Being a male pornstar seems like it would be the dream career for guys everywhere. After all, where else can a dude get paid money to have sex with hot girls all the time? Oh, right, nowhere. And, because being a male pornstar has a reputation of being pretty awesome, one would think the pay is equally as awesome, right? Well…
Before we get into the numbers of how much a male pornstar actually gets paid per scene, let’s just go ahead and say that we’d still be happy with the decision to get into the industry. In addition to the aforementioned sex with hot girls to help feed our sexual minds, there are other perks, too — like having a big dick and stamina that usually leads to lots of sex for a prolonged period of time. It’s work, but, c’mon, it’s pretty fun work.
That said, it’s not all roses for male pornstars, as the job has demands that can be difficult to meet and, more so, the pay actually isn’t as great as one might imagine. While we’ve documented some of the highest-paid female pornstars on the planet before, when it comes to male pornstars, they aren’t quite as lucky.
Talking to The Independent a couple of years ago, a now former male pornstar named Chris Zeischegg, who went by the name Chris Wylde during his adult acting days, helped give some insight on just how much these dudes are making each scene.
Here are a couple snippets from the interview that Chris Wylde did with The Independent — and it may or may not change your perception about male pornstars and what they have to go through to break into the industry and maintain a career.
fter trying his hand at nude photography as an “art model” he saw a listing for a porn shoot which he tried for a “crazy, one-time experience”.
Starting out earning around $300 per scene (£245), he could eventually command between $500 – $700 per scene and landed a year-long contract with a production company who paid him $4,000 per month (£3,300) despite having only to work six days out of the month.
Women typically make more money in the adult industry, usually around $1,000 for a standard male-female scene, but they can receive significantly more for various scenes.
OK, so a $48,000 annual salary for having sex isn’t too bad, especially when Wylde mentioned he only had to work six days out of the month, right? Well, that’s where things get a little tricky, because the pressure to perform led to some poor decisions, which, in Wylde’s case, was abusing ED meds to keep his penis erect.
Zeischegg (Wylde) ultimately left the adult industry on medical advice after he landed himself in hospital for priapism (a prolonged erection) because he had become reliant on the use of erectile dysfunction medication – something he says is very widespread in the industry.
“Over the course of an eight year career, I ended up in the emergency room three times. All for priapism. After the third time, a doctor said to me that if I kept using the drugs, I could cause some serious long-term damage, like scar tissue build up in my penis, which could lead to impotence. I quit performing in porn the following day,” he says.
See, we just knew there had to be a catch to all the fun getting paid for sex had. It just couldn’t be perfect, could it?
Being a male pornstar might be great, in theory, but, like any other job, it has certain things that make it tough to withstand, whether that be pressure, competition or low pay in comparison to other performers. That said, if someone’s offering us $500 for a 20-minute scene, we’d happily sign up and just hope our grandparents never came across it online.