On a typical warm Southern California day, a 20-year-old blonde bombshell named Lexus is enjoying her day off the same way millions of other working stiffs do - by hanging around the house. All she wants is a little rest and relaxation after many arduous days of juggling classes at the local college and shooting scenes for her latest film, "Debbie Does Dallas - A New Beginning."
While the busty coed would fit in perfectly running along the beaches of Los Angeles rescuing drowning children alongside David Hasselhoff, Lexus's productions are a bit too steamy for the likes of "Baywatch," TV and even the neighborhood movie theater. Lexus is a porn star, and having sex on-camera, she says, is a great way to pay the bills.
Forget work-study programs, selling trendy clothes at the mall or serving chicken-a-la-king in the dorm cafeteria. Working your way through school can be a bit rough, but some people find more orgasmic ways to pay tuition than serving greasy meat and sloppy joes to hungry humans. Lexus may only be a few years out of high school, but top-contracted adult video actresses like herself are raking in six-figure incomes from a segment of the entertainment industry that traditionally remains hush-hush and behind closed doors.
According to Adult Video News, the major trade publication for the adult video industry, adult video rentals and sales last year reached $3.9 billion - and that figure doesn't even include videos sold through mail-order. Add in sales from phone-sex outlets, strip clubs, adult books, magazines, clothing, toys, CD-ROMs, peep shows and on and on, and that $3.9 billion isn't even half of the the estimated sales figure Americans are pouring into the adult entertainment industry each year.
While porno flicks may only seem prevalent in red-light districts and in restricted areas of mainstream video stores, the American public isn't shying away from pornography in the least. Adult video sales and rentals for last year were up 25 percent from 1995, while the number of hardcore titles released to the market was up 40 percent from 1995, for a total of nearly 8,000 video releases in 1996 alone.
Even though many people may see pornography as immoral, disgusting, degrading and detrimental to society, the adult entertainment industry is going strong - possibly at its most successful point in history.
For porn actresses like Lexus, the success of the adult video industry means better opportunities and bigger paychecks. Lexus's studio, Vivid Video, has adopted the Hollywood moviemaking mentality, and leads the adult video industry with its well-produced movies, contract performers and directors and high salaries. Also following in Hollywood's footsteps, Vivid has moved to shooting the majority of its straight releases on film, as opposed to the more traditional and cheaper-looking releases shot on video.
Along with the film improvements comes what Vivid calls "big-budget films," which frequently cost the company $200,000 a pop, like the studio's award-winning "Bobby Sox" and "Borderline" - far cries from the majority of low-budget adult videos on the market. Big budgets also bring the big names, and Vivid is one of a few adult video companies that has contracts with its stars. The "Vivid Girls," Vivid's crop of female starlets, are made up of some of the industry's leading ladies like Nikki Tyler, Janine and Christy Canyon.
Lexus makes her starring debut as a Vivid Girl later this year in the upcoming "Debbie Does Dallas - A New Beginning," a new chapter in porn's most famous film, "Debbie Does Dallas." Lexus stars as Debbie in a whole new twisted story of cheerleaders, moms and wacky high school adventures.
While Lexus began modeling nude when she was 18 and was featured as the May 1996 Penthouse centerfold, she said climbing into the porn industry wasn't some kind of lifelong dream.
"Some people have dreams of being a porno star, but it kind of fell into my hands in a way," Lexus said in an interview with The Michigan Daily. "What made me decide was using the money factor to my benefit as far as my education goes."
Finding work in the industry wasn't much of a challenge for Lexus at first, while filming her first movie presented her with lots of new challenges.
"That was a little strange," she said. "I didn't know what to expect. I worked with a guy named T.T. Boy who is very good, he's a very nice guy. I met him beforehand, and we talked and got to know each other and he made me feel comfortable so it was easier for me."
Another challenge Lexus faced when she entered the industry was dealing with the responses from her friends and family when they found out she was acting in adult films.
"I did catch a lot of grief," she said. "But I found that my friends stuck beside me, and the people who really had a problem with it, really had problems with themselves. It's not their business anyway, it's my life."
After briefly leaving the porn industry for a boyfriend who wasn't happy with her occupation, Lexus decided to return to adult videos to support herself while enrolled in Southern California's Ventura College and while taking real estate courses. The adult entertainment industry has a lot to offer a beautiful, young woman who is willing to perform; women are paid high salaries and treated like the royalty of the business, unlike the men, who are seen as disposable pieces of meat and as mere "accessories."
