| Occupation | |
|---|---|
| Names | Pornographic actor/actress, porn star, Devin |
| Activity sectors | Entertainment/Sex industry |
| Description | |
| Competencies | Physical appearance, ability to have and maintain erection and ejaculate on cue (males), acting ability |
A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is a person who appears in pornographic film. Most actors appear nude in films (usually filmed in explicit sexual genres). Most genres have specialists who achieve most of their recognition in a specific niche market such as lesbian sex, bondage, strap-on sex, anal sex, double penetration, semen swallowing, teenage women, interracial or MILFs.
Some legal jurisdictions consider commercial pornography a form of prostitution, though most commercial sex film performers do not regard themselves as prostitutes for various reasons, but rather as actors or models. Most notably these performers are not paid directly by their sexual partners for the sex, but both are paid through a studio or Talent Management Agency.
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Performers have appeared in sex films since the era of photography began. Many "penny arcades" of the early 1900s had hand-cranked films and rotoscope (Holmes-style Stereoscope) glasses that featured nudity. These penny arcade attractions depicted topless women, full frontal nudity, and even sexual coupling. Performers in these early photograph and film recordings usually chose to remain anonymous to avoid legal sanction and social approbation.
Linda Lovelace, an American pornographic actress of the early '70s, is often seen as the first modern porn star with appreciable name recognition outside her genre. Lovelace starred in the 1972 feature Deep Throat. It was Casey Donovan who starred in the very first mainstream pornographic hit, Boys in the Sand,[1] in 1971, nearly a year before Deep Throat, but it was the success of Deep Throat that encouraged the ascension of more such stars and the production of more such films. Examples include Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door), Gloria Leonard (The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Georgina Spelvin (The Devil in Miss Jones), and Bambi Woods (Debbie Does Dallas).
The 1970s have been called The Golden Age of Porn, a time when pornographic films were shown in public theaters and accepted (or at least tolerated) for public consumption.[2] This "golden age" lasted from the 1970s through the late-70s or early 1980s. Sex films of this era had specific storylines, plots, and promotional budgets. Performers became celebrities. Such performers include Peter Berlin, John Holmes, Ginger Lynn Allen, Porsche Lynn, Desiree Cousteau, Juliet Anderson ("Aunt Peg"), Lisa De Leeuw, Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley, Harry Reems, Seka, and Amber Lynn.
Once people could watch adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, first on VCR and later on DVD, a new adult market developed that far exceeded the scope of its theater-centric predecessor. More recently, the Internet has served as catalyst for creating a still-larger market for porn, a market that is even less traditionally theatrical.
There are hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of productions, recorded directly on video, with minimal sets. Of late, web-cams and web-cam recordings are again expanding the market. Thousands of pornographic actors work in front of the camera to satisfy pornography consumers' demand.
Attempts were made in the 1970s to outlaw pornography in the United States by prosecuting porn stars for prostitution. The case was initially made in California, and stopped short of advancing the case to the United States Supreme Court for a final decision. It was this decision and acceptance to let stand whereby the California Court made a legal distinction in the case of People v. Freeman between someone who took part in a sexual relationship for money (prostitution) versus someone who takes on the act of merely portraying role where a sexual relationship was engaged in on-screen act as part of their acting performance. It is this specific legal distinction between pornography and prostitution in California law that allowed California to become the porn center of the United States.
At present, no other state in the United States has either implemented or accepted this legal distinction between commercial pornography performers versus prostitutes as shown in the Florida case where sex film maker Clinton Raymond McCowen, aka "Ray Guhn", was indicted on charges of "soliciting and engaging in prostitution" for his creation of pornography films which included "McCowen and his associates recruited up to 100 local men and women to participate in group sex scenes, the affidavit says."[3] The distinction that California has in its legal determination in the Freeman decision is usually denied in most states' local prostitution laws, which do not specifically exclude performers from such inclusion.
In some cases, some states have ratified their local state laws for inclusion to prevent California's Freeman decision to be applied to actors who are paid a fee for sexual actions within their state borders. One example is the state of Texas whose prostitution law specifically states:
According to actor-turned-director Jonathan Morgan, "The girls could be graded like A, B and C. The A is the chick on the boxcover. She has the power. So she'll show up late or not at all. 99.9% of them do that."[5] Less successful actresses are more likely to perform more extreme acts such as 'double-anal'.[5] If an actress is willing to perform more extreme acts she will receive more offers of work.[5] Older or less attractive actresses are more likely to perform such acts in order to get work.[5] According to Morgan, "Some girls are used up in nine months or a year. An 18-year-old, sweet young thing, signs with an agency, makes five films in her first week. Five directors, five actors, five times five: she gets phone calls. A hundred movies in four months. She's not a fresh face any more. Her price slips and she stops getting phone calls. Then it's, 'Okay, will you do anal? Will you do gangbangs?' Then they're used up. They can't even get a phone call. The market forces of this industry use them up."[5] Some film studios encourage their actresses to have breast implants, and offer to pay for the procedure.[5]
Conversely, some performers are not unhappy with their job, while still noting that "a performer's pleasure is not of primary importance" and that "porn sex is not the same as private sex".[6] Furthermore, there is evidence to say that porn production is not necessarily unethical or degrading. According to Lynn Comella, a women's studies professor at UNLV, presenting demeaning practices as representative of the entire porn industry is "akin to talking about Hollywood while only referencing spaghetti Westerns".[7]
