- 4 hours ago
Hollywood Demons Season 2 Episode 2
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:06All right, let's get in here, let's do some digital, and then we'll shoot some Polaroids
00:00:12as well.
00:00:13Yeah.
00:00:15How about we start with you taking off your shirt?
00:00:20I'm best known as kind of the former Disney child actor.
00:00:23How about you bite the shirt a little bit?
00:00:25Oh, nice.
00:00:26That moved into doing adult entertainment.
00:00:29Perfect.
00:00:30One, two, three.
00:00:33America loves child actors, watching a child being able to master this craft.
00:00:39The problem is they imagine because they had success at the child store, it's going to
00:00:44be equally as easy as an adult.
00:00:46That pursuit of fame can lead people down really dark paths.
00:00:53Most people know me as Rachel from Bormis World.
00:00:56There was a lot of episodes that were very fetishy.
00:00:58I would always get half-naked or I was in towels with my bath.
00:01:03I'm known for mostly a Christmas story as the famous kid with the tongue with his flagpole.
00:01:09But it's not like there was a big pot of gold waiting for me.
00:01:14Fame is a drug.
00:01:16Fame is a drug.
00:01:16She represented the American girl.
00:01:19And when Hollywood says, we don't need you anymore, that place of desperation facilitates
00:01:27this move into adult film.
00:01:32Is that the only way to assert your womanhood?
00:01:35I was just tired of being so poor.
00:01:39You know, I thought I was doing it for the right reasons.
00:01:44There was zero that had done as much work as I had who then turns around and does this.
00:01:50She's all grown up wearing next to nothing.
00:01:53Sex, drugs.
00:01:54A good question we should be asking is, was that a shocking fall from grace?
00:01:58Just snowballed.
00:02:00Or something else going on?
00:02:02Yes, you're an actor for five minutes.
00:02:04Then what do you do when you're not acting?
00:02:07I want to show I'm grown up and I'm a woman.
00:02:09Former star of different strokes pleaded guilty.
00:02:14After a troubled career, child actress has died.
00:02:20What would be the appeal?
00:02:21Doing a full on work.
00:02:37Across my career, I've certainly met many individuals who were child performers.
00:02:42And I am aware of child stars then subsequently getting involved in adult entertainment.
00:02:53The question is, why?
00:03:00Malin Ward starred on Boy Meets World, who is now in the adult film industry.
00:03:06I've interviewed her a couple of times on a podcast I do.
00:03:09Her case is sort of unique.
00:03:13Tell me about the pieces.
00:03:16You can see all my colors.
00:03:17They're like very, like very vibrant, powerful colors.
00:03:22Like I wear a lot of red.
00:03:23It's kind of like my black widow kind of thing.
00:03:26Like I don't think people would generally think a porn film would have this suit in it.
00:03:31But it does and it looks very sexy.
00:03:35My name is Maitland Ward.
00:03:37I grew up in a very typical middle class home in Long Beach, California.
00:03:45But my grandma was very religious.
00:03:48It was scary as a kid because if you don't do the right thing you're going to.
00:03:54I remember one time she said, you know, if you don't go up in the rapture, don't take the sign
00:04:00of the beast.
00:04:00Just let them kill you.
00:04:01And I was like a kid.
00:04:02And I'm like, oh my God, I'm so scared.
00:04:05Something's going to go wrong.
00:04:06And I'm like, you know, not going to go up in the rapture.
00:04:10And that was traumatic.
00:04:13I felt like I needed to live up to that standard of being very, you know, buttoned up, straight laced.
00:04:19I felt I needed to suppress a lot of myself.
00:04:22As I got older and started having different feelings like sexual feelings, I just felt like God was going to
00:04:29totally punish me.
00:04:34There's something called scrupulosity where there's a hyper-religiosity or religious abuse where you essentially traumatize kids.
00:04:41You make them feel like they're in danger.
00:04:42You shame them.
00:04:43And you do it repeatedly in a way that's emotionally abusive.
00:04:49A lot of people who grew up in such a restrictive environment, that can actually backfire.
00:04:56And that can cause people to rebel.
00:04:58And rebel in ways that are actually harmful to them.
00:05:03When I was nine or ten, the local dance company was having this acting teacher from Hollywood come teach classes
00:05:10there every week.
00:05:12Acting allowed me to have the good girl image and really just explore different characters and be able to explore
00:05:19yourself in that way without anyone judging you.
00:05:22Because it was a character.
00:05:25I was doing school plays and stuff, but I wanted to go to Hollywood and audition and be on these,
00:05:30you know, things that my parents were just worried there could be, you know, dangers for somebody growing up in
00:05:37the industry.
00:05:38These, like, stories of child actors who have fallen down really bad paths, like Dana Plato.
00:05:45Dana Plato was on a very popular television show called Different Strokes.
00:05:52Different Strokes is about a very wealthy businessman named Philip Drummond and his daughter Kimberly.
00:05:58Philip adopts two young boys from Harlem.
00:06:03The three main child actors were Dana Plato, Gary Coleman, and Todd Bridges.
00:06:11Oh, they're here!
00:06:13Oh, look at them, Daddy!
00:06:15Just look at them!
00:06:16Aren't they gorgeous?
00:06:17Real boys!
00:06:19Welcome, little brother!
00:06:21That's the Dana that I remember.
00:06:22By the way, guys, stay out of my room or I'll punch you out!
00:06:25Oh, you see, life.
00:06:27You see, you know, that's how she was when she came to the room.
00:06:29She blew up a room.
00:06:30She was so energetic that it gave the room a lot of, you know, a lot of stuff, so it
00:06:34was great.
00:06:36When I met Dana, when I was 12, she would have had to have been 13.
00:06:42We were close to the same age.
00:06:44Everyone loved Dana.
00:06:45She was one of the prettiest girls on TV.
00:06:48She represented the American girl.
00:06:50Blonde hair, blue eyes.
00:06:52Definitely wholesome.
00:06:53The average rating for this show was 19.9 million.
00:06:58Literally no shows get ratings like that.
00:07:00Super Bowl gets ratings like that now, and that's about it.
00:07:05I think the average person probably thinks that a child actor that goes into porn is sort of fallen, going
00:07:13down the wrong path sort of thing.
00:07:16I see it completely otherwise.
00:07:19There definitely were people that were trauma survivors that chose to be in that world.
00:07:27Dana was born to a teen mom and was subsequently adopted when she was seven months of age.
00:07:33Kay was her mother, who we saw on the set all the time, who really loved Dana.
00:07:37At age three, her adopted parents got divorced, and she was then raised by a single mother.
00:07:42Kay was a phenomenal mother, but Kay had a shocking disease called scleroderma.
00:07:48Scleroderma is a rheumatic disease where essentially a lot of the interstitial soft tissue becomes scarred.
00:07:56So people get very, very drawn faces, narrow fingers, and pulmonary hypertension and renal failure.
00:08:02And it cuts people's lives quite short.
00:08:06So mom has chronic illness.
00:08:09And then Dana is thrust into acting.
00:08:14A year before she starred in Different Strokes, Dana Plato made a guest appearance on a show called Family in
00:08:20the 70s when she was just 12 years old.
00:08:23And at 12 years old, she comes on this show, and she is wearing a two-piece swimsuit.
00:08:30I was thinking maybe we'd, I thought we could go to the beach.
00:08:33I think the manner in which she appears is inappropriate.
00:08:38And it's because of the way that Dana walks into this room.
00:08:42Well, this is California, isn't it?
00:08:44It feels very male gaze-y.
00:08:47And it's cute.
00:08:49Short.
00:08:53Maybe.
00:08:55Wow.
00:08:56I don't know what to say.
00:08:58I didn't ever see that episode.
00:09:01An Asian thing is to listen to what casting is asking for and to supply.
00:09:08Sitting here now, 40 years later, and seeing it, I go, ouch.
00:09:15Now you've got a cute little girl who's bubbly and spicy and looks like this in a bikini.
00:09:21Hello.
00:09:22It's Christmas for these guys.
00:09:25Who have no control.
00:09:27Who have no ethics.
00:09:30Women just sexualize the period.
00:09:32That's just what it was about.
00:09:33There are a couple of times in Different Strokes where Dana Plato has to wear a bathing suit.
00:09:39She has to come out onto a stage in front of an audience, which at 13 is already a just
00:09:44enormous task.
00:09:49And the immediate reaction from the live audience watching this is to catcall her.
00:09:56And she's a teenager.
00:09:58She's a minor.
00:10:00Hey, guys. Surf's up.
00:10:02There's another scene where Dana enters in a swimsuit.
