Jayden Jaymes- Her Label as “The Bitch”

October 21, 2009
My Label As ‘The Bitch’

OP/ED by Jayden Jaymes

I had a slightly rough day on set today and thought I’d make light of the situation by making fun of mine and my costar Abbey Brooks’ diva-like attitude by posting a few random little thoughts on Twitter about how we were having a long day and just dealing with idiots and whatnot. Well, of course, I had a lot of people asking what was wrong, why it was taking so long, and, of course, why I always felt the need to complain! (LMAO at that last one!) So, after the day from hell that we went through, I’d thought I’d write about it so some of the more ignorant people could get yet another look into the daily routines, and more importantly the complete bullshit that we have to put up with sometimes.

I was booked for a girl-girl scene a couple weeks ago by this production company that shoots for a network of Pay-Per-View channels (I didn’t know that until I did my research AFTER my shoot today). I personally had never heard of them, but my agent is not a scum bag and doesn’t send me out on bullshit shoots. Plus, I knew my costar, so I knew I was in good hands. I got my shoot information last night which said we’d be shooting off of Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. I knew that there’d be traffic, especially since call time was 9am, so I got to bed early and got up extra early so I could fight traffic. I’m NEVER late for anything… I always plan ahead.

One thing that irked me a little, which is becoming more and more common these days, is that my production sheet had said that I was to come hair and makeup ready. Personally, I can’t stand this. (I know that the economy is bad, but we’re ALL struggling.) In my personal opinion, we work in an industry that sells girls and sex… HOT girls! I don’t understand how a company can skimp on something like MAKEUP when they’re selling the girls’ images! It seems essential to me. So, usually, when I’m asked to come hair and makeup ready, my rate increases $100 so that I can pay a makeup artist to come make me look beautiful. (To top if off, they actually described to me how they wanted me to do my makeup. I’m sorry, in my opinion, if you want my makeup done a certain way, then pay someone to come do it… I’ll do my makeup however I want! lol.) However, I was so tired last night that I just didn’t feel like making a phone call to handle the makeup situatino, so I let it be and got up early to do it myself.

I should also take this opportunity to point out that this company begged my agent and I for a lower rate for the girl-girl scene. I’ll admit, I have a high rate, but if it’s going to be an easy day, I usually don’t mind dropping it. So, the scene was booked for $200 lower than my usual rate. Not a big deal. But, for what they were saving on my rate (and Abbey’s as well!), they should’ve at least provided makeup. Just my opinion.

So anyway, I have a 9am call time… I was on set in this house at 8:50. (As I said… I’m never late!) So, I grabbed a seat and waited… And waited… And waited… Finally Abbey gets there at about 9:20. Still no crew. Wait… Aren’t THEY the ones that set up the 9am call time??? If THEY can’t be there at 9am, why do I have to be? It’s just so unprofessional! I had texted my agent and told him that if they didn’t show up by 9:30, I was going to leave. Well, the crew walked in minutes before 9:30. Honestly, the exact words out of my mouth: “So nice of you to FINALLY show up!” Rude, I know… But even more rude of them!

Whatever… We get going with paperwork, IDs, picking out outfits, etc. As Abbey and I were getting dressed, we overheard the crew talk about 6 locations in the house they wanted to shoot. We looked at each other funny. Then they started saying, “We’ll shoot one tease here… then one here… then another one there…” Abbey and I met in the bathroom and starting chatting. We were confused. Exactly how many teases were we shooting??? Typically, a scene consists of a set of ‘pretty girls’ (pics of just the girl, slowly stripping out of whatever outfit she’s wearing for the scene), a set of sex stills, a tease and/or scene intro, and the actual scene, usually ranging from 20-35 minutes. So, for them to be talking about multiple teases, we were confused. I told Abbey that we could shoot these first two since that was obviously part of the scene and what we’re being paid for. Then, if anything comes up after that, we’ll chat, because we were not getting paid to shoot anything more.

So, I shoot my first little tease. I slowly stripped out of my pink lingerie, caressed my body and whatnot. They shot 12 minutes of just that. Then, they shot a little of me and Abbey together, mainly just giving sultry and playful looks. Then, they shot Abbey’s tease. In the mean time, I had texted my agent about the confusion and he completely agreed with Abbey and I and that we were not getting paid for multiple sets.

After shooting the tease with Abbey, the director then starts talking about what else we’re shooting that day. He starts saying that we’re going to shoot a couple more teases, do individual interviews, then an interview together in which we were supposed to ‘play’ with each other, then he was going to shoot a solo video with each of us, then we’d shoot the girl-girl scene. Whoa?! What?! So, in our heads, we’re thinking, “Okay, these guys want a girl-girl scene with teases (1 scene, which is fine), a solo scene of each of us with teases (2 scenes from each of us total now, 3 all together), and an interview type thing where we’re supposed to get down and dirty, too (4 scenes all together)… and we’re each getting paid $200 UNDER our normal lesbian scene rates??? HELL NO!!!”

