LOS ANGELES—Citing what she believes is a negative impact from her work, director/performer Aiden Starr has decided to leave Evil Angel where she was one of its longstanding directors, and Kink.com where she served as a production manager.
Starr made the announcement on Monday via Twitter where she posted: “Effective immediately, I am stepping down from directing at Evil Angel and Production Managing at Kink. Many of my projects when viewed by the public do more harm than good. I have been complicit and I apologize.”
Starr said through her agent Mark Spiegler that she had no further comment.
John Stagliano, owner of Evil Angel, said today that he plans to reach out to Starr to discuss the matter further. “I have talked to her and I am not sure what to say. I will not make a comment on this now other than to say we are going to discuss further and I will be exploring her ideas more with her,” Stagliano told AVN. “I think people in general, and especially now, need to step back for a moment and carefully consider important decisions. So often in the past I have seen decisions made like this that have had to be walked back. Now I am worried that my advice to be careful not to make rash decisions will be criticized for being cowardly or something. Go for it twitter!”
Alison Boden, Kink.com CEO, said yesterday that she was surprised by Starr’s decision to leave Kink, but said she hopes to speak to her soon to discuss the issue.
“Aiden sent me an email this morning saying she no longer felt comfortable producing content which might be seen out of context. While I respect her decision, I’m sad to lose such a talented director and performer, and I’m looking forward to talking with her soon to better understand how and why she feels the way she does,” Boden said. “Kink's mission is to empower people to discover, explore and indulge their kinky side. We hope that our members use our shoots to not only entertain, but explore how and why people enjoy fetish and BDSM.
She continued: “In an ideal world, everyone would see the entirety of our shoots, from pre-shoot checklists to post-shoot conversations and aftercare. That's not always possible in a digital world. While we can't always control what parts of our content people see, we can and will continue to do everything we can to make sure that our production is consensual, ethical and authentic, and that we use it to push forward thoughtful conversations about, and hopefully context for, BDSM and fetish.”
Starr's departure from Evil Angel marks an end to a directorial relationship that began in 2014 with such titles as Curvy Casting Couch, Foot Fuckers and others. Starr, who joined the adult industry in 2000, is known for her work as a fetish director/performer, having appeared in more than 400 titles while directing nearly 100 others, mostly for Evil. A winner of the 2009 AVN Award for Best All-Girl Three-Way Sex Scene and several other awards, Starr was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame in 2018.
Photo of Aiden Starr from the 2017 AVN House Party by Jeff Koga/@KogaFoto.
