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WHEN it comes to filming an adult movie, every effort is made to make the chemistry look, well, effortless.
But it is far from an easy job behind the scenes, with porn stars marking up ‘check-box’ lists of what they will agree to, bracing themselves for risky penis injections and shacking up in Big Brother-style houses just to pay the bills.
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When The Sun visited Europe’s porn production capital Budapest, the industry’s top talent told us what really goes on when the cameras are – and aren’t – rolling.
In recent years, the city has seen an influx of new performers as OnlyFans models attempt to break into the professional adult film industry. But many are in for a shock as to how hard it can be.
Ava Koxx, one of the UK’s top adult actresses, told us: “You can be on set for up to 12 hours a day.
“People think it’s easy, but it’s hard work. If a guy can’t get hard or something else goes wrong, it can be a really long day.
“You have producers telling you to do this position or that position. I don’t think most people could cope with how hard it really is.
“I can’t see an OnlyFans creator managing to do 12 hours on a porn set. It’s a different world.”
Even male actors who see being a porn star as the ultimate «dream» admit it isn’t always quite as glamorous as it might seem.
Dutch performer Darrell Deeps jokes: “Everyone wants this job. Who wouldn’t? It’s the dream.
“The sex part of a shoot is normally 40 to 45 minutes max because we are human as well.
“But it can be hard. You have to get tunnel vision when filming, as it’s so easy to be distracted by other things around.
“Plus, I occasionally get co-stars who aren’t attracted to me or vice versa.
I had one girl who didn’t want to be touch or spoken to when we weren’t filming, which made the shoot a bit awkward.”
Manufactured chemistry
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Given the main part of a porn set is chemistry, not all performers fancy each other and often prefer to pursue romance outside of the industry bubble.
However, having a relationship with someone who is not a performer can bring challenges of its own.
“You couldn’t get with a civilian while doing this job,” Ava tells us.
“Often performers who do get with a normal guy end up bringing them into the industry in some way or another. It’s really hard to make it work otherwise.
“Personally, I wouldn’t want that. Some performers end up dating other performers, but that’s also not for me.”
Frequently, fans even try to woo Ava when they spot her in the street. However, she is quick to shut them down.
It leaves me feeling like my penis is an over-inflated balloon, and it can be really uncomfortable, but it means I’m always ready to perform
Anonymous pornstar
“I do get recognised when I’m out with friends,” she said.
“Random people like to tell me they’ve seen me in films and start conversation, but I shut it down with, ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it’.”
Darrell also agrees that having a romantic relationship while making sex films is difficult.
“I’d love to have a girlfriend but I only really have sex with other porn performers because it’s safer,” he said.
“Less chance of catching an STI because we’re all tested. I also think I’d be too much for a normal person right now because of the scenes I shoot.
“Hopefully in the future, maybe when I retire from this.”
Webcam houses
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Adult actors and actresses fly in from across the world to shoot in the European gem.
For girls signed to talent agency JulModels, they have the option of staying in the company’s Big Brother-style house for free.
In return, however, the home in the suburbs of Budapest is fully wired up with webcams to allow fans to see the girls living their daily lives when not on set shooting.
Managing director Sabina said: «Some of the girls who are signed to us are just starting out so it’s nice that we can offer them a place to stay for free.
«This is a ‘wire house’ so everything is streamed 24/7 and fans pay to watch what the girls are doing. They can comment on the stream and if the girls want they can interact.
«There’s no pressure to do anything other than live your normal life in the house. But if they want to shoot content they can and we have someone who will help them with editing and putting it all together.
«Plus psychologically I think it’s nice to be around other people rather than on your own in a hotel room. You have people to talk to and perhaps borrow clothes from and things which makes the expereince nicer.»
The house sleeps up to 14 girls and several share rooms with each other.
Injections to keep things going
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It is harder for agencies to recruit men than women, because many can’t perform on demand when the cameras are rolling.
Viagra used to be the go-to solution, but now some performers have turned to more extreme measures – a drug meant for Paraplegics, which is supposed to only be handed out with a prescription.
One actor, who didn’t want to be named, told The Sun: “The initial injections hurt, but you get use to it.
“You have one vial to get up and another vial to get it back down if you don’t know the correct dosage.
Of the male performers I use, only two manage to get hard naturally, the other three inject
Dan Leal
“It gets injected into the side of your penis, which isn’t the most comfortable place.
“It leaves me feeling like my penis is an over-inflated balloon, and it can be really uncomfortable, but it means I’m always ready to perform.
“If I can’t perform, then I cause problems for everyone else and the production money. It’s essentially Viagra on steroids.”
Side effects can include a prolonged erection and in serious cases inflammation of the liver.
Despite coming with risks, producers claim it is now used commonly across the porn world.
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Director Dan Leal told The Sun: “Around 95 per cent of male performers are now using these injections, but most don’t want to admit to it.
“It’s become so standard now that people think it is normal, which sucks.
“Of the male performers I use, only two manage to get hard naturally, the other three inject.”
Dark side of pornography
Like every industry, the pornography business has a darker side.
Suicides, drug overdoses and human trafficking form a seedy underbelly, which recently has made headlines in both Europe and the United States.
