Bound and Gagged

Interview with Bondage/Fetish Model

Cathryn Beaumont

 

Interview by BoundAndGagged.net


How did you happen to get into doing bondage and fetish modeling?

Shortly after I turned 18, I discovered that my good friend Lorelei was living a (not so secret) life...what can I say, I was very naive at the time! I was intensely interested for a variety of reasons, not least of which was my budding exploration of my own sexuality and those play behaviors and identities that I fetishized. Lori had started working with another friend of ours, Darla Crane. Since I also deeply admired Darla and Lori, I wanted to do the cool things they were doing. I was an easy and entirely willing "mark", and soon began working with Lori, Darla, Chelsea Pfeiffer, Star Chandler, Dorothy Laine, and others. Working with these women has always been a great deal of fun, and the shoots usually had an atmosphere of light and playful camaraderie that made even the strictest tie or the most strident spanking an intimate game between us.

What was your first bondage shoot like? Do any memories about it stand out?

It was outdoors in the mountains near Santa Clarita. In High School I used to sneak out to go camping there with my friends, so the site had really good memories and associations for me. I remember that Lori was very worried about how young I looked (I still can easily pass as ten years younger than I am...a situation that constantly confounds my students, who insist on believing I'm near their age!). I don't think we used any masks during that shoot, but I do know that one of the results of that shoot was that Lori spent the next year or so trying to keep my face covered in photosets so she wouldn't get in trouble over my perceived youth.

What types of storylines or themes did you prefer to work on? Love bondage, damsel in distress, sexual girl/girl themes, high fetish, adventure, glamour bondage, other?

I enjoyed the strange, almost twincesty set of shoots and videos that I did with Morgan Phoenix. She was great fun to work with, and I have to admit to a strain of narcissism that makes me very attracted to women who resemble me. It's not really narcissism...it's my attraction to the uncanny. Seeing a person make love to themselves in a mirror does the same thing for me. There's a great burlesque act with two women in fin de sicle nightgowns who do a striptease with a mirror frame between them, so that it looks like a woman teasing herself. Very artful, and totally hot! I also enjoyed anything with costumes and corsets, and although I liked playing the sub-with-moxie, I really got a kick out of being the cackling villainess.

One of your personal fetishes is corsets. How many corsets have you made? How many do you own currently?

I've made five "serious" corsets, and about a dozen bodices, waist cinchers, etc. I've bought four, and have inherited a few as well. I don't know what my current count is, but I would reckon it as upwards of thirty. Of course, I've also loaned out a few that never found their way back to me...but such is life. My most recent corset is purchased. It's purple leather with buckles all over the place. It doesn't take me down as much as I would like because it isn't custom made, and my hip to waist ratio is such that I really need a custom corset for a decent fit, but the corset was for a costume for a character, so I wasn't too concerned.

Do you have any recollection of how any of your fetish interests got started?

Reading. I remember very well that I had my first intentionally caused orgasm while reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. All my other fetishes, from my interest in the uncanny to my fascination with transcending gender can be traced back to characters and books that I have read. A strong secondary influence has been classical film, especially films with a dance element. I love The Red Shoes, The Glass Slipper, the ballet sequences in Hans Christian Anderson and An American in Paris. Leslie Caron was one of my first crushes (although Kate Winslet is my current and most long-standing crush...again with the uncanny!)

What bondage positions did you prefer? What was your least favorite position?

I was always sad that I couldn't get my elbows close together, and very envious of models who could. I really enjoyed suspensions and pole ties, and of course bed ties, because they're just so relaxing that you could fall asleep right there, snug in the confines of the ropes. I didn't particularly like anything where I had to lie on my hands for long periods, or anything where I had to squat on my knees. This was mostly because I've been a dancer for so long that I have crap for knees, and even squatting for short periods can really mess them up.

What type of gag did you most prefer? Which was your least favorite gag?

After seeing the lips-drawn-on-duct tape gag on Drew Barrymore in Charlie's Angels, I really don't think I appreciated the look of that enough when I was working. I look back at photos now and it looks a lot cooler than I thought at the time. My favorites, however, were the classic cloth/scarf gags. I like the old detective mag look. I don't think I have a least favorite, but I do have to say that the weirdest one I ever experienced was being gagged with a phone receiver. I don't recall if that ever made it to film because it ended up being so difficult to do, but I do remember spending almost an hour trying to make it work.

Which bondage work did you like better -- still photos, or video production?

For looks I like the stills, but I have more fun doing video. I'm such a ham, and I can really get into the play of making a video, whether I'm playing the dom or the sub. I can be going along very seriously when suddenly my sense of the ridiculous gets the better of me and I will toss out a completely hammy line with a totally straight face. I honestly don't know if anyone else ever enjoyed my sense of humor, but I had a blast with it!

Can you recall some memories from bondage shoots?

Well, there was my first shoot with Darla and Raoul. We were shooting at my parent's empty house (it was for sale). I was upstairs in my old bedroom, tied up in my closet when suddenly the front door opened and the real estate agent walked in, wanting to know who the hell we were and what we were doing in the house. While Darla stalled him, Raoul frantically cut me loose and I threw on a long t-shirt (inside out and backwards, we later realized) and went out to explain to the agent that I was the daughter of the owners and had every right to be there. He left and we all had a moment of "Oh, crap...that was close!" I had a lot of moxie back then!

One person who really deserves a mention is "The Crooked Claw"! The whole persona really did it for me, and I loved it every time I got to work with Jon and Lori doing Claw stuff. He had the cape, the voice, and the laugh that was meant to make the ladies swoon. I don't know what became of The Claw... I believe when last I heard of him he had fallen off a cliff? Perhaps he's due for a nefarious comeback!

Besides bondage, what other types of fetish work did you do?

Some foot-fetish, lots of spanking and tickling. I always really enjoyed the tickling, and it is probably the fetish that I still participate in the most. I've also become very good at hypnotism and mind control because it is my partner's fetish, but that's more for personal consumption than public!

I know you have a successful "real" career now, but do you ever miss the bondage modeling?

I do miss it. Mostly I miss participating in the creation of classical bondage imagery, and in the fun and friendly atmosphere that was also created. I miss the casual intimacy of a shoot, and the easy manner with which we all approached our sexuality and sexual interests. There was no cognitive dissonance between talking about show tunes and talking about spanking... they were all facets of things that we loved, and we could be open about them. In my "real life" now I have to be a bit more careful, and as such it is more difficult to find that free and open communication. I miss that a lot.

Anything else you would like to say? Especially to those fans who still ask after you in the bondage forums. :)

I have several *gorgeous* friends who want me to dress them up, tie them up and take pictures, and if I can ever figure out the legality of the whole thing, I may do just that.

 

 

Interview January 2006