Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

Troy.

I sure am glad I saved you from that city life.

Yeah.

"Scott opens door, sees our couple piled in sweat and come."

This is a little rude for the BBC.

Ripped By mstoll

The San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles -

the acknowledged world capital of pornographic films.

It's an industry that revolves around images of women.

To immerse myself in the less-well-known subculture

of the male performers.

- You see everything? - You see it all.

- All of it in close up? - Sometimes they fill the whole screen.

No, the organs!

My first contact was Susan Yannetti,

a publicist for a high-end production company called Vivid Video.

Is porno an exciting place to be right now?

The public is at a time and place where... they're actually open to hearing about this.

Hollywood has four movies right now in the works about the adult entertainment industry.

So, is Vivid actually making a conscious effort to bring themselves into the mainstream?

Yes.

- I may be interested in trying it as a lifestyle. - You wanna get in a movie?

Yeah, maybe get in a movie. Could I do that?

- How far do you wanna go with this? - How far could I go, hypothetically?

- If you can do it, you can go all the way. - What d'you mean, "If you can do it"?

Because there are certain things that you must be able to do on cue,

with a woman that you may not have met before,

that you may not particularly be attracted to,

and you're in front of a crew of 20 people and there's hot lights around...

You mean, it's not enough just to be with a beautiful woman -

are you saying it's actually quite difficult to perform on camera?

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

- It's not. - Really?

Many men have tried and very few have made it.

Eager to find out more, I Joined Susan for a behind-the-scenes tour of Vivid Video.

This is the hall of Vivid girls. These are the girls that are currently under contract right now.

Where's the hall of Vivid guys?

There is none, sorry.

Why not?

Guys just haven't quite made it up to that level yet.

- How many Vivid guys are there? - They will eventually.

- There's one, right? - Yes, there's one.

John Doe.

This is the warehouse back here.

Look at this! It's a cathedral of porn!

Yeah, if you're a fan, this is definitely the place.

Are you a fan, Susan?

Row after row after row of the best adult entertainment.

Standing Room 0nly.

- That's tapes for people standing up? - Yes.

Girls 0n Top. That's kind of a feminist line.

Beefeaters - that would work well in an English market. Beefeaters are a national institution.

Four hours of shoe and foot fetishes.

Girls with boots. 0h, it's all leather.

That's all lacy. Set in showers and saunas.

How come it's got... there's so many tiny little niches?

There are so many different people that like so many different things.

It's so exciting, I love it. A Dick Runs Through It.

Jizz Tonic. Spinners.

Scrotum Scramble. Box Lunch.

Pole Sitters. Hooterville.

Costume Ball. Blonde And Dangerous. Tongue Foo.

Heels. Slick.

Ride 'Em Cowgirl.

Tokyo.

Fireball, Wide 0pen Spaces, Bedspread. Amazing!

Next stop, Vivid's casting agent and arbiter of male talent, Mo Bundy.

Hi, Louis, how are you?

- How you doing? - I'm good.

Getting ready for you guys to come in and hang out with me, I guess.

Good. Good, good, good. Susan, tell me what Mo does.

- Excuse me. - Where you going, Mo?

My office. You guys come in here.

- This is John Doe, right? - Right.

- And he's the Vivid guy. - Right.

- Vivid... guy. - How about that?

If I wanted to know what it means to be a guy, a male performer in the business,

should I follow him around?

I would at least get some advice from him.

Is he shooting anything in the next week, or anything that we could see him in action in?

Actually, in the next two days, he's shooting Debbie Does Dallas.

- Hey, are you John Doe? - Hey, what's up?

- I'm Louis from the BBC. - Hey, Louis, what's up?

- Nice helmet. - Thanks.

What does it say?

- A lot of stuff. - "Wanna bone"?

0K, this is how we're gonna do the scene.

Miss Thain, walk off.

- Walk off. - We walk off?

You guys go off this way.

So, we get our kit and walk off.

John Doe was working with two true veterans of the business -

porn star since the '70s, Sharon Mitchell,

and performer-turned-director, Paul Thomas.

She hangs the doll by the neck.

Right.

0K? 0K.

