When you see foam at the edges of someone's mouth....RUN!!! You can sort out the details later.
I've been in this business for a long time. I routinely hear back from directors, producers, cameramen and other actors about how easy I am to work with and how versatile I am socially...and sexually. I'm shy, I'm wary of club appeareances where I don't have a task to keep me occupied and I keep to myself, but I'm always professional.
Someone asked me recently when my first scene with Sean Cody was, and I realized I've been doing porn for 10 years. I've encountered a lot of amazing professionals and talented artists, pornographers and marketing geniuses. From the beautiful, the hunky and the funny, to the vain, the roided and the shallow, I thought I'd handled it all.
So, this morning, like so many other mornings in that special California sun (like no other place LA's light is movie magical), I gingerly approached a young porn producer who was literally foaming at the mouth. In normal situations, I see mouth foam and I run. I've seen enough Zombie/Rabies movies to know better, but this time, against my better judgement, I held my ground.
After all, I'd been in touch with Mr. Price(less - his adjective not mine) for a couple of months now. He had (sort of) coordinated my plane ticket and was responsible for directing two scenes I was going to shoot with him this week. I've worked with a lot of adorable weirdos. How bad could this be? And as I got closer, I realized he was actually brushing his teeth. Why anyone meeting a future employee would wander out to greet me mid-brush is a little odd but well, it is porn after all. So, yes, it's ok. It's just toothpaste.
But, I should have screamed "RABIES!!!" and run. There had been so many problems up to this point; Hurricane Irene being the least troublesome of them. Mr. Price had scheduled me to come a couple days earlier (well it was actually someone he works with, but he was involved in the planning). He had misinterpretted my messages and overbooked me for too many extra days in LA but I have good friends to crash with, so I dealt. When Irene hit, my flight was cancelled. He was mad at me and asked if I could fly out anyway (I should have told him to watch Devil Wears Prada). He told me I should rebook. I did, and called him immediately to confirm my new schedule. He said great and that he would get me a hotel for the first night (which, after reminding him once my plane touched down, he grudgingly did). And that's where the rub came: after the initial booking, everything started to happen begrudgingly, as though I were putting him out like an annoying relative staying too long after the last night of Xmas. But I was the one being hired to do work for him...his project, his initiative, his plan.
I mean, there had been so many organizational guffaws at this point that I should have known. Other models "cancelling" (in this economy? really?) Times of scenes changing. And then the blame game came. If anyone knows me, they know I'm commonly reffered to as a busy beaver by friends. I'm good at being busy; I'm ALWAYS early and I work hard to get a lot of work done as fast as I can. So, toothbrush in hand, Mr. Price and I started a shouting match in which he tried to blame me for his organizational ineptitude. A crew member showed up and witnessed our shouting match (poor guy). "You shouldn't have rebooked." "Uhm, you told me to"
"I didn't know when you were coming." "Uhm, I gave you my new info on the phone and you said you would book the hotel for that night"
"I didn't know if you were even coming today" "Uhm, we've been texting all morning and I flew 3,500 miles in search of work. When did I give off that impression?"
"The other model had to cancel." "Oh, that's ok, I actually spent some time and found two other models in LA willing to work with us at the price you quoted me."
And then things went red. He had messed up big time and backed into a corner like a rabid animal just started to attack, my character, my (dis-)honesty, my work ethic...I walked. You can be as annoying as you want, but you can't treat me disrespectfully in a professional setting (unless it's called for in the scene). ;)
Anyway, I'm in LA, stuck without work 'til Friday. If any Porn Directors or Art Buyers are in need, i can work with my hands til then. Oh and if anyone wants to get Mr. Price a present that he clearly needs if he's going to succeed in the future, I recommend the monthly view.
