A Reddit user going by the name Jimhokeyb has described what it was really like working behind the scenes in the adult film industry after spending six years as a cameraman at a British porn studio.
He said he appeared in several of the studio's films himself, though never in roles involving sex. According to him, the shoots were mostly professional and carefully planned, but the performers were sexual and playful by nature. He said that sometimes the women on set tried to have sex with other people either after filming wrapped or even during breaks between scenes, though he said this never happened to him personally.
No evidence for common stereotype
The cameraman said he found no evidence to support the widespread assumption that women who enter the adult film industry are morally broken or worn down by hardship. Instead, he said, most of the actresses he worked with were confident, longtime exhibitionists with unusually high libidos.
He said many of them spent their free time at sex clubs and parties, because filming just a couple of scenes a week was not enough to satisfy them.
Earning more than male performers
According to the cameraman, the actresses earned more than their male co-stars for doing work they generally enjoyed. He described them as having an unusual kind of charisma, and said most of them liked the attention that came with the job.
He said some of the women were studying or saving money with the goal of eventually leaving the industry and becoming property owners. Others, he said, were simply earning money they would not have been able to make otherwise given their qualifications. Some of the actresses, he added, went on to become porn producers themselves.
Comparing pay between men and women
Reddit is a social platform organised around topic-based forums, where users can post anonymously or under a chosen username, as Jimhokeyb did in this case.
The cameraman's account follows an earlier one from a former male porn actor, who previously revealed details about pay in the industry. According to that actor, the difference between fees paid to male and female performers turned out not to be especially large.
