Adult performer Mark Anthony, who is one of Darren James' closest friends, told AVN.com Friday he does not know his whereabouts and is attempting to find him.
James was diagnosed HIV-positive earlier this week. He and Anthony traveled to Brazil together in late March to shoot several hardcore sex scenes.
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"I've been calling him and been going by his apartment. I went into his apartment today. I'm getting worried," Anthony said. "He always returns my phone calls. I've never had a problem getting a hold of him. I'm sure he's taken it harder than anybody. Maybe he's just taking some time to get himself together."
Anthony said the last time he spoke with James was on Monday, and "he was pretty depressed."
Anthony continued, "I've known Darren for seven years and over that time he's become one of my best friends. I'm very sad about this whole situation that's going on and definitely I want to go on the record saying Darren is a good guy. He doesn't drink. He doesn't do any drugs. He's not gay and he doesn't do anything with transsexuals."
Anthony and James have traveled to both Canada and Brazil to perform and have also performed on the same set in Los Angeles several times. Anthony described their most recent trip to Brazil, where it is thought that James contracted the virus, was "pretty much business as usual."
"What I would say is that I've heard those comments that Brazil is a high-risk place for HIV and so I went on the Internet and did some research and I found out there's more cases of HIV in the U.S. than in Brazil so if Brazil is high risk, the U.S. is a higher risk," Anthony said.
He continued, "What Darren and I always do, when we return from the trip, we always go in (to AIM Healthcare) and get a new test. He got back on the 16th and he went in that same day and re-tested. I was in Brazil a little longer and I tested on the 20th of March.
"Darren is as safe as anybody else. He even went in early this time to take a new test."
Though the timeline strongly suggests that James became exposed to the virus in Brazil, Anthony said that another scenario could have happened.
"I would say there's a possibility that it wasn't in Brazil. The timeline also fits where it could be Los Angeles," he said.
Anthony, a seven-year veteran of adult films, said he is unsure of his own future within the industry.
"I'm feeling pretty confused, a lot of emotions. Sometimes I feel angry about some of things that are being reported or said that I know are untrue. I feel sad for Darren, and sad for Lara Roxx and everybody that's affected on the list.
"…My feeling right now is that I'm considering not working anymore, not in front of the camera. Definitely, I'd never do a scene without a condom again. I'm confused. I feel like it's not safe at all to work anywhere – LA, Brazil, Europe, Japan. At one point I thought it was fairly safe. Now I realize it's not. Being a porno actor is a high-risk activity."
Anthony, clearly shaken by what is transpiring, added, "I know right now that everybody is panicking and trying to figure out what happened. Let's just try to get through this. Hopefully, there's no more positives and we get to what happened.
“I would really suggest for people not to work right now because right now we don't really know where he got it from. It could be from here in LA. We also don't know who he may have passed it onto. We have to wait until we get all the results."
Ed. note: Mark Anthony is the man in the picture accompanying this story.
