Twilight of the Porn Stars Louis Theroux

This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature

This programme contains very strong language

-That's the price we pay for being cheerleaders.

-Yeah.

Oh, my God!

'In 1997 I made a documentary about the world of male porn performers

'in Los Angeles...'

I don't want to cause offence when I say that I look at him

and I don't automatically think, "There's a porno performer".

-Are you John Dough?

-Hey. What's up?

-How's it going? Louis from the BBC.

Break a leg.

'..finding out how difficult and stressful it can be

'having sex on camera for a living.'

Action.

Let's cut. Cut! Let's break.

It seems like the easiest job in the world, really. Let's face it.

-It's not.

-Really?

Many, many men have tried and very few have made it.

And action!

'Fifteen years on, I'd heard about big changes in the industry.

'Porn was struggling, under threat from piracy on the internet.'

PornTube sites pretty much... killed the business.

Killed it.

If you've got a guy who's seen 500 porns, you know,

whatever you're gonna do isn't gonna particularly astound him.

-How you doing?

-How are you, my friend?

'And so I'd returned to LA, curious how my old friends were faring...'

Good to see you.

'..and to meet the new performers pursuing a dream of porn stardom

'in an industry where a stable career was more elusive than ever.'

You like girls, you like boys, you like getting tied up.

The only thing... Actually, you like everything.

Everybody has to be something at some point in their life

that they may not want to do, but they do it because they have to.

I am someone that does blow bangs, I am someone that does anal scenes.

That's who I am. That's...who I'm becoming and I'm OK with that.

'My journey was starting in the San Fernando Valley,

'America's capital of porn.

'Faced with competition from free YouTube-style porn sites,

'studios have responded by making films with higher production values

'for the couples market.

'I'd been invited to the latest shoot by Wicked Pictures.

'The male lead was the rising star Xander Corvus.'

-How we doing? Nice to meet you.

-Good. Nice to meet you too.

-I'm Louis.

-Xander.

Xander.

-You're a performer in the business.

-I am.

-How long have you been doing this?

-About a year... A little over a year and a half.

-You will be having sex with someone this afternoon on camera?

-I will.

Erm... I feel like an asshole.

Alex... Alexa I think her name is.

-Have you seen her yet?

-No.

-Have ever you done a scene with her before?

-No.

Is it important that you find her attractive?

I've had to do scenes with girls I wasn't particularly attracted to

but, you know, I'd get it up anyway.

I mean, I'm 23... I just turned 23, so it's usually not a problem,

and if it is, it's like, "OK, sialis. Cool, we're good".

-Sialis?

-Boner pill.

-It's like Viagra?

-Yeah. You get it at any doctor.

But we go to, like, the porn doctor, basically.

So what is this called, this movie?

Erm... I don't know.

I forget.

-We have the white virginous kind of look here.

-Mmm.

'The film's director, Brad Armstrong, was also an occasional performer.'

-Brad, have you worked with Alexa before?

-I have indeed.

-Yeah.

Let me just say that Alexa's a lot of fun.

I mean, you've directed her, but did you mean that you've also performed with Alexa?

-Oh, we've made the sweet love a number of times.

-Yeah.

-She's fun.

Step.

Step. Step.

Step.

Step. Look deep into each other's eyes without touching.

Is it set in a period, a certain period of history, Brad?

It's not so much a specific period, but it's period-esque.

You know, in the romance novel, there's always that guy with the open pirate-esque shirt

and the girl in her little kind of Spanish...

-It's just sort of in romance land.

-Romance land.

And kiss.

Do you recommend it as a lifestyle,

because it's a very particular kind of a business to be in, isn't it?

It depends on the person.

If you're straight and business minded,

-like Nicole's going for her Bachelor's right now.

-Who's Nicole?

Sorry. Erm...

What's the chick over there? What's the girl's name?

-LAUGHTER

-Alexa, sorry.

-Alexa or Nicole?

-Alexa Nicole.

-Her first name is Alexa and her last name is Nicole?

-Exactly.

So you very much get a wide variety...

You've had sex with her a couple of times

-and you didn't remember her name.

-No, I just blanked.

And action.

Michael...

I can't.

My father will never allow this, you know this.

-Do that line one more time.

-Which one?

Hers. "I know that my father will never allow it. You know this".

-Not "this" and "this'.

-OK.

And go from there, and action.

I know...

-Fuck!

-And I too.

I know, and I you. As in, I love you too.

Are you enjoying the scene?

Yeah, dude, she's great. I'm really feeling her.

I think we have a pretty good chemistry going so that's good.

-It's work, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's work.

-It's not sex for pleasure.

It's fun, but it's definitely not sex for pleasure.

-How you doing, Brad?

-So far, so good.

-Are they OK?

Are they just moving... He's walking around with his willy out.

-Yeah, it's...

-Isn't that... look at that.

Some people are a little more...

..flamboyant than others with their penis out.

Yeah! Oh!

Oh!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh!

No, less porno.

"Yes, yes, yes".

Yes, yes.

Cool. You got it and I got it.

How did that go? Do you feel closer now that you've just had sex?

It was a pretty romantic scene.

We're not gonna run and get married but it definitely, like,

-opens a lot of doors to a person we're more comfortable around.

-Yeah.

There's something quite touching about seeing you there like that,

how your legs are crossed over like that.

-It's almost like you've just had a romantic moment.

-We did.

-Yeah.

Sure did.

-Do you have a boyfriend, Alexa?

-Yeah. Yes, I do.

-Who you live with?

-Yes.

-Kids?

-No.

-Would you like to have kids one day?

-Definitely.

You're not worried about your kids seeing something, seeing one of your scenes?

Not at all. And if they were to, I think sex is perfectly natural,

so I don't think it's anything that someone should be ashamed of.

'My next stop was the offices

'of one of the industry's leading talent agencies, LA Direct.

'Its founder and CEO is the performer known as Ben English.