"Women have a lot more jobs than men," Lexus said. "The women are the centerpiece and the men are accessories."
Jon Dough knows what it's like to be a man in the porn industry. Starring with Lexus in the new "Debbie" film in the role of "Dallas," he's been performing in adult films for 10 years. Most of his career was spent doing freelance work, living movie-by-movie like the other actors in the industry, without any kind of job security, until last year when he signed a contract to perform exclusively for Vivid. That decision made him the only male porn star under contract in the business today.
"It's good once you get past everyone wanting to kill you," the 34-year-old Dough said in an interview with The Michigan Daily. "They hate my guts."
Getting started in the industry wasn't difficult for Dough either. After making some films in Europe, he ventured back to the U.S. to work his magic. Dough revealed what it takes to make it as a male porn star: "a big schlong. Maybe not in normal life it isn't quite as important, but when you're on a screen it is, because the bigger the better. (For an audition) you do cold readings like you would in the other part of the entertainment business. Then they want to see how well endowed you are, you know, so once they saw that, I guess I was in."
Once in, performers have to fight for the big bucks. While Vivid's contracted stars and other top-names in the industry take home substantial paychecks, the average Joe or Jo still has to work hard to bring home the bacon. While the average guy might take home anywhere from $200 to $500 a scene, women usually make double that. One of the biggest worries in the porn industry is the threat of disease, especially the AIDS epidemic. While the actors' on-screen promiscuity might trigger thoughts of walking biohazards, people in the industry claim that's actually far from the truth. All performers are required to have documented AIDS tests every 30 days, and the testing system has thus far prevented the disease from spreading into the ring of actors. Some of the stars, like Lexus, take extra precautions and have clauses in their contracts that require their male partners to use condoms in sex scenes.
"It's safer to do people within the industry than it is in an everyday, normal average life," Lexus said. "If you're wearing condoms, of course you're always going to have a risk, but in my opinion, this industry is safer than the whole entire world."
Dough agreed that sex with people in the industry is safer than with non-porn people because of the testing, but recalled an incident of an actor contracting HIV and having it detected before it spread to other actors.
"There was one incident," Dough said, "a guy in the business, he was going down to Brazil and fucking other guys down there, it's like his thing, and he caught it down there. There's a lot of AIDS in Brazil and he wasn't using condoms or anything. So he got it, and when he got back, he got tested and he knew and told everybody and was pretty upfront about it and he's dealing with it. Because we get tested all the time, we don't go around blindly poking everything. He got tested before he was having sex with anybody here. So the testing system works."
As for sticking around in the industry, Dough said he has long-term plans to stay right where he is, at least for another 10 years or so. After starring in nearly 800 films, the actor decided to get behind the camera and direct films for Vivid, as well as star in them. Dough also has plans to direct a music video for the band Monster Magnet later this year.
"I'm not near the end yet; maybe when I'm 40-something," he said.
For women though, the turnaround time in porn is much faster than that of men. Once a woman has starred in movies for a couple of years, she is usually phased out of the business because viewers constantly want to see new female faces. Men, on the other hand, end up sticking around because studios feel they don't wear out the same way as women.
"It's not good for a girl to stick around that long anyhow," Dough said. "It's not good for her mental health."
While Lexus continues to work towards her degree so she can eventually leave the industry, Dough is content staying right where he is. Regardless of the number of scenes in which he's performed, Dough said being filmed having sex will always be a bit awkward.
"It's still awkward. It always is," he said. "It's not meant to be that way, you know. So it is awkward. There are certain things you have to turn on each time. You have to dig down deep and pull it out and get it done. But you're looking for that moment in the scene where it's for real. You want it to be as real as possible. You still get turned on to a certain point."
At this point in his career, Dough said he can be choosy about which films to star in and inevitably which girls he wants to do scenes with. Sometimes though, he said an undesirable partner may slip by his screening system, and he gets stuck doing a scene with someone with whom he'd rather not be having sex.
"That's when it's work," Dough said. "I've always been able to do it no matter who the person was. There's something you have to focus on on them that you like or you have to really keep your eyes half-shut and go into fantasy land. So either way, you have to pull it off - that's part of being a porno guy."
Lexus is a 20-year-old porn actress.
The only male porn star with a contract, Jon Dough.