Due to the substantial amount of evidence both for and against the idea that women are degraded in pornography, it is likely that individual experiences vary depending on the director, the performer, and the type of porn being produced. As with other social phenomena, gross generalizations may be problematic.[7]
While the primary focus of heterosexual sex films are the women in them, who are mostly selected for their on-screen appearance, there is a definite focus on the male performers who are able to fulfill the desires of the male watching audience as their on-screen proxies. Most male performers in heterosexual pornography are generally selected less for their looks than for their sexual prowess, namely their ability to do three things: achieve an erection while on a busy film set, maintain that erection while performing on camera, and then ejaculate on cue.[10] In the past an actors' inability to maintain an erection could make the difference between a film turning a profit or a loss.[5] However this problem has been solved by the use of Viagra.[5] If an actor loses his erection, filming is forced to stop for about 45 minutes whilst the drug takes effect.[5] Using Viagra can make the actor's face noticeably flushed, give him a headache, and make it difficult to ejaculate.[5] According to director John Stagliano, using Viagra means "You also lose a dimension." "The guy's fucking without being aroused."[5]
Ron Jeremy, John Holmes, Peter North, Clayton Elder, and Rocco Siffredi are considered by AVN as the top male performers of all time. Adding to his fame, Ron Jeremy has been a staple in the industry since the 1970s and has become something of a cultural icon.[8]
Most male performers in straight porn are paid less than their female costars. Ron Jeremy has commented on the pay scale of women and men of the sex film industry: in 2003 "Girls can easily make 100K-250K per year, plus stuff on the side like strip shows and appearances. The average male makes $40,000 a year."[11] and in 2008 "The average guy gets $300 to $400 a scene, or $100 to $200 if he's new. A woman makes $100,000 to $250,000 at the end of the year."[12]
In 2011, the manager of Capri Anderson said "A contract girl will only shoot for one company, she won’t shoot for anyone else. Most actresses in the adult industry are free agents – they’ll shoot for anyone. Being a contract girl is kind of a big deal. Most contract girls make $60,000 a year, which isn’t very much... In one year, a contract girl will shoot four movies, and each movie takes about two or three weeks to shoot."[13]
The Los Angeles Times reported that the pay rates for a female actress performing male and female scenes were paid $700 to $1,000.[14]
Some state that gay male porn generally pays men much more than heterosexual porn. Ostensibly, men who perform in gay pornography but identify themselves as heterosexual, most notably Wolf Hudson, are said to do gay-for-pay, that is, perform in gay movies only for the paycheck, not because of any personal attraction they have to other men.
According to producer Seymore Butts, who runs his own sex-film recruitment agency, as well as producing sex films; "depending on draw, female performers who perform in both straight and lesbian porn earn more than those who do [just heterosexual scenes] usually make about US$200–800 while those who only do oral sex (blow job) usually only make about US$100–300 for the scene".[15] It was also noted in an interview conducted by Local10 news of Florida that individuals were offered $700 for sexual intercourse while shooting a scene of the popular series Bang Bus in 2004.[16] According to Videobox, a porn website, actresses make these rates: Blowjobs: $200–$400; Straight sex: $400–$1,200; Anal sex: $900–$1,500; Double Penetration: $1,200–$1,600; Double anal: $2,000. For more unusual fetishes, women generally get 15% extra.[17]
In 2001 actress Chloe said of pay-rates; "In Gonzo, you're paid not by the picture, but by the scene. So it's girl-girl: $700, plus $100 for an anal toy. Boy-girl: $900. Anal: $1,100. Solo: $500. DP: $1,500."[5]
Additionally, besides appearing in films, porn stars often make money from endorsements and appearance fees. For instance, in 2010 some night clubs were paying female porn stars and Playboy Playmates to appear there to act as draws for the general public; Jesse Jane was reported to have been paid between $5,000 to $10,000 for one appearance by a Chicago club.[18]
Because of the nature of their work, usually involving sex without condoms, pornographic actors were traditionally vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases. In a paper written by LA Public Health officials claimed that among 825 performers screened in 2000–2001, 7.7% of females and 5.5% of males had chlamydia, and 2% overall had gonorrhea. These rates are much higher than in patients visiting family planning clinics, where chlamydia and gonorrhea rates were 4.0% and 0.7%, respectively. Between January 2003 and March 2005, approximately 976 performers were reported with 1,153 positive STD test results. Of the 1,153 positive test results, 722 (62.6 %) were chlamydia, 355 (30.8%) were gonorrhea, and 126 (10.9%) were coinfections with chlamydia and gonorrhea. Less is known about the prevalence and risk of transmission of other STDs such as syphilis, herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, hepatitis B or C, trichomonal infection, or diseases transmitted through the fecal–oral route.[19] The data collection of LA public health was criticized by adult industry sources on the grounds that most of those testing positive had never made an adult film-and were in fact being excluded from adult film acting until they had treated their STDs. Non-treatable STDs like HSV represent a difficult case: according to actress Chloe, "After you've been in this business for a while, you have herpes. Everyone has herpes."[5]
The high rate of STDs in the adult film industry started to change in 1998 when major adult film producers started implementing a regular periodic testing program for adult film actors. In the 1980s, an outbreak of HIV led to a number of deaths of erotic actors and actresses, including John Holmes, Wade Nichols, Marc Stevens, and Al Parker. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), which helped set up a voluntary standard[20] in the U.S. adult film industry where erotic actors are tested for HIV, Chlamydia and Gonorrhea every 30 days-and twice a year for HSV, Hepatitis and Syphilis. AIM posts test results on their website identified with the actors drivers license number so they can be shared without any possibility of fraud. AIM claims that this program has reduced the rate of STDs among adult film actors to 20% that of the general population.[21] These claims have been criticized by various public health authorities-but there have been no controlled studies that support the claims of public health authorities that AIM's testing approach is not working.