'His real name, Derek Hay.'

-Louis.

-Hello.

-How you doing?

-Ah, how are you?

-Nice to meet you. Yeah, good.

Now, you've got a busy day. What have you got going on?

I'm not sure how many shoots but there's today's schedule.

She's doing an unusual shoot, actually.

She's doing a gangbang, which a lot of people say 'gangbang'

when you're talking about the porn industry, but actually it's pretty rare.

Is there a rate for a gangbang?

Would there be a going rate for something like that?

Anywhere from...

3,000 to 8,000.

I don't know if people consider that a lot or not.

I don't know. Yeah.

For a gangbang, is it a lot? I don't know.

'A few doors down from Derek is his number two, Fran Smidor.'

-Hello.

-Hello.

-You must be Fran.

-I might be. Who wants to know?

-Louis.

-Louis?

-How do you do?

So is that what you pay the talent with?

Erm... some of it is for the talent, yes.

Most of them are cheques.

-How's business?

-Could always be better.

Do you think the internet and piracy and free porn on the internet has had an impact?

Yes. Devastatingly.

How has that had a knock-on effect on the industry and the performers?

Less work.

There's less work and there's an abundance, because of the economy, of performers.

There aren't enough people shooting to give everybody a day's work.

You see a lot of people coming in here and saying that, you know,

they want to be in adult movies, right?

Do you give them a talk where you explain what the consequences are

and how it's likely to affect them and have they thought it through?

-No.

-Why not?

Because I would talk half... three quarters of the girls

out of the business and we wouldn't be in business.

I'm here to promote the adult industry, not put a curse on it.

Jinx, Jinx, Jinx.

-Fran, do you get on with Jinx pretty well?

-Can't stand the sight of her.

-Can't stand the sight? She's a good earner for you.

-Is she? Are you a good earner?

What have you got? Because you're always trying to short me.

This is what they do. They think I was born yesterday.

-Well, she's come in to give you the money, Fran.

-Here you go.

-Are you working this week, Jinx?

-Yeah, I'm working tomorrow.

-What are you doing?

-I'm getting a pound in my ass tomorrow.

Do you have respect for what they do, the performers?

Because it's a lot of work, isn't it? Or it can be.

I think working 64 hours a week in an office is hard work.

I don't think going to set and fucking someone is as hard as we have to do on a daily basis.

-It's not something I would want for my child.

-Why not?

Because it fucks with their heads and I don't want to be the mother of a whore.

I take care of...

Hi.

-Hi.

-Brownie cam.

-I'm Louis.

-I'm Stefania.

-Stefania?

Stefania is another of your clients?

Yes.

-Performers?

-Yes.

-And how long have you been doing it, Stefania?

-I just started.

I did, like, three shoots so far.

-Oh, well. OK, so you're pretty new...

-Yes, I am.

..to the whole thing. And how's it going for you?

-It's going pretty good.

-Yeah?

-Yeah. I like it, I enjoy it.

-How old are you?

-I'm 22.

-22?

-Yes.

-So you've done three scenes, did you say?

-I did three scenes.

-So what were they?

Two scenes was boy/girl scenes and one was anal.

Yeah.

Had you ever done anal before?

I actually, like, in my real life, I really don't do much anal,

but on cam I do.

So if you don't do it in private,

that would suggest maybe you don't enjoy it that much?

I don't enjoy it that much, but I can make it enjoyable.

-I'm not sure that I agree with your question.

-Well...

-I can think of a lot of things

that we don't do in our personal life that we do at work.

Yeah.

I really regard models in the adult industry as sexual athletes

so, you know, I don't think that you can say

whatever they do on camera as actresses, you know,

they would necessarily do in their personal life.

I feel sure that they don't.

-How you doing?

-I'm good, how are you?

-All right.

-Nice to meet you. What's your name?

-Likewise. Barry.

-Barry?

-Yeah.

-Brandy.

-Brandy? Louis.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-You're a performer?

-I'm a performer.

-And are you going out with Brandy?

-This is my wife.

-You're married.

-Yeah.

-And you're both in the industry?

-Yes.

-And you both have sex on camera with other people for a living?

-Yeah.

She has a certain "yes" list of dudes she works with

and I have a certain, like, criteria of things I do and don't do.

What's your list of things you won't do?

THEY CHUCKLE

I won't do... I don't do gangbangs any more, blow bangs,

any type of double anal or double vaginal, anything like that.

And so what are the reasons for those rules?

I'm just not down with rubbing my cock up against another dude's cock.

SHE LAUGHS

-Any more.

-Any more, yeah.

-You did do it?

THEY LAUGH

Any more than I have done.

When I was here last time, there were a few guys who I met,

and I'm curious to sort of know if they're still in the business and how they've made out.

One was John Dough.

Who you know has passed some years ago, right?

Do you know what happened?

You mean, to cause his death?

Yes.

If depression is the correct word,

I think it is related to the sort of struggle of, you know,

the on-set, the industry and,

you know, some years ago, whatever, 2007 or so, you know,

where we...the decline of the DVD market and...

you know, a lot of studios and directors sort of found it a struggle to stay viable.

You think him killing himself had something to do with the DVD market?

Well, I think that his... I think that he was one of many

who found their business in difficulty.

Do you know how he killed himself?

No. Do you?

No.

'With their earnings in the doldrums,

'porn performers are having to be creative about how they make money.

'To learn more, I was visiting the home of LA Direct model Kagney Linn Karter.'

-Hello?

-Hello.

Can we come in?

-I'm Louis.

-Kagney. Nice to meet you.

-Kagney, nice to meet you. And you are Montae?

-Montae.

-How you doing? Nice to meet you.

-Same here.

I'm going to use the rest room, I'll be about 20 minutes.

-You're going to have a bath? Is that right?

-Yeah.

You're going to clean yourself up, get ready for what's about to happen?

-Yeah, I'm going to get ready for the live show.

