Over the year since moving to San Francisco, and in my interactions with many actors in the industry, I frequently hear the phrase that the era of the true porn stars is dead. That men such as Jeff Stryker no longer exist, and the potential to become a household name in the porn industry no longer exists due to the explosion of the industry and all the opportunities for anyone to start into it and also due to anyone who has shot one scene suddenly referring to themselves as a porn star.
It's lead me to consider, what makes someone a star in this industry? Are there mile markers that can be used to determine if someone has attained star status, or do we know now that they're a star if we remember them after they've completed the main cannon of their work? I've looked through the men I used to get off to all the time prior to getting into the industry, men such as Johnny Hazzard, Eddie Stone, and Brent Everett, and while some are still working, they all have the same theme of being men that worked in the industry while porn was primarily on DVD. Not many names come to mind as being the big names in the internet era of porn.
While there are a few that have attained that same status through their online presence, men such as Spencer Reed or Austin Wilde, there aren't the same number of major stars today as there once were. It seems to me, that staying power has a lot to do with your ability to really define yourself as a star. Both of these men have a large volume of work, but more importantly than the number of scenes they've been in, they also have produced them over the course of several years. Having done so makes them recognizable names and faces when they come up later on.
There are those who have suggested that once you've had your genitals cast and made into a dildo that is mass produced and sold that you've made it, however when I try to search online for companies doing this, the market for that seems to have dried up to a degree as well, perhaps as a side effect of our tendency now to be done seeing a porn boy before he even has the chance to have his dick made into a mold. Also, when you walk into the porn shops in Castro, at least, most of the porn star molded penises are still from the DVD era. You see Johnny Hazzard, Brandon Lee, Eddie Stone, Arpad Miklos, but I haven't yet found much from the modern stars. I don't see, for example, a Marc Dylan penis being sold locally.
Others have said that once you've made it to the cover of a DVD you're a star. This, to me, seems an incorrect assumption as well. It may mean you were the best suited for that particular title to sell the movie, but it doesn't mean you've become that household name that people will recognize in the porn world. Also the more porn goes online, and the less is sold on DVD, the less likely this can be used as a measure of your stardom.
I don't ask these questions to know if I am a star (I don't consider myself to have attained that status) but more to put things into perspective. Are my friends right? Is the era of the porn star over? What measures would any of you use to determine if your favorite actors have the honor of being considered stars?
