It surprises me that no one’s done it, but the idea for a great porn movie title was brought up with James Deen being a visitor to Dr. Dru’s Loveline Monday night.
Prior to Deen coming on mike, Dr. Dru made this observation about porn performers: “You are either going to get people who are happy to admit that they’re in the industry and that they really love sex and found a way to do it; and then there’s the people that are clearly the products of damage and trauma and that’s what led them to that walk of life.”
You could say Deen represents the former category.
Besides answering calls and offering advice to the lovelorn, Deen discussed his own relationships.
Dr. Dru asked him if being a porn performer had taken anything away from him emotionally.
“If anything it’s been the opposite effect,” Deen answered.
“Sex in my personal life has more impact and is more emotional-connecting because the beauty of doing adult films sex becomes almost a fun, physical act.
“Soccer, basketball, MMA fighting- something you do that’s a physical activity, sex can kind of be put in that same category- in my head, at least.
“And then when I’m going to do it in a personal way, it’s going to be something that I really want to do. It’s because I want to have sex with this person. It becomes even a more emotional experience and I’m able to build connections, stronger and better.”
Asked if he “accidentally” built emotions with people he was working with on camera, Dean said a lot of people tend to meet through work or through friends. Deen said he’s dated people outside of the industry.
Asked if that was a problem, Deen freely admitted that all of his past relationships have had “issues” more or less, but porn wasn’t one of them.
“When somebody’s going to date me, they’re going to go in knowing that I have sex for a living with other people,” Deen commented.
“That has never been the issue. When you find somebody that you’re compatible with on all sorts of different levels, you want to hold on to them and keep them.
“You don’t want to let them go.”
Responding to the question about having intimate conversation on camera, Deen said, “Usually when I’m in the heat of the moment we don’t start talking about significant things, like what are your feelings about gun control, baby?”
Dr. Dru thought that would make an excellent porn movie title and described Deen as one of the most popular performers in the modern era. [A caller-in likened Deen to Rocco and Evan Stone which Deen took as a big compliment.]
Dr. Dru also referenced Deen’s interview last year in GQ in which Deen described how Jenna Jameson’s appearance on Loveline got him interested in a porn career.
“When I was a kid I repeatedly said that I would love to have lunch with Dr. Dru and be able to learn shit and stuff and grow and educate…,” Dean explained.
“God knows how many years ago…I’m going to say 12 maybe…I was listening to Jenna Jameson on this show and pretty much every single person that called in- and I remember Adam [Corolla] went on some tirade about fake callers.
“He went on this huge tirade, and there was like an hour and a half of just nothing but these calls from guys saying they wanted to do porn or have sex with Jenna. Finally she said, guys, you wanna do porn? This is what you do. Go get a folding chair and sit in a room with 20 people that may be your best friends or people you don’t know and just jerk off.
“Masturbate for about an hour and a half, then when someone yells, ‘Cum!’ you cum in under 20 seconds.
“That’s what she said and when I heard that I was like, yeah, I could probably do that. I didn’t do just that, but I did start experimenting at parties in front of everybody.”
Deen swears he trained himself to ejaculate on command.
“Then I got into the adult film industry and realized it isn’t anything like that at all. There are sets that are like that, and it’s made out to be like that, but there’s a lot of understanding as far as the physical- you’re human and not a machine and so if somebody’s having a bad day, there’s a lot of water under the bridge.
“People are, okay, we get it. You’re human and are not going to be erect every second of the day.”
Dr. Dru remembered the Jameson interview and how he leaned over and said to her during a break, “No one ever talks to you like a person.”
“And she started crying. She was very unhappy. She’s, at least, ambivalent about what she’s done. I think she’s actually gotten worse than better. She made so much money doing it that I don’t think she could get out. It took over her life.”
Deen was then asked if the industry has more of an emotional side than people realize.
“It a business,” Deen stressed.
“It seems as if people have the perspective of the adult film industry just being this party or a giant orgy or something like when in actuality it’s a very legitimate business. And from doing what little mainstream stuff I have, it’s exactly the same.
“It’s just a different form of entertainment specifically targeting a specific part of the brain. As far as the emotional side, I’m a director and I’m a producer, if I hire somebody and they’re not having the best day and the scene is still good or I can replace them, I’m not going to hold it against them.
“I’m going to understand sometimes things happen, and it’s not a big deal. If it starts happening regularly and I get two, three scenes that are just garbage I’m probably not going to hire them any more because it’s a business.”
Deen always equate porn to working at McDonalds or a bank.
“If you show up to work and you’re drunk you get fired. If you show up and don’t do your job you get fired. If you have a good track record of doing an amazing job and you have a bad day, you might be able to get away with a little bit.
“But if you consistently not do your job you’re going to get fired. And it’s the same thing in the adult film industry. If you consistently mess up, no one’s going to hire you any more.”
Deen freely admits that he’s seen a huge transition in the business from the time he got in, in 2004. He thinks it’s for the better.
“I feel skewed because I’m in the adult industry, and I can see how it’s shot and the people that come in, and the attitude that people give me from outside the industry, and stuff like that,” he states.
“It seems as if society in general has become way more sexually acceptable to the point where it’s actually beneficial. I did a lot of interviews and discussions with [different] magazines and one of things someone mentioned was about teaching human sexuality and the respect for the human body.
“I don’t go out preaching it but peoples’ bodies are their bodies and you should respect other people and their bodies whether it be their opinions or beliefs or their physical state. And the person who was interviewing me was talking about girls feeling pressured to have sex before they’re ready and how they see that changing in society.
According to Deen, “One of the things about humanity that makes us more evolved than the primates is the enjoyment of sex. [A monkey doesn’t enjoy jacking off?] That’s one of the things that separates us from beasts and on and on and on. It’s part of our evolutionary traits.”
Dr. Dru was inclined to believe that, sexually, we’re still a repressed society but better than what we were ten or twenty years ago.
“You really look like the boy next door,” Dr. Dru observed.
“You don’t look like the overly tan, super buff guys you see mostly in porn. You have a much more everyman appeal. Is that because of the way the environment’s changing? More than ever more and more people are watching porn.”
“I wish I had an answer,” said Deen. “I really have no idea.”
“There has been a lot more mainstream media attention around you because of your stature and your look and you’re a very presentable guy. You do represent yourself well,” Dr. Dru continued.
“Is there any kind of negative feedback from guys in the industry because you’re working in mainstream films?; you’re in GQ, you’re doing all these interviews that you’re mentioning.”
“No one has said anything to my face about it,” Deen replied.
“If they do feel that way they don’t express it to me.”
On the subject of his GQ interview, Deen wanted to set the record straight.
“In the GQ article I’m quoted saying that my mom is a data analyst,” said Deen.
“She is not. She is a computer electronic engineer, and she leads a team at a jet propulsion laboratory. She is not a data analyst. She was telling me that one of her employees that she manages, is the boss of, said that if you’re biggest problem is that your son was misquoted in a famous magazine, then that’s not so bad.
“I told her I would make a point of spending the rest of my career making sure that everyone in the world knew my mom wasn’t a data analyst, that she runs a team and is a bigwig. I wanted to make good on my promise and not perpetuate the rumor that she was a data analyst. Because she’s not.”
[I wonder how many deprecated data analysts Deen’s going to hear from after that remark?]