University of California, Riverside – from www.highlandernews.org – The bare porn stars model on the screen; their eyes stare emotionless as they reveal themselves to the audience. They are elusive. They twist and turn, prowling with sexuality as they move their hips—and private parts—to photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Some are curvy and fake, while others are muscled and toned to a pulp as they pose. The audience was in a trance at these professionals, their eyes dripping over tastefully exposed bodies.

The film “Thinking XXX: The Extended Version” introduced the concept of demystifying the porn industry to the audience, giving an educational and emotional ride into the sexual lives of famous porn stars. Some lead a frivolous, free lifestyle of indulging in the glory of the sex, freedom and cash of the industry, while others plainly convey it as a tool to swipe them off streets and into a stabilizing career.

The concept of the movie was created by Greenfield-Sanders in order to portray a nude portrait of each star juxtaposed with a covered, ordinary portrait of their true selves.

The famous porn stars confusedly took their chairs after the movie, uncomfortably sitting at the edge of their seats, awe-struck by the massive amount of UCR students awaiting their arrival. A student on the third row held a “Mine’s Bigger” cardboard cut-out as students sheepishly howled in the presence of Ron Jeremy and Brooke Banner. Sitting next to Banner and Jeremy was famous adult film maker Gino Colbert and Media and Cultural Studies on-campus Professor Dr. Keith Harris along with Banner’s husband.

Students were invited to anonymously write their questions on tiny yellow pieces of paper before the event began. The directors of ASPB stashed them away, only to later unleash the tiny pieces of paper to ask questions over the microphone in front of the five intimidating individuals seated in a row on the stage. The audience was encouraged to strut up to the microphone, unveiling their curiosity about the porn industry and the concerns that arise as an adult film star.

From the questions posed, Jeremy and Banner gushed about the obscenities of the industry—from fake orgasms to group sex—they provided educational input while teaching students the harsh realities of the industry.

“I’ve had issues with my family for the first four years,” admitted Banner, pouting in silence as she gazed at her husband. Her family eventually supported her after “years and years of convincing them” her career wasn’t a result of her upbringing; it was a personal choice she made for herself. “They thought if I was going to make an adult decision then I should be an adult.”

“It’s easier for men to say what they do, and it’s not necessarily easier for women to say what they do,” Ron Jeremy interrupted her sentimental truth. “Women make more money, but they also have a harder time.”

Later on in the evening, a student posed the question of how they felt the first time they exposed themselves to the camera. “I cried out of fear, out of nervousness, [and] out of not knowing what to think,” bluntly stated Banner. “I cried, too” Jeremy sarcastically added, lightening the momentum of the gruesome—if not messy—emotional spectrum of the industry. “I cried for other reasons, they didn’t shoot my face.” Jeremy reflected on his start as an actor and comedian, eventually trying out the porn industry as a means for success.

In “Thinking XXX” students were introduced to porn star Briana Banks. Being put in foster care three times as a child, she felt a “sense of loneliness” growing up. She turned to the porn industry after she was evicted from her house, worried she would have to live off of “Top Ramen and canned olives” for the rest of her life while trying to support her younger sister. She admitted that she saw an advertisement for $1,000 a day working as a porn star and eventually launching her success and shaking off the poverty she was once committed to.

Many stories like Banks’ trailed off for the remainder of the video, posing the questions of money-making strategies and intelligent reasons motivating these individuals to choose sex as a career. Jeremy brought a magazine for the audience to see, revealing actresses and business entrepreneurs who’ve made millions from the industry.

Film maker Gino Colbert has been in the adult film-making industry for 35 years, teaching the audience about the business aspect of the industry as both a filmmaker and an entrepreneur. “We have to see what competitors are doing and out-do them,” he said. “The [films] that constantly change are the ones that survive.” Colbert began his lust for the industry after catching the clothes of strippers when he was eight years old. Colbert added an incentive and intellectual relief to the questions posed, exposing the mind of a film maker and the artistic intentions behind the nude stars.

Colbert shared the industry’s safest and top-paying genre: gay porn. “Gay companies really originated the use of condoms,” he said. Banner claimed shortly after that she prefers not to use condoms because of the long-lasting affect they may have on her performance, which makes her job harder if her natural fluidity remains at stake.

President of Condom Co-Op Sarah Diamond and other students of the organization sat in the back of the room throughout the entire night, advocating safe sex by giving out free condoms. “Personally, after listening to Ron speak and Brooke speak about not using condoms, I personally feel they still should,” she said. “I think any risk greater than zero especially when it comes to sexual health is too high of a risk.”

Jeremy and Banner both mutually agreed the use of condoms in the industry were unneeded from the amount of testing the casting directors do in order to find individuals who are STD free and safe.

At the end of the night, Banner and Jeremy allowed students to take pictures alongside them. Banner, having gone without plastic surgery for eight years, claimed that she posed next to stars “with fake boobs, fake chin, fake everything,” and felt that it was not physically attractive to her. Both male and female students gazed up at her, with her elongated 5’8 figure and girlish looks. Jeremy allowed students to take photos with him, chirping “thank you, thank you” from ongoing compliments. Jeremy boyishly smiled with his signature Hawaiian t-shirt and Crocs as he waved away the remaining students and said goodbye to a night full of demystification.