Does The Fluffer do its job well? Adult video luminary Will Clark gives his expert opinion on a fictional behind-the-scenes look at the gay-porn business. (Video).

The Fluffer * Written by Wash West * Directed by West and Richard Glatzer * Starring Scott Gurney, Michael Cunio * First Run Features Video

Will Clark has been around the gay-porn business for seven years and has seen it, done it, and lived it all--appearing in videos, hosting a talk show, producing fund-raisers, promoting the industry, writing columns, and making a general nuisance of himself.

Ever wondered what it's like on the set of a gay-porn movie? Writer Wash West and his codirector, Richard Glatzer, present a frighteningly accurate picture of the inner workings of the gay XXX industry in the independent feature The Fluffer, now out on video and DVD. West knows the world of gay porn well: A ms0or player in the industry, he's directed and won top awards for such videos as Naked Highway (1997) and The Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony (2001), among others.

The Fluffer tells the story of young everyman Sean McGinnis (Michael Cunio), who arrives in Los Angeles from the Midwest looking for fame and fortune as a filmmaker but ends up working as a fluffer at a gay-porn studio to make ends meet. (The term fluffer refers to the on-set person--usually a production assistant--whose job is to get the star primed for the scene.) Sean is inspired to take the job due to his fascination with porn star Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney), who is the studio's exclusive. Johnny is a well-built, dark-haired, wildly attractive biker stud with a penchant for using crystal meth and for banging his stripper girlfriend, Julie (a.k.a. Babylon). Sean ends up becoming Johnny's favorite fluffer--and that fuels Sean's growing obsession with him all the more.

Having spent the past seven years of my life working on porn sets as a model--and getting to know virtually everyone in the business through fundraising parties I throw and a porn-star interview chat show I host at the bar Micky's in West Hollywood--I can attest that what goes on in The Fluffer is an accurate depiction of how the business works. Studio heads create a star and then dump him when he's lost his luster--and of course there's the subculture of drug use and abuse.

One of the main aspects of the film, however, struck me as unrealistic: the physicality of Johnny Rebel as he descends into meth abuse. The story refers to him going on three- to five-day binges, but he shows no sign of physical deterioration. One character comments, "Have you looked in a mirror lately?" yet there seems to be little difference in Johnny's looks, in either his face or his incredibly hot body. In reality he'd be thin, drawn, and gaunt, and his company would have fired him for looking like hell long before his temperament caused his dismissal--and he would have probably ended up making C-level porn for less and less money to support his habit.

Gurney and Cunio both turn in terrific performances, and Robert Walden delivers a startlingly honest portrayal of a slimy studio head.

The Fluffer also offers cameos by porn luminaries Chi Chi LaRue, Karen Dior, Chris Green, Blake Harper, Derek Cameron, Cole Tucker, Chad Donovan, and Thomas Lloyd as well as Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry in a supporting role.

While some might guffaw at a lot of the situations that go on around the sets depicted in The Fluffer, I just nodded in agreement with the truth of it all.