-What is the live show?

It's just a live webcam that I do probably like once or twice a month.

And you'll just be a solo performer in this?

Yeah, just solo.

-Montae, you are Kagney's significant other?

-Yes.

-Husband?

-No.

-No.

-Not married.

-Hoping to be?

-Yeah, eventually, some day.

-What do you do?

-I am a full-time assistant to my girlfriend.

-Mm-hm.

Do you have rules about what she can't do or, you know, what you're comfortable with?

I give my input, I give my input on what I believe that,

you know, she should probably refrain from doing.

Like?

Er... Like, for example, her agent called today

and asked her did she want to do a boy/girl scene,

but after the boy/girl scene, five guys come and ejaculate on her.

So you expressed a preference that she not do that?

-Of course. I mean, I'd rather...

-But what did she say?

DOOR OPENS

She said she was going to do it, you know?

Montae was saying about this scene that you had coming up

and about whether you should let these guys

kind of finish their business on you.

I mean, he didn't want to talk about it, so I'm actually surprised that he brought it up with you guys,

cos, babe, you wouldn't even talk with me about it.

Yeah, I mean, I'm always going to have my opinion, so...

especially if your agent says that he doesn't think that she should do it.

-You saying that I couldn't do it cuts me out of two grand and that...

-No, I didn't say...

-..cut us out of money to go on vacation and do nice things for ourself.

-I never did say...

-So that I can buy you the clothes that you wear, Montae.

-I never did say that you couldn't do it.

Kagney, you would maybe want to respect his feelings, though,

if he was upset by something that you chose to do?

Are you upset, really? Like, you're upset now?

-I didn't say that I was upset.

-You didn't, no.

-I never did say that.

-Of course I want to respect his feelings.

-That's the thing.

But sometimes he doesn't know what's best for me

and I know what's best for us because I've been doing this for a long time now,

so he sometimes doesn't understand that the reason why

-I do certain scenes is not cos I'm just a big whore...

-No, I know! That's crazy!

..and I would get fucking five loads on my face.

It's because I know that that's going to be the type of scene that might possibly win me an award.

As an outsider to the business, you know,

and sort of representing people at home,

what I would see is that Montae is already taking a lot

by seeing the person he loves most in the world

performing sex acts with other people.

OK, but Montae also gets to have lots of days off

where he sits around the house and plays video games all day too,

so OK, like, Montae gets whatever he wants.

He has a really good life that I have provided for him,

so Montae has it easy.

Hi, everyone.

BEEP

Hi, guys.

BEEP

-Sorry, I'm a little late, guys.

-BEEP

OK, yeah, that's good.

Fuck, yeah, that's what I want to hear.

SHE CHUCKLES

My favourite position...

I'm kind of old fashioned.

I just like missionary or, like, scissors.

How did it go?

It was good. I made 100 bucks.

Do you have a plan as far as how far you'll go with this?

I definitely want to do, like, another seven years,

and, by then, I think that me and Montae will retire and,

I mean, everything that I choose to do and whatever I might do

is just, you know, to secure a better future for us.

I'm always thinking about the future and it's a little bit...

Sometimes it's kind of wearing and, like, I tell Montae,

you know, like, I'm sorry that I'm always so concerned about money and things like that

but, for me, it's just really important that one day I don't have to do this any more.

Some of the women that are involved, they don't have a ten-year plan.

It's more about getting their pay cheque,

going to buy the new Christian Louboutins that they could fit on their feet.

It's not like that with her.

If you were... She actually has a plan of action.

'Kagney brought an incongruous professionalism to her commitment to extreme porn,

'but it was hard not to worry about the toll it might take on her relationship.

'In 1997, when I'd made my original documentary,

'one of the performers I'd focused on was a newcomer to the business.

'His porn name was JJ Michaels.'

-Hi.

-Hey.

-How you doing?

-All right. Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

-Can we come in?

-Of course. Come on in.

'Don't you think, like, with two people who are HIV positive,

'it's just a matter of time before there's more.

I mean, you must be worried.

I mean, you, basically you have unprotected sex.

Yeah, but I don't think about it so...I assume I'm safe, you know?

And that way, I don't go home and worry every night.

If you did that, you'd just quit.

Well, maybe quitting wouldn't be a bad option in that case.

Well, that's... No, I guess if you're worried about it, yeah,

whereas I don't so, you know.

'15 years on, JJ was out of the business

'and now working in IT in suburban Missouri.'

I wasn't comfortable talking about it. I mean, no.

Ah, there, the Jimmy Bone one, I think I told you about this one.

It was the James Bond spoof that I...

-Oh, yeah, you directed that one, didn't you?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was one I directed.

It was a silly James Bond spoof. That was a two-parter. That's pretty cool.

-Yeah, these are like some old, old just VHSs.

-Naked Outdoors.

Naughty Little Nymphos.

Is It Wrong To Be Sodomised?

Young And Anal. Gutter Mouths Eight.

When we met, it was in early '97.

You stayed in after that for three years?

-Yes.

-And how did you find it?

Wasn't bad.

I mean, especially, like, the second year and, you know,

when I really knew people and I felt comfortable.

It wasn't like I was meeting new people every time I went to a set I knew all the crew.

I was married in '99 to another actress

and my little brother died at the end of '99,

and when that happened I took, like, a month or so off and...

How did he die?

Er...drug overdose.

Getting into the business was caused by the death of my son.

In a way, it kind of shocked me and did something

and this, in essence, kind of got me out.

It just made me re-think, like,

"Well, do I really want to do this for ever?"

You think you got in because of the death of your baby son?

I think my recklessness was part of that,

part of that emotion,

and I think that entire mentality came from that.

I mean, experiencing such a loss does a lot to you

and, at that point in my life, I was like, "Well, what do I have to lose?"

How did your son die?

It was from SIDS.

That's is that cot death, basically? Sudden Infant Death.

Yeah, yeah, it's the same as British cot death. Yeah, he was seven and a half months.