00:10:06So first, her dad is reprimanding her for not having enough clothes on.
00:10:13Can you put on some clothes this instant, young lady?
00:10:15And then her dad notices her figure and says,
00:10:20Wow, Kimberly, you're really doing something for that bathing suit.
00:10:23And then he winks at her.
00:10:24You really do something for that bathing suit.
00:10:29That is the weirdest dad-daughter remark.
00:10:34The second season promo stills for Different Strokes feature Dana Plato in a two-piece bikini.
00:10:43At this time, Dana Plato is 14 or 15 years old.
00:10:48At a young age, that sort of objectification teaches her that's her worth.
00:10:53Her body, her sexuality.
00:10:55It's a bad message for young women.
00:10:57And that can impact behavior behind closed doors.
00:11:06At 12 years old, I was sleeping one time in the room on the set.
00:11:11And all of a sudden, somebody zipped my pants down and started, you know, giving me a .
00:11:15And it was Dana.
00:11:19But how would a 12-year-old girl know about that?
00:11:23The only way that you are going to do that to someone else is if you have experienced it yourself.
00:11:35Dana was wild.
00:11:37My first experience with everything was with Dana.
00:11:41My first threesome was with Dana.
00:11:43My first foursome was with Dana.
00:11:45My first fivesome was Dana.
00:11:47It was all Dana.
00:11:47Threesome, foursome, fivesome, that's typically sex addiction.
00:11:52So you have to wonder when young adolescents or children engage in sexual acts that maybe they shouldn't have understood
00:12:02can be even in the repertoire of sexual behaviors.
00:12:05You have to wonder if there had been some sexual abuse prior.
00:12:10It's just sad that she could never just tell us what was really going on in her head.
00:12:17And I really wish we could have, because we could have really helped her.
00:12:20You know, no matter how much I talked about it, she didn't want to, she didn't ever want to talk
00:12:23about her feelings.
00:12:27In my experience, child performers that struggle with issues later in life, commonly have some sort of unresolved childhood trauma.
00:12:45I grew up in central New Jersey.
00:12:48Dad's a window cleaner.
00:12:50Mom worked at a 7-Eleven.
00:12:53I grew up in a disciplinarian home.
00:12:55Mom was not the disciplinarian.
00:12:58Mom was the one that yelled and screamed.
00:12:59Dad was the one that took the belt out.
00:13:01That's what it was.
00:13:04It's one thing to hit a child, but when you pick up an object, and if the child is fearful,
00:13:12traumatized parts of self, who are afraid of being killed, wall off.
00:13:17The research suggests that you either have depressions and start using substances to regulate that part of the brain.
00:13:25Or you become a perfectionistic and hyperachiever to protect yourself.
00:13:28And you get rewarded and feed that part of your brain.
00:13:40I'm 6, 7, 8, 9 years old.
00:13:42I was going to New York with my dad to a movie club every week.
00:13:47So it seems like the way Scotty got involved in film was amongst the members of the club was a
00:13:54producer who came up to Scotty and said,
00:13:56Hey, you know, you've got a great personality.
00:13:58You've got a good look.
00:13:59I need a kid for this commercial.
00:14:01You'd be perfect for this. How about it?
00:14:03Dad's like, yeah, if he wants to do it, okay, fine.
00:14:05Kid wants to do it? Fine.
00:14:06Allegedly.
00:14:07Dad may have been behind it.
00:14:08I don't know.
00:14:09In general, memory is flawed.
00:14:11Children's memories are particularly flawed.
00:14:13I think deep down he knew his dad loved film and he knew it would make his dad happy.
00:14:21So what did your family think about this, especially your dad?
00:14:25He loved just to be around it.
00:14:27That was just his thing.
00:14:28He loved to be around it.
00:14:29You know, he loved the people.
00:14:31And I facilitated that because I'm doing, I did commercials with Julius Irving, Dr. J, Sugar Ray Leonard.
00:14:40In a span of three and a half years, I did over a hundred on camera.
00:14:45I did over a hundred voice overs.
00:14:47Doing commercials for Ken or Hasbro.
00:14:52Dukes of Hazard wrist racers.
00:14:54Dukes of Hazard wrist racers.
00:14:56Somebody sent me the commercial from YouTube.
00:14:58I didn't even remember doing it.
00:15:01In a Burger King commercial.
00:15:04The parents would get more of a kick out of it than my friends because they saw me every day.
00:15:08I was Billy the Kid.
00:15:10I'd never wear that suit now.
00:15:13Announcing a new gravy train flavor.
00:15:16This spot was great.
00:15:18Second!
00:15:19I was non-stop.
00:15:21Good grace to somebody.
00:15:22They like me.
00:15:29My name is Dan Benson.
00:15:32I spent most of my formative childhood years in a small town called Springfield, Missouri.
00:15:38I loved being on stage doing talent shows.
00:15:43I was doing tap and jazz dancing and gymnastics.
00:15:46But I was small and I looked like five years younger than I was.
00:15:50So in middle school was when I started to really get picked on.
00:15:56I would just like start crying.
00:15:58I remember just seeing my mom like feel so bad for me and just like have no idea what to
00:16:04do about that.
00:16:07But then we were driving to school one day and we heard an ad on the radio that was like,
00:16:13Do you want to be a model?
00:16:15Do you want to be an actor?
00:16:17I looked at my dad. I was like, Oh my God.
00:16:22My dad was like, You want to do that?
00:16:24I was like, Yeah, I want to try out.
00:16:25And he's like, All right.
00:16:27I did a lot of random commercials over the years.
00:16:32My third audition I booked, it was for a commercial for Tang.
00:16:37The like powdered juice drink.
00:16:39I actually made the sound of a dirt bike.
00:16:47That's all I did in the commercial, but I did it really good.
00:16:50Then I started to book a lot of like Disney Channel and Nickelodeon roles.
00:16:55Feel the Future, Zoey 101.
00:17:00I went on an audition for a big movie.
00:17:04A couple weeks later, the phone rings.
00:17:06Scott Schwartz was 14.
00:17:09He makes the film The Toy.
00:17:11The Toy is a 1982 comedy, Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleeson and myself.
00:17:15Jackie Gleeson plays a billionaire who's got a military brat for a kid who just really wants to be loved
00:17:21by his father.
00:17:22So he gets sent to the toy store.
00:17:24You can buy whatever you want.
00:17:26And I go to the store and there's Richard Pryor and he's playing like a cleaning guy.
00:17:30And they're like, you know, all right, you know, what do you want?
00:17:32I go, I want the black man.
00:17:34I want him.
00:17:35He's not the same.
00:17:36And at the end of the day, Richard teaches both of us how to be with each other and care
00:17:42about each other.
00:17:43If you want a friend, you don't buy a friend. You earn a friend.
00:17:46Richard Pryor was the greatest stand up that ever lived.
00:17:49Everybody that has come since was influenced by him.
00:17:55But allegedly, he was raised in a brothel and he was exposed to sexual conduct early.
00:18:04And he was a severe drug addict.
00:18:07One of the ways that Richard Pryor liked to consume drugs was by freebasing cocaine.
00:18:16In 1980, reportedly when he was high on drugs, he accidentally set himself on fire.
00:18:37He nearly died.
00:18:39He had three degree burns over something like two thirds of his body.
00:18:43That happened on June 9th.
00:18:45The turning point was June 10th.
00:18:48I woke up, you know, and from there on, it's just every day is great and I'm a happy man.
00:18:56Richard could not stay sober.
00:18:58He tried. He had periods of abstinence, but he was using it pretty much all the way.
00:19:05Scott Schwartz makes the film The Toy.
00:19:08And this is just a couple of years after the incident where Pryor sets himself on fire.
00:19:15And Scott ends up spending a lot of time with Richard Pryor.
00:19:21When we think about the kinds of situations that endanger child actors,
00:19:28a lot of people just think about, okay, the time that they are working on set.
00:19:34But all of that activity is highly supervised.
00:19:37But when the cameras stop rolling, who's around to watch and make sure that they're not being taken advantage of?
00:19:45The real question is, what is the implication of having a friend that's so close?
00:19:52As an adult, a drug addict, with a ton of life trauma.
00:19:56Now who's going to win? I am, right?
00:19:58You're not going to win this one.
00:19:59But if you win, you can go home with your pay.
00:20:04He was fun.
00:20:06You know, I was a kid.
00:20:07At the same time, he didn't really treat me that way though.
00:20:11We talk about everything.
00:20:13Whether it was theater, comedy, movies, life, sex, drugs, you name it.
