Valentine, who grew up as Stacy Baker in Tulsa, certainly presents herself in Fugate's film as someone in control of her own destiny. The X-rated actress entered the industry when her husband sent nude photos of the Oklahoma homemaker to a skin magazine. In a little more than two years, she had shed the husband and risen to the top tier of the business before bowing out last year, about 65 movies later. But as the film progresses, her vulnerability, loneliness and shaky self-image begin to emerge. A serious relationship with a male costar is jeopardized by the multiple-partner nature of their work.
Home time is spent mostly alone, cuddling with a big cat.
In The Girl Next Door, these scenes are easily the hardest to watch. I thought we should show the reality behind it. The pain that women go through to be 'beautiful.' . . . I just thought it was an important part of looking at the person behind the sexual fantasy. If I had omitted those scenes, it would have been a completely different film, because you wouldn't have seen all of the things that she went through, the lengths that she went to to try to keep that ideal going.