I've been friends with porn stars and don't understand the title of this thread. Please explain
I have met and known men and women who did porn. I also have known someone who was a porn director/producer.
There are three reasons a woman or guy makes porn, here ranked for your convenience, in descending order:
Desperation: needs the low amount of money so badly that they're willing to do almost anything for the pittance they receive. Drugs, alcohol, lack of education, skills, needing fast money to pay rent, and prospects rank high among the rationale they profess. The biggest pool, sadly.
Hooker: Porn is advertising for them and it has been this way longer than I have been alive.
Egomaniac/sex addiction/Narcisscism: needs praise and constant reassurance that they're the hottest guy or woman in the room. Like all narcissistic people they have extremely poor self-esteem/issues were the big clues. The smallest talent pool.
I always felt the worst for the first group. Their desperation was palpable and quite uncomfortable. The producer I once knew said he would turn away the majority of these "applicants" and even went out of his way to counsel them against doing porn — against his self interests. He said he had a bad experience on one of his first projects with the "star" coming back a few months after the shoot but before the film was released, having gotten sober (for the moment) and begged, then threatened, and ultimately ended up the subject of a restraining order, trying to take it back. I heard this producer say to many younger but legal women and guys that the cash for the job would last for the next hit, but porn was forever and they needed to think about how they're going to feel telling their future partners, possible children, relatives, bosses/co-workers, strangers, and spouses about the porn work.
The hookers were the easiest to deal with. It was nothing more than business with them, and they showed up on time, did their job, and left. There was no bullshit to deal with, and the only time the producer heard back from them was when the movie came out and either they were willing to work to promote the movie (translation: wanted copies to sell to their clients) or wanted more work in porn films.
The people I know who did porn told me how despite the myth, the people in porn who are being paid to have sex or masturbate on film do not get paid a lot. They also said how bisexual and gay porn does not pay more than hetero porn and that 'gay for pay' is a myth and the only time an actual hetero guy was in porn it was for a solo masturbation scene where he did not have sex with any men at all. One guy told me how he was paid only $500.00 in early 1990s United States money to appear in two porn videos and be photographed nude for a porn magazine-the studio had all rights to the photos, and he wound up feeling used.