00:20:21He's like, any questions you got, just call me, I'll tell you.
00:20:23Done it all, don't worry.
00:20:26He knew I liked the upper anatomy of a woman.
00:20:28And he'd say, what about her?
00:20:29And I'd say, oh, they're beautiful, you know, whatever.
00:20:31And out of nowhere, he goes, great .
00:20:36There's a scene in the film, the party scene, and the senator gets out and there's this great-looking woman
00:20:43behind him.
00:20:44She was gorgeous.
00:20:47The transportation coordinator put our trailers back to back, and they were flat back.
00:20:54So I went in and I got and changed into my stuff for lunch.
00:20:57And here she comes, she's right there.
00:20:59And the top comes right off, and I have a magnificent shot of a magnificent set of boobs.
00:21:04Okay, fine.
00:21:05And I'm going cuckoo, man.
00:21:07I'm like, oh my God, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen.
00:21:10I go and I tell Alan, the transportation coordinator, Alan, dude.
00:21:15You ain't going to believe this.
00:21:16I tell him, I said, listen, I owe you dinner, I got to do something.
00:21:19He goes, no, I'll take lunch, but you got to give the other half to Richard, because it was his
00:21:23idea.
00:21:28Richard lived in a very sexually charged environment growing up.
00:21:33If he, Richard, takes it upon himself to, I'm going to educate this child, this 13-year-old, that's not
00:21:39good.
00:21:40He is at risk for traumatic impact.
00:21:44All sorts of psychiatric problems.
00:21:46Day after day, when there were extras on the set, especially kids, my age, Richard would send them to my
00:21:52trailer.
00:21:52Girls were coming to my trailer.
00:21:55And they were, you know, 13, 14, 15 years old, you know, my age range, whatever.
00:22:00And, you know, I'm having make-out sessions and, like, can't do that now.
00:22:04But nobody cared and nobody was going to say anything, because they knew Richard was behind the whole thing.
00:22:17We finished the toy.
00:22:18He went home for, like, three weeks and went to London to shoot Superman III.
00:22:22I lost touch with him for about 17 or 18 months.
00:22:28But my first time with a person of the opposite sex, you know, I was 15 and a half.
00:22:35That's who I called first.
00:22:36The first person I told was Richard.
00:22:39And then we had a 45-minute discussion and it changed my whole world.
00:22:44Walk me through that story, being 15 and a half.
00:22:51So, my first time, I was 15 and a half, she was about eight years older than me.
00:22:57It was a Christmas party and my father was there.
00:23:00And she went to my father and goes, you know, your kid's a lot younger than me and he's trying
00:23:05to take me out and I think he wants to have sex.
00:23:07And my father looked at her and said, great, where do I got to drive him?
00:23:11And that's really much how it went.
00:23:13She worked at a Bennigan's and we picked her up, like, the following Friday and there you go.
00:23:21So, something's not right here.
00:23:22Again, something seems to be missing.
00:23:24Did somebody set this up?
00:23:26What 24-year-old is going to be with a 15-year-old?
00:23:29And then go to the dad and get permission?
00:23:31It's just odd.
00:23:32What's going on here?
00:23:33She was a wonderful woman, brunette, gorgeous, everything that I liked.
00:23:38They call it statutory rape and they call it this.
00:23:41Oh, no, no, this was all me.
00:23:42There was nothing wrong.
00:23:43Nobody said no.
00:23:44There was no...
00:23:45It was totally consensual.
00:23:47So, that's technically sexual abuse, right?
00:23:50He's 15, she's 23.
00:23:52That's an adult with a child.
00:23:55If genders were reversed, we would be mortified.
00:23:59And when you look at the outcome of these young males that are sexually abused by women, it's not great.
00:24:04It's not great.
00:24:07It affects that brain regulatory system, makes them prone to sexual addictions, porn addictions, depression, and suicide.
00:24:18For young female actors, the risks of abuse and exploitation are even higher.
00:24:27When I was 16, I had gone to an acting class of a soap opera casting director workshop.
00:24:34Casting director saw that I was so into it and she said, you know, we're casting for this role.
00:24:40Could you come in to read for the role?
00:24:43And I was like, oh my God.
00:24:46Her first role was on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime drama in 1994.
00:24:51Bold and the Beautiful is one of the most successful soap operas of all time.
00:24:56It follows the Forrester family and their high-end fashion business.
00:24:59My role was Jessica Forrester.
00:25:02You are one of the greatest designers in the world.
00:25:04Being a Forrester is like the biggest deal on The Bold and the Beautiful because it is, it is the
00:25:08family.
00:25:09It is like you are in the main storyline.
00:25:14What are you doing in my room?
00:25:17It was an overall great experience to be on that show.
00:25:24But I think I was nervous a lot and like so overwhelmed by everything.
00:25:30Because 16 walking into that place and it was like literally all like 30, 40-year-olds.
00:25:37And I was also going to have my like first on-screen kiss.
00:25:43It was an odd thing to like just be thrust in there at 16 and having to do this kiss
00:25:48and with older people.
00:25:50And one of the actors, he was probably 24, 25.
00:25:53I always say, oh well he didn't like rape me or sexually assault me fully, but he did things that
00:26:00were very uncomfortable.
00:26:03We'd go in his dressing room and he'd like rub my feet and my shoulders.
00:26:07I mean that's not normal.
00:26:10It's not normal to rub someone's feet, right? Like as a 16-year-old.
00:26:14It was weird.
00:26:17And I think he was trying to like lure me in and then like, like he'd almost kiss.
00:26:22Now that I look back on it, that he, it's a grooming kind of thing.
00:26:26The only person who massages my feet is my husband.
00:26:30That behavior is completely inappropriate.
00:26:34And certainly he was flirting with real trouble.
00:26:38And I didn't even like realize it at the time or until very recently that that was part of my
00:26:44like entry into Hollywood and my confidence in Hollywood.
00:26:47So, and my confidence as a person, as a woman coming of age.
00:26:53On the show, weirdly enough, we had a whole statutory rape storyline.
00:26:57Have you had sex with her?
00:26:58And Stephanie, stop it, okay?
00:27:00No, you're coming home with me now.
00:27:02No, I'm not.
00:27:04That was the whole beginning of the statutory rape storyline.
00:27:07And it's such a weird, a weird storyline.
00:27:11I definitely think that the writers and producers, they saw something there that was unsettling or wrong or toxic or
00:27:23whatever.
00:27:23And they like went with it for drama purposes, I guess, which is upsetting.
00:27:33After I was on the show for three years, the executive producer called me and said, you know what, we're
00:27:39going in a different direction.
00:27:42And that was like the last dramatic role I did.
00:27:45But that's when I like really took a turn after that towards comedy and kind of redefining myself.
00:27:53The beginning of 1998.
00:27:56I was 21 by the time.
00:27:58I got the call from my manager that said, Disney wants you for Boy Meets World.
00:28:02And I was going to play this college roommate.
00:28:06Boy Meets World was a really wholesome coming of age story about Corey Matthews and his group of friends.
00:28:16Even though the credits were kind of like that.
00:28:19It was that feeling of both friends together.
00:28:21It ran for seven seasons.
00:28:23I'm Ben.
00:28:24Hi.
00:28:24Danielle, nice to meet you.
00:28:26And at its peak, it had an average of 11.6 million viewers.
00:28:30I think another thing that both our parents did was they always wanted to make sure that we had somewhat
00:28:33of like a normal upbringing.
00:28:35Maitland Ward joins the cast of Boy Meets World in seasons six and seven as Rachel Maguire.
00:28:43And just seemed like they completely flattened what could have been a multidimensional character into this sex kitten stereotype.
00:28:53She starts out as the female roommate to two male characters, Eric and Jack.
00:29:00I was so excited about it.
00:29:02But there was a lot of episodes that were very fetishy.
00:29:06There was an episode where I was choking on a hot dog and Jack had to come behind me.
00:29:11And it was really sexual.
00:29:14Oh, God.
00:29:15OK.
00:29:16There was a food fight on the show, but I had to rub my feet on Will's face with marinara
00:29:21sauce.
00:29:24Knowing what I know now about food fetishes, feet fetishes.
00:29:28This was literally someone's fantasy.
00:29:32First year, I was more like having fun with the boys in the apartment.
00:29:36And yeah, I did sexy stuff.
00:29:38And then the next year, it was different.
00:29:43I would always get half naked or I'd get, I was in towels with my bath.
00:29:47Congratulations.
00:29:48You're on TV.
00:29:50Oh, yeah. There I am in a towel. There I am in a towel again.
