Arguably the most celebrated director in the history of adult cinema, Paul “P.T.” Thomas returned in 2013 to the place where he first dipped his toes into the business, the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, to shoot the climactic scene of what may very well be his last movie, The New Behind the Green Door for Vivid Entertainment (starring Brooklyn Lee)—which itself marked another return for him to his home of more than 20 years, and completed his cycle of remaking the four monoliths of the Golden Age: Debbie Does Dallas, The Devil in Miss Jones, Deep Throat and Green Door, all under the Vivid canopy. Now riding into his 40th year in porn—and just maybe on into the sunset—P.T. spoke with AVN about his immediate plans (he’s moving to Paris), his directorial swan song, and how he became quite possibly the master of the craft.
AVN: Are you certain that this [New Behind the Green Door] is your swan song?
PT: No, of course I’m not sure, but I’m not actively pursuing anything, and no one is pursuing me. I’m fine with it if it’s my last, but it may not be. I’m far away from the business right now.
At least for the foreseeable future you are moving to Paris?
Yes, I’m going to move to Paris, and leave in a couple of months. I’m going to stay at least for a year for sure.
So you started your career at the Mitchell Brothers Theatre, and then returned to it to shoot your last picture.
Well, I started at the Mitchell Brothers Theatre in late 1974 doing Autobiography of a Flea with John Holmes, and [John] Leslie was in it, Annette Haven, Jean Jennings, and a large part of it was filmed right near O’Farrell Theatre. And then we shot the last scene of Behind the Green Door in the old O’Farrell Theatre. It seemed perfect synchronicity, you know. If not now when? People don’t do films like I like to do much anymore, and I did a few films in the last couple of years.
I did The Graduate, to a few films for [Marc] Dorcel, and a couple films for New Sensations, and a couple of films for myself, Pervert, and I couldn’t have been happier, my work has never been better. But, I can see how it’s very difficult for them to make money. I saw it from every end. I owned a couple of them; I followed through on a couple of them. At the very least, the spend is $40K on a film and it’s very hard to make that back, I saw that very clearly. I always felt I could pick up the phone tomorrow and convince somebody to do whatever project I had in mind, because there are all sorts of people who know me, and respect me and could never work with me. I could fool anyone once! [Laughs].
A lot of people I could call up and they would say, “Yeah, work with Paul Thomas! What do you want to do?” But they don’t make money and I don’t feel good about it. Nobody does. Scott Taylor, greatest guy, we created a couple of really good films, and they cost about $40K, and were really difficult to make any money on. So I didn’t want to push my way, push myself onto places anymore. I always knew that I’m a limited skill set man. I’m an old-fashioned director, and I have a real aversion—and am not suggesting it’s a healthy, positive thing—I’ve just never had to learn the technical aspect of our business, so I don’t run camera. I don’t like to run camera.
I was a film director; that’s why I have a collection of the best performances ever in this business, and as evidenced this year by Behind the Green Door. That shit’s the best thing going. It’s amazing, the performances in that. And I get that by being out there with the actors. I’m an actor. I’m right there. And when I’m behind the camera I can’t get the same thing. I don’t enjoy it, so I never developed that part of the craft. These days there’s very few, if any, people who just direct. They do many different functions and create a different product because of it, and I don’t want to compete on that level. I probably can’t, and I don’t want to and I don’t have to. I’ve still got my Bar Mitzvah money, so I’m really well set.
When you were first jumping into this, did you have a game plan that you wanted to start directing? How did you wind up becoming P.T.?
Well, I was an actor—a mainstream actor, not a porno actor. I really and truly had an excellent mainstream career going. And people might go, “Blah, blah, blah, mainstream.” But I really did—I had the best agent in town, I was going great guns, and I decided to become a porno star. It wasn’t an accident. No one forced me. I made a conscious decision. What the fuck was I thinking? I mean it’s worked out. It’s cool. I had one of the best careers that’s ever been in this business, creatively, monetarily, it’s been amazing, so I can’t complain. But I’m just amazed that I made that decision.
And obviously that was a much more outlandish decision to make at the time than it would be now.
Yeah, porno was underground. It was illegal. It’s funny, it’s more accepted but less respected. I never said that but that’s cool! It’s more accepted but less respected than it used to be, because it’s in every household. But most of it is just what it is—it’s just porno. The days of Behind the Green Door, or The Devil in Miss Jones, or Debbie Does Dallas or Deep Throat, all of which I made, or remade—it was underground filmmaking. It wasn’t outlawed, but it was respected in an outlaw sort of way. These days, it’s just a business, you know, that’s fine. Work at McDonald’s—that’s fine. No problem. So, it was an outlandish decision I made. I made it.
After about 10 years as an actor—I was working with John Leslie and Henri Pachard, and I used to fly back and forth as his star. After 10 years as his star, I decided to become his producer out here. So we started a company and we didn’t have enough time to do all the work we had, and so I did a couple of the spillover productions, and I decided I wanted to direct. The same reason I became an actor in this business is the same reason I wanted to become a director—because I didn’t have much competition. No, I take that back. It was just a lot easier to become a successful director or actor in this business than in mainstream. Anyone who says anything else is lying! It takes a lot more discipline, knocking on a lot more doors, to become successful in mainstream.
Well, along those lines, in Boogie Nights, there is this whole theme about wanting to make “real” movies—when you were actually living it, was that what your ambition was?
It was to make real porno movies. It wasn’t to make real horror movies or real mainstream dramatic comedies. It was to make the sexiest films I could possibly make. It was and still is a noble challenge. And for me, the sexiest stuff was based in character and story. The best orgasms came from the head, the mind—the big head. And so it all went together there for a while in that way. I got to work with scripts and characters and story, and explore the best way to mold them and to use them for the purpose of exciting the audience; involving the story, involving the characters so that when someone fucks someone else’s wife behind someone’s back, you actually got the feeling, the sense of real life there, of character. And the whole thing’s much better, it’s much more interesting as a movie, much more interesting to watch and it’s more sexy.
OK, the big question is, what do you consider your crowning achievement in your 40-year tenure?
I understand The Masseuse, both versions, was really clean. You know, just faultless. It’s a really, really unique motion picture [above, Jay Grdina, Jenna Jameson, Vivid’s Steve Hirsch and Thomas at the 2005 AVN Awards for Masseuse]. I understand that, but Behind the Green Door is so recent, and I think it works so well, that’s the one that resonates with me right now. It was a real challenge to make it because the original had no particular story at all. You know, it was a tiny string of a story, so I took some facets of Marilyn Chambers’ real life, Marilyn Chambers’ daughter, and I think we created a really neat film. That’ll do!
Read a longer version of our interview with Paul Thomas on AVN.com. ì
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