Hazleton, Pa- Born Ron Jeremy Hyatt on March 12, 1953, living legend of porn Ron Jeremy has blazed a trail through mass media and the adult film industry like no other person before or since.
After graduating from Cardoza High (Brooklyn) in 1971, he went on to earn a master’s degree from Queens College. By the mid-1970’s Ron Jeremy was working as a special education teacher in New York City, when he was discovered by Playgirl magazine in its ‘Boy Next Door’ section when his girlfriend submitted a picture of him. One year later in 1979, Ron Jeremy was making his debut performance in an adult film with Samantha Fox called “Tigress And Other Man Eaters.’
The rest is adult cinematic history.
Ron Jeremy, also known affectionately as The Hedgehog because of his back hair, was kind enough to sit down for an interview recently at Hazleton area adult club, Leave it to Beavers.
Jeremy had performed as an announcer that evening for Linn Thomas who is notable for being the first model to ever appear as both a Playboy Playmate and Penthouse Pet. Ron also spent the evening entertaining the audience with a stand-up routine in between the dancers’ shows. After a chaotic autograph session Ron took the time to give this interview.
How do you feel about (porn star) Darren James and the recent HIV scare in the (adult) industry?
(This April several adult film stars tested positive for the deadly virus.)
“Hey look, the guy [Darren James] got careless. My gut feeling is that he went to Brazil. John Stagliano, The Buttman went to Brazil and came back with HIV, because he mixed with a transsexual. I don’t want to cause rumors and say I know what Darren James has done, but my gut feeling is that he played around with a transsexual. Because from what I understand of the chances of girl to guy transmission and if you look at the research of some of the leading doctors talk to clinics; talk to people you know of that are aware of and witness my lifestyle; the people you’ve watched It’s very difficult to go girl to guy. In our industry in ’97 a girl had it. And she worked with guys during her period right in the height of her infection before the antibodies started to simmer down to flu symptoms, right? And guys worked with her during this bad period. Not one guy caught it and she worked with like ten to fifteen guys.
I don’t really believe that Darren got it from a girl. I have a hard time believing that. It was a very isolated situation. He’s not a very big star. Two girls got infected.”
How often does someone in the industry get checked for sexual diseases?
“Monthly. We get a check up every month. We have to.”
Is that a contractual thing?
“It’s a no one will go near you if you don’t.’ We take tests that you can’t get. We don’t take regular tests. We take the PCR-DNA test, which is very strong. It cuts down the window period, ya know? It measures the actual viral load. It doesn’t measure the antibodies.”
As far as the (government) pursuing the morality of the adult entertainment industry, how do you feel?
It’s funny how the Republicans don’t like porn and yet-I gotta make that joke: Look who’s in the White House, a Bush, a Dick and a Colin! It’s a known fact that under the Republicans porn gets prosecuted. I can go into detail about. I lecture at Cal State on sex and the law and it would take me too long. It would fill up five of your tapes with the detail of it. Suffice to say that under the Republicans porn gets prosecuted. The main reason is all religious groups, Pat Robertson Jerry Falwell. They all back Republicans, not Democrats. So when the Republicans win [they have to] take care of the constituents that put them in power. They have to follow through.
And look, Bush is very religious. Ronald Reagan was very religious. These people have to pay back the Christians by going against abortion, gays; hating porn; the whole thing, you see?…
…Republicans prosecute more. Democrats don’t. Everyone knows it and that’s a fact.
So it’s safe to say that you’re a Democrat?
A Democrat.
What is the future of the adult industry for you? Is it going back to the basics?
“I’ll still work in adult movies. I have a contract with a company called Metro Interactive for all appearances and videos. My website goes to Leisuretime, another company. So its nice getting checks and not getting out of bed in the morning after twenty-six years of show business.”
How do you feel about the movement to unionize the adult entertainment industry?
“It can not happen. I appreciate their attempts. A guy tried it in the early or late seventies. You can’t organize porn. It’s too litigated. It’s just too difficult to govern porn and regulate it. They can barely govern non-union films in Hollywood. How ya gonna go next door and if someone wants to [make a home movie] and sell it to an amateur porn company are you going to say, ‘Is this union?’
Secondly, there’s no power. Superman’ didn’t get made until Marlon Brando agreed to go on it. Christopher Reeve wasn’t a bankable name. So when Marlon Brando agreed to play Jor-El they got financing. Hollywood needs backers to get financing. If all the major stars in Hollywood strike it’ll affect the business.
What in porn has that power? If every actress in porn would strike, the business would laugh and go ‘ we like new faces anyway!’ You can’t have a union where your striking means nothing. You have no power. I’m not saying I’m for or against the union. I just saying I’m trying to be practical about it.
Unionizing? [It] can’t happen, at least not in the next few years, unless things change.”
Do you think unionization would be a positive move or a negative one if it happened?
“All unionizing is positive. It’d be a nice move. But see again, people in porn get paid pretty well. They get paid much better then those mainstream films, those films you see in Fangoria [Magazine]. Porn stars get a lot more money. The average porn star today makes between one hundred thousand and one quarter of a million a year. What are you gonna unionize, ya know? Men make a lot less, but then again every man wants to do it. They’ll work for free, half the guys that I run into. And now with Viagra you don’t have to rely on the professional guys anymore. Look at the old days. You only saw a handful of us the last twenty years: Peter North, myself, Randy West, Tom Byron, etc. Now you’ve got a new guy every other week. Guys would always fail. We’d be on the set and guys would fail. That’s why this handful [of guys] could last. Now you’ve got Viagra and every guy can do it.”
Do you still aspire to break into mainstream film?
“I’ve done a lot of mainstream film. Well, I’m doing one right now called The Wickeds.’ We just drove about six hours from where we’re shooting in Virginia. I went and killed about twelve zombies today!”
Cool!
“Great make-up too. Swinging a pick axe-Seriously. I killed twelve zombies. We shot at a beautiful cemetery. I play this father figure. I was the spiritual guidance counselor. [My co-star] gets bitten by a vampire and in the grave it bleeds into his face and he starts to take on the vampire’s qualities. So I’m torn. I have to kill my son, but I don’t really want to.
I have a tremendous amount of mainstream films. My union name in the Screen Actor’s Guild is Ron Hyatt or Ron Jeremy. I had a couple of parts in The Chase’ with Charlie Sheen and they named me Ron Hyatt. I worked with John Frankenheimer a lot, and he recently died. He was so established. And he wanted to use the Jeremy name. He liked my acting and thought I was good. He put me in a couple of [parts, including] ‘Dead Rhino’ with Don Johnson, George Wallace’ in his mini-series, ‘Reindeer Games’ and ‘Ronin.’ Everyone of those I’m on screen as Ron Hyatt, so [ Frankenheimer] always took good care of me. He’s one of the most legendary directors of all time. I mean, Steven Spielberg said, ‘This man trained me,’ ya know? So it was an honor for the man to have faith in me and give me a part in movies.”
Of all the films that you’ve done, who is your favorite adult film star to work with?
“Tabitha Stevens.”
Where do you see porn in the next couple years?
“More interactive, holograms, robots, having sex with a live doll. Now I want Jenna Jameson. Now I want Christie Canyon. And the doll will have the attributes they have.”