00:29:52For one episode.
00:29:53I remember getting a call.
00:29:56One of the assistant directors told me, you're going to wear lingerie.
00:30:02I went into wardrobe and they had a lot of lingerie set up.
00:30:07Some of them were really skimpy.
00:30:09I think one was like a thong or something.
00:30:11And I guess she took like a lot of pictures.
00:30:17Polaroids back then just to see what the different looks look like so the producers can see them.
00:30:25But after that, I got the call saying they need to see it in the office so they need to
00:30:30see how it moves on you.
00:30:39Hollywood, it can be a very dark and scary place.
00:30:43I get there and I do the little show.
00:30:47Walk in, turn around, let's see how it dances.
00:30:50In front of a bunch of like men, mainly.
00:30:55I did it three times.
00:30:57Where I went to the offices and I tried everything on.
00:31:02It felt more like, like young guys, like looking at nudie magazines.
00:31:08You know, they're like, ooh, like, ooh, I'm seeing it.
00:31:10You know, when you're a teenager and stuff.
00:31:12But these were not teenagers. These were grown men.
00:31:16Men.
00:31:25She's barely dressed in all the scenes, always.
00:31:27And she has to be overtly sexual.
00:31:34Don't you love this music?
00:31:35If there were more women on the set of Boy Meets World, I have to imagine that a scene like
00:31:41this would have had a harder time getting through.
00:31:45I was 21 by this time.
00:31:47My character was 19.
00:31:49I think Hollywood takes advantage of a lot of vulnerability in young actresses.
00:31:57Now, I have to say that Michael Jacobs, the creator of the show, has great conversations with me about this
00:32:06when he found out that it bothered me and all of this stuff.
00:32:08I know there were some other executives other than him that were trying to, you know, get skimpier outfits.
00:32:24After we finished the toy with Richard Pryor, going for Christmas Story.
00:32:29Scott Schwartz is best known for his role as Flick in A Christmas Story.
00:32:38Where Flick is challenged by one of the kids to place his tongue on a pole in the middle of
00:32:47winter.
00:32:50The toy by far I had the most fun and gained the most knowledge.
00:32:54A Christmas Story I gained the most fame.
00:32:57And after Christmas Story, I do Kidco.
00:33:00I think I'm doing a long time.
00:33:02I just was a machine.
00:33:05When you go through a hundred voiceovers and a hundred commercials in three and a half years, you know, I
00:33:11worked like 27 out of 30 days one summer.
00:33:14I mean, it was crazy, okay?
00:33:16What child outside Hollywood is working long hours for 27 out of 30 days of a month?
00:33:22It's not healthy.
00:33:23He's missing out on being a child.
00:33:26Yeah, it makes him a child star, but no one stays a kid forever.
00:33:30Thirteen years after A Christmas Story, Scott Schwartz, now 28, gets a lead in a new film.
00:33:39A video called Scotty's X-Rated Adventure.
00:33:43There is Scotty the Toy Schwartz.
00:33:49I did not know that the kid from A Christmas Story was in a porno.
00:33:59You are having a lot of really great success, and then you hit puberty, and that kind of changes things.
00:34:05Walk me through that happening.
00:34:12So, I'd done all, you know, the shows and the ABC after-school specials, all that kind of stuff, and
00:34:17I hit puberty.
00:34:20And then we got a problem.
00:34:21My voice changes.
00:34:22I don't get any taller.
00:34:24Five foot two on a great day.
00:34:27Now, I look 15, I sound 27.
00:34:30What do you do?
00:34:33There's a Hollywood term known as the dead zone, which is the wall most child actors hit from the age
00:34:38of 14 to 17.
00:34:40This is when producers prefer to hire an 18-year-old who appears younger, because you also don't have to
00:34:45worry about all the regulations that are in place to protect child actors.
00:34:50You don't have to worry about putting them in school for hours on set, detracting from the performance that you
00:34:55need them to give.
00:34:56It's just a lot less to worry about.
00:35:00I wasn't getting enough work after high school.
00:35:03Came out to L.A., you know, got a couple things here and there.
00:35:07I'm not exactly 5'8", 5'9", so there's only certain roles that people will put me in.
00:35:12I'm not making any money.
00:35:15The problem is that if you've been a child star, they imagine that because they had success as a child
00:35:22star, it's going to be equally as easy to develop success again as an adult.
00:35:27Rarely the case.
00:35:29Only about 2% of actors actually make a living wage from their craft.
00:35:34So that means they're juggling two to three survival jobs just to be able to call themselves an actor.
00:35:42And Scott took a number of jobs to try to survive.
00:35:48So my dad bought the memorabilia store in L.A.
00:35:52He collected non-sports cards, movie cards, posters, lobby cards at 11 by 14.
00:36:00I was working for my dad, stayed with dad, and then I'm back and forth.
00:36:04Living in great apartments, shitty apartments.
00:36:06I stayed in a boarding house with nine other people.
00:36:09I shared a bathroom with six other people.
00:36:11My refrigerator was two floors down.
00:36:14It had my name on my Pepsi bottle.
00:36:17So did you have all your money at the end when you turned 18?
00:36:22No.
00:36:23No, because there is no having it all.
00:36:28The toy, I was making $1,275 a week.
00:36:33Okay.
00:36:33Then I did Christmas Story and I was making $6,500 a week.
00:36:36And I worked six whole weeks.
00:36:38State tax. Federal tax.
00:36:41Then it's the agent.
00:36:42Now the fact that I had a crooked financial advisor, like in New Jersey it cost $750 to incorporate.
00:36:50Well he charged my dad $7,500 to incorporate and my father never questioned it because my father didn't know.
00:36:55I had a PR person for a while, which is a total waste of money.
00:37:00I dropped $20,000 for nothing.
00:37:02Most of it is gone.
00:37:09I was going to school in the morning at Valley College from 8 to 12.
00:37:13Then I would work for my dad in his memorabilia shop until 6.
00:37:18Get back on the 101 and drive into Hollywood and work at the Comedy Store from 7, 7.30 till
00:37:231.30 in the morning.
00:37:24I worked the main room, I worked the original room, I worked the car parking lot.
00:37:30That's where I met Ron Jeremy, Christy Canyon, Ginger Lynn.
00:37:39I was one of the most famous adult film stars in the world.
00:37:44Hello.
00:37:45I've done 77 adult movies.
00:37:50My name is Christy Canyon and I got into the adult business in 1984.
00:37:59And I've kind of been in it forever.
00:38:04The Comedy Store in the 80s was the hottest place for comedians to go to try out new material in
00:38:12front of an audience.
00:38:14It was the place where celebrities and porn stars and comedians kind of all mingled and hung out together.
00:38:24I was a total chuckle.
00:38:25I loved comedians.
00:38:27I f***ed every comedian there.
00:38:30And one night, I believe it was 1986 or 87, Scotty Schwartz walks in.
00:38:37And I looked at him like, I know that face.
00:38:42I'm like, the toy.
00:38:44You're the toy.
00:38:45Like, I couldn't believe I was meeting the toy because everyone knew the toy with Richard Pryor.
00:38:50That was like such a staple when you were growing up.
00:38:52He was 17 years old, I think.
00:38:54And I was about 24, 25.
00:38:56I was definitely under 21.
00:39:01And Scotty came up and said, my name is Scott Schwartz.
00:39:05I was in this and that.
00:39:06And I'm like, I know who you are.
00:39:07I think I was a total fangirl.
00:39:10I may as well have been wearing a beanie with the little, like, propellers on it.
00:39:13Like, I'm like, oh my God, I loved you in the toy with, you know, what was Richard Pryor like?
00:39:20I mean, I was so geeky.
00:39:24But he was so, like, cool about it.
00:39:26And he had no problems talking about who he was or the movies that he was in.
00:39:32He was very open about it.
00:39:35And then eventually he started, you know, asking me about being in porn.
00:39:40He was just like, oh, how'd you get into porn?
00:39:46Scotty and I exchanged phone numbers that night after we met and we hung out all night.
00:39:52And he called me the next day.
00:39:55And we went to lunch and then he'd come to my condo.
00:40:01And we'd go swimming.
00:40:04I think we even made out once.
00:40:07A little fuzzy on those details.
00:40:08Like, I don't think he hit a home run with me, but I think that we, in fact, I know
00:40:12that we fooled around.
00:40:13And yet we never took it further than that.
00:40:17I thought he was a cool guy.
00:40:19And yeah, it was like the cherry on top that he was the toy.
00:40:24And then he kind of just disappeared.
00:40:28I just didn't see him anymore.
