The new HBO half-hour comedy series Mrs. Fletcher tells the story of an empty-nest mom, portrayed by Kathryn Hahn, who goes on a journey of sexual awakening sparked when she discovers the joys of online porn. As part of the tale, the show includes plenty of examples of the actual—or in some cases fictionalized—porn clips that ignite Mrs. Fletcher’s new erotic flame.
But where do those clips come from? In a recent interview, show creator Tom Perotta—who also wrote the novel on which the HBO program is based—explained that sourcing porn is not as simple as downloading a few porn videos from the web, and that he has taken care to avoid appearing to be making light of the porn genre.
“You know, somehow you’ve got to really believe in something like porn or a genre fiction to do it right. You can’t do it as an outsider, I think,” Perotta told the site Decider in an interview last month.
The showrunner, who also authored the novel that was the basis for HBO’s series The Leftovers, said that he had originally believed that he would need to shoot simulated porn clips of his own to meet the different “standards” that exist for television—even for the relatively freewheeling HBO—and for online porn.
“The problem was, it’s harder than it looks,” Perotta said. “We started actually culling clips from the web and some of those are in the show, and they are shocking.”
Well, they probably won’t be too shocking to anyone involved in the adult industry or even to those who are fans. But Perotta said that even though he and his staff opted first for authentic porn, in some cases they were forced to shoot their own pseudo-porn anyway.
Even when he received permission to use a clip from the copyright holder, he chose not to use clips for which he was unable to contact the performers themselves for their OK. It is known that some adult performers have not "come out" to their parents or loved ones about their profession, and Perotta apparently respects that problem.
“It’s one thing to consent to making porn and having it shown in a porn space, and I think you really have to explicitly consent to being in a mainstream TV show,” Perotta said.
When filming original, simulated porn for the show, “we tried to really recreate the look and kind of the format of stuff that was available.”
Perotta also said that he was careful to avoid the appearance of “satirizing” online porn. “It really does feel like as close as we can get to the original,” he said of the show’s simulated clips.
What the showrunner does not specify is whether he used professional porn performers to appear in the simulated clips, though in at least one instance, adult star Ryan Keeley appears as an “amateur” who is interviewed by an online MILF site.
Photo by HBO Publicity
