CraveOnline: Obviously, from a practical perspective it was a learning experience. Was it a learning experience on any other level? I mean, you worked with Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader. They have a massive reputation for being high artists.
James Deen: They were awesome. They were both amazing. I mean, that was cool. None of that was the learning experience. The learning experience was basically just how the mainstream industry works, how the reason why movie stars get paid what they get paid isn’t because they’re just prima donna, over-paid people. I mean, they are. Millions of dollars for a movie is still way more than anyone deserves. But your job isn’t just going and showing up and being an artist and doing the project, which is great. That’s the fun part. That’s the part that I love, going in and creating, making something come to life and stuff. But there’s also the time it takes to prepare for the role. The post-role, getting out of the character was really hard. I didn’t realize it was gonna be as hard as it was but I like, went to Vegas, and there’s a line at the beginning of the film that has Christian saying, “I like staying at the Four Seasons in Vegas because I like to watch the planes flying in and out of McCarran.” I was in Vegas and I was staying at a Mandalay, not Four Seasons but I’m sitting there in the room, watching the planes fly in and out of McCarran and it was a month or two later. It was just weird, just really strange and bizarre to get back into character, just from that and have to then pull myself out. So, there’s the pre-movie process, there’s the movie process, there’s the post-movie process.
Then in addition, there’s the press. It’s fun and it’s great and for me, I’ve got the t-shirt company and a website and I have JamesDeen.com and JamesDeenStore.com and I have all this stuff, like Baby Panda t-shirts and a toy line so you know, doing press benefits me because more people know about me and more people are going to sign up for JamesDeen.com and people are gonna buy a t-shirt, so it’s beneficial. It’s not just work but let’s say many of these people don’t have any of those things, and all they do is act, then all the press and all this stuff, it’s a job, unless you just want to be famous. If that’s your only goal then yeah, whatever. Go do a sex tape and then be on TMZ and everyone will know who you are.
Whatever, but yeah, all of this takes time and there are the festivals and going to conventions is a thing. I was talking to them and like, “Okay, that’s a lot of time. You want to take ten days of my time. Or actually it’s more like a week. But you want to take a lot of my time. Guys, I kind of need to pay off bills. It’s not like I’m just greedy and a whore and just want money. I have a mortgage and a car payment. I have to like, eat at some point, too.” And they’re like, “Well, it’s an honor. You’re going for the honor.” And I’m like, “Well, the honor’s all well and good but the honor for me, was being able to be directed by Paul Schrader in a Bret Easton Ellis movie and be able to make an awesome movie. That’s what the honor was.” They’re like, “Venice Film Festival! You need to think about the future and what you’re gonna do after porn!”
I’m like, what?! I’ve done 4,000 Pornos. I’m not going to just “not” be the Porno guy, all of a sudden. They’re hiring me, knowing that they’re hiring that dude that does porn, or that dude who did a lot of porn, or that dude who’s doing porn. It’s not like I’m just some dude who did “a” movie. Sylvester Stallone, Steve McQueen, Dita Von Teese, Kim Kardashian. All these people did “a” porno and then went on about their lives, you know? Or two, they did a couple pornos. And there’s even more than that. They did a couple pornos and then they went on to have a mainstream career and it had been swept under the rug and people forgot about it. But people like me, Ron Jeremy, Sasha Grey, we’re not going to escape that porn thing. At any point, you type into Google, “Sasha Grey” you’re not going to get Entourage. You’re going get the gangbang of Sasha Grey. Put “James Deen” into Google, you’re not going to get… Well, maybe “right now” you’ll get The Canyons but in six months, you’re not gonna get The Canyons. You’re going get JamesDeen.com or James Deen’s Blog. Here’s his penis, for sale! You know, that’s what we do when you can’t…
It’s always going to be there, so if there’s anybody who can’t embrace that and give me a role like, Fifty Shades of Grey, let’s say… I think that would be awesome. I think it would be a really fun project to work on, be something fun to be involved in, and just a part. The idea of putting myself on camera to do a screen test or audition or something sounds great and would just be a cool thing. So let’s say, “Okay, we want to make this more like Twilight and we want to make it to appeal to the younger demographic and make a more family-wholesome movie,” which I don’t know how you would do it with Fifty Shades of Grey…
I’ve read it, it’s porn.
Yeah, exactly. So, let’s say they tried to do that, appeal to the families and stuff like that. They want the ABC and the Disney audience. Obviously, you wouldn’t hire the porn guy but if they wanted to make an adult-themed production, that has an erotic thread through it, and even though it’s not porn, it has this hint of sexuality to it, to this entire movie. It’s really about the dynamic between these two characters and their evolution and what they learn from each other, how they grow as people from each other. I mean, that’s what it’s about. It’s not about just porn and jerking off. It’s a romance novel.
Well, it is but I’ve read it and they’re very, very, very explicit, detailed sex scenes. That’s part of the appeal. It’s got to be.
Yeah, but there are creative way to express this story but whatever. So, anyway, they say, “It’s going to have some sexual stuff. We can be a little more risque and we can hire that porn guy because we saw him,” and let’s say they thought I did good. The movie comes out tomorrow. People might think I suck. It’s very possible I’m just horrible. It’s very possible. [Laughs] But let’s say they’re like, “He did good and we wanna hire him. We can go a little more risque, we can hire that porn guy.” It’s not like if I quit doing porn… People aren’t going to forget. There’s a lot of porn out there, which means people aren’t going to forget I did it.
So, to answer your question, I’ve learned that the Hollywood world is weird. That was the learning experience, just learning how everything works. I’m completely ignorant to this world, even though the actual way things are shot are exactly the same and it’s the same umbrella of straight film, entertainment for adult entertainment and music and television entertainment. In all those things, there’s still different categories and even though they’re all created the same, they have lights and cameras and actors, each world operates differently. Talking to people in the television world and talking to people in the film world and talking to people in the music industry and talking to people… [and] I “know” in the adult film industry. Even though it’s all entertainment and all of it’s basically done the same way, it’s all different genres that operate very differently.
