A-listers who dabbled in X-rated films – including Sylvester Stallone’s ‘orgy porno’ & Friends star’s erotic thriller
HOLLYWOOD stars are often known to get naked in the name of art – but many have gone one step further.
Rap superstar Kanye West is, bizarrely, planning to join the ranks of stars who have dabbled in the world of pornography.
The 46-year-old musician recently announced his decision to launch Yeezy Porn, an adult film studio he revealed on Instagram.
And, according to TMZ, he has been in talks with porn star Stormy Daniels‘ ex-husband Mike Moz, who’s been a porn producer for over a decade.
Mike – whose credits include Aroused, Vixen and Young Fantasies 7 – is expected to be named the head of Kanye’s mature vision.
But the road to Hollywood is long and winding, and Kanye isn’t the first star to turn his hand to something a little more lowbrow.
We reveal the A-listers who starred in much more revealing roles before they got their big break – and those who joined the X-rated world even after fame.
Snoop Dogg
Kanye isn’t the first rapper to try and make it big in the adult entertainment world.
Back in 2001, Snoop Dogg released Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle – a mixed hardcore pornography and music video shot at his home in California.
The video was a wild success and won two awards at the Adult Video News Awards for best music and best selling tape of 2001.
The 86-minute long tape features several songs from Snoop’s discography and multiple popular porn stars .
Doggystyle was so popular, Snoop released another porno the following year called Hustlaz: Diary of a Pimp under the name Snoop Scorsese.
In the film, Snoop plays a pimp who is hosting a wild party with more than 40 porn stars and convinces a journalist to become one of the girls working for him.
His second film reached the same dizzying heights as the first, again taking home two awards at the AVN Awards – top-selling release of the year and best ethnic-themed release.
Sylvester Stallone
Before he was Rocky Balboa and Rambo, Sylvester Stallone was just another struggling artist, living in a bus station, trying to find work.
So when the opportunity to be in some soft-core porn presented itself, the Hollywood icon took the chance.
“It was either do that movie or rob someone because I was at the end — at the very end — of my rope,” Sylvester told Playboy. “Instead of doing something desperate, I worked two days for $200.”
The film, initially called The Party at Kitty and Stud’s, focused around an orgy at a New York couple’s house and runs for just over 70 minutes.
After Sylvester became a huge star with Rocky, the owners of the porn tape attempted to sell him the rights to it for $100,000 (£80.1k) to prevent its re-release, but Sylvester told them he “wouldn’t buy it for two bucks”.
The movie was re-released with a new name – The Italian Stallion – and, in 2010, the rights were sold on eBay for a jaw-