Mikaela Spielberg made headlines earlier this year for a domestic violence arrest. The 24-year-old adopted daughter of director Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, fell victim to harsh headlines and harsher judgments of her character.
That isn't who Mikaela is, as she explained in a recent interview with the Daily Beast. She doesn't purport to have it all figured out. She's very open about getting out of that situation and how it's led her to where she is today.
Mikaela is currently exploring a career in sex work. She enjoys making passion content and soft content, usually by way of dancing. A lot of people are shocked that the child of one of Hollywood's biggest names has found herself in that line of work, but Mikaela insists she's no different from anyone else.
In her exploration, she's found empowerment, safety, and joy. Mikaela calls the work she's doing "life-affirming," and she's intrigued to see where it will take her next.
Mikaela Spielberg is not the woman you've got the impression she is. The 24-year-old made headlines after a domestic violence arrest following an altercation with her ex-fiancé Chuck Pankow. All charges against her were dropped, but the media was very harsh on Mikaela, the adopted daughter of Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw.
"I almost feel I can't speak on the actual events because that would put my safety in jeopardy, but I can say that I feel I was made into this spooky media caricature of what we don't want in society. I felt almost like a racialist caricature of a Jew or a Black woman in those moments, because I maintained my innocence that entire time. And that's all I can say about it," she told the Daily Beast.
"I can also say, I don't know how to feel about how it was handled by the media. While I can't play the victim, I can also say that I can maintain my position that I had done the right thing by placing the call. I did what was expected of me on a safety level, and was arrested because of that. And I feel fairly uncomfortable talking about the arrest — not because I'm uncomfortable with correcting who I was as a person then, or even half a year ago, but I feel like that was not who I was as a person.
"You're absolutely right: that was not the whole picture. People really don't value Black women and their bodies, so our cries for help are viewed as less valid than the burden of responsibility for things that we haven't done that gets placed on us at all times."
Mikaela explains that she's spent the last two years on a journey of self-discovery. That journey included giving up drinking.
"I was at a point — maybe two years ago from now — where I was heartbroken, vulnerable, and felt like my soul had kind of been split in two. And I was covering that up with drinking. And I am no longer like that," she said.
"I'm a harm-reductionist, and I'm in the middle of a healing journey. About two years ago, I was at my worst. I will say this: Harm-reduction is about doing your best and keeping your goals in mind with any substance that you may have ever had a problem with. It's about making smaller goals that are more attainable."
Mikaela's taken on a new career endeavor. She's one of the top star performers on ManyVids, an adult content platform. Mikaela shoots live and taped solo cam shows from her home in Nashville, Tennessee. Though some raise an eyebrow at the daughter of one of the most lauded directors of all time doing sex work, Mikaela insists it's been a game changer for her.
"I'm really enjoying work, and it's giving me a whole new life-affirming way to be," she said.
"It opened up a gateway into being able to dance. The best part of it has been that anytime I want to I can just go into work, and go dance."
Mikaela was approached by the ManyVids team after they saw some of her independent sex work online.
"I was approached and asked by their team if I wanted to do a live show, because prior to that I had just been doing normal digital sex work, basically — and when I say that I have to clarify just for safety reasons that I am not full-service," she explained.
"I'm online and dance-only. ManyVids is a really incredible and wonderful community. There's safety, security, clear regulations, and also clear expectations. And the formatting is phenomenal. I don't feel a hostile energy around it but a loving energy. Its core design screams 'sexual health.' It feels safe."
"My profession is webcamming and solo pay-per-view videos. I'm hoping that webcamming can become a more regular thing for me, and professionally-done pay-per-view videos that are solo can become a regular thing for me," she explained of her work.
"For the most part, I'll be like every other woman on that platform, producing solo videos for purchase. I started out in the industry making custom videos, and with the other platform where I was working — and I won't say the name, because it's not my place to say too much about it — there was too much theft, and not enough care for performers, or regulations, or legal safety.
"So I decided to join ManyVids because that's a side they care so much about. And I would pay rent off of custom videos. I was completely independent — I didn't have any studio or anyone else behind me — and because of that, my level of creativity and quality of content kind of suffered. But now I feel more support, and I'm hoping that changes."
For Mikaela, sex work has helped her assert independence in her own life.
"In all honesty, it was about independence — but not in regards to placing myself above other women. That's not what it was," she clarified.
"It was about independence in finances, and independence in freedom of speech. You know the acronym NLOG [Not Like Other Girls]? That wasn't the goal for me of going into sex work. I wanted community, and I wanted to be 100 percent in charge of my own life in a way that was creative and not destructive."
In an interview with The Sun, Mikaela revealed that the work has also been especially comforting and empowering to her as a Black woman. She hopes to change the narrative around Black bodies, starting with her own.
"It was actually really nice and refreshing to have people saying cool things — because people can often say really upsetting things about a black woman's body sometimes," Mikaela shared.
Mikaela also revealed that her parents are very much aware of and supportive of her decision to explore sex work.
"My safety has always been a number one priority for them," she said.
"I'm doing this, not out of an urge to hurt anybody or be spiteful about it, I'm doing this because I want to honor my body in a way that's lucrative."
She's hoping that in its unique way, it can be something her parents are proud of her for doing. She believes it is showcasing a better side of herself.
"I actually think that once they see how far I've come from the bottom I was at a year and a half ago, they're going to look at this and go, 'Wow, we actually raised a really self-assured, young lady,'" she said.
Mikaela also opened up about her mental health and history of abuse. She admits to being sexually abused at an earlier point in her life, though she's emphasized it wasn't at the hands of her parents or anyone in their circle. It led her down a road of mental health struggles that she's still working on to this day.
"I'm very open about my borderline personality disorder both publicly, with friends and online — because we're portrayed as manipulative monsters a lot," she said.
"You have movies like Gone Girl, which kind of portray us as cold, unfeeling, 'in-it-for-the money' monsters."
Today, she's doing much better.
"I'm in a good place right now, but we all have relapses," she admitted.
"Being open in this way and sharing my story and choosing this career is not a relapse for me. I actually feel very grounded and validated right now."
