Pornographic film actor

A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is somebody who appears in pornographic films or photographs, live sex shows or peep shows. Many actors and actresses may 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 bondage or strap-on sex.

History

Many different performers had performed in various sex films since the beginning of photography. Many so called "penny arcades" of the early 1900s had early frame flicker hand cranked films and "rotoscope" (Holmes-style Stereoscope) glasses that featured "racy" pictures of women, mostly in bare breasted pictures, though a few actually showed women in full frontal nudity with fewer still showing them in actual sexual couplings. There have been many films and photographs that showed sexual acts including the World War 2 series of erotic German home movies known as the "Sachsenwald films", recorded secretly in Nazi Germany 1941. But most performers of these early photograph and film recordings usually chose to remain anonymous due to extreme social pressure and legal banning against open sexual actions.

The generally acknowledged first porn star with specific (stage) name recognition was Linda Lovelace from the United States, who starred in the 1972 feature Deep Throat. The success of this movie, which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, spawned a slew of other films and pornographic film stars such as 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).

This era has been termed by some to be The Golden Age of Porn wherby porn films were being shown in public theaters and thus accepted for public consumption or at least tolerated for such. This time frame lasted until the late 1970s, with some saying the early 1980s, whereby these sex films had specific story-plots and promotional budgets and the performers became notable. Such legendary performers of this era include John Holmes, Ginger Lynn Allen, Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley, Seka, and Amber Lynn became well known in this era.

Attempts in the 1970s to outlaw pornography in the United States by prosecuting porn stars for prostitution were attempted. The courts in California was where the case was initially made, 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 has 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.

The ability for people to view adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, owing to the popularity of the VCR (and now DVD) created a new adult market that has exceeded the scope of the previous theatre centric era. Additionally, the prevalence of the Internet has served as a catalyst for the increased sale of pornography. In the late 1990s, Jenna Jameson, Juli Ashton, Ashlyn Gere, Asia Carrera, Tera Patrick, Briana Banks, Stacy Valentine, Jill Kelly, and Silvia Saint emerged as new wave of porn stars.

Some state that the production values of adult films have decidedly declined in the attempt to create a constant amount of new films to fulfill the ever increasing demand. Other argue that sex films are merely being more true to their source as some have stated that people only watch these films in order to see these performer have sex -- paraphrased from (To which the only answer is "No, they watch her movies to see her fuck."

As a result of this, there are hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of directly recorded-on-video with minimal set including so called web cam recordings annually, with thousands of people working both on both sides of the camera to meet the demand for these films.

Male Performers

While the primary focus of sex films are the women in these sex films 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 ejaculate on command and ejaculate preferably more than once or produce more amounts of liquid beyond what is considered normal. Sometimes artifical aids such as egg whites and other substances are used on screen to simulate performers' ejaculation semen when they are unable to perform on cue. The inclusion of specific youthful appearance of the male performer is more appreciated for male sex performers who engage in homosexual sex films. Of the most desirable traits for male sex film performers is the ability to maintain an erection for a long period on a crowded movie set, as well as the ability to ejaculate on demand with maximum lateral trajectory.

Ron Jeremy and Peter North are probably the most famous male performers. North is known for his ability to launch above average amounts of semen at notable velocity from his penis on-screen which most other male performers can not do. Jeremy is known for his 9.75 inch penis and an appearance very unusual for a porn star (he is overweight and balding with copious amounts of body hair). Adding to his fame, Ron Jeremy has been a staple in the industry since the 70's and has become something of a cultural icon.

Pay Rates

According to some sources, most male performers in straight porn are paid less than their female counterparts. Ron Jeremy has commented on several times regarding the pay scale against the women and the men of the sex film industry: "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." and "Girls can easily make 100K-250K per year, plus stuff on the side like strip shows and appearances. The average guy makes $40,000 a year."

Some state that gay male porn generally pays men much more than heterosexual porn, a number of male performers, including North, who has appeared in both heterosexual and gay pornography. However North strenuously denies that he has ever actively performed in homosexual acts other than his earliest times. Ostensibly, men who perform in gay pornography but identify themselves as heterosexual 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 notable producer Seymour Butts who runs his own sex film recruitment agency as well as produces sex film "depending on draw, female performers who perform in both straight and lesbian porn earn more than those who do normal sex (Boy/Girl) 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.

It is stated that the primary audience for "lesbian" pornography (commonly known as girl-on-girl) is heterosexual men as the idea of such sexual interaction is usually devoid of the touchy feelly stuff preferring to rely on dildo penetration substituting for the actual male

While some pornographic actors perform in a wide range of genres, most genres have specialists who achieve most of their recognition in a specific niche market such as bondage or strap-on sex. With over several thousand usually one hour long sex films produced each year from several countries, the most accessible usually made and released from within the United State, many performers will complete a film every one or two weeks. Though many of the highly regarded and thus highly paid performers, such as Jenna Jameson, only star in actual sex films a few times a year, due to the excessive pay rate they charge for their inclusion in film releases.

Pornographic actors and STDs

Because of the nature of their work, usually involving sex without condoms, pornographic actors are particularly vulnerable to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

In the 1980s, an outbreak of AIDS led to a number of deaths of erotic actors and actress, including John Holmes. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which helped set up a system in the U.S. adult film industry where erotic actors are tested for HIV every 30 days. All sexual contact is logged, and positive test results lead to all sexual contacts for the last three to six months being contacted and re-tested.

This resulted in low rates of HIV transmission, and hence low rates of infection among erotic actors: it has been reported that not a single HIV test was positive in the four year period prior to 2004.

In 2004, a male performer, Darren James, tested positive for HIV. One fellow porn star, Lara Roxx, was identified and tested positive for HIV. James apparently had contact with 12 other women since his previous negative HIV test, though some suspect that Lara Roxx is truly "Patient Zero," and started the epidemic, as she was previously working as a street prostitute (where she had sex without a condom) before coming to LA. It is also believed by some that James contracted it during a film he made in Brazil and was himself "patient zero", which is more likely, seeing as when performers enter the porn industry HIV tests are done. Following the release of this information the heterosexual porn industry voluntarily reduced their workload for the next 30 days, as various contacts with both individuals, as well as others within the industry, re-evaluated and expanded upon their original programs dealing with this possibility.

However, accurate information about the extent of infection among those in the adult industry is unknown because no organization has ever done rigorous studies. The existing data suggest that pornographic actors have a much higher rate of STD's than the general American population. The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation administered voluntary tests to a group consisting primarily of adult film workers. Of 483 people tested between October 2001 and March 2002, about 40% had at least one disease. Nearly 17% tested positive for chlamydia, 13% for gonorrhea and 10% for hepatitis B and/or hepatitis C. In addition, medical evidence on the occurrence of HPV and genital herpes among the general population (who comparatively have fewer sexual partners) suggests that it would be highly unlikely for any experienced pornographic actor to not have at least one of these two STDs.

See also

• Pornographic film
• Glamour photography
• Fetish model

• List of Porn stars by nationality
• List of porn stars
  • List of bisexual porn stars
  • List of gay porn stars
  • List of female porn stars by decade
  • List of black porn stars
  • List of Hispanic porn stars
  • List of Asian American porn stars
• List of pornographic movie studios
• AIDS and the porn industry
• Pornography

External links

• Internet Adult Film Database (contains nudity)
• Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation: Frequently asked questions
• Adult Star Database (contains nudity)