I never realised those two events went together like that.

I wasn't comfortable talking about it. I mean...

certain things like that, it takes a long time to even be comfortable

discussing them or relating to them, understanding them

and, you know, obviously now I can.

So this is the room where I have my set-up here.

This is where I record my demos. I use the keyboard.

What kind of lyrics do you write?

Well, this concept for the first album, it's a main character

who goes into a mental hospital

because he was arrested for killing his girlfriend.

But, in the end, he actually didn't do it.

When you lose someone, you know, when I did,

you feel an overwhelming sense of guilt about it, like it's your fault,

and the main character in this believes he killed this girl that he loves...

-..but he didn't.

-And it is metal?

Yes.

Yeah, definitely, it's a... I call it progressive power thrash metal.

MUSIC PLAYS

'One of the things that happened in the time

'since we taped that show was that John Dough died.

'What do you know about that?'

I remember when one of my friends called me and said that he'd... hung himself, I believe.

It was kind of... I mean, it was kind of shocking.

You're like, "Well, OK, why?"

I mean, it's a stressful job, obviously.

It's horribly stressful and by 2006, er...

I mean, the industry had changed quite a bit.

Was it the fact that there were so many new guys coming in,

the industry was spreading out, it was breaking apart,

the sense of family was gone and he really felt like he was alone,

you know, spread out over so much?

It's going to have an emotional impact on you in that business.

Is it a difficult time for performers now?

Yeah. I mean, the way it is now, within five years,

I don't see how there could be a professional porn actor.

Back in California, and on the northern outskirts of LA,

I was off to meet an industry veteran called Tommy Gunn.

'I was curious to get to know someone

'who was on the verge of middle age,

'still making a living performing in adult movies.'

How you doing?

What's up, man? You can park anywhere, that's good.

-How are you?

-OK. Are you sure?

'I heard Tommy was struggling with the emotional side of the business.'

-Come on out. Welcome.

-Thank you.

-How are you?

-Nice to meet you. I'm Louis.

-It's a pleasure. Tommy.

I was collecting for a while there.

HE CHUCKLES

I pretty much won everything they make.

You're known as a very dependable performer, is that correct?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not to mention, I'm not a bad actor, so...

Are there things you won't do? Do you have rules?

You know, I try to be able to be well-rounded enough to do it all,

because that's what was going to separate me

from the next guy who said, "I only do boy/girl."

Who's comfortable with being next to a guy this close and a girl?

That's, you know, it is what it is.

Most of the time we know each other anyway. "How you been?"

"Good." "That's good," you know?

I don't want to show up and I never met the guy before and he's just like...

I'd rather know him, like, like, "Hey,"

cos now it's just like two friends having sex with a girl, you know, and it works.

There's some of the movies up there. These so minimal, these are just...

You've done how many movies, did you say?

Upward of 1,100, 1,200 at this point.

This was kind of a cool movie, Vivids To Die For. That was me.

Would that be your penis on the back there?

No.

Do you feel you have a connection with the women that you work with?

-Once you've, you know, had sex with them...

-Well...

..does it then feel as though you've shared something?

Yeah, for me.

Some people may not think that

but, you know, for me, there's gotta be some intimacy.

I mean, it's an intimate act, isn't it?

In terms of timing for me, when I got into the business, it worked.

I'd just go and I'd have sex with this girl and then I'm done, they pay me

and I leave and I go do my thing, and my heart's not involved.

Well, guess what? Through time and repetition,

eventually you do have a heart

and it does show its face and it does call out for attention, you know?

I love the business, don't get me wrong,

but, at the end of the day, I'm getting older,

I'd like to have kids, it would be nice to raise a family.

It's difficult having a career like this.

A lot of the performers I've spoken to won't acknowledge that.

They don't acknowledge that there's something intimate about the sex act

-and that that can take a toll on your...

-Sure.

..on your relationships.

Maybe if they were to acknowledge that, maybe that would show

that they have a human side of some sort

and there is some sort of emotional thing there

and the last thing they want to do is appear to be vulnerable.

And maybe also it would be difficult to live with themselves,

knowing that there's something about the business that they've chosen, intrinsically,

that is...that has a coarsening effect on the human spirit.

Yeah. Everything you gain, you've gotta lose something. What did I lose?

I lost my private intimate sex life

in order to have a job doing sex and being paid for it on camera.

-Is this your vehicle, Tommy?

-Yeah. This is a...

-It looks like a riot control vehicle.

My friends would say, "Hey, you know, that van looks like a zombie van."

I thought, "Wow, that would be great. Maybe one day we can make a zombie movie."

-Have you put it in a movie yet?

-No, not yet. Not at all.

If you're in a zombie situation, what do you need?

You need something that's tough and durable, right?

If you have to run over zombies, you can't run over them without this stuff, so...

-Sure.

-So I built all this.

In the movie, this will have all the weapons,

-extra gas in case you need gas.

-Of course.

So we got this little setup.

You know, I made all this, and worst case scenario,

when you have to get on the roof

and you can't get outside because the zombies are out there,

all you do is this.

You can get out right on the roof like this and fight the zombies.

I made a documentary in the '90s about the industry,

and one of the guys I followed at that time was John Dough.

Did you ever cross paths with him?

Yes. Yes.

-And he, of course, killed himself a few years ago.

-Yes.

Tragically. It's a shame, but the people who suffer the most when they leave,

if there is any suffering, you know, or take it the hardest, are the guys

because the guys, you know, through time and through these things, you know,

they detach themselves from this, from their heart, from themselves

and you know...

Do you think John Dough's death had something to do

with his being in the business?

Who knows what other underlying things there were in his life

but, you know, it could possibly be, you know, it really could.

ENGINE RUMBLING

-Will you be careful?

-No, of course.

Just keep your feet away from the...

Should I, do I put them on the thing or is that yours?

No, you can just have them hang out.

