What a Time to Live
Porn is awesome. Porn has always been awesome. But have you noticed lately how porn is really, really ridiculously awesome?
From the nascent days of 16mm smut right up to 4K, adult-oriented media has captivated the imagination, aroused our desires and inspired ecstasy. But lately something truly Darwinian has been unfolding. Porn appears to be in an accelerated phase of evolution. How else could one explain how goddamn good it’s become in such a relatively short span of time? We may not have the scientific metrics to prove it, but as perpetually horny laypeople who love hardcore, one thing is abundantly clear: This is a new Golden Age for adult content. It’s a bold claim, but consider the incredible talent that is driving this caliber of cinema. From award-winning directors to visionary performers and content creators, HUSTLER presents the makers of a movement who are taking porn to the next level and beyond.
CHERIE DEVILLE
A Dungeons & Dragons devotee with maximum charisma points, MILF superstar Cherie DeVille has witnessed porn’s transformation into a creator-driven culture that is redefining what triple-X can be. The biggest game-changer? Autonomy. Get ready for the future of pizza porn.
HUSTLER: You have a unique vantage point on the industry and its evolution—specifically, the rise of independent creators. Take us back to 2010—what was it like, and when did it dawn on you that this was something you could do on your own?
CHERIE DEVILLE: Before I started doing mainstream porn, before I signed with an agent, before I started working for the larger companies with big DVD distribution, I spent about a year filming for independent content creators—fetish clips for people who used Clips4Sale and had their own dot-coms. The most popular creators were the ones doing really interesting fetish content: chloroform, giantess… really, really niche content. Back then the mainstream market was prohibitively expensive. Unless you had Jenna Jameson money [ClubJenna]—a whole team behind you to create the site, handle billing, affiliate marketing and all that stuff—the price of admission was too high.
Within about a year I transitioned completely into what we now call mainstream porn, working for the established companies that had the money and infrastructure to run their own sites. I was working nonstop, and my stress levels were through the roof—desperately overworked, but too scared to back away. And then the big change: COVID. The industry shut down. Even when it reopened, it was 24-hour testing, people getting sick left, right and center, scenes canceled—not a solid source of revenue. We all had to adapt, and we had to adapt fast.
