Portrait of me in the middle of a typical porn scene: Sweat drips down my face, my overworked legs are wobbly, my jaw might ache from being open too long while my neck burns from being twisted into an awkward angle.

Being an adult performer is not easy money, as the preachers like to say. It’s a little like being a high-risk professional athlete—stamina is required. While everyone is entitled to love or hate “skin flicks,” I think most people harbor misconceptions about the work. Remember that pornography is shot with the viewer in mind. In the summer there is no air-conditioning on the set (too noisy) and it’s not always, or even often, glamorous.

Like many other adult actresses, my first few scenes, which were shot in May of 2000, were the stereotypical easy-money kind: some regular vaginal sex where I played the wide-eyed innocent guided by the seasoned male. Fresh meat sells well—the roughing-up came later.