Pornographic Film Actor

A Pornographic Actor, is a person who performs sex acts in film that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Pornographic films attempt to present a sexual fantasy and the actors selected for a particular role are primarily selected on their ability to create or fit that fantasy. Pornographic films are characterized as either "softcore", which does not contain sexual penetration or "extreme fetishism", and "hardcore", which can contain penetration or extreme fetishism, or both.

The genres and sexual intensity of films is mainly determined by demand. Depending on the genre of the film, the on-screen appearance, age, and physical features of the main actors and their ability to create the sexual mood of the film is of critical importance. Most actors specialize in certain genres, such as Leather, Gang-Bang, Double Penetration, Safe, Bareback, Piss, Rubber, Cigars, Multiple Cum-shot, Solo, Toys, Live Sex, Stage, Daddy & Son, Sportswear, Group Sex, Uniforms and others. Irrespective of the genre, most actors are required to appear nude in pornographic films or with genitals and sensitive areas explicitly exposed.

Overview
The pornography industry in the United States was the first to develop its own movie star system, especially for commercial reasons. In other countries, the "star" system is not common, with most actors being amateurs. Most performers use a pseudonym and strive to maintain off-screen anonymity. A number of pornographic actors and actresses have written autobiographies. It is very rare for pornographic actors and actresses to cross over to the mainstream film industry. Not all of them but some also work as strippers at strip clubs or as escorts. Is also very common they maintain in parallel a career as Go-go Dancer or any other activity like Fostter Riviera that is Creative Director and Project Manager.

Exceptional performance of pornographic actors are recognized and honor with nominations and consequently winning titles in the XBIZ Awards, Cybersocket Web Awards and Hustlaball Awards, on a global scale. On a territorial or national scale it also exist other movie awards such as Premios Ninfa presented each year in Barcelona as part of the Barcelona Erotic Fair.

Performers in early productions were usually uncredited or used pseudonyms or stage names to avoid legal sanction and social disapprobation. The use of stage names is the norm in the industry; pornographic film actors maintained a low profile, using stage names to maintain a level of anonymity, while others performed prefer to be uncredited.

Europe
The average Top performer gets € 500 to € 1000 a scene, or € 200 to € 400 if he's new. A Bottom performer makes literally half of it, most of the time.

Generally gay men actors are payed much more than heterosexual porn actors. Men who identify themselves as heterosexual but perform in gay pornography are said to do gay-for-pay. This means they perform in gay movies only for the money.

Health issues
Because pornographic film making involves unsimulated sex, with or without condoms (Bareback), pornographic actors are particularly vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The high rate of STDs in the pornographic film industry started to change in 1998 when major pornographic film producers started implementing a regular periodic testing program for pornographic film actors. In the 1980s, there was an outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the pornographic film industry and a number of deaths of actors and this led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM) which helped set up a voluntary standard in the United States pornographic film industry where pornographic film actors are tested for HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhea every 30 days, and hepatitis, syphilis and HSV twice a year. AIM claims that this program has reduced the rate of STDs among pornographic film actors to 20% that of the general population. These claims have been criticized by various public health authorities. In Europe AIM or equivalent does not exist, lead to the creation of Non-Governamental Organizations that support the complete population, and majority of them specialized and focus on LGBT community and its common issues.

Media and press coverage
With some notable or occasional exceptions, in fact pornographic actors are not generally reported on by mainstream media. As a result, specialized publications (or trade journals) emerged to serve as a source of information about the industry, its business dealings, trends and forecasts, as well as its personnel. Two of the predominant media outlets worldwide are Adult Video News and the X-Rated Business Journal known as XBIZ.

In Europe the press is much more developed, with the unique case of Boner Magazine that operates in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with offices in Berlin.

The industry also has its own version of the popular entertainment industry database website IMDb, the Internet Movie Database. Called the Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) the site lists adult film productions dating back to the 1970s, the performers in those films, and the associated directors.

See also:

 * Gay Porn Stars
 * Pornographic Film Actors