Porn performer Mark Ashley calls out the scam known as LATATA – [source]
This post I think I’ll devote to a subject that has been getting some attention lately. Agencies. It’s a touchy subject for discussion publicly mainly because most performers are worried about backlash in the form of economic reprisals from a few of the agencies. If you want my honest opinion, the porn industry needs to do away with this scam. You think an association of adult talent agencies has our best interests at heart? Really? Before I get into public slandering of a bunch of sociopathic bullies and manipulators, lets get right to the heart of the matter. The money.
For starters they take an agency commission of 15-20% of talent income. That means for every 1 million dollars doled out to pay talent, $200.000 of that goes to pay someone with no real talent to speak of other than sitting on their asses in front of a computer and doing what 90% of the industry talent used to do for themselves. And thats just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve all heard stories of buying out of the agency for a large fee. Are these contracts even legally binding? And what about the constant blacklisting that goes on against any talent that dare question their authority? Or for petty reasons that have more to do with pushing independent contractors out of the way to make room for their shitty b-list talent that’s too scared to rock the boat. How many of you listen to the same bullshit that comes out of their mouths (you need to lose weight, you need to get breast augmentation, you have to do this scene even though you are tired and sore, we have to hold your rate, you have to start doing anal scenes,etc.) and wanted to throttle them? How often do they get a needle in their arm and piss in a cup to test for work? How often do you see their lazy asses in the gym to stay fit for work? And thats just the shit I’ve been hearing for a few years now. Did they prevent Mr. Syphillis er Mr. Marcus from going to work with a forged test? Did they prevent the condom law from going into effect? Did they improve conditions on set? No they didn’t. They put 20% of our money into their own pockets and tried to tell us that we need them more than they need us. Well now we are in the middle of a crisis in our business and are they doing anything except lining their pockets? Fuck no. They’ve trashed the industry to the point where the girls are more hookers than entertainers. And that requires a lot of grooming to achieve. Most people are born with a little self esteem, these jack offs attack any sign of common sense and self preservation.
My experience with agents is summed up like this – they want a docile bitch to go along with whatever hack set they send you to. And then they want a dumb dog to just shut the fuck up and do the job. I’ve been lied about rate, who I’m working with, and what type of scene I’ll be doing and I’m supposed to just go along with waiting a month for a check with their cut taken off. I have never authorized any checks to be written to me by a a talent agency. They seem to think this is ok. What a joke. And they are also getting really efficient at grooming the girls away from any real communication with the other talent. That would breed discontent. It’s no wonder I only last a few scenes with an agent and then bail…
The agency licensing and bonding procedure they try to legitamize themselves through wasn’t designed for porn. It was designed for agents who deal with SAG or million dollar contracts in mainstream movies or television. We don’t make enough and most of our careers aren’t long enough to have some fucking parasite attached to us. And the shitty thing is they have taken so much power for themselves that most people think they are powerless to do something about it. Remember LATATA is only a recent thing and judging by the way the industry is going now I’d say it’s time for these parasite pimp scumbags to hit the fucking road. They’ve had their chance and they fucked up. Remember everyone – YOU CAN BOOK YOUR OWN SCENES!!
Porn wasn’t always like this. It was Jim South and 3 skeezy pimps until 2006. Most girls would do 5 scenes and figure out that they could book their own scenes and dictate the terms. Now you do it out of obligation. The only way to do porn is for yourself. Thats it.. Another way it’s changed is the girls had waaaaay more say in who they worked with. You knew who would show up be cool and rip through a scene with no problem. You knew that if you worked with an A list male talent, you weren’t going to catch an infection or be treated like shit. You knew he wasn’t injecting his dick with Caverject to maintain wood. Now you get some agency/Manwin propped up fraud that never had to really prove himself to begin with. There was natural order. The strongest guys with the strongest girls. The performers had a say in what was going on. Now it’s petty grooming and guilt by an agent. I don’t want to fuck an agency. I want to fuck the girl I’m working with. The director used to actually be concerned with who wanted to fuck who. Nobody cared.It was that simple. Now it’s a fucking joke. And the joke is on you….