00:40:29He just wasn't there.
00:40:36There was a time that I went through a rough patch.
00:40:40I had lost who I was.
00:40:42I forgot what made me happy.
00:40:46I was just tired of being that guy all of a sudden.
00:40:50The movie star guy, you know, you got to go out and you got to put the face on and
00:40:54you got to smile and whatever.
00:40:55And meanwhile, you're not working.
00:40:59I was just miserable.
00:41:01I forgot who I was, you know, as a person.
00:41:08I would go home and stop on Mulholland.
00:41:14Sit on the top of my car on the hood, have a couple cigarettes.
00:41:23And go, all right, I'm in trouble.
00:41:27If I just take the car and go down the bottom of the hill, it's going to explode.
00:41:30I'm dead. I ain't going to worry about this shit no more.
00:41:46I feel so bad that I didn't know.
00:41:49I would have so been there for him.
00:41:51I had no idea.
00:41:55I mean, this is called suicidal ideation.
00:41:58It's a sign that he's depressed.
00:42:01One of the consequences of trauma, he has sexual trauma, he has physical trauma, is mood disturbances.
00:42:07I can't imagine being world famous at 12.
00:42:13You were on this huge high.
00:42:17And then, um, sometimes you fall off that hill.
00:42:25I needed to figure me out again.
00:42:28Like, where did I go wrong here?
00:42:30Where did the train come off the tracks?
00:42:32I just knew I had to get the f*** out of here.
00:42:34I had to get the f*** out of LA.
00:42:36So I packed the car and went back to Jersey.
00:42:39Scotty definitely has a wall.
00:42:44Scotty really doesn't talk about his emotions.
00:42:47He doesn't share them.
00:42:48He doesn't show them things that are bothering him.
00:42:53What did your dad think about?
00:42:55Did he know you were suffering?
00:42:57Oh, sure.
00:42:59Dad knew that I was in a bad place mentally, and his basic answer was,
00:43:04the sun will come out tomorrow.
00:43:07He didn't talk to me for six months.
00:43:09Because he had come out to LA and opened up the memory, his memory,
00:43:12he had bought the memorabilia store, whatever.
00:43:16I'm home for two weeks,
00:43:18and I got a phone call from one of the girls in the adult industry,
00:43:23who I was friends with.
00:43:25And she's like, I need a roadie.
00:43:27You take my Polaroid, sell my merch,
00:43:29help me with the DJ, give them my music.
00:43:32I had one rule.
00:43:34I had a rule.
00:43:35If somebody says to you,
00:43:37you know, your booty looks familiar with the TV,
00:43:41nope.
00:43:41I said, your answer is nope.
00:43:43I said, you drop dime, I pack, I go home.
00:43:49I didn't want to be that guy.
00:43:52I wanted to be, I just mentally, I needed a break.
00:43:59There was me in Chicago, Detroit, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Boston, in dead of winter.
00:44:10At 2.30 in the morning after the girl finishes her thing at the strip club, I go outside.
00:44:16What it did though, is it had a lot of down time.
00:44:19And I brought a legal size pad, pros, cons.
00:44:26Yes, you're an actor for five minutes.
00:44:28Then what do you do when you're not acting?
00:44:30Figure out something else you like.
00:44:33After 17 months.
00:44:35I came back to LA.
00:44:37This is a decade later, you know, damn near or whatever.
00:44:40It's after the toy.
00:44:41I'm living in crap.
00:44:43I'm $450 a month rent.
00:44:47Listen, I ended up doing several on camera, what they call non-sex roles in adult films.
00:44:55They're willing to pay $300 a day.
00:44:58I need rent money.
00:44:59Okay, fine.
00:44:59I'm not hurting anybody.
00:45:00I'm not going to jail.
00:45:01Okay, fine.
00:45:02People would frown upon us.
00:45:04Not everyone, but a lot of people, you know, had a, oh, it's dark.
00:45:07They're shooting them in alleys and it's dirty and they're feeding them drugs.
00:45:12Which wasn't true.
00:45:14Back in the 90s, you had about a dozen companies.
00:45:20And I know people are going to be like, oh, you're such a liar.
00:45:22But to me, they were like real studio companies.
00:45:26I mean, it was like MGM or Paramount.
00:45:28Only you took your clothes off and you had some sex.
00:45:30But they were so glamorous.
00:45:34They could put out a film that cost $80,000.
00:45:38Go on.
00:45:38I'll stop you when I hear a real story.
00:45:40This is what they had in the 90s with a budget.
00:45:43Look how much time is spent on dialogue.
00:45:46Mr. Goldberg.
00:45:48They could have a full crew.
00:45:51They could have three meals of catering.
00:45:54They had hair.
00:45:55They had makeup.
00:45:55They had wardrobe.
00:45:56They had extras to do a non-sex role where you were either somebody in the crowd or, you know,
00:46:05you were the chef in the kitchen.
00:46:07That kind of thing.
00:46:09Enter Scotty Schwartz.
00:46:11No!
00:46:14Here's Scotty.
00:46:15The jester.
00:46:16Aw, snake eyes.
00:46:17You lose.
00:46:18He looks so young.
00:46:19I mean, he's in his early 20s, right?
00:46:21I understand the movie it's in, but my particular part is just the fun and it's whatever, you know.
00:46:28How does a funny man get laid in this picture?
00:46:30Not a sex symbol.
00:46:31It wasn't built that way.
00:46:32Don't look that way.
00:46:34I worked with Jenna Jameson.
00:46:36It was a phone call thing.
00:46:38Uh, yeah, sure.
00:46:39And I'm playing the old Jewish movie mogul with the bifocals and the thing.
00:46:45Yeah, listen, get publicity.
00:46:47And I got a couple of scenes.
00:46:48He's so cute, Scotty.
00:46:50He fits in with us.
00:46:52He's one of us.
00:46:54A movie called Comeback and I'm playing the comedian.
00:46:57Just act for little acting roles, whatever it is.
00:47:00How dare you.
00:47:01Girl, do you think I am?
00:47:04That's Scotty's story.
00:47:06He's so great.
00:47:08He's a good actor, too.
00:47:10Then I was working in the office of one of the companies and he needed a camera person.
00:47:15So the next thing you know, I became a camera person for one of the companies, you know, and shot
00:47:20damn near 200 scenes of adult film.
00:47:25I did that.
00:47:27Put food on the table, roof over my head.
00:47:33One day, the owner of the company says to me, would you want to do a scene in a film,
00:47:38you know?
00:47:39And I went, I never thought about it.
00:47:42I was living in a shitty one-bedroom apartment with the alcoholic photographer next to me, the drug addict, alcoholic
00:47:50truck driver next to him, with the girlfriend that's a maniac.
00:47:54And I got a woman upstairs from me with 19 cats.
00:47:57You know, going wee wee all over the floor and then, you know, whatever.
00:48:01And I was there for two years.
00:48:05When the company offered me a good enough of a deal that I said yes.
00:48:15Remember, nobody else had done this shit.
00:48:17There was zero that had done as much work as I had who then turns around and does this.
00:48:24I'm Gilligan alone on the island, man.
00:48:26I'm out there by myself.
00:48:27I didn't know that Scotty was working in adult films in any capacity until I heard it from you.
00:48:38And I imagine that decision had to be brutal and exciting, scary, and a turnout.
00:48:49I mean, I want to believe that a lot of men think about, you know what?
00:48:53I could be a stud.
00:48:55I could be a porn star.
00:48:56So maybe there was a little bit of that in there, too.
00:48:58What did it entail?
00:49:01Two days on a set working with people and the girl that I was going to do the scene with.
00:49:07I'm watching a picture called Scotty's X-Rated Adventure.
00:49:15When you look at Scott's adult film, it's like a biography of his life.
00:49:20I played myself in the movie.
00:49:22And I'm like a child star wanting to become an adult actor and get more attention.
00:49:27Look, everybody knows me as little Scotty from the little Scotty movies.
00:49:32It's a curse.
00:49:33Oh, sure. Some curse. You're in videos and movies.
00:49:37That is spot on.
00:49:41That is Scott's life right there.
00:49:44Well, yeah, because what you didn't see was my business manager, Harvey,
00:49:48spending all my money from the time I was like 10 on.
00:49:51You certainly didn't see all the groupies and wannabes who hung all over me
00:49:55and were more interested in having sex with a celebrity than having sex with me.
00:49:59It's all close to the truth.
00:50:01Scotty has talked about make-out sessions with extras while filming the toy.
00:50:05There have been people he's dated who have been enamored by the fact that he was in movies.