-You know, nobody wants to acknowledge...

-No.

..anything when it's bad, cos what does that mean?

What does that do, you know?

I don't know, what does that do? I'm asking you.

Uh...

'Back in the valley, I had an appointment at another shoot,

'this one a little more low end.'

Hi. How you doing?

'One of the female performers was a newcomer I'd met at the LA Direct offices.'

So have you two guys... Have you met yet?

-No.

-No?

-We're meeting now.

-Yeah.

-Tony.

-I'm Stefania.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you too.

-Tony, have you done a few scenes before?

-I've been in one other scene.

-Was that recently? When did you do that one?

-That was, like, a week ago.

-How old are you?

-I'm 23.

-You're 23?

-Mm-hm.

And how did you get into this?

A friend referred me and said,

"This might help you get through school or whatever,"

so I decided to do it.

-You're studying?

-Yeah, directing and producing at LA Film School.

You're not worried in any way that this could hold you back in the future?

Everybody has to do something at some point in their life

that they may not want to do necessarily

but they do it because they have to, they need to.

What are your ambitions, Stefania?

I mean, I do want to stay in this business for as long as I can,

I'm actually trying to, you know, be one of the big porn stars, hopefully,

and then hopefully later on I could, like, you know, start my own business, get into, like, TV stuff.

I mean, the other way of looking at it would be do it a little bit

while you need some money and you're still young

and then put it behind you,

but if you make a big name for yourself, that's harder to do.

Well, I'm not... Yeah, I guess you're right, but still, though,

as long as I'm bringing money home, that's all that matters.

I'm paying the bills. I mean, I have a little girl I have to take care of,

-so, really, she's my number one priority.

-A daughter?

-Mm-hm.

-Do you?

Do you have any kids, Tony?

No. I don't need a kid. That'd be real bad.

I wouldn't know what to do.

-I didn't have parents, growing up, so...

-Why not?

Er...

I was, let's say, orphaned at six.

We'll keep it at that, so...

Who raised you?

US Government.

THEY CHUCKLE

I don't know. Foster homes.

I've been everywhere, all over the place,

so I've gone through my fair share of bullshit,

so at this point I'm like, "You either like me or you don't.

"If you don't, keep it pushing cos you're messing with my vibe."

Yeah.

Is it a little awkward, knowing, you know,

you've just met Tony, you've just met Stefania,

knowing that you'll be having an intimate moment a bit later?

Well, he looks good, so hey that helps.

-Yeah, that's helpful. She's sexy, so we're good.

-Oh, there you go.

Can we come in?

-It's really touchy with the new guys.

-Yeah.

They don't really, this is his second scene.

Once a new guy gets spooked,

pretty much it's a wrap pretty much after that.

Have you shot quite a few porn movies?

-Oh, yeah, about over 3,000 probably.

-Really?

Yeah. I've been in the business since '98.

-Since '98?

-Mm-hm.

-Really?

KNOCKS ON DOOR

-He spooked?

-Yeah.

-So I just gave him some Viagra and hopefully that'll work.

-Shit.

-I don't know, maybe if we go in the house and give him a little more room, he might...

-Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry about that.

They're easily spooked.

It's so weird.

Penis is a very tricky animal.

-It's a mysterious organ.

-Mm-hm.

What is happening in the industry right now?

In this sort of post-PornTube era?

There is a lot of people who are struggling for work, performer-wise,

cos it's just not as, it's not how it was in, you know, '05, '06, '07.

It was everyone and their mom thought they could do a porn site.

They would do 20 or 30 scenes,

they thought they'd make a million dollars out of their website,

their website didn't make shit so that content just sits out there,

they don't care about it any more, then they end up on the tube sites,

so it just pretty much...

killed the business.

Killed it.

Like, I tell guys all the time, like,

"Man, you guys better just make this your side gig."

-How are you doing?

-I'm doing good. How are you?

There was a slightly slow start, wasn't there?

From what I understand.

To begin with,

I think Tony was having a couple of problems getting started?

Oh, no, he was fine when we started.

-Was he?

-Yeah.

-Oh.

Did it feel intimate?

I mean, like, I...I mean, no.

I mean, he has a girlfriend and I have a boyfriend,

so it's like we're just doing it.

-I mean, of course he's good-looking and he thinks I'm good-looking, so...

-Sexy.

You know, I did three scenes before this one.

I'm actually enjoying this one.

The other ones were like...eh, cos he's a good-looking guy, you know?

I feel like you two seem like you're kind of clicking a little bit.

-Oh, yeah, we're cool.

-Yeah.

And that maybe, you know, could you think about going on a date?

THEY LAUGH

I think you were meant to be together.

You're so funny. Oh, my God. You want us to be together?

THEY LAUGH

You keep saying how good-looking Tony is. Is he better looking than your boyfriend?

It's totally different.

I actually, I mean, like, my boyfriend's not like,

he's like a pretty boy and my boyfriend's totally not a pretty boy.

What about you, Tony?

It's kind of funny, I kind of like the good girls.

Nobody's tainted her or made her look bad about situations or...

I don't know, I like the good girl.

-Got it.

-Mm-hm..

Oh, yeah! Oh!

'After one more scene, plus Tony's pop shot, the shoot was a wrap.'

What are you doing?

Oh, we're talking.

SHE LAUGHS

-We're washing each other.

-I mean, obviously we're washing ourselves off now.

-We're getting juices off.

-We're getting intimate, like you told us to do.

You look like you're flirting with each other.

-You said it happens sometimes, right?

-Absolutely.

-I'm just kidding.

Oh, God.

And blow jobs again.

'It had been an oddly touching encounter.

'The two novice performers seem to have done a kind of courtship in reverse,

'starting with the sex and ending as something like friends.

'I had another re-visit to make.

'Since arriving back in the valley,

'I'd heard several times that the industry was less extreme now.'

How you doing?

-How are you, my friend?

-Good to see you.

