By Tom Sime, KERA 90.1 commentator.
Dallas, TX – Ron Jeremy is the most prolific straight male star in the porn industry, and perhaps the richest though he's not telling. But he'll tell anybody who'll listen that all he wants is to be a real actor. The new documentary "Porn Star: the Legend of Ron Jeremy" shows just how famous a man can get and still consider himself a failure.
Mr. Jeremy, called "The Hedgehog" by some, is pushing 50, overweight, short, and hairy. He'd never get into the movies with a standard headshot. But in the late '70s, when Ron Hyatt, son of a respectable Jewish physicist from Queens, was a special-ed teacher with an undergraduate theater degree, his girlfriend took a nude photo of him. She sent the photo to Playgirl magazine for its "Boys Next Door" feature. And fame came instantly.
Jeremy wasn't as chubby back then. But it wasn't his looks that made him stand out. It was his prodigious endowment. He was quickly recruited by the porn industry, and when it turned out that the man behind the equipment had equally impressive stamina and self-control, Jeremy became one of the most popular adult screen stars ever. Men liked him because, as a self-described "schlub," Jeremy proved that ordinary-looking guys could make out like bandits. Women liked him because he actually seemed to like women, and was a good lover to boot. But all Jeremy wanted, and all he still wants, is to work in mainstream movies.
Scott J. Gill's documentary shows Jeremy's double life as an actor. In adult movies, he's a superstar, the "clown prince of porn," with hundreds of successful features to his credit. In regular movies and TV, he's a nobody. When he gets a role, it's usually an exploitive bit part. As one interviewee puts it, "he gets killed a lot." Indeed, we see him get shot, stabbed, and clubbed in various excerpts from B-movies like "Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part 4." Jeremy is seen by his frat-boy fans as the ultimate hedonist, but he doesn't drink or do drugs, and by all accounts he's a nice guy, if a tightwad.
There's nothing stylistically compelling about "Porn Star" as moviemaking; it's a standard-format documentary. But it works quite well as an examination of how a person copes with what he's become as opposed to what he wanted to be. For instance, Jeremy consoles himself by calling porn "the purest form of acting. You are inside your character, looking out."
But the scenes we see of adult film shoots prove it's a dreary affair, demanding and degrading for both sexes. It's easy to see why it's hard to find men who can maintain arousal under the shooting conditions. And how difficult it would be to escape once you're in. Will Jeremy ever find himself in demand for his acting ability? Let's just say his latest mainstream movie, in which he plays himself, is "The Fluffer" - fiction film about the porn industry.
Tom Sime is staff critic for The Dallas Morning News.