This feature appears in the January issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—Rocco Siffredi points to two reasons why he was inspired to create his first academy for women.
“Very simple,” Siffredi says. “First, because more and more porn belongs to woman, not only in front of the camera but also behind as producer, director and content creator.
“So let’s do something which involves all kind of girls—some porn stars and some girls came from only their first time in porn. Let’s try to figure out how this whole thing goes.”
The result is what is shaping up to be an epic first installment of Rocco Siffredi Hard Academy: Women Edition, which will debut on Feb. 17 exclusively on RoccoSiffredi.com.
The AVN Hall of Fame superstar created an international buzz during the principal photography last summer over 10 eventful days in Budapest, Hungary.
“This is the first porn academy for women and we never had so much visibility on social media like this one—not double, not triple, maybe 50 times more than any academy with me. Everybody in Italy was talking about this academy,” Siffredi, who wrote and directed the reality-show style project, tells AVN.
He produced and directed seven editions of Hard Academy featuring men before this—beginning in 2016.
“Personally, I liked the fact that I decide to do this academy completely under my son’s point of view,” Rocco continues.
“He was the one who said we have to let the girls just have fun as they do in TikTok, as they do in normal life. Let’s not put too much pressure on them on them sexually. Let’s shoot them having fun and slowly switch into having sex.”
Siffredi’s eldest son, Lorenzo Tano, who took the reins of the iconic Rocco Siffredi Productions in the past year, captured the footage with the same raw energy as any reality-style competition show on network television. All the contestants lived together in a house while also competing in a series of lighthearted games.
“The girls had so much fun for the whole academy,” Rocco says, adding that eight of the 12 contestants—all of whom were Italian—decided to get tattoos commemorating their experience with watchwords that he teaches such as “irony,” “humble” and “passion.”
“And I didn’t ask them to do it,” he notes.
Siffredi explains that those three key words have been the foundation for some of the wisdom he tries to impart during each of his academies.
“I always say to the boys every time, be passionate—don’t take yourself too serious. Make joke of yourself, don’t take it too serious and be humble. Don’t think you know everything. Try to learn something. Those are three magic words to do this business for almost 40 years,” Rocco tells AVN.
“2025 I will be exactly 40 years in the business. For being in it so long, you have to have two out of three—or at least one out of the three.”
Siffredi explains that this edition of the academy provided the opportunity for his production team to fine-tune a live streaming experience that will be the primary format for all the future academies.
The cast of Rocco Siffredi Hard Academy: Women Edition includes Moon Comelaluna, Lia Orellana, Candee Licious, Amy Douxxx, Shelena, Eva Generosi and Coyote Cutee, with appearances by Aaron Rock, Erik Everhard, Master Giacon—a BDSM expert coach—and Kelly Stafford.
Siffredi explains he now works for his 27-year-old son Lorenzo, who has been running his multimedia porn empire.
“I almost don’t make any more decisions. I follow completely and I trust his point of view,” Rocco says. “Movies become the same and you have to move on. We have to move on. Since my passion is always there, I try to put all my knowledge on his point of view. He’s of course not a pornographer like I am. I’m born for this like John Stagliano, Joey Silvera, John Leslie... But he really does love porn like me and he has a vision.
“He’s been working around me for five years and he has a vision and I trust so much his vision. It makes me improve. He has a vision of what will be the future.”
Rocco says Lorenzo believes in live streaming and maintaining the fun aspect of the job.
“He likes also very much the interaction,” Siffredi says. “You can watch the movie and be part of the movie from home. You can decide how to interact in the movie and give direction. It’s one of the reasons you pay to see what you want to see, a little bit like webcam.”
Lorenzo, whose new LTX cryptocurrency was prominently featured in the academy, also led the videography for Siffredi’s boxing epic, The Spanish Stallion.
Rocco indicated that Shelena, who is from Sicily, won the first women’s academy.
“She was incredible,” he says. “She was natural in a way that she didn’t know what she wanted to do. She was the most fresh one.
“She was chosen as the winner for the 10 days of the progression, going through the progression in a way that was beautiful with the way she approach it and the way she wanted to be.”
He says that immediately after winning she received several booking offers from studios such as Vixen in Europe.
Since Siffredi and his cast all spoke Italian, he notes the movie will include English subtitles. But he says the next edition could be more of an international affair with girls from different countries.
“They talk so much about this in Italy, like how come so many Italian girls move into porn?” Rocco says.
“Because we decide to do an academy which really have social media impact we decide to go live every morning in YouTube, in Twitch and Instagram and Facebook.
“And then in the evening all together we do a podcast live where we were talking about what we did doing during the day.”
The show will be rolled out in seven episodes with a double-disc DVD coming later.