-Come on down. This is... Oh, how are you?

-Yeah, good.

This movie we're working on now is called Forced Entry.

It sounds a little bit, you know, sounds a little bit naughty.

HE LAUGHS

Yeah, it is. It's just pretty... It's pretty bad.

It's, like, about rape.

So, yeah...

-It's good to see you, man.

-Yeah, you too.

-It really is.

-Yeah.

-It is, it's good.

-Yeah. Oh, good.

'In 1997, the more outrageous and gruesome side of the business had been personified

'by a 23-year-old director named Rob Black.'

How you feeling, Lexi?

Kind of weird.

'Since then, he'd lost a fortune and gone to prison,

'but now he was back directing.'

I created a genre of porn that nobody had seen.

Assholes stretched open and just all that just crazy shit.

And now, we're in the post-shocking era.

Yes. Parody, a huge thing.

Oh, well, here, example - here, this is part of the armour from Iron Man.

And for porn, that's actually a pretty good prop.

Dude, the suit cost, like, four grand.

Look, I mean, these are, like, the legs.

Mmm.

So, yeah, so this is, this is, like, the prop.

Fucking thing.

Go into the warehouse.

This is like a monster company that puts out 20, 30 different lines.

Rodney's Birthday, but this is shit, you know? It's jerk-off stuff,

but then he puts out the stuff that we do...

-Well, it's all jerk-off stuff, isn't it?

-Yeah, but this is stuff...

Here's the thing. Here's the thing, Mr Thorax.

Where the business is going now is it's acceptable to watch pornography.

It's acceptable to sit down with your girlfriend or your wife

and introduce her to pornography,

but the pornography that you're introducing her to

is stuff that I'm doing now,

not, you know, have a Birthday Blast.

-Here we go, this is what we do. This is what I do.

-OK, here we go.

-Captain America.

-In two discs.

XXX.

Iron Man, look at that. Just look at that.

Come on, that's a porno.

How's it doing?

It's doing fucking fabulous.

-Is it?

-Yeah. Look at this.

Here's mine. 3D.

-You directed that one?

-I direct all of them.

This ain't no bullshit. This isn't anal fisting.

-Supergirl. Look at that.

-Nice.

-So what happened to you? They sent you to prison.

-Yeah.

-And your wife too.

-Yeah!

-What was that like?

-It's prison.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

What you want to know about it? I was raped every day.

What were you convicted of?

-I was raped and sodomised.

-What were you convicted of?

Obscenity?

Yeah, yeah.

You took a plea. You seemed very confident of winning.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-So what went wrong?

At the end of the day, it wasn't just me.

-Lizzie was involved, you know what I mean?

-Your wife.

Yeah, so I think if we went to trial and we had lost,

I think it would have really sucked if I had my wife in prison for four years.

-How long did they give you in the end?

-A year and a day.

-Each of you got a year and a day?

-Each of us got a year and a day.

-That you served?

-Ten months.

In a way, you got what you wanted, didn't you? Cos you wanted to be a provocateur,

-you wanted to shake things up and be outrageous.

-Yeah, of course.

-Yes.

-So was it worth it?

At the end of the day, my main focus was

to be the biggest and baddest provocateur of pornography.

I accomplished that and was it worth it?

Hmm. Was it worth it?

I would say yeah. Yeah.

Do you miss the days of being kind of the most outrageous guy on the block?

-No, because this is most outrageous now.

-It's not outrageous, Rob.

Shhh, listen to me.

I feel like you've been through a lot and you've landed on your feet

and you are back directing and that's great,

but that in a way they've tamed you, haven't they?

No, no. Why?

Why? I don't see... Absolutely not.

You gotta move on. You gotta evolve.

Part of evolving is looking back and thinking, "You know what?

"I thought that was funny at the time,

"now it seems kind of crass," or insensitive or whatever it is.

-Definitely.

-Do you feel that at all?

I don't find anything crass or insensitive, because that's taste,

but, yeah, stretching anal orifices with multiple cocks and stuff like that, it's silly.

You know what I mean? It's, like, silly.

Do you think now, looking back, that there was a time when maybe

-you took it too far or maybe it wasn't appropriate to make that film?

-No.

-No, no, no, no.

-Or maybe the woman felt pressured or...

Absolutely not, because we weren't an under... See, we weren't underground.

It was all staged.

All right, dude, here's what's going to happen. The guy's going to come in, you're going to act scared.

What the fuck did you think, we just got random girls from the street,

threw them in a room and it was like, "OK, are you ready? Here we go. Boo!"

What the... I mean... It's retarded.

The films were, you know, kind of gloried

and revelled in the fact that they were degrading women.

Would you agree?

Everything wasn't degrading to women.

-Watch these sluts get...come on and...

-OK.

-And then later on...

-OK.

-You wouldn't think those women might find it embarrassing?

It's all subjective up to that person.

Degrading somebody and that whole thing is all,

it's all up to that person - how they felt, you know?

-Is there a part of you that misses the old days?

-Not at all.

Why not?

Cos I outgrew it.

I used to have steak every day for six years

and now I decided that, you know, I'm going to change it up.

I don't miss that era of who I was,

cos it was just different sections of my life.

'I was in Las Vegas.

'Tommy Gunn had been booked on a shoot for an internet porn company.

'Since seeing him, I'd been intrigued by his sense of loneliness

'amid the abundance of available sex.

'He'd agreed to let me see him at work.

'Also in the wings was another male performer.'

You are?

-Marco Banderas.

-Marco Banderas?

-Yes.

-From Spain?

-From Spain.

Do you know who you're doing a scene with?

Sometimes I forgot the names because there's too many English name for my mind.

-I doing a lot girls.

-Yeah.

-40 girls a month.

-That's more than one a day.

-I have the record.

Last two, three months ago, I did ten pop shots in three hours and a half.

What was that like? Was it nice?

Yes.

-How you doing, Tommy?

