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XXX Flashback - Hyapatia Lee

THE PORN PRINCESS IN MOCCASINS HAD A NUMBER OF ISSUES TO DEAL WITH, NOT THE LEAST BEING HER MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER.

by Michael McClay
for HUSTLER Magazine – July 2011

What makes a gifted actress drop her desire to conquer Broadway and choose instead a career in adult entertainment? Ask the talented Victoria Lynch or the angry Veronica or the shy, tearful Stacy or the down-toearth tomboy Lisa Patrick. Or ask Hyapatia Lee herself . For the ten years Hyapatia ruled the world of XXX films, she was suppressing all those personalities.

Victoria “Vicki” Lynch, a/k/a Hyapatia Lee, is a classically trained stage actress of Cherokee ancestry who’s acknowledged by many peers, producers and critics as the most talented, professional performer to have ever worked in the adult industry. As such, the Indiana native enjoyed unparalleled creative freedom, standing out as one of the few XXX actresses who scripted most of her movies. This clout provided the $300,000 needed to produce one of the most expensive hard-core films ever released, The Ribald Tales of Canterbury, a mammoth costume epic retelling the Chaucer classic.

Hyapatia’s stardom straddled two eras, from the big screen to the home screen. Her credits include such all-time bestsellers as The Young Like It Hot, Let’s Get Physical, Saddletramp, One Wife to Give and The Masseuse, for which she won Best Actress at the annual Adult Video News expo in 1991.

Her star continued to shine even after leaving the biz in 1993. Besides landing kudos as the FOXE Awards’ Female Fan Favorite, she was inducted into the XRCO, AVN and Legends of Erotica halls of fame. Finally, in 1995, she received the industry’s highest honor, the Free Speech

Coalition’s Lifetime Achievement Award. About a year after retirement she formed the rock band Hyapatia Lee & W4IK, released an album and toured, sharing the spotlight with Blackfoot’s Rickey Medlocke and Utopia’s Todd Rundgren. Hyapatia was also the opening act for rock singer/songwriter

Paul Rodgers in Las Vegas. In 2000 she penned her autobiography, The Secret Lives of Hyapatia Lee, a revealing look at the demons that drove her into adult entertainment. Having started out as a stage actress, singer and dancer, she shocked peers in the Indianapolis theater community when she became an exotic dancer. Her combination of ballet and jazz training fused with striptease melted brass poles from Quebec to Nebraska. She eventually won back-to-back crowns in the Miss Nude Galaxy contest.

During her ten years in XXX, Hyapatia wasn’t content to just have sex in front of the camera. She also rubbed shoulders with Hollywood and rock star glitterati. Hyapatia partied with Slash and Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses, Eddie Van Halen and the Scorpions. She worked with Tim Allen in the 1988 hit film What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? Hyapatia and friend Porsche Lynn spent time backstage at The Tonight Show (with Jay Leno) comparing notes on the most notorious celebrities.

Hyapatia claims she never aimed for stardom. “I wanted to be an actress or singer or dancer,” she insists. “I liked to perform character roles and never really cared if Hyapatia the star was noticed. I had a lot of creative freedom but was trapped in the porn star role. “I don’t regret the career decision, but I wasn’t prepared for the ramifications: privacy loss, impact on my first marriage and my children, the drug scene and being labeled a dim-witted slut with no life or talent outside of fucking.”

Back in her 1980s heyday the drug of choice was cocaine. She and Bud Lee, her then-husband, used it to keep up with the breakneck pace on the road. But the suicide of XXX performer, friend and alleged cokehead Shauna Grant shocked Hyapatia into overcoming her addiction. Kicking drugs proved easier than the far more complex issues that long haunted Vicki Lynch.

Vicki was born out of wedlock to teenage parents. While her race-car groupie mom traveled around the country, the girl was raised by her full-blooded Cherokee grandmother until age nine. That’s when her mother married a prosperous architect.

Moving in with them was not a good thing; her iron-fisted stepfather allegedly beat her mother and sexually abused Vicki. Her belief system shattered, she learned to cope by using other personalities inherent to the abuse-denial cycle.

To escape, Vicki moved in with her biological father and his family. But the strict religious tone and the shame they laid on her after she revealed the abuse she claims to have experienced drove the troubled youngster deeper into her dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder). Desperate, she moved back in with her grandmother, staying with her until she got her own apartment at age 16.

A straight-A student, Vicki graduated high school in three years, then got special admission to Butler University’s prestigious dance and voice training program. Now on her own, she opened a small dance studio, choreographed community theater productions and even appeared in some of the shows, including The Fantasticks ; Damn Yankees ; Little Mary Sunshine ; Play It Again, Sam ; Kiss Me, Kate ; and Puccini’s La Bohème.