00:50:09Of course, this is fiction, but it is cutting so close to Scott's actual life
00:50:14that when he starts talking about things, you have to wonder,
00:50:18is this how he really felt about the misfortunes that came along with being a child actor?
00:50:22It's very hard to tell.
00:50:25I did see Scotty's X-rated adventure, and I couldn't watch.
00:50:30You're looking down at film.
00:50:33Oh, Jesus.
00:50:34Hello, Scotty!
00:50:37It was interesting.
00:50:39From what I recall, I don't think there was a lot of hardcore, I should say.
00:50:44He was a great actor, and then it came to the sex part,
00:50:47and I think that he, you know, a lot of guys think they could do porn,
00:50:51but it's scary when you've got all those lights going on.
00:50:55You know, Scotty Schwartz and I talked about it briefly,
00:50:59where I said, did you like doing it?
00:51:02And he said, it was different than I thought it would be.
00:51:06It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.
00:51:28I did it for the paycheck.
00:51:30I was the second highest paid male performer ever.
00:51:32John Wayne Bobbitt was the first, I'm second.
00:51:34It was the one time, okay, I'm good, that was the end of that.
00:51:45When you open that Pandora's box,
00:51:48it's very hard to shut the lid and act like it never happened.
00:51:53Very few people make their way back to mainstream TV and film projects.
00:51:58Dana Plato is a perfect example.
00:52:02Midway through season six of Different Strokes,
00:52:04Dana's 18 years of age, she is living with her boyfriend,
00:52:07and Dana becomes pregnant and, as a result, is written off the show.
00:52:14Her career never reaches back to the same pinnacle of what it once was.
00:52:19Sometimes people are looking for quick money, easy money,
00:52:22when the film and TV roles dry up, and pornography will welcome them with open arms.
00:52:28I was asked to do porn, and it was a lot of money, and I needed that.
00:52:33$600,000, $700,000, $700,000, I needed that.
00:52:36But I was like, no.
00:52:38Because I knew that I had kids and it would directly affect my kids.
00:52:43We know Dana was desperate for attention,
00:52:46she was desperate for the public accolades,
00:52:48and she was desperate for money.
00:52:51She then poses for Playboy.
00:52:54The decision to do this layout, was it a tough one?
00:52:58No.
00:52:59She's moving really fast.
00:53:03And she does keep grabbing her nose, she does.
00:53:06Since I was a child, I've always wanted to do Playboy because it's art.
00:53:09You know what they do with the female body, it's just beautiful.
00:53:12When I look at that, it just makes me sad.
00:53:15She's hot. She's hot.
00:53:17She's on drugs.
00:53:17I think when Dana did that Playboy,
00:53:20she was expecting something bigger than what really happened.
00:53:31The media went after Dana.
00:53:34They started, you know, calling her names and, you know, insulting her,
00:53:37and they weren't forgiving with that in 1989.
00:53:41They saw her as being this innocent little girl.
00:53:45Did you feel like it affected your traditional acting career at all?
00:53:54I had an audition for a TV show on one of the smaller networks.
00:54:00And, you know, when you do that kind of thing,
00:54:02you've got to sign a morals clause.
00:54:03So I do my reading, whatever, there's like seven people there,
00:54:07you know, whatever.
00:54:08And then I went, I did one of these, I went,
00:54:11you know, hang on a second.
00:54:15And I laid it out.
00:54:18I said, listen, I can't do this show if there's a morals clause,
00:54:21unless you're okay with it, because this is what I did.
00:54:23And I told them what I did.
00:54:26So I went home, two days goes by,
00:54:28and one of the women producers called me.
00:54:31She didn't get the show.
00:54:33And it didn't work.
00:54:34Okay, fine. You know.
00:54:38Over the years, Dana Plato ends up divorced,
00:54:41she ends up losing custody of the child.
00:54:44On top of that, she commits armed robbery.
00:54:51I was like, oh, dang.
00:54:55This is a drug addict move.
00:54:57Drug addicts will do these impulsive moves to get cash.
00:55:01Now.
00:55:04Dana pleads guilty to having robbed a video store.
00:55:08She avoids jail time and is put on five years probation.
00:55:13A year later, she's found guilty of forging a prescription for Valium.
00:55:17She goes to jail for 30 days.
00:55:20She then tries to reinvent her career by trying to do these B films
00:55:26that have a soft core element to them.
00:55:29It's looked at as like laughable or not as good as regular movies.
00:55:34You know, people don't take them seriously.
00:55:36None of it could achieve the fame and success of a show
00:55:42that is a hit on network television at that period of history
00:55:45where 20 million people are seeing your show every week.
00:55:50But one of the most heartbreaking aspects of Dana Plato's life
00:55:55is actually her interview with Howard Stern.
00:56:01Come on. She just needs to admit that she's an ex-druggy,
00:56:05ex-con, lesbian with mental health problems.
00:56:09There were all these callers that were calling in
00:56:12and had very strong opinions about her life
00:56:15and the choices that she had made.
00:56:17She definitely sounds like a wash-up.
00:56:19Like, what right do you have Joe Schmo from Long Island to attack her?
00:56:25She has serious addiction. Life-threatening addiction.
00:56:28Don't make it worse. Don't attack this poor woman.
00:56:31I just don't think that I should have to prove myself again and again and again and again.
00:56:34It just seemed like this was a woman who is truly beaten down by life in the public eye.
00:56:40See, this is what I talk about. I shouldn't have to spend my character all the time.
00:56:44You shouldn't have to.
00:56:45I'm clean. You're doing drugs.
00:56:47I called her and said, don't do Stern.
00:56:50Don't do it.
00:56:51And she insisted that she was okay.
00:56:55And that's the last time I heard from her.
00:57:00The Howard Stern Show happened on May 7th.
00:57:03May 8th.
00:57:05Dana Plato was dead.
00:57:11A friend of ours called us.
00:57:14Called me, then called Gary.
00:57:16Then she OD'd. She died.
00:57:19After a troubled career, child actress Dana Plato has died.
00:57:23I heard on the news.
00:57:25I sat there frozen.
00:57:30I'm looking at Dana Plato's autopsy.
00:57:34Drug overdose was the assessment.
00:57:37They put it as a suicide.
00:57:40And now her life has become a cautionary tale for other child performers.
00:57:48I think sometimes the world just shifts and you're out and you're no longer wanted.
00:57:56In the case of the Dana Plato's and the Scotty Schwartz.
00:58:00And it's gotta be heartbreaking that you were America's sweetheart and suddenly they're not knocking on your door anymore.
00:58:13I have just these tiny little roles and I played on the Disney Channel show called Wizards of Waverly Place.
00:58:20The character's name was Zeke Beekerman.
00:58:23Wizards of Waverly Place was a show that premiered on the Disney Channel in October of 2007.
00:58:28It follows the lives of three teenagers who are secretly wizards in training.
00:58:35It is widely known as the show that really broke Selena Gomez into the star that she is today.
00:58:41No longer cute, put his voice on mute.
00:58:43I was not an attractive character on that show, right?
00:58:47But what it's fascinating that like, oh, there's so many people that love the dorky, goofy friend.
00:58:55Is this your card?
00:58:56The season finale of Wizards of Waverly Place drew in 9.8 million viewers.
00:59:02And the finale became the number one scripted television telecast of the season.
00:59:07And I was recognized everywhere I went.
00:59:09I'm not going to lie, I was riding that high as well, right?
00:59:13It all is building into my sense of self-esteem and my sense of self-worth because there's still that
00:59:19kid inside of me that wanted to be liked.
00:59:24Wanted attention in middle school, wanted to be recognized by the cool kids and wanted the girls to be attracted
00:59:30to me.
00:59:30Like, I never had that when I was younger.
00:59:33The downside of that is that when that goes away, you are left with this incredibly hollow, horrible feeling that
00:59:44you're like, oh, wait, it's gone.
00:59:46Am I, am I not good?
00:59:50And then the depression, the dark sides of that are rough.
00:59:55There was like a five-year period where I just couldn't book anything.
01:00:01And then my agent dropped me.
01:00:06I never wanted to commit suicide.
01:00:10But I definitely got low enough to the point where I understood it.
01:00:17It's clear that there is a pattern here of these actors running into a wall, hitting these roadblocks that limit
01:00:25their opportunities in this industry.
01:00:27And that place of desperation facilitates this move into adult film.
01:00:36Fame is a drug.
01:00:39A lot of people spend their entire careers just chasing that first taste of fame, chasing that first high that
01:00:45they felt when their show drew in 9.8 million viewers.