-Good.

-Good to see you.

-Likewise.

-I'm Louis.

-Hi, I'm Tasha.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Are you are you doing a scene today?

-Yeah, with Tommy.

-Have you worked with Tommy before?

-I have, yeah.

-Yes.

-Do you know what kind of scene it is?

-Just a standard boy/girl vaginal? Nothing...

Yeah, yeah, just plain vanilla boy/girl.

No extra anal or...

-Eww, no. Not yet.

-None of that nature.

Do you have a long-term plan?

Yes, I do. I go to school full time.

-I'm almost done with my Bachelors at UCLA...

-Studying?

Women's Studies and Psychology, so...

-Women's Studies?

-Yes.

-Interesting.

-Actually, I think it led me to do adult because...

-Yeah.

..adult is the only industry in America where women get paid more than men.

Tasha, you're comfortable separating sex from emotional connection?

Oh, yeah. I mean, most of the guys I know that are my age, around 22 years old,

are having sex with girls all the time and I don't think that they're looking at it

like they're going to be with that girl for ever. I think it's more...

-But there's still something emotional that has to happen.

-Of course.

-When you have a conversation with somebody, there's still some sort of intimacy in it.

-You know?

-Yeah.

-Mmm.

-Hmm. I gotta go do my pretty girls.

-Yes.

-Yes. OK, bye.

-Nice to meet you, Tasha. We'll see you on set.

-Nice to meet you too. OK, bye.

-Thank you for that.

-Remember today, right now. Remember right now.

-Yeah.

-You will blink your eyes and you'll remember this conversation.

-Yeah.

And you'll be 40 and you're going to go, "Holy fuck, I was wrong,

-"life isn't long, life is short."

-Yeah.

So don't go settling for something like,

"Oh, well, you know, life is long, I got plenty of time." You don't.

Maybe...maybe I'm just another dumb girl.

THEY CHUCKLE

Jackie's awesome. She's a cutie.

So what does that mean, exactly?

You know, "Fuck a pretty girl every day." Like, what does that mean?

-Is that what she said to you?

-Yeah.

-It's a compliment, saying that you...

-You were successful.

-OK, great. But what is that?

So what does that mean?

I'm trying to wrap my head around it.

You're interested in striking up a relationship with her?

No, it's just, you know, the truth of the matter is

would these girls be fucking me if they weren't getting paid to do it?

Well, some would and some wouldn't.

-Right, so...

-Right?

You know?

How long have you been single for?

I've been single now four years.

Really? Describe your ideal woman.

Self-sacrificing and caring and nurturing and, you know,

wants to have children and...

Honestly, I'm not going to find her in this business.

What's stopping you from leaving the business now to find that?

A financial issue. You still gotta make the money.

Hey, guys, I'm still here on set,

just updating you every five seconds. Here's Marco.

So what did you do today?

I did a anal scene.

-With who?

-With er...

-We're ready.

-I don't remember the name.

-OK. I have to go.

-OK.

Thank you.

Do you feel you've got good chemistry with Tasha?

Yes, and part of that comes with dealing with many girls over time.

She doesn't seem that interested in you.

Do you ever comment on that?

No. That would just create even more of a...you know?

I just kind of just...

see what I can do about it.

And just look out cos I'm going to go to a wide shot how.

We're going, stroking the whole time, so it's already happened out there.

And from there right up against the wall, OK?

Rolling, action.

SHE GROANS AND MOANS Oh, fuck.

You know you like my customer service.

It's hard to think of other things to say about customer service though.

Your experience shopping here is good. Hopefully your experience shopping here is good.

-I said that five times.

-Oh, you did?

I just kind of do my job.

Smile, put on that face, whatever.

All right, Tommy, you're going to go from that position.

-Gotcha.

-Will you be able to?

-Oh, yeah.

-Cool.

You're going to say something like,

"I hope your shopping experience was easy for you,"

or something wonderful or...

"I hope your experience at ZZ Video was memorable." That's easy.

-OK, are you ready?

-Yep.

-OK.

I'm rolling, and action.

SHE GROANS AND MOANS

I hope that your experience at ZZ Video was memorable.

It was.

Nice. All right, ready?

-So you did it.

-I did it, yeah.

Again, I don't know what number that would be.

I've kind of lost count.

Without sounding creepy, you seem to be doing an excellent job.

I have to. That's my job.

You don't think for a moment in that scene today

I was in love with that girl in my mind?

I shared something with her she didn't even know I shared with her.

Have you had relationships while you were in the business?

I mean, serious, long-term relationships

-while you've been in the business?

-Have I?

-Yeah.

Yeah.

And was it a strain? Was it a struggle in any way?

Yeah.

The human side of it

in terms of realising that it's not...

..normal...

to leave somebody you love to go and have sex with somebody you don't.

That's not normal.

I try not to let the past affect my future,

but when the heart gets hurt, that's a difficult thing.

I have a tendency of wearing your heart on the sleeve.

You never heard that expression?

What does that mean, when you wear your heart on your sleeve?

It means that you give love very readily and you make yourself vulnerable.

Yeah. I do that.

A lot.

So maybe that's why this job works for me so much,

cos my heart's not involved in this, in this.

My heart's home, safe in a box where nobody can touch it.

But I get to go to work

and breathe heavy in some chick's ear

and perform a sex act...

and, at the end of the day, I have my release

and that's healthy.

You know?

And yeah, I'll do it again. I'll get my heart broken again.

I thought your heart was in a box.

It is, but I'll take it out.

It's OK, I'll take it out, do it again.

'It was hard not to sympathise with Tommy.

'I sensed he'd been an outsider before coming into porn

'and that porn was in turn making a normal life ever more unattainable.

'Back in Los Angeles, and I was off to see Kagney Linn Karter.

'She'd just returned from the outlandish shoot involving six men

'that her boyfriend Montae had been unhappy about.'

-Hi.

-Hi, guys.

