Page 24 - AVN October 2016

WHO’S WHO
MILESTONES | | By Dan Miller
Rocco on ‘Rocco’
Siffredi reflects on new documentary, muses about comeback
complicated feelings he had during the filming. It was not only uncomfortable
reliving those moments, but also a therapeutic experience, Siffredi admitted.
“That night I sit in the cinema with my two boys, one 16, one 20, and I was
shrinking in my trousers,” Siffredi said. “I was hoping they would say they didn’t
want to watch the movie, but they wanted to watch it. I was afraid about their
reaction because I never told them about my addiction.”
Siffredi continued, “That night I break the wall. I completely break the wall and
today which is one day after [getting back from] Venice I’m feeling so much more
light.
Film Festival elicited mixed feelings for its star, Rocco Siffredi.
The world premiere of Rocco on September 5 at the Venice International
“This movie is not acting, it’s real,” Siffredi told AVN. “There was
nothing I had to prove. After 30 years in the business I didn’t have to
prove anything to anybody.”
The AVN Hall of Famer said there was enormous media interest for the
documentary three years in the making that captured him during the final stages
of his legendary performing career in 2014-15. He announced his retirement in
April 2015 just a few months before doing his last sex scene—a group session
with Dahlia Sky, Maddy O’Reilly, Kelly Stafford and James Deen shot by Evil Angel
founder John Stagliano, who is Siffredi’s mentor.
“It was great because there was a lot of press and a lot of interviews, a lot of
people were interested,” Siffredi said.
“But truthfully, there is a situation that is a bit embarrassing for me. This is
supposed to be the end of my career but I’m already thinking of coming back. I did
this whole thing to empty my stomach.”
The documentary follows Siffredi’s life on and off camera during a tumultuous
period when he was contemplating retirement and grappling with sex addiction.
“When I started to think about retiring, all of it belonged to so many problems
with addiction that nobody knows,” Siffredi, who turned 52 in May, said from his
home in Budapest. “My addiction to sex was pulling me all over the place, not just
to girls. I was going out with anything.”
Siffredi compared his troubled state of mind to the 2011 film Shame starring
Michael Fassbender as a New Yorker who shuns intimacy with women but feeds
his desires with an addiction to sex.
“If you see this movie you will see my life at that time,” he said.
The perennial AVN Award-winner, who has amassed more than 40 trophies
as a performer/director, said that sitting at the premiere in Italy with his wife of
24 years, Rosa, and two sons, Lorenzo and Leonardo, brought back many of the
“I’m feeling better because finally there are no more secrets. Finally nothing to
hide. Finally I don’t need to live anymore with demons. Finally I clear it up. It was
secrets. Finally nothing to hide. Finally I don’t need to
”I’m feeling better because finally there are no more
live anymore with demons. Finally I clear it up.
It was always heavy to keep everything inside me.
I was scared. To me this was… this documentary
it was a like a huge clean-up
always heavy to keep everything inside me. I was scared. To me this was … this
documentary, it was a like a huge clean-up.”
A veteran of more than 1,400 adult films, he said during the throes of his
addiction he hated himself because the sex had control of him. Confused and
conflicted, he started to think that he could “lose my whole family.”
“Where I always found my relaxation was on the set,” he said. “When I was on
the set I was forgetting everything. As soon as I finish and go home I start to get
trouble on my mind for some reason and at that time from the last few years it
start to kill me.”
All of that pain poured out in the doc, according to Siffredi.
“To me all of this confusion came out with this documentary, where I show my
life. I show my family. I talk truthfully about my life,” said Siffredi, who noted he
never sought psychiatric help during his cycle of addiction.
The filmmakers finished shooting him one year ago and since then, “I feel
myself again good and strong,” he said.
“I’m working incredible, everything is fine,” Siffredi added. “So when I had to
go promote this documentary it was very difficult. It put me back two years, where
I was feeling sick. I was feeling bad. All this was very difficult in Venice now to
promote something from two years ago. Because now I’m completely fine.”
But he gave his word that he would promote the finished project.
“I went to the film festival and I’m explaining exactly all my life before, but I
told them this is not my porn life,” Siffredi explained. “This is not my 30 years in
the business. This is my two or three years when I was confused. I was depressed
and I was a sex addict really badly.
“The press people they told me, ‘you had a lot of courage to put out all those
things in public,’ those personal things. I told them I had courage 30 years ago
starting porn for an Italian guy who comes from a Catholic education. Today, I
don’t feel like I had courage; 30 years ago I had courage.
Produced by Program 33, Mars Films and Falabracks, the film was directed by
Frenchmen Thierry Demaiziere and Alban Teurlai. It will be distributed in Italy
starting in October with additional plans for it to be available in France, Spain,
South America and Asia, Siffredi said.
“In Taiwan and Philippines for sure,” he added, leaving open the possibility
he’ll return to performing sex on camera. Since retiring from performing he
has continued to produce and direct.
“I’m seriously thinking about coming back. John called me and wants to shoot
a new Fashionistas movie this winter, sometime next year. He asked me what I
thought. We may meet in Berlin.”
24 | AVN.com | 10.16