01:00:55Definitely after Wimmy's world started drying up, my agency just dropped me and did not tell me.
01:01:03Hollywood has been so dishonest and so smile to your face, but, you know, shoot you the middle finger behind
01:01:11your back kind of thing.
01:01:19And then nine years after Wimmy's world, my grandmother passed.
01:01:25It kind of gave me a freedom to, like, explore more of myself and, like, be honest about some things.
01:01:31Instagram was quite new at the time.
01:01:33And I had posted, you know, some stuff like bikini pictures.
01:01:37And I wore my first, like, public cosplay.
01:01:40Cosplay is this hobby where fans of popular culture films or series will recreate their favorite costumes, often with startling
01:01:51accuracy.
01:01:52So Maitland Ward does Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, Jessica Rabbit, Slave Leia.
01:02:03But they're all very sexy versions of these characters.
01:02:08Maitland was in her early 30s by this point.
01:02:13When I got in the soap opera, I got so much validation for, like, oh, good job today. You performed
01:02:18good.
01:02:19But now, it was neat that I was finally getting validation for who I was.
01:02:25How are you? Good to see you.
01:02:27How are you? Good to see you.
01:02:27You look great.
01:02:28Thank you so much.
01:02:29Not some character that somebody else created for me.
01:02:32Not some narrative someone else wrote.
01:02:35Good to see you, though.
01:02:36Good to see you, too.
01:02:38It was stuff that I genuinely like to do.
01:02:40And I started getting a lot of attention online for that.
01:02:43And I started doing a little racier stuff on social media.
01:02:46Like, maybe a nipple showing here.
01:02:48It was all story of Playboy Asking.
01:02:54In 2012, I got a call telling me that, oh, we're gonna do this spinoff of Boy Meets World.
01:03:00This show begins 14 years after Boy Meets World, the original series, ended.
01:03:06It was thought all of the cast would be part of it.
01:03:09The cast they had.
01:03:11People, like, everybody could think of.
01:03:15Well, except me.
01:03:20It is unfortunate that any decision would have been made about me that I was pushing the envelope too much
01:03:25when I was wearing the same kind of stuff that I was wearing on Boy Meets World
01:03:29and doing the same kinds of things, except I was doing it my way.
01:03:34I think there's an idea that Hollywood uses you up and spits you out.
01:03:42And I was suffering from that, just, like, not being able to get roles.
01:03:45Like, you start off and you're like, I got stuff fast.
01:03:48And I got stuff, and I became famous.
01:03:50And I'm, you know, I'm popular.
01:03:53And I think, and then all of a sudden you're like, don't have a job and you're not.
01:03:57But after that, my fans were like, oh, man, why don't you sell content?
01:04:02You can sell your pictures like nudes and stuff.
01:04:05I still had, like, these ideas about what porn was.
01:04:08Was it scary really behind the scenes?
01:04:10Was it all these, like, just perverted guys making porn?
01:04:14Some young people that come to the industry, they're taken advantage of by people who lure them in.
01:04:24I quit making films in, like, 1998, and I noticed a shift.
01:04:31I started realizing, okay, it changed with the internet.
01:04:35It just brought out the circus performers in porn.
01:04:41The average length of a girl staying in porn was six months for a few years.
01:04:46It just got to be very dirty.
01:04:50There's not a lot of money to be made.
01:04:52I made probably, well, I'll just tell you, my last seven films, I made 50 grand per film in the
01:05:00adult industry.
01:05:01So I did well.
01:05:03For girls today, the average performer gets $600 and you do whatever they tell you to do.
01:05:12So I went slow to discover, like, who I really was and be comfortable with that.
01:05:18I set up a Patreon.
01:05:20Patreon is a platform creators use to create communities where people pay for their content.
01:05:25And you could set up a Patreon for adult content where it was, like, nudes and stuff.
01:05:30And I literally was the number one adult creator by the end of the week.
01:05:34It was, like, 40,000, 50,000.
01:05:36It was insane a month.
01:05:38And then it's kind of, it just snowballed.
01:05:45In 2019, I met Caden Cross and Vixen.
01:05:49Vixen is a very high-end company.
01:05:51Like, it's very glossy.
01:05:53It's run like a studio.
01:05:55I did my first big adult film.
01:05:59You tasted it.
01:06:02You took the fruit.
01:06:04It was called Drive.
01:06:06Kind of dark.
01:06:08A little BDSM quality.
01:06:09How far could it go?
01:06:11And just much more of a cinematic thing.
01:06:14You keep mentioning Maitland.
01:06:18Who is Maitland?
01:06:22And I did another movie called Muse.
01:06:25Do you understand the many layers of shame?
01:06:34And it was the kind of thing that I had always dreamed about doing, like having really good writing and
01:06:40directing and filmmaking and acting and marrying that with hot sex and something that I could be really passionate about.
01:06:48I'm not trapped.
01:06:50I'm not trapped.
01:06:50You're the one.
01:06:52That's trapped.
01:06:54Everyone saw that news.
01:06:55Rachel from Boy Meets World is a porn star.
01:07:01She entered as a Disney star.
01:07:05That means she goes right to the top.
01:07:08Because not many Disney stars get into hardcore porn to my knowledge.
01:07:13She went to the top company.
01:07:15Vixen, you don't get much higher than that.
01:07:20Because she's at the top of the food chain.
01:07:23No one's going to mess with her.
01:07:25On Boy Meets World, I think I made like 20 or 25 grand an episode.
01:07:30And they could fire you the next week.
01:07:32You don't have all the guarantees out there.
01:07:34But I feel like in porn or OnlyFans, you make like, I can get six figures a month on OnlyFans.
01:07:42And then also there's my adult film sales and creating this brand and everything.
01:07:46I can, you know, make it go for as long as I want it to go for and everything.
01:07:51Maitland Ward is one of the rare ones.
01:07:54That's not an everyday occurrence where some girl gets in porn and shoots right to the top.
01:07:59That's not the norm.
01:08:04Most women in adult entertainment enter the industry between the ages of 18 to 25.
01:08:09Maitland was 40 when she made her first adult film.
01:08:13So she's able to stand up for herself and advocate for herself when she needs to.
01:08:17It's a completely different ball game when you're entering the adult film industry as a mature woman.
01:08:23Not everyone has that easy climb to the top.
01:08:29After Wizards of Waverly Place, I went to art school and then I got into sales and marketing and it
01:08:36was great.
01:08:37But about four and a half, five years after Wizards of Waverly Place ended,
01:08:42I was sitting at my desk one day working and my CEO called me and he was like,
01:08:48Hey, what is this thread on Reddit about you and your nudes leaking all over the internet?
01:08:59Apparently there were these websites that were selling nude leaked photos of me.
01:09:07I remember the shock and just the fear of losing my job instantly over this.
01:09:18So when I saw the pictures, I immediately knew where they came from.
01:09:22I remembered the person that I like sent them to.
01:09:27And this was a person that I'd been kind of casually flirting with online virtually as an adult.
01:09:35And then that progressed slowly to sending each other nudes.
01:09:40And there was a part of me that felt so stupid.
01:09:46It's a violation. It is a very personal violation.
01:09:50I don't think that we should be demonizing people who are just two consenting adults engaging in a romantic relationship.
01:09:58So I worked so hard to just erase this.
01:10:02But every time you take down one, it's like five other sites pop up.
01:10:07Then COVID hit and I lost my job.
01:10:12And my dog, his name was Lynn.
01:10:15He'd been with me for 14 years.
01:10:1814 year old labs start to develop a lot of health problems.
01:10:21His back hips, he was like barely able to walk.
01:10:25So the only relief were these expensive shots that he would get directly in his back hips.
01:10:32And it was just the vet, like every time, I had to kind of make a choice of like, what
01:10:37do I spend my money on?
01:10:38Like, do I, do I just keep putting these on credit cards and keep going into debt?
01:10:42I would buy Lean Cuisine meals because they were like $3.
01:10:49And I was spending so little money on food to just try like to be able to afford these shots
01:10:55for Lynn so that I didn't have to watch him like struggle to get out of bed.
01:11:09And yeah, that was a tough, a tough thing to do.
01:11:17At the end of the day, I have to be able to provide so he does not have to suffer.
01:11:24And I was going to do whatever it takes to not have to make him suffer.
01:11:29And that's why making the decision to do porn was so easy at a certain point when I was like,
01:11:34okay, if this gives me the opportunity to provide that to him, who gives a shit what people think?
01:11:49OnlyFans is another platform that creators turn to to monetize their content.
01:11:53It's a bit different though, because it has a reputation for being a platform for sex work and pornography.