That's porno, huh?

Camera, marker.

21 apple two.

Action.

It's the price you pay for being cheerleaders.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

0h, my God!

I understand from talking to Susan,

that one of the biggest challenges is keeping what they call wood -

ie, staying aroused for the scene. Is that right?

Yeah, you know, yes.

Most men can't do it.

That's why there's so few men doing it.

They get afraid.

Why do they get afraid?

A lot of men just... A lot of guys don't have what it takes,

because they think you're supposed to make lurve, you know, make beautiful lurve.

And that's not what you're doing here.

I was a performer for a long time.

I think while you're in the flow, it is the best job in the world.

To be paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars

to fuck beautiful women in movies that people love.

And when your support group's working, it's the best job in the world,

but there's a number of dynamics that can break down.

It's not always... You know, you're not always... in the place that you wanna do it.

Do you get a lot of people coming up to you saying "Hey, man, I wanna do your job"?

Yeah, you know. Some of them are happy, some of them are standoffish,

they look at you but they won't approach you, some of them... get cocky, you know.

"I could do that." "0h, yeah, you gotta go to work, right!"

"You gotta go to work, sure."

That must get kinda irritating in a way.

People don't regard that you take your work seriously - they say "You just have sex."

It doesn't irritate me, I just stay home more.

You can be on the bench.

Even better, get on the bench and you move over, Sharon.

- Marker. - Ten apple, take one.

And action.

Melody, put your left leg up on the bench.

Is this real?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, they're both genuinely excited. They're not faking it.

Is it easier working with women than men?

0h, sure, cos the men have to get a hard-on.

They say that it's hard to do.

Let's pick this up at another time if we could, cos I can't keep talking here.

We've been in the shower for about how long?

Erm... a while. Long enough.

And it was cold. Very cold.

You sound like you might be English.

- I am. - Where are you from?

Northampton.

- Northampton? - Yeah.

How is the scene different here in LA than it was in Europe?

Why did you come over?

In Europe you find that you have much longer scenes and it's much stronger.

It's like they just want vicious hardcore sex,

where here, they don't try and kill you. You don't get as many injuries.

Not as many bruises.

- Yeah. So, that sounds better, right? - It is, it's a lot better here.

Did you always dream of working in porno when you were growing up?

What I wanted to do is sex, just want sex.

Nymphomaniac, can't help it.

- Really? - Yeah.

If I worked in an office, I'd probably shag the whole office

and get the sack when I got to the boss.

0r get a promotion more likely.

No, I'm supposed to give his dick a lick and then say...

Sexual innuendo.

"Do you want to go out with me?" Why can't I just go, "You want to go out with me?"

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - This is the power, you know.

The one thing that I've noticed about guys

is that they come in very sweet, very open, very tentative

and almost tender at times,

and then as you see them film after film after film,

you kinda see that glazed look go over and it's the look, it's the change,

and you realise that you too could be a piece of meat,

a hole in the wall or whatever fantasy is inside their head.

It's a degree of... of the utmost impersonal.

So, does that screw a person up, do you think?

Yeah. Yeah, sure, it's gotta screw you up.

I know that it screwed me up for many years

and I know that I had to get screwed up to actually work for many years.

- Really? - Many years, yeah.

You seem 0K, you seem well adjusted.

Yeah. Yeah, but it took me a long time to kick the heroin.

I'm gonna buy one of these with my first paycheque... as a porno guy.

You know what? With your first paycheque, for the month, you could buy one of these.

- Really? - Sure.

- D'you think I could make it? - Yeah.

- No. - Absolutely, man.

Why?

I've seen a lot of guys come and go and you... You can do this.

At John Doe's suggestion, I sought out a talent agent

and for wannabe porno performers, there is only one -

Jim South of World Modeling.

If you want to, you could use this phone. I know he's there, or he was an hour ago.

Can I butt in? Can I ask what's going on, just to get an idea of how things work here?

Yeah, this gentleman is talent with us

and I just referred him to a big manufacturer and distributor by the name of Metro.

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

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

It's the quiet shy types you gotta watch out for.

You know, intellectual, we wear the glasses.