Louis Theroux has weighed in on the tensions between the ‘new’ and ‘old’ worlds of porn following the MeToo movement, as explored in an episode of his new docuseries Forbidden America.
Asked whether ‘old-world porn’ and ‘new-world porn’ are currently at war with each other, Theroux said that “there is some truth to that”.
“Obviously, that’s a simplification, but there is some truth to that, I would say,” he explained. “There’s a more progressive community that’s a little more orientated around performers, and especially female performers.”
Speaking to press including RadioTimes.com, Theroux explained that younger people working in the porn industry “take a more serious view of indiscretions”, while older members reject the idea of “cancel culture”.
“It’s been noted in all kinds of spheres of life that the younger people who work in a company might take a more serious view of indiscretions or behaviours, [but] an older crowd might say, ‘Well, that’s just what happens,’ or ‘Let’s not be part of cancel culture,’” he said. “That debate, which is dividing all different spheres of life, all aspects of culture, is also present in porn.”
However, he stressed that while there’s “a real temptation to say, ‘Well, because it’s porn, there must be more predators here’”, it’s “plausible” that there are the same number of alleged sexual predators operating in other industries.
“You know, there’s a real temptation to say, ‘Well, because it’s porn, there must be more predators here.’ Or at least that’s a calculus I could imagine people making,” he said.
“And again, and again, what I heard was, ‘No, no, really, it’s just the same as everywhere else. It’s just that we’ve had trouble getting heard – number one, and number two, our workplace routinely involves extreme setbacks. But actually, as people, you could make a plausible case that there’s no more predators than there are in filmmaking, publishing, in TV, in finance.”
The docuseries Forbidden America is separated into a trilogy of films, as Theroux travels the length and breadth of the United States, looking at “how online has collided with the real world, helping the far-right build solidarity, creating power shifts in the porn industry & seeing rap artists live-streaming feuds”.
Louis Theroux previously revealed he wants to speak to Tom Cruise about Scientology.
Additional reporting by Lauren Morris.
Forbidden America will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. Find out what else to watch with our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Documentaries hub.
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