Abbey and I remained calm and explained that we weren’t going to shoot anything more than what was needed for ONE GIRL-GIRL scene because that’s all we were being paid for. The director in turn, proceeds to say, “Well, I told your agent what were were doing today and that you’d be here all day. And, I’m paying you each $____ so I have you for the whole day and you have to shoot whatever I need!” Abbey and I FLIPPED, understandably. Our rates are, obviously, per SCENE and is, basically, for one day. Meaning, you have a whole day to shoot this ONE SCENE. It doesn’t mean that you pay us for one day and shoot as much as you want, which he was telling us. He went on to say something like, “Well, you’re booked for a girl-girl scene, so, as long as I don’t make you do more than that, we can shoot whatever we want and that includes solos!”

My response: “So, if you booked me for a boy-girl scene, you’d think it’s okay to shoot a bunch of girl-girl scenes and not pay me for them because it’s ‘not more than’ a boy-girl scene?” To my surprise, his response was a YES!

For those who might be a little lost still, pornstars have a rate for EVERY KIND of scene: HJs, BJs, Solos, Girl-Girl, Boy-Girl, Anal, DP, Softcore, Photosets, Dialogue Days, Etc. So, if this company wanted a girl-girl scene AND solo scenes from each of us, they needed to pay for the girl-girl scene (possibly two with whatever the interview thing was) AND the solo scenes.

This director just did not see the problem. He called our agent, we called our agent (who, by the way, was just told it was a girl-girl scene and he knew NOTHING about everything else), and what it came down to was that Abbey and I would do the girl-girl scene NOW since we had already shot the teases and that was it! If he wanted solos, he’d have to pay us more. (We actually did end up shooting some interview-type stuff and using that as the scene intro, but we refused to do more than ONE KISS! lol.) This director was PISSED! He kept going on about how no other girl he has ever shot has complained about the situation and things like that. Of course, I threw it in his face: “Well, you’ve never shot me or Abbey before and you can’t compare all of the girls like that! Maybe no other girl was strong enough to say NO or maybe she didn’t realize that you were fucking her out of money.” (Yeah, it’s actually quite common!) I mean, aside from not paying our regular rates, this guy had planned to have us on set from 9am to, as he said, 6 or 7pm (9-10 HOURS for a girl-girl scene when we already come makeup ready?!?!?! I don’t think so! Something like that should take 3, maybe 4 hours TOPS!), shoot basically 4 scenes and only pay us a cheap rate for one, blah blah blah. Ask any PORNSTAR (not a newbie)… That’s a 4-figure day right there… Not even worth the newcomer-girl-girl rate that we were being paid!

So, we ended up doing the scene and, although the director was PISSED, Abbey and I put on a happy face and had a positive attitude the rest of the day. (Although, about 5 minutes into the scene, Abbey and I were enjoying ourselves and being loud, kind of dominating and demanding, and just doing what we each liked in a lesbo scene… and we were told to ‘tone it down’! WTF? LMAO!!! Whatever, dude.) We still didn’t get out of there until 4:00! 7 hours (well, 6 1/2 since the crew was late!) to shoot a BORING lesbian scene??? Wow!

Frankly, after that jackass went off on me and Abbey like that today and tried to tell us that we basically had to do whatever he wanted because he ‘has us for the day’, I couldn’t care less about pissing him off and him never booking me again. Why would I want to work with someone who is obviously disrespectful and is out to screw girls over? What’s my word of the month? Oh yeah… DOUCHEBAG!!!!! lol!

Anyway, my whole beef is that there a A LOT of people in the industry like this. But, to be honestly, about 90% of the girls would do everything that this guy asked, no questions asked. Yet another reason I’m labeled the ‘bitch’ around these parts: because I have the nerve to stand up for myself and say no when I know I’m getting dicked around! Most girls wouldn’t. Either they’d be scared of the director or they just need the money so bad that they don’t care. (I’m not saying I don’t need the money. This is my JOB. Of course I need the money. But, again, this is my JOB, my LIVING… I’m not about to get fucked out of the money I deserve!)

Bullshit like this doesn’t happen EVERYDAY, but it’s also not uncommon. It’s not fair to the girls on either end – the ones getting screwed and the ones being labeled the bitch for standing up. People think that porn is so easy and you go in, fuck, and go home. It’s a BUSINESS, like anything else. Sadly, a lot of people don’t treat it like a business as they should. We’re all out to get paid… I just don’t want to be a little pushover while doing it. I’ve said it so many times and I’ll say it again – If it’s things like this that give me the ‘bitch reputation’, I’ll take it!
 
****EDIT****
After much debate and requests from several industry PROFESSIONALS, I’ve decided to name names. Frankly, what this crew did was so pathetic, I don’t give a shit anymore.
New Frontier Media/The Erotic Networks – I believe the director’s name was Graham.
I’m definitely very surprised with these people given they are supposed to be a pretty big company! Wow!

NL- Gotta say, I appreciate Jayden standing up for herself.