Skip to main content

How will love scenes work in post-pandemic Hollywood? A lot like they do in porn

two people kissing with masks on illustration
Chris DeGraw/Digital Trends

Mainstream Hollywood and the adult entertainment industry have always had an uneasy coexistence, but as both industries inch back toward shooting new content, they’re facing the same problem: How do you protect actors and crew in the COVID-19 world?

In some ways, the porn industry has a head start. Since 1998, adult performers have been screened regularly for HIV and other communicable diseases. And the industry keeps a broad database of who has been tested and their most recent test dates. That’s something that, until recently, was unthinkable in Hollywood.

Big studios still aren’t willing to go that far, but regular testing will be a part of the production process moving forward. Both industries released their guidelines for studios last Friday. (And the Free Speech Coalition, the trade association of the adult entertainment industry, gave the green light for filming to resume in areas where it is permitted.) Their approaches to worker safety are somewhat different, though.

That’s both surprising and entirely predictable. While major studios could learn a lot about tracing and health monitoring from an industry that has been utilizing it for more than 20 years, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley have always been wary of each other. And the very nature of adult entertainment makes mainstream studios hesitant, at best, to publicly seek advice from that industry. (You don’t have to be a stock market wunderkind to realize that Disney investors would revolt if word got out the company was consulting with Brazzers.)

At the same time, Hollywood studios, in general, invest a lot more in their actors than adult filmmakers. And they protect those investments more ferociously, so picking up advice, regardless of its point of origin, could be beneficial.

How do the protocols compare and contrast? Here’s a look.

The Hollywood plan

SAG-AFTRA, along with the Director’s Guild of America and several other Hollywood unions, released a detailed set of protocols on June 12 as the film and television industry prepares to get back to work. Under that plan, cast and crew will be tested for coronavirus before their first day of work. From there, there will be “regular testing protocols” during the course of the production.

Performers, given their close proximity to each other, will be tested at least three times a week, with daily testing being required of some personnel, especially those “involved in production of scenes that require close or intimate contact, or extreme exertion.” People in production offices, who can socially distance and use personal protection equipment (PPE), will be tested less frequently, but at least once a week.

Actress and Makeup Artist on Movie Set
picture alliance / Getty Images

The unions are also proposing a three-zone system. (Zone A would be actors working on set with no PPE, along with essential crew. Zone B would encompass workers in places like control rooms/trucks, production offices, etc., who would be required to use PPE and follow social distancing rules. Zone C would be the outside world – homes, hotels, etc.) The plan is to keep people in their zones as exclusively as possible.

“Think of it this way: From door to door, people working in Zone A travel along a cocooned path — sometimes involving multiple Zone As — laid out and controlled by people working in Zone B,” the protocols read.

Sets will also add a dedicated health safety supervisor, who will monitor the set and has final authority on enforcement of COVID-19 safety practices, up to and including pausing production.

And sex scenes, which generally limited the number of people on set before the pandemic, will become even more closed.

“For intimate scenes, special care should be given to limiting the number and placement of monitors to ensure that only those individuals who would be authorized to be present during the recording of the scene have access to any monitors,” the union said. “The expansion of use of remote monitoring for COVID-19 prevention must not result in an expansion of the number of people with access to monitors during intimate scenes.”

The porn industry plan

Performers in the adult entertainment industry currently are screened every two weeks for HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B and C, trichomoniasis, and syphilis. Before performers are cleared to work on a set, producers access a system known as PASS (Performer Availability Scheduling Services), which shows either a green check (signifying they’re cleared to work) or a red X. The X could mean either their tests are outdated or they’ve tested positive for one of the viruses (the system does not specify for privacy reasons).

Performers who test positive for HIV are retested and if the diagnosis is confirmed, they are barred from the PASS system for life – and no longer eligible to work with any major studio.

Tracking COVID-19 is a bit different than the health monitoring the porn industry is used to, though. The PASS system will show the date of a performer’s last negative test, says Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition.

Studios that choose not to strictly follow the Free Speech Coalition’s guidelines won’t face any real repercussions.

That said, the porn industry’s posted COVID-19 guidelines are less stringent than you might expect given the close proximity of the actors. When it comes to testing, the advice comes down to one line: “Ideally, each person will test 1-2 days prior to each shoot, and will self-isolate for the period between taking the test and arriving on set, and for the duration of the shoot.”

There is more written about how COVID-19 impacts the Americans with Disabilities Act than there is about active testing of talent, crew, and on-set personnel. Stabile says studios have indicated they will pick up the cost of COVID-19 testing for performers.

Otherwise, the Free Speech Coalition’s guidelines are largely the same advice the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been giving for months: Wash hands frequently, clean common surfaces thoroughly, and people not on camera should practice social distancing and wear PPE. Anyone exposed or potentially exposed should self-isolate for 14 days.

There’s also the added degree of difficulty that adult sets aren’t unionized, so studios that choose not to strictly follow the Free Speech Coalition’s guidelines won’t face any real repercussions.

“Each member of the adult industry will need to evaluate their tolerance for risk when deciding when and how to return to production safely,” the Free Speech Coalition says. “Any decision a business makes needs to be based upon the regulatory rules of their jurisdictions, the needs of their specific business, and the advice of their lawyer.”

Chris Morris
Chris Morris has covered consumer technology and the video game industry since 1996, offering analysis of news and trends and…
The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now
A woman points a gun and stares.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 250 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.

Zack Snyder is back in the top 10 with Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, the second film in his space opera series. Despite Snyder's popularity, the new Rebel Moon film could not unseat What Jennifer Did, which is the No. 1 movie for the second straight week. New additions to the top 10 include the comedy Knocked Up at No. 8 and the action movie Anna at No. 2. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from April 15 to April 21, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Read more
Deadpool & Wolverine: Everything we know about the film formerly known as Deadpool 3
Deadpool and Wolverine stand together in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In retrospect, we should have suspected that Deadpool & Wolverine wouldn't keep its most famous co-star out of the title. In 2022, Ryan Reynolds coaxed Hugh Jackman into reprising his role as Wolverine for the first time since 2017's Logan. Once that happened, the name Deadpool 3 didn't fully convey how monumental this film would be.

So Marvel Studios has officially retitled it as Deadpool & Wolverine. Jackman has also humorously rebranded the film as Wolverine & [expletive], which would make this R-rated flick a lot harder to market!

Read more
5 years ago, Game of Thrones aired its last great episode. Here’s why it still holds up
Jamie knights Brienne in episode 2 of Game of Thrones season 8.

Many fans would likely agree that Game of Thrones went out not with a bang, but a profound whimper. After dominating pop culture for nearly 10 years, the hit HBO series concluded with a trio of episodes that were universally reviled by both fans and critics alike. The show's lackluster, ham-fisted finale led to its popularity seemingly vanishing into thin air. In the five years since it aired, time hasn't been kind to Game of Thrones season 8.

To this day, many people still discuss the series' final season with a mix of bitterness and disbelief, and those fans won't find any disagreement about the quality of Game of Thrones' last few chapters here. As disappointing as its eighth season remains, though, April 21 marked the five-year anniversary of its noteworthy second episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The fan-favorite installment ranks not only as its season's best chapter, but also as the last great episode that Game of Thrones ever produced.

Read more