How Tosca Musk Crafted the Steamy Streamer

Tosca Musk loves love. So much so that, in 2016, she co-founded Passionflix, a niche streaming service dedicated entirely to romance.

Since its inception, Passionflix has produced 28 original movies, four series and 11 short films, all adapted from romantic fiction by female authors. Subscriptions (aptly priced at $69 yearly) are available in over 150 countries, giving audiences access to Passionflix’s growing collection of content, ranging in tone from vanilla puppy love to toe-curling smut.

“Stories for women should be told by women. That’s what we do,” Musk, who serves as a director and producer on Passionflix projects, says. “I want to make sure that that the stories are told for the female gaze. There is a delicate touch that I want to see in our movies, and I want women to tell those stories.”

Musk adds that the streaming service predominantly attracts female subscribers, with a growing contingency of men joining their ranks as of late. Seven years since launch, the business still continues to grow: “We’re doing well,” she says. “We’re increasing every year. We’re able to make five, six movies a year!”

If Musk’s surname sounds familiar – yes, she’s tech mogul Elon Musk’s sister. But let’s be clear: the fiercely passionate creative is an entrepreneur in her own right. “I’m the CEO and founder of a company that’s directed over 25 features,” she says. “At the end of the day, I am Elon’s sister and Kimbal’s sister and Maye’s daughter. But it’s all good. We’re family.”

Musk, speaking to Variety from Atlanta where she’s at work directing Passionflix’s next series, an adaptation of J.R. Ward’s bestselling “Black Dagger Brotherhood” books, breaks down how she crafted the steamy streamer from the ground up, why she’s passionate about putting women behind the camera and where she hopes Passionflix goes next.

Why did you want to start Passionflix? What was the hole in the streaming economy that you felt it would fill?

Our company formed in 2016 and we launched in 2017. There weren’t very many niche streaming platforms. There were a handful, but not very many. I joined a niche streaming platform support group at the time! It was all these new streamers that were starting up and just sharing ideas. I had a show called “Tiki Bar TV” that I produced, and it was direct to consumer. It was so amazing, the direct to consumer relationship, when you made something that was unique and very specific, and how much that audience engaged. When it comes to the romance novel industry, that’s a very tight, very engaging community. I’m a big fan of romance novels. So taking romance novels and creating a streaming platform where we’d adapt them as the fan and the author wants them adapted made a lot of sense. We knew that we could tap directly into the romance community, because we were part of it.

Adapting from such popular novels is of course a great way to acquire a built-in fanbase, but I know those fans must also have strong opinions. How does catering to the fans affect the way you choose your projects?

We work very much so with the author. I can’t please every fan out there. I can do everything that I can possibly do to please me as a fan, and then have the author support that, or the author say, ‘This is what they look like. This is what I agree with. This is what I see in my mind.’ So I try to work with the author and have them pleased. And if they’re pleased, then hopefully that passes on to the fan.

Speaking of fans, Passionflix has a premium “signature membership,” which allows subscribers to visit film sets and attend premieres. How did that idea come about?

Signature members are the second generation of founding members. When we first started Passionflix, I went to the Romantic Times book conference in May 2017. We just finished filming our first movie, “Hollywood Dirt,” and we created a trailer for it before the before it even been cut. We presented it at RT to all of the the attendees – like 3,000 people. Along with it, I presented this opportunity to become a founding member of Passionflix. And for that, it was $100 for a two-year subscription. You got to visit set, meet the actors, meet the authors, get your book signed. We had over 4,000 people sign up over a month. It was a great way for us to be able to launch our platform already with a very strong base to begin with, which is little unusual. From there, we were like, “What can we do to offer the next generation of founding members?” That was to create the signature membership.

It’s basically for the super fan who really wants to be a stronger part of our community, have early access to content, really wants to meet the actors and the author and experience what it’s like to be on set. I love it. It’s actually one of my favorite parts, because when the signature members come to set, they know more about these books than I do — and I’ve read them all multiple times!

On “Black Dagger Brotherhood,” there are fan groups that discuss the lore and this entire world that’s been created. They come to set, and I wasn’t sure if [the characters are] wearing their gun holsters in the scene or not. I’m going to get an immediate response, and they’re going to say if they are or not. They’re going to give me the answer. It’s nice to know that the fan is so invested and I love hearing from them right on set, because we can change it right there, and then they have an influence and an impact on on how it’s being filmed.

There’s no shortage of romance novels being published today, especially with the rise of BookTok. How do you cut through that and pick the right books to adapt?

That is actually tough! There are so many. Very fortunately now at our stage at Passionflix, a lot of authors will be quite excited for us to adapt one of their books. Early on, it was a little harder – not too hard – but they didn’t know who we were. Now, seven years later, they’re like, “Oh, great! And we have great references from other authors like Sylvain Reynard and J.R. Ward. We already have about 30 books that we’ve optioned that we are in line to shoot. We are working on those while we’re trying to bring in new ones and more recent adaptations as well. And we tend to try and shoot something different for each next project.

We have “Lick,” it’s a rock star romance. Then we have “A Lover’s Vow,” that’s the end of our three-part Brenda Jackson series, and that’s a little more on the suspense side, but still romance of course. Then we have “Black Dagger Brotherhood,” which is vampires and warriors. Earlier this year, we had “The Air He Breathes,” that really deeply emotional, crying movie. We want to be everything to every romance lover. At the same time, it’s introducing romance fans to different authors. We love to be able to show variety within the romance genre. The romance genre isn’t just one thing. It’s every genre, just the key element has to be romance.

You’re also passionate about adapting from female authors and hiring women behind the camera. How has that been a guiding light for you in these past seven years?

It’s really important that women tell romance stories written by women. Not to say that men couldn’t do it. Some could. But there is something about a woman telling the story of what a of what a woman goes through in a romantic relationship. And there are so many women out there that have not had the opportunity to direct or tell stories, because those opportunities simply aren’t being offered to them. So that’s important to me.

Is your subscriber base also predominantly women?

We are predominantly women. I’m actually quite impressed with the number of men that are subscribing, and the number of men that are becoming super fans. Initially it started with boyfriends and husbands of our viewers. They would buy the subscription as a gift, and then they became obsessed. The reason why we’re still growing is because people love love. They love to see positive stories, and they want to experience this roller coaster of emotions knowing that they’re in a safe space and they’re going to have their happy ending at the end of the day. That is non-existent in the rest of content that’s being made right now. We only tell stories with happy endings.

A recent study found that young people want less sex in movies and TV shows, but Passionflix has really doubled down on its steamy content. Have you encountered that attitude in adapting romance?

That’s news to me. They’re certainly coming on to Passionflix. At the end of the day, Passionflix and romance novels aren’t necessarily about just sex. It’s about the connection, communication and compromise in a relationship. There are other platforms out there that will show just sex. I think you’ll find a lot of it on HBO, with no commitment or relationship involved. Maybe we’re going back to those days before “50 Shades of Grey,” where people are trying to hide what they really want. Passionflix is there to remove shame from sexuality. We should be be enjoying this, and we should be asking for our pleasure, and we should be accepting pleasure, and we should be making sure that we are taken care of and that we are taking care of our partners. We’re there to encourage emotional strength. We are there to encourage connection, communication and compromise in relationships and we’re there to validate emotions. So I think that whoever did that study is wrong.

What do you envision for the next seven years of Passionflix?

I see us becoming a household name. I want people to talk about Passionflix and be super excited about the next movie that that’s coming out. I want us to be at every water cooler talk. I see us as the conversation piece with every woman. Passionflix and chill!

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.