all over Europe. We’ve done snowy scenes in the French Alps, beach scenes in Ibiza, swimming pools – all sorts!

Making the films ethically was vital to me and to my mind you can’t say something is ethical until you know how it was made. With traditional online porn, you don’t know where it’s come from, it could have been uploaded by anyone.

With my platform, it’s through the eyes of a woman – mine. This sets my website apart: I’m not someone from the industry, I’m just a woman who was on a journey to produce some sexually empowering erotic films. You can read about me and see the person behind it on the site.

Lots of my models are an item in real life, or at least good friends who love working together and that makes for fantastic chemistry. There has to be consent and they all sign to agree that they know their work is going to be online.

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One thing people always think when they hear ‘female-friendly is ‘soft porn’ – and I immediately think, ‘No’. Women are very sexual people – especially in their minds.

So the films I make are not ‘soft’, they are very sexual and the women’s pleasure needs to be absolute forefront. It can be extreme but she’s in control; she’s driving it, she’s not sitting back and being used for sex. She’s empowered.

One of my favourite films is called Fulfilling. It features a very hot woman in her lingerie – but she’s in control. She’s surrounded by four male torsos, no faces, because I wanted to remove identity and play with this idea that it wasn’t about who they were, she’s just using them for what they can provide her with. She is there to have fun.

One guy wrote to me about this film, saying: 'OMG! This is my wife’s fantasy in full colour!' That’s the best, most fascinating part of the job. The supportive emails I get from happy couples saying that my films have given them so much pleasure and fun.

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Sex is funny and real and I want to portray that. We’ve had some amusing moments on set, like lube bottles squirting everywhere. I’ve had models who’ve got such a fabulous hair-do with so many pins in, that they got stuck on the furry rug. You’re wondering why they are slightly contorting their head and then there’s a fit of giggles and I am rushing in, trying to detangle hair grips from a rug!

We’ve also had a tricky moment where a couple were disrobed having sex in a lift in a building we thought was empty – until someone called the lift! Thankfully the couple were very professional and managed to throw their clothes on quickly.

Has what I do improved my sex life? Not necessarily because I always had plenty of ideas and excitement in the bedroom. What it has shown me is the variety of pleasure people can have. I think people should really stop talking about sex and start talking about pleasure, because that’s what I hope my work provides in the end. That’s what sex is all about."