Page 62 - AVN November 2016

FEATURE
Rico Strong
Home State: California | Age: 32 | Started in 2004 | Twitter: @_RicoSuavey
Photo courtesy of Dark X/O.L. Entertainment
What inspired you to pursue a career in adult
film?
I didn’t. It pursued and found me. I never even
thought about being a porn star, but then my mother
became sick. My girlfriend was a porn star so I needed
the money she offered. The rest is history. I do it for
the betterment of my family and my life.
What are the most challenging aspects of
your job?
The internet. Everyone nowadays thinks they can
be a porn star and they really don’t understand what it
takes. The piracy, the racism is at an all-time high and
people always trying to cut corners on their budgets,
which makes them want to lower your rate.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
The money, and being known in parts of the world
I’ll never get to physically visit, and being able to
provide for my family.
Who are your biggest influences?
God, my father, Malcolm X, 50 Cent, Martin
Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, Diddy.
What is the most common misconception
about adult?
That all we want to do is fuck and party and do
drugs. Now that does happen, but everybody isn’t the
same. I’m one of the different ones who is very private,
humble and focused on the betterment of my career
and who I’m working for and their product.
What do you think of the way IR product
(black male/white female) is marketed?
It’s marketed at the top but the world is racist, so
Jon Jon
Home State: California | Age: 35 | Started in 2005 | Twitter: @RealJonJonXXX
What inspired you to pursue a career in adult
film?
Like most guys I was inspired seeing the girls, but
mainly it seemed like it was challenging to do so I
figured that I could give it a shot and see how it goes.
What are the most challenging aspects of
your job?
The most challenging aspects of my job to me are
working with new people, ’cause you never know what
to expect—and making sure the scene is “good,” as in
energy and chemistry.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
The rewarding part of my job for me is being able to
work with someone I want and doing great work [and]
getting hired again.
What is the most common misconception
about adult?
I think the most common misconception about adult
Photo courtesy of Jon Jon
62 | AVN.com | 11.16
that’s what they want to see—a black man and white
woman fucking on film. They want the male to be
ghetto and her to be prissy then fucked silly. It goes all
the way back to the slavery days. Just how the white
master wanted to fuck the black slave but didn’t want
anyone to know about it. It’s forbidden fruit … so
people want to see what they can’t have in their porn.
What barriers, if any, have you encountered
working in the adult industry?
Fighting for the best perception of a black male
performer and getting a higher rate. White males
are promoted more, are given more contracts and
win more awards than myself or Prince Yahshua,
for example. Black talent could work with the same
woman, or work twice as hard, but can’t get the Male
Performer of the Year award. We’re exposed more, and
even wanted by the fans, but black-on-black porn is
barely shot. And now new black women are coming
into porn and saying they won’t work with black guys
... like WTF? We already have many white female
talent saying they don’t do IR, or waiting a year or two
until they’re desperate and then they’ll do black guys.
The business is crazy now, but so is the world and I
love them both even with the ups and the downs.
I’ve also had to bounce back from almost career-
ending surgery on my penis. Some people think I
wouldn’t be able to work and perform the same, but
I’ve come back better than ever.
is that it is easy. Most fans think that it’s like having
sex at home but don’t understand the technical aspect
of what’s required. They don’t understand that we have
to have sex for the camera, not ourselves, meaning all
positions have to be open so the camera can catch the
penetration and see the girl. Also the pay—thinking we
all make the same amount of money and that we are
balling. At a certain point in time the money was very
good, but many things changed over time.
What barriers, if any, have you encountered
working in the adult industry?
Barriers I have encountered in this biz: not being
able to work with every girl. Porn wise, if you are
Asian, Mexican, Latin, Middle Eastern—anything other
than African American—you’re not considered “IR”
[interracial]. IR refers to only black males and females,
so we are limited to whom we are able to perform with.
There are many girls I’ll never get to work with because
they may not ever do IR, so I have to work within a
certain bracket of performers. So to me this is one of
the biggest barriers we people of color face in this biz.