Her dance studio and the role-playing she enjoyed in theater helped keep Vicki focused. Things were looking up until an intruder broke into her apartment one night and raped the terrified girl at knifepoint. Stage roles helped Vicki cope with the shattering experience—but not enough. She saw a shrink, who advised her to keep a journal.

Through hypnosis she discovered Lisa, Stacy, Veronica and most notably Hyapatia— the fearless, sexually liberated persona who would ultimately take over her life, turning Vicki Lynch into an international sensation. “In the coming years my only tether to sanity was the journal,” Hyapatia recalls. “This was how I began to understand my problem. I would write only to find out seconds later I had written a dozen pages in another style and find myself in another room. It was terrifying, but the journal helped me find out what my other personalities were up to.”

Yet the memories of her abusive stepfather and the rape made it impossible for Vicki to regroup. Even losing herself in theater hit a wall after a trip to New York City, where she learned she’d have to sleep with producers before landing a role. “I felt I had nothing left,” Hyapatia sighs. “There were no reserves of energy or hope for the future. All my dreams had been shattered, my desire to live totally destroyed. I stopped seeing most of my friends. I slept, stared into space and tried to kill myself. That was all there was to my existence.” To distract herself, Vicki would visit a local men’s club with her girlfriends. One night, as she discovered later while reading her journal, her “Hyapatia personality” actually climbed onstage and danced.

In her autobiography, Hyapatia relates her state of mind at this important crossroad: “On the one hand I was terrified to go out in public, talk to strangers, look people in the eye, but as Hyapatia I felt in control, powerful. Onstage she was above them, on a pedestal. She created lust in men but could safely walk away. My confidence strengthened in my right not to be touched. This was something I had never known or believed existed before. The money [for stripping] was great, and I was comforted by friends backstage who understood.”

A major turning point was meeting future husband Bud Lee. For the first time, Vicki was enjoying sex. By the time she and Bud prepared for her first XXX role, Hyapatia had already become the dominant personality. Even so, her other personalities caused some problems.

While with Vivid she remembers when director Paul Thomas (PT) brought out the angry Veronica: “On that day I went back and forth from several personalities. I absolutely think that it may have played a major role in my breakup with Vivid.

“As Hyapatia, I discovered we shot the wrong script, and I had to do three extra scenes. First Vicki came out, and then Veronica exploded. Bud took me out for a ride and I/we calmed down…but when we came back, PT invaded my space, and I waved a nail file under his chin because I felt threatened.”

The veteran director is very matter-of-fact today: “We had some crazy times,” Thomas confides. “I remember she went somewhere in her head and spoke in her Indian tongue. No big deal. When you’re on a set long enough, shit happens.”

Thomas adds, “She was one of the most professional, talented, mature Vivid girls ever. She had a unique sexual maturity and a seriousness about her craft like no other. Those were some of the best times of my career, working with her.” Reflecting on those days, Hyapatia confesses: “Having sex with people that were w-o-o-o-nderful to have sex with was awesome! Good-looking guys and gals who know how to do it well. I was already wired as an exhibitionist and a stage person before porn, and doing ‘it’ in front of everybody— I mean that was great!”

When asked about her favorite costars, Hyapatia fondly remembers: “Randy Spears…Porsche Lynn…absolutely at the top. Loved to work with PT, and Randy West was delicious.”

The most important thing she learned while writing her book: “It doesn’t matter what others think. That’s a hard lesson to take to heart because it’s just basic human nature. We all want everyone to know that we’re trying to do the best we can.” Today Hyapatia Lee has found peace. After years of therapy and medication, her personality conflicts are under control. She’s doing local theater, is happily remarried with a nine-year-old son and living on the Indiana farm she’d bought as a porn superstar.

Hyapatia acknowledges Bud Lee’s importance at the beginning of her career: “I changed; he changed. I wanted to return to Indiana, live a quiet life and concentrate on the children. I would never do anything to change the fact of my two beautiful sons from that marriage. They’re each different— totally different. Today I’ve got a quantum physicist and a tattoo artist.” She’s also a grandmother. “Working in adult entertainment made me what I am today,” Hyapatia continues. “I am a fulfilled, happy, well-rounded person. I learned a lot of things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. In many, many ways it was a healing experience.”

Michael McClay is a 30-year veteran as an editor, publicist, journalist and creative consultant to numerous entertainment companies “from G-rated to adults-only.” He is currently writing “the complete picture history of X-rated entertainment.”

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