-Shall we come in?

-Yes, please.

Are you OK? How did it go?

I have to admit, I was nervous this morning, I was really nervous,

but once I got to set, everything...

was fully the way that it was supposed to be,

so I did the scene and then the guy that I do the scene with leaves

and then the other guys, they just basically ejaculate on my face.

It was perfect, actually.

From the outside world perspective,

they see most of the people in the porn industry, the performers,

that they've got some kind of damage in their life.

For sure. I've got a lot of damage.

I mean, my father has been incarcerated my whole life

and, you know, he had a major drug problem and er...

Do you think maybe your dad having not been in the,

you know, in the picture,

that he was in prison all these years,

had something to do with you perhaps going into porn?

Absolutely not.

SHE CHUCKLES

I don't think that at all.

Everyone has problems.

Everyone.

I went into porn cos I wanted to get into porn.

I mean, after what we talked about, Montae,

you know, about how you felt and what your opinion was of this scene,

was it strange for you today, thinking about the scene going on?

No, not at all. I mean, I really actually, I didn't think about it at all.

I asked her, "How did the scene go?"

And she said, "It went great" and I said, "Great, perfect."

Because that makes me feel...

ecstatic, elated that she went to work

and, you know, things went well.

You feel ecstatic and elated about you doing this scene and it going well?

-No, I felt ecstatic and elated that...

-That it went well.

..that it went well. I'm not happy and ecstatic that she had sex acts.

With those guys.

Right, and which is, you know, it's not...it's not a big deal,

you know what I'm saying?

So many people I've spoken to have said it's very difficult to maintain a stable relationship

when you're working in adult movies,

so...are you saying you're the exception to that?

Definitely one of the exceptions, for sure.

-How come?

-At least for right now.

I mean, I would say four years, almost five years now, is quite an exception.

Given that he's not in the industry,

I think it's impressive how Montae's able to take a kind of back seat.

Is that part of what's happening here?

He's this beautiful man.

I mean, he's just a beautiful person, like, inside and out.

Maybe he's TOO relaxed.

-So you think he's lazy?

-I'm not saying that he is, I'm just...

-No.

THEY CHUCKLE

Now, if me and Montae aren't together, heaven forbid, in ten years, you know what?

Say what you will, whatever, we're not together any more,

but you know what?

We've had a fucking great five years now

and whatever more we can get, I'll take.

'I had one last appointment in the world of porn.'

-Hangs the doll by the neck. OK?

-OK.

And that's porno! Huh?!

'In 1997, John Dough - real name Chet Anuszek -

'had been at the top of his profession.'

Do you get a lot of people coming up to you saying,

"Hey man, I want to do your job," that type of thing?

-Oh, yeah, you gotta go to work. Right. You gotta go to work, sure.

-Ah, right.

It must get kind of irritating in a way, like, people don't regard you, take your work seriously,

like, they don't, they say, "Oh, you just have sex."

No, it isn't irritating. I just stay home more.

'He'd married a fellow performer known as Monique DeMoan.'

-Hi.

-Hello.

-Cheyenne?

-Hi.

-I'm Louis.

-Hi, Louis.

'I'd tracked her down, 800 miles from LA, retired from porn.'

Well, this is a picture of little Breena.

-That's your daughter?

-This is our daughter.

-With Chet.

Breena was about three years old, and that's up in Mammoth.

That's Chet on his motorcycle.

This is, I mean, after we'd been together for quite a few years.

Do you have copies of the films that you and Chet made together?

I do still have Doctor Butts 3, of course.

Doctor Butts 3, with a kind of Hannibal Lecter thing going on.

Why have you hung onto that one in particular?

It's sentimental.

If you're able to capture something that hot on camera, you know,

and it's your first encounter with your husband, your baby's daddy,

you're not going to get rid of it.

What worked about the relationship? What was it that you liked?

Er...

He took me out and we had a good time.

It was life in the fast lane, though.

Fast lane meaning?

Sex, drugs, rock and roll.

To a civilian like myself, the idea of having sex on camera

and then being faithful off camera and being committed

seems like it would be very difficult.

It's really not that hard. What's hard is active addiction - drugs.

That's what's hard.

You know?

If you want to have a good, happy life, you have to give up the drugs,

and Chet did, many times,

and so did I.

But unfortunately there are those relapses and unfortunately...

..it ended with his suicide.

How would you feel about talking about

how you came to find out that he'd killed himself?

I...

..I was out getting...some drugs...

..and I came home

and thought that it was very strange that I couldn't find Chet,

seeing as I had drugs.

I knew something was wrong and I started looking for him.

I looked throughout the whole house,

I looked through the back yard...

and it was so quiet.

SHE SOBS

It was so quiet...

and I heard a...a creak in the closet...

..and that's when I found him.

Chet was really, truly, honestly, he was a really good dad.

He was a good dad,

but he felt that he had failed as a husband and as a father.

He felt that he had failed in life.

He felt that he was failing as a man.

He felt... He just, he was...he was broken.

This is my spelling test and, like, I got four wrong on it.

Which is pretty good. Were you good in school, Cheyenne?

No, I wasn't that great in school.

-It must be nice to see Breena do so well.

-Yes.

Oh, absolutely.

-Yeah. You're proud.

-Very. I'm very proud of her.

Do you know what you'd like to be when you grow up?

I want to be a police officer.

You do?

-Mm.

-How come?

Because I like to stop people from doing the wrong thing

and, like, cos I want everyone to do the right thing a lot.

'I'd gone in search of adult performers,

'trying to understand the price they pay

'for taking the most intimate human act and putting it on camera.

'I'd found an industry that, 15 years on,

'was more demoralised and still taking the privacy of its young cohorts while paying them less.

'And yet, the world of porn is also a refuge -

'somewhere people fleeing lives of chaos can blend in and feel valued.

'Though it can inflict wounds on those who work in it,

'it could also occasionally surprise with its tenderness.'

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