There are many, many misconceptions that people have about the adult industry. Chief among them is that it’s an easy gig: we love the idea of a job where all you have to do is show up, take off your clothes, and have sex all day. And while that’s a large part of it, there’s a lot more to doing porn than just showing up—particularly for dudes.
Of course, you need to be well-endowed—like super well-endowed—but you also need to have the stamina to perform for hours under hot lights. That 27-minute clip you watched on Pornhub? That likely took an entire day to shoot—or at least multiple hours. You also need to be able to perform with a dozen crew members watching. As for the pay, it’s not nearly as good as you think it is unless you’re one of the top porn stars in the world. (Although with the rise of personal content subscription services like Onlyfans and JustforFans, some adult performers are starting to make five figures a month.)
So for those guys who think they’re ready to march into a porno production company in the San Fernando Valley and plop their members on the casting agent’s table, here’s what you need to know about becoming a male porn star.
A lot of guys ask male porn stars how to break into the industry, which is a fair question: after all, there’s no LinkedIn or Indeed.com for male porn stars, right? But Ryan Driller (above), who has performed in porn for nearly a decade, says that guys are at a major disadvantage when it comes to entering the industry. “It’s all dumb luck,” he told MensHealth.com. “You can’t ask another guy to get you in. You can’t ask studios to try out you. You can’t get a girl to bring you in. Most of the time.”
Not every guy has this experience .Aaron “Small Hands” Thompson, for instance, entered the industry through his wife, porn star (and MensHealth.com contributor) Joanna Angel, who tapped him to perform with her for her website Burning Angel. “Basically I became a male pornstar because it was ‘free labor’ for my wife,” he told MensHealth.com. But if you don’t have the benefit of waking up every morning next to one of the most popular female performers in the industry, you’re probably out of luck.
When it comes to straight porn, directors only want a few simple things from male performers: “They want to know that you can get hard, last the time required, give them the performance that they want, and pop when they need you to,” says Driller. “Your face, your look, etc. are all not important.”
Sounds easy, right? Well, not so much. Driller says that even though most guys think they’d be able to perform on a porn set, more often than not that’s not the case. So while you may think that you can get hard and stay hard with dozens of people watching, “you don’t actually know until you’re there. That stage fright is why new guys only get their shot on a last-minute, dire-need try out basis. no one is really willing to take a gamble on whether or not you’ll be able to perform in the setting needed.”
If you’re a porn actor, you have to, well, act. While that might not seem obvious from some of the more low-budget clips you’ve probably seen on Pornhub, at the very least, you have to be able to adapt to the demands of different kinds of scenes.
“Some scenes are more challenging than others,” says Driller. “Virtual reality (VR) scenes are an animal all their own, given the equipment needed, and the lack of connection between you and your costar. And feature movies are a different beast depending on the script. Everything is always different, so that means you have to be on your toes.”
A major myth that Thompson always tries to dispel is that working in porn is all about having incredible sex with attractive people. But in truth, that’s only a small part of the job, particularly if you run your own production company, as he does with Angel. “The reality is you’re going to bed early, working out, eating clean, walking the dog, making dinner for your wife, doing post-production, editing, cleaning up dog poop, writing music for the movie soundtracks… it’s work, work, work,” he says.
On the other hand. you’re having incredible sex with attractive people every day. “I love it. I love sex,” Driller says. “When you break it down, or how I look at it, my day at work is a scheduled booty call.”
For many guys, this is the ultimate question: do you need to have a large penis to work in porn?
While you don’t necessarily have to look like you’re smuggling an anaconda in your shorts every time you go to the beach, it probably helps if you’re slightly larger than average. “I won't say you need a big dick,” Thompson says, “but I will say if it's small, your chances of making it are… smaller.”
Part of that has to do with the sheer mechanics of shooting sex on film. “Most of the guys in the industry are not huge,” says Driller. “They’re probably around the 7" to 8” mark, [because] sex on film is not what you do at home. Think about spoon sex. It feels great for both people, but for porn she has to be arched, and spread, and twisted, and you’re shoved behind her in the back of the couch. An average-sized penis simply would not allow for any of the sex to be visible.”
Ultimately, both performers agree that it’s way more important to have a ton of endurance than it is to be well-endowed. “Stamina is more important [than size] for sure,” Driller says. Guys have to stay hard for hours at a time, which means that even if they naturally have a lot of stamina, they often have to resort to drugs like Viagra or Cialis to keep them going. Some men even resort to getting injections in their penis.
"Stamina is more important [than size] for sure."
You might think that it would be awesome to have sex with gorgeous women for a living. But the unfortunate reality is, doing sex work comes with a lot of stigma for men and women alike — and that stigma will follow you around for the rest of your life, even if you leave the industry and get another job.
“Performing in porn is a forever thing,” says Driller, “I knew that I was closing a lot of doors in pursuing the industry.” It’s not uncommon to hear about schools refusing to let former porn performers teach there, or banks denying people in the industry as clients.
Even if you don’t encounter any outright discrimination, people are likely to treat you differently. “You’ll notice that most people won’t take you as seriously in conversation after they know your profession and then they hypersexualize everything,” says Driller. “You’re really only supposed to be able to discuss sex or have sex, and you’re not expected to have any other opinions.”
"Performing in porn is a forever thing."
Like any career, being a male porn performer comes with pluses and minuses: low pay, health risks, long hours. But in the end, both Driller and Thompson say they have no regrets, because they’re being paid to do something they love. So what if that happens to be sex?!
For those well-endowed dudes who are ready to head out to Hollywood, keep in mind that it’s not a constant party, and that the road to stardom will be arduous. Still, Thompson says that all things considered, if there are any real drawbacks, “I haven't come across them yet!”
You might not be feeling gung-ho on becoming a porn star after reading about the work (and dumb luck) it takes, but know there’s now another option: sites like Onlyfans. They’re definitely easier to break into, as anyone can make an account. You don’t need to perform in front of a whole film crew, which takes some of the pressure off—but you do, however, need to be in charge of shooting and editing your own videos.
Nick Alverez, a Just For Fans Exclusive Model, started his JFF two years ago after another sexy Instagrammer friend told him that he could be making serious money. “I was surprised how easy it was to create an account with them, and after posting a couple of videos I was already making some money,” he says.
That said, it’s still hard work to grow a following, especially with the oversaturation of models on these platforms due to COVID-19-related layoffs. You have to continuously put out content and engage with your fans.
“The key is posting good quality videos while also being real,” says Nick. “People are looking for more realistic sex scenes with OF/JFF—ones where they feel like they’re in your room and have a personal connection with you.”
Nick, who currently has 37k followers on Instagram and 23k followers on Twitter, says connecting with potential subscribers on social media is key to success on these platforms. “The number of followers you have is going to influence the number of subscribers you get, so my advice for anyone that wants to start earning money with OF/JFF is to get a bigger audience on social media.”
He's making good money these days, though he didn’t specify how much. “I can tell you I make a lot more money than I do being a graphic designer, which is my 9-5,” he says.
Nick believes that these platforms have revolutionized the porn industry. “If being a porn star was your dream, now you don't have to wait for a porn producer to call you back after a casting call, and you don't have to have a specific body type,” he says. “Anyone can do it.”
