15 Verrrry Surprising A-List Celebs Who Have Played Porn Stars
See which stars have bared all.
weheartit If you do it well, you might win an Academy Award. If the film's a flop, you may have just thrown your career away.
Stepping into the shoes of a porn star for a movie isn't always a risk that pays off. Amanda Seyfried thought about these concerns when she was deciding whether to portray Linda Lovelace in the film Lovelace.
Seyfried received rave reviews for her portrayal of Linda Lovelace, one of the first — and biggest — stars of pornography. She had success playing good girls on screen, but this role demanded a bit more from her: including nudity.
"It's funny, because I felt liberated when I was doing it," she said. "I'm sure people that are very protective of me wouldn't feel very comfortable with that, but it's like, what's the big deal? ... Growing up I was made to feel nudity was wrong because everything was always censored in movies, and it was just like, why are we covering ourselves up?"
RELATED: 6 Questions Women Should Ask BEFORE Looking For Porn (To Find The Good Stuff)
Amanda's not the only A-lister who's talked dirty and shown some skin playing a porn star. Check out this list of other celebs who've taken on the challenge.
1. Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights
In one of his best performances of all time, Marky Mark wowed in the 1997 drama. Boogie Nights is the story of Dirk Diggler's adventures in the California porn industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Wahlberg's character is known for his rather large "package," which is a prop that the actor held onto after filming.
"I used to keep it in my desk drawer. And I'd take it out and slap my friends in the face with it," Wahlberg said. "I don't keep many things from my movies, but that just seemed to have personal significance."
2. Courtney Love in The People vs. Larry Flynt
Courtney Love surprised many in her role as Althea Leasure Flynt in the 1996 flick. But she didn't take too many more acting gigs after her initial success. During filming, she gave director Milos Forman her word that she wouldn't use drugs.
"And I was true to my word — not a pill, not an anti-depressant, not a Xanax," she said. "Despite that, I still had to get a non-refundable $2 million insurance policy." Due to these high costs, she moved on from her promising Hollywood acting career, though she maintains she has considering a return to the screen.
3. Kim Cattrall in Meet Monica Velour
Meet Monica Velour is a good-natured comedy about an aging porn star who meets her biggest fan, a 17-year-old nerd with a nostalgia fetish. So what attracted the Sex and the City star to the role?
"It was the character. She scared me," she explains. "I had never played a character that was so hopeless. So at the end of her rope. She has no support. Usually the characters that I play are so empowered. This was a woman without any of those attributes, living by herself in a trailer park, who had a porn career in the '70s. She started stripping and hooking a little bit. She married this creep, they have this child. And now she is fighting for custody of her daughter."
4. Elisha Cuthbert in The Girl Next Door
In one of her first starring roles, Elisha Cuthbert played a former porn star who falls in love with the boy next door. To research her role, she attended an adult film convention and talked to a few adult film actresses.
"I had spoken to a few of the girls from Wicked Pictures and Vivid and kind of got a take of what they were like," she explains. "I was surprised. I had this stereotype in my mind that these girls were like the two girls that were my friends in the film. And they're not. They're really into fashion, normal girls, and so I was impressed. It was pretty wild."
RELATED: We Found The Best 10 Porn Sites For Women (Shh! We Won't Tell)
5. Charlie Sheen in Rated X
Is it any surprise that the actor has played a porn star? Sheen starred alongside his brother Emilio Estevez (who also directed the film) in Rated X, a 2000 biopic based on the Mitchell brothers, who were leaders in the pornography and strip-club businesses in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s. This "Cain and Abel" story ends with Jim (played by Estevez) murdering his brother Artie (Sheen).
6. Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights
Julianne Moore is, naturally, an example of a talented actress picking the right role. Her portrayal of porn star Amber Waves in Boogie Nights earned Jules an Academy Award nomination.
7. Elizabeth Banks in Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Many of us know Elizabeth Banks for her roles in 30 Rock and The Hunger Games. But back in 2008, she starred alongside Seth Rogen in this raunchy rom-com about two platonic friends who make an adult film to help solve their financial problems.
Elizabeth Banks accepted the role, as she found a lot to like in her character.
"She's very simple and sweet and just sort of … You know, she's an orphan, she wants to find love, and she has a best friend. I mean, my best friend's the guy in my life. I don't know. I just thought she's very endearing. Everything about her I just adored," she explained.
8. John C. Reilly in Boogie Nights
It's safe to say John C. Reilly can pretty much do anything on the big screen. From slapstick comedy alongside Will Ferrell (best bromance ever!) and singing and dancing in the musical Chicago, to ... well, playing porn star Reed Rothchild in Boogie Nights, we can't get enough of him.
9. Adam Brody in Lovelace
Starring alongside Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, James Franco and more in Lovelace, Adam Brody takes on one of his most adult roles. And this time, he went to the end of the spectrum portraying Harry Reems, star of the 1972 pornographic cult classic Deep Throat.
How did his parents react to his new gig?
"They're excited ... which is sort of perverse, but great. They're proud of their little porn star," he said.
10. Tara Reid in The Big Lebowski
While a sequel for The Big Lebowski has never been confirmed, Tara Reid would love to return to her role of porn star Bunny Lebowski. To this day, Lebowski fans will remind her of her character's line about what act she was willing to perform for $1,000.
"Any really good Lebowski fans will always ask me to quote my famous line in The Big Lebowski," she said.
11. Selma Blair in Down to You
Most likely, you missed this 2000 box-office bomb starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. And even more likely, you probably didn't know Selma Blair played a porn star in it either. No FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome here, trust us.
12. Val Kilmer in Wonderland
Like we said before, not all porn star portrayals can be winners. Sorry, Val, that means you. The actor played legendary porn star John Holmes, who was known for two things: a rumored 13-inch penis and his involvement in the Wonderland murders of 1981.
13. Heather Graham in Boogie Nights
The Hangover actress shows quite a lot of skin as Rollergirl in Boogie Nights. In one scene, she sheds it all in order to confirm that Dirk Diggler has what it takes to make it in the movies.
14. Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite
Mira Sorvino won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Linda in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite. The film stars Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter as a married couple in New York who discover their adopted son is a genius. Allen's character Lenny seeks out the boy's birth mother, who turns out to be a prostitute and part-time porn star.
15. Robert Downey, Jr. in Rented Lips
Never heard of it? We hadn't either. And turns out, it's only available on VHS to this day. Before his comeback with huge box-office hits like Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, and The Avengers, RDJ embraced his bad boy image with a turn as a porn star in the 1988 film directed by Robert Downey, Sr.
Rented Lips stars RDJ as porn star Wolf Dangler, who works on an adult film set in a Nazi concentration camp. Yeah, it's not hard to see how this could be a flop.