In January this year, porn star Thania Fields was found dead after sharing that she had experienced “sexual abuse” at the start of her career in porn.
She said at the time: “I have suffered sexual harassment and abuse after starting to create adult content. It’s very strong.
“Many thought that by hiring me they could do what they wanted with me, but then I came home, took a bath and cried.”
Recently deaths in the US include star Angelina Please, Dahila Sky and Olivia Lua.
Former director Tommie McDonald tells us he left the business after being confronted with some horrifying situations.
He says at least two models he knows off killed themselves while he was still producing, and many more simply seemed to disappear.
He said: “Over the years working in the industry, suicides were sadly fairly common.
“Often Eastern European women are brought into the industry at the hands of traffickers and forced into filming porn under threats of violence.
“It’s hard to work in this industry and not have your morals shift because so much goes on.
“I’ve also heard of rape allegations against top producers and suggestions that people have been drugged on set before filming.
“It was also commonplace for a bit in Europe that talent would forge clear tests so they could still work even if they had contacted something.
“There was a HIV outbreak in Europe about five years ago, which thankfully changed the way testing was done.”
For his own productions, Dan has a check-box list for performers to indicate what they are happy doing on set. This covers everything from kissing to more hardcore sex acts.
And Dan has no issues if talent change what they are happy to do from one shoot to another.
QR codes for sexual health checks
After years working in the US, Dan Leal brought over one key thing with him – high-grade STI testing.
His clinic, which processes all the samples, is in an old flat block tucked away in one of the city’s squares.
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Andras Vegh now runs Talent Testing Service Budapest where almost all the adult stars get checked every two weeks.
The screenings cover all the possible infections to get from sex, including HIV, and come with a QR code to stop people faking them.
Andras told The Sun: “Porn models get this reputation for being dirty, but they’re the cleanest people in the world when it comes to STIs.
“Our role is vital to ensure that everyone in the industry is working safely and that they are healthy.
“All our tests come with a QR code so producers and directors can confirm the results are legit and up to date. Safety is the priority here.”
While people attempting to fake their STI results is rare, it does happen, and they’re normally caught out when the QR code doesn’t work.
Staying ahead of the game
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When it comes to releasing the videos on premium paid for sites, there is a lot of planning behind it.
Director and producer Julia Grandi has worked out a formula that keeps people coming back to the brands she works for again and again.
«As a company we often time releases of scenes around the season and how recently the cast was all seen together on the site,” she said.
“If the company has used the performers recently, we will wait a couple of months before putting out another scene with them in to keep people interested.”
“Normally the company has a plan of what is coming out so can spend two to three months on post-production. If it’s needed quicker we can do it all within a week.
“I’ve also started doing series-style porn productions where we release an episode every few weeks, and it’s proved really popular.”
While most of the talent in her movies come through Budapest, she shoots all over the world and recently filmed in a ski resort, which gives her content to release this winter.
At her office in Budapest she has two huge store rooms of costumes, branded outfits, and every kind of prop you can imagine.
Julia reckons she works with hundreds of female performers across her films, but just ten male performers have made the cut for her scenes.
Hidden costs
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One hidden cost of porn that viewers don’t see is the time spent removing pirated content from free ‘tube sites’.
Another is content creators posting behind the scenes footage to their OnlyFans.
“It can be difficult for productions to earn money in this industry because piracy is a huge problem,” Julia said.
“We have huge teams of people searching for content we own to get it removed, so we are paying for people to protect our content.
“We do sometimes give sites a section of the film to drive traffic to us which is normally about 10 minutes. It’s hard to find a balance that works sometimes.
“Often, performers might film stuff on set for their OnlyFans while they’re working on a shoot for me, which means keeping exclusivity can be really hard.
“The production has paid for them to be out at an amazing location but if the talent has already released their own videos of them having sex it makes our film less interesting to viewers.”
The history of Budapest
Hungary’s capital city is full of rich history and culture, famously boasting a wealth of 80 underground hot springs.
For hundreds of years the urban sprawl existed as three separate towns, Buda, Óbuda, and Pest, which were unified in 1873.
By the time of World War I, Budapest was the capital city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The empire collapsed after the war ended. During World War II much of the city was destroyed by British and American air raids.
Currently, Budapest is the second-largest city on the Danube and the ninth largest city in Europe over all.
In 2022 6.9million tourists arrived at the airport for holidays. It has 223 museums and galleries, covering local history and that of Europe.
The city is popular with both budget travellers and those looking for a bustling nightlife for stag and hen dos.
Its Széchenyi Medicinal Bath is the biggest in Europe and caters to health tourism and party goers with a weekend ‘Sparty’. The indoor medicinal baths date from 1913 and the outdoor pools from 1927.
The central area of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site thanks to the classical architecture of the Hungarian Parliament building and Budapest castle.
It is also home to Europe’s largest Synagogue, The Dohány Street Synagogue, which is the second largest in the world.
Cuisine on offer includes Turkish staples including pilaf, stuffed cabbage called töltött káposzta and Turkish delight.
More classical Hungarian dishes include Goulash, a meat stew heavy with paprika; Hortobágyi palacsinta, which is a meat filled savoury crepe; and chicken paprikash – chicken simmered in a thick, creamy paprika sauce with homemade pasta called nokedli.
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