Plight of the Porn Star

Acting in adult movies is the only thing James Darling has ever really loved. But as industry profits decline, this camera-happy trans man finds himself delivering pizzas to support his passion for porn.

Photos by Molly DeCoudreaux

If you've never worked in porn, it probably seems like a pretty easy way to make a living: get paid hundreds—or even thousands—of dollars to spend an afternoon having sex, making a full-time wage with just a few days of work a month. Sure, the work comes with a stigma, but if you don’t mind dealing with that, it’s easy money, right?

But while some people get to live that dream, many more find that their porn work isn’t quite enough to pay the bills. A decade ago, it was relatively easy for most performers to consistently book multiple gigs a week; these days, even big stars can have difficulty booking a few shoots a month. Due to a combination of piracy and rampant free online porn, XXX sales are down by a large margin. And with less money coming in to production companies, there's not as much to spend on producing new content, which means less work (and less pay) for the talent who depend on porn to pay the bills.

In order to make ends meet, quite a few perfo…