01:12:03When I created an OnlyFans, I gained like 200,000 followers on Twitter in like five days.
01:12:11It was the craziest week of my life.
01:12:14I think it's recording now. It definitely is.
01:12:16Okay.
01:12:18Okay.
01:12:19I'm just going to be like squirming.
01:12:21Yeah, just...
01:12:22A lot of people think OnlyFans, people just like get naked and it's easy and that's it.
01:12:27And it's like, that's one one-thousandth of the actual job.
01:12:37I do everything myself from coming up with the concepts to filming it, setting everything up, hiring the locations.
01:12:46Ready?
01:12:48Filming videos, editing it myself.
01:12:54I knew in the back of my mind that that was officially closing the door on any opportunity I had
01:13:02to work with Disney ever again.
01:13:04And, you know, I was like, it's been 14 years.
01:13:10They're not bringing back wizards, you know?
01:13:13Like, I let go of the hope that they'd ever bring it back.
01:13:18In 2024, Disney orders 21 episodes of a reboot of Wizards of Waverly Place.
01:13:24And several of the original cast members come back for return appearances.
01:13:30Den was not one of them.
01:13:31Are you kidding me?
01:13:33A piece of me is broken.
01:13:37I think it's always been hard for adult stars to leave the adult world and jump into mainstream.
01:13:46Very few have succeeded.
01:13:48I don't care how great of an actress you are.
01:13:51You're never going to get a huge plum role that goes on like on a sitcom because the advertisers won't
01:14:01advertise.
01:14:04Coca-Cola is not going to back a porn star.
01:14:08Tide detergent isn't going to.
01:14:11Because then the protests were like, how dare you, you know, have a TV show that you're...
01:14:19I don't think it'll ever be fully accepted.
01:14:23There was a lot of people really hammering it in, like, don't you feel bad about these decisions you made?
01:14:30It has been not even 24 hours since the new wizard show has premiered and we already have drama.
01:14:35Ed Benson got his career started with Wizards of Waverly Place, but he's made it clear that Disney has definitely
01:14:39told him he's out.
01:14:40If you didn't know, Dan took a new career path and is now in adult entertainment.
01:14:44Online has been very vocal about his journey.
01:14:46I am shook.
01:14:47All Dan Benson wants is attention.
01:14:50Everybody is dogging on Dan.
01:14:54And it seems as though you're seeking out clout and seeking out attention for the wrong things.
01:14:58That, like, I don't know, just like, it gives me an act the way he's gone about things.
01:15:07So I reacted and I did what you're never supposed to do as an influencer or a content creator.
01:15:16I think I'm done.
01:15:19It's starting to weigh on me and I think I'm going to pull away for a while and take some
01:15:26time to reflect.
01:15:28And...
01:15:33I don't know.
01:15:46Dan announced that he had made a mistake. This was a bad choice.
01:15:49He took down his OnlyFans and then he reconsidered and put it back up.
01:15:52No, I'm not quitting OnlyFans and no, I'm not going back to Disney.
01:15:57You've now had one experience where maybe it was the wrong choice, maybe it wasn't. I don't know.
01:16:03How about if you have kids? Where is the line? Where is this going to be a problem for you?
01:16:07I think he should search his soul because those kinds of experiences are going to be coming his way.
01:16:18I didn't know it at the time, but I have a special appeal.
01:16:22And that is specifically gay men. And gay men are the ones who are going to pay for my OnlyFans.
01:16:28But I'm a straight man.
01:16:31Catboy's back.
01:16:32And it's tough when you're just like, it was just so different than what I imagined.
01:16:37This should be the last one. Give us a little wink.
01:16:41Like when I go out in West Hollywood, I get sexually assaulted all the time.
01:16:47They just assume since I'm a sex worker that it'd be fine for them to come up and like grab
01:16:52my ass or like grab my balls and be like, ha ha.
01:16:55Like, oh, I got your and that was so fun. Like, it's like, please don't.
01:17:00Yeah.
01:17:00When I got into this, I knew that there were going to be things that were never going to be
01:17:05the same for me.
01:17:06But the benefits greatly outweighed the downsides for me personally.
01:17:14Before I started doing OnlyFans, I had never been able to have any money at the end of the year.
01:17:20I have never had a savings. Never.
01:17:23Even when I was on the show working full time on Wizards of Waverly Place, that almost paid rent.
01:17:30It didn't quite pay rent. I had to get some help from my parents.
01:17:33But today, I'm one of the most successful OnlyFans male creators on the platform.
01:17:39Dan Benson reportedly made a million dollars from OnlyFans in his first year.
01:17:43After starting OnlyFans, I met my girlfriend and she has been incredibly supportive and even helps me produce the content.
01:17:51There is something incredibly empowering about taking that ownership of your body and your expression and your sexual expression and
01:18:02how you present that publicly.
01:18:06Growing up, I was always the good student.
01:18:10I didn't get in trouble. I was a nice girl.
01:18:13I got a lot of attention and praise for that.
01:18:17When I got on the soap opera, I got it very fast from doing a good audition and knowing my
01:18:21stuff.
01:18:22And I felt good about that.
01:18:24But then once you get into it, it's so...the footing is not solid.
01:18:33Now I got to perform the way I wanted to perform. I was in control of it. It was on
01:18:39my own terms.
01:18:40I've been in the adult industry for six years now. I think I've won 25 or 26 awards.
01:18:47I've gotten all the accolades. I've built my own brand personally. I've, you know, made great films and created a
01:18:55great business model and made great money from it more than Hollywood.
01:19:03And I think we can do more to protect these young girls that are coming in against these bad types
01:19:09in the porn industry.
01:19:13There are many people in the adult industry, but my experience going to be on camera was one and done.
01:19:19That was it.
01:19:23I never looked at it as my life. It's going to be my career, my entirety. That's not what I
01:19:29did. I just sort of moved into this other thing.
01:19:34Very few people actually transition into adult entertainment work and then successfully make their way back to mainstream TV and
01:19:45film projects.
01:19:46Scott Schwartz is one of them. It's not to the same height as when he was a teenager, but he
01:19:51is a working actor.
01:19:53I've done a lot of independent small movies over the years.
01:19:572022, A Christmas Story Christmas shows up.
01:20:01I'm not a huge part of the movie, but it was the fact that we were all together again.
01:20:07At the end of the day, you've got to look in the mirror and be happy with who you are.
01:20:1120, 30 years ago, people who go from being child stars to being an adult film, that would have been
01:20:18considered an absolute fall from grace.
01:20:20Back with Dana, it was a progression of where people ended up when they had certain issues that weren't being
01:20:27properly dealt with.
01:20:29I feel like today, the kind of money that people are making makes the stigma melt away because they're certainly
01:20:36making on these OnlyFans sites a lot more money than they ever made as a child star.
01:20:44Perfect.
01:20:45While they have money and fans, respect is not something that comes easy.
01:20:55They are highly judged for doing pornography, just like Dana Plato was judged 25 years ago.
01:21:03There is only one industry that is still okay to shame, and that's porn, and that's sex workers.
01:21:14And you get the chirpers, you know, hey, didn't he do porn? And I'm like, yeah, you know.
01:21:23It doesn't matter that I did it 29 years ago.
01:21:31I've known of people who come to the industry because it's kind of a place to feel safe, because there's
01:21:37a lot of different people who might be stigmatized out there.
01:21:40Then when they go back into the real, real world, they face this taboo and scrutiny, and it's really painful.
01:21:49Being on that show, being in front of 4 million people a week, it was the pinnacle of what I'll
01:21:55do with acting.
01:21:58But everyone around you, you know, judges you based on what happened after that.
01:22:07What hurts is the lack of empathy for anyone to stop and, like, to take the time to even go
01:22:13and read my story about what happened to me or why I made that decision.
01:22:24As I've gotten older, my late 30s, I know this also is not going to last.
01:22:31I'm not going to be able to do porn for 20 more years.
01:22:38But I think the next phase for me will be teaching the next generation of actors, adult entertainers, influencers about
01:22:49what to avoid.
01:22:55What can be great being a young actor is fame and fortune.
01:22:59Zach Morris.
01:23:00Kelly Kapowski.
01:23:00Jesse Slater.
01:23:01Samuel Screech.
01:23:02Powers.
01:23:02I play Lisa on Save for the Bell.
01:23:05It was so popular.
01:23:07But a really bad thing.
01:23:08I asked him, is it pain pills?
01:23:10He had a stalker.
01:23:11Dustin Diamond arrested or stabbed.
01:23:13Fame and fortune.
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