Let's Talk About Sex
Or, more specifically, Porn.
My thoughts on this come from an episode I watched recently of The Big C. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the wonderfully talented Laura Linney plays Cathy, a middle aged mother who finds out she has advanced melanoma. With very few treatment options, she decides to start living her life to the fullest.
The particular episode that sparked this post has a wonderful scene where Cathy walks in on her adolescent son watching porn. Her first reaction is the usual shock and embarrassment, causing her to quickly retreat and shut the door. Instead of leaving it at that, however, Cathy decides to come back into her son's bedroom and insists that they watch porn together.
Embarrassing. Horrifying. Poor Kid. Probably scarred for life.
Not being a porn connoisseur myself, it got me thinking about what exactly it is, and if there is any connection between the fantasy it exemplifies and the reality it stems from. My interest, of course, lies mostly in how it relates to acting.
Porn stars are, after all, actors. And while there may be a stigma against them, goodness knows most of them are far more well known and make a lot more money than I do.
On a related note, women especially (though men are certainly subject to it too) are faced with a public demand to live up to some kind of sexual expectation, whether it just be having a good body to acting out some sordid wet dream.
We all know the cliche story - girl becomes stripper to support herself through college. Young, educated, talented woman becomes prostitute to pay rent while pursuing her dreams. Slightly older woman undergoes several plastic surgery procedures to appear younger and more attractive. I often joke about it, but in reality the subject is something that comes up a lot in the acting world. How far would I go on stage or on screen in "acting" intimacy? Sometimes nudity is art, and sometimes it's pornographic. Where is the line?
As a woman, I feel that the idea of sex comes into to play with a lot of very basic decisions I make on a day to day basis.
For example: Going to a job interview. I want to appear as an attractive candidate to my potential employer. This means being well prepared intellectually, but it is also impossible not to think about the saying "Dress to Impress." I am also aware, however, of the fine line between being attractive as an employee and being attractive as a young woman. One is desirable (in the professional sense.) The other is threatening. The moment HR gets a whiff of anything remotely related to sex or sexiness, that't it - you're an automatic liability.
In the acting world it's slightly different. That same liability in the corporate world might just mean gazillions of dollars in Hollywood (emmm, hello Megan Fox?). There is also a certain openness that goes hand in hand with sexuality that is desirable as a performer.
Marilyn Monroe said something along the lines of "whenever I'm acting I just think about sex." And people loved her. I myself find her mesmerizing to watch. On top of that, I have often heard acting teachers say that great acting is about having a private experience in public. Isn't sex one of the most private, intimate things we experience?
So it got me thinking - as an actor, can I learn something from porn?
The utterance of this question aloud at the dinner table this evening led to my roommate and I sitting in front of our computers for an embarrassing amount of time sampling a variety of porn sites.
What we discovered was frustrating for several different reasons. Firstly, the damn videos took forever to load and simply would not stream without stalling every 30 seconds. Secondly, with absolutely no character development, I really didn't care who these people were or what they were doing to one another. Thirdly... hmmm, I won't go into specifics, but let's just say I wasn't always a fan of how body parts were arranged, or how the camera was positioned in relation to them.
As for the acting part of it? Who knows?! Aside from the range of vocalizations happening, there was very little happening on screen other than the plain mechanics of how body parts fit together. I definitely didn't have the sense that any of the actors were achieving a new level of intimacy or openness that was something I could admire as an actor.
While I was not turned on by any of the porn I watched, I have definitely seen plays and films where a mere glance between characters was enough to make me flushed. This comes back to having the private experience in public.
I am still trying to define for myself exactly what it is, but now I know that you can take off all your clothes and literally show the inside of your body without revealing anything about you as a person. Meanwhile, all your garments can stay on and you can share something profound about yourself, or about being human.
Needless to say, there is a lot to discuss on the subject. Comments, please!
-- Sarah Wharton
Slow news day? Though I admire you trying to make the comparison to acting, or, let alone your own personal take on Porn, there seems to be a weak connection of the topic and acting.
Though most women would never admit it, Porn is geared more towards men who are more visual. If you don't get it or aren't excited by it, that's fine.. Men don't understand the excitement of watching Sandra Oh unravel her sex life, or The Bachelor. It's all good.. neither are bad.. We just have different tastes and we'll leave it at that. If you didn't find the joy of watching it, no one should have to convince you as to why it's good, just like no one can convince a guy that some of these Female Geared Shows on TV are good... all good. But to make a comparison to legit performance? Acting? I don't see the connection, nor should there be. And Linney's character should've allowed the poor kid to Jerk Off alone! lol
Posted by: Dominic Pace | February 22, 2011 at 10:47 PM
I think the connection is pretty clear in the simple fact that you are watching two actors have sex. I completely accept that watching porn is a different experience for everyone and am not trying to argue that it's good or bad one way or the other. But the idea of it is intriguing to me from a performance perspective. You might happily watch a porno but would you be in one? Why is that?
Posted by: Sarah Wharton | February 22, 2011 at 10:59 PM
I think the connection is pretty clear in the simple fact that you are watching two actors have sex. I completely accept that watching porn is a different experience for everyone and am not trying to argue that it's good or bad one way or the other. But the idea of it is intriguing to me from a performance perspective. You might happily watch a porno but would you be in one? Why is that?
Posted by: Sarah Wharton | February 22, 2011 at 10:59 PM
I think you have to be about 9 inches thick for it.. lol. Disease is also a factor.. and also, we still live in a very 'labeling' society. Once you go there, we can pretty much forget about any legit work. Traci Lords may be the only exception. Didn't mean to sound brash.. So tough debating these issues over the net.. Got into a huge debate with a CD over FB.. It was supposed to just be a friendly chat, and turned into a nightmare! Be well, and thanks for the article.
Posted by: Dominic Pace | February 23, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Might I recommend the Crash Pad Series?
http://crashpadseries.com/
Posted by: Iris | February 23, 2011 at 10:41 AM
I think your observations are pretty astute - whether or not you are turned on by the physical activity occurring in a porn flick, there is no actual intimacy, and that is what differentiates an actor and a porn star to me. As I have no personal experience, I can't say for sure, but my guess is if you're going to have sex on camera as a career, you have to find a way to eliminate the emotional aspect of sex and make it just something that you do physically... which is why I don't know ANYone that says they watch porn for the story or the acting. I mean come on, have you seen one of those soft-core things they try to market as movies?? Yawn.
Posted by: Jill | February 23, 2011 at 01:39 PM
I don't have much to add on this particular subject, but isn't "The Big C" a great show? I really enjoy it--Showtime has some wonderful shows.
Posted by: Justine | February 24, 2011 at 11:19 PM
Very intersting article;it's true nudity can be seen as artistic .However when it comes to the "Film industry" nudity and sex are the furthest thing from being artistic.After all hollywood is very shallow and materialistic.How deep do you think watching two actors bone gets ?.I've noticed the line at this point has been blurred quite a bit. I have to agree with Jill there are films that are just plain softcore .Same with alot of stuff on channels like HBO.
"I have often heard acting teachers say that great acting is about having a private experience in public.".We as humans in our everyday lives put on masks.We never really truly and honestly express our true selves .For whatever reasons we put on act after act . What is meant by what you heard is that.
Having and experience of truly expressing yourself .Which is what you would normally do away from the world.In front of the public,that doesn't mean show off your naked sweaty body.On top of another naked sweaty body.There's nothing new to that experience because its so one dimensional .It's really about peeling back that "Mask" and revealing your true self.
Which takes talent the latter takes a "i don't give a fuck" attitude which isn't talent at all.
Posted by: jay | July 16, 2012 at 05:39 PM