'Who’s Jenna Jameson?': Tracey Birdsall Talks About Preparing To Play A Porn Star Lookalike

“Who’s Jenna Jameson?” is a forthcoming movie written and directed by Thomas Baldinger. Tracey Birdsall plays the role of a porn star lookalike in the movie. In an exclusive interview to International Business Times, the actress revealed how she researched her role and filmed her scenes.

The main plot of the movie revolves around Jonathan Burke (Bill Sorvino) dating Jenna Casey (Tracey Birdsall). Jonathan’s best friend Andy Romeo (Joe D’Onofrio) feels that Jenna looks like a porn star. There are more complications in the life of the protagonist as his boss is Jenna’s brother-in-law.

Birdsall said that her first reaction to the possibility of playing a porn star lookalike was “a giggle and then a serious thought.” “Knowing how much research and development I put into a character prior to shooting, I just realized that I was going to have to immerse myself in the porn industry doing some serious R&D,” she said.

Director Baldinger was apparently looking for a suitable actress who looks like Jameson for about two years, before choosing Birdsall. “It’s a compliment no matter how you look at it. I mean, Jenna Jameson is the most beautiful and famous porn star in history,” Birdsall said.

The actress revealed that the producers of the movie noticed her when she walked up to the stage to collect her Maverick Award at the 2014 Action on Film Festival. Birdsall later found out that one of the producers remarked “I think we’ve found our Jenna…” when they saw her at the event and they later approached her for the role.

“After reading the script voraciously (it was that funny), we came to terms and the film went into pre-production,” the actress said. Birdsall had to research for her role, but she did not get to meet Jameson even though she would have liked to.

“I studied her quite intensely as I had to understand her – and I also wanted to pick up on some of her mannerisms,” Birdsall said. The actress also watched “every interview” and read as much as she could about Jameson.

Birdsall felt that this was not enough and she later had to “immerse” herself in some of Jameson’s movies. She did this because her character has some understanding of the porn industry and her dialogues require discussions on film titles and various porn stars. “My character comes from such a point of familiarity that it wouldn’t have been real to just say the lines,” Birdsall explained.

“I had to learn what many of the other porn stars were about and what they looked like also as the humor surrounds the adult industry,” the actress said. Birdsall feels that she has to “live the life of the character and know things that they know” in order to play a role in a movie.

In her research of the character, Birdsall found some similarities between her and Jameson. “We were both pretty nerdy young girls with intelligence that blossomed physically at some point and found power in that. I developed an understanding of her and a distant admiration,” the actress said.

Birdsall has played different characters over the years and recently completed filming for “Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter” in which she plays an action packed role of Sienna. Her role in “Who’s Jenna Jameson?” may not have a lot of action, but she teased that there will be some “physical humor” in the movie. “My character was really fun to play in this one as she’s intelligent, sassy, fun loving, and very in control… until she’s not!” Birdsall said.