Dear Jack Lawrence,
Nice to meet you. I understand you used to be police. Regarding some of your comments made on a pay internet radio station, which I did not hear, you took me to task over some "acting" awards in porn. I'd like to address that issue here.
Of course, "acting" is simply pretending to be something else. The closest definition I could find was "To represent (a fictitious or historical character) with one's person: 'to act Macbeth.'" So in a broad sense, most people in porn have "acted." This leaves out most gonzo porn, where the only acting is the whore pretending to have multiple earth-shattering orgasms every minute. For you to say, "Hi, Willie, my name's Jack, I acted in Ass Faxtor 2, Great American Squirt Off and Young Wet Bitches 2" would probably not be true, even in a broad sense.
However, if you refine that definition, and add to it the illocutionary force that the concept of "acting" in front of a camera, with scripts and directors, productions assistants and catering services carries, the idea of who "acts" in porn gets quite limited. Not to forget the issue of competency, either. I'm hard pressed to think of someone who did porn and then obtained a SAG card. There was Kristine Debell (Alice and Wonderland) who continues to be a successful stage actress. I dunno, did you think Traci Lords was a good actress on Melrose Place? As far as attempts at porn acting, John Leslie did fairly well, Jamie Gillis was hit-and-miss but usually put some real work into the non-sex parts of movies (you've seen Misty Beethoven right?). Jonathan Morgan played the humor angle well, but that's about it.
Ultimately, Jack, most of what happens in porn is not acting. Almost all porn is predicated on depicting sex acts, and any nod to a theatrical art is pretentious. Read old reviews of VHS tapes, they love to regale readers with the parts through which to fast forward, generally the "acting." It is true that AVN does give out awards to "actors" and "actresses," but you and I both know that term is just a convention of familiarity. Porn performers are actors the same way F. Lee Bailey is an attorney. Not to mention that your alleged grandiose reading of Lockwood's awards is in itself a satire of the whole situation. Oh, and did you recall the recipient of AVN's most talked-about acting award (Best New Starlet) didn't even bother to show up to collect her lucite?
As to Kurt Lockwood, true he has won some awards, good for him. Unfortunately, I doubt they were the awards he really wanted. I recall a story where he walked up to Manny Ferrara two years ago and asked him to keep the "Best Actor" award warm for him. Well, Manny did not dissappoint, he kept it warm...for Randy Spears. And just to show that I am not always berating porn people, Randy Spears is the one person in porn who could probably land some real acting jobs. Unfortunately, his time span in porn has probably foreclosed that opportunity for him. But did you see him at the 2006 AVN show...that guy was hilarious. The chicken, the trout, I think there was a rack of ribs involved. Now that was funny, that was good acting.
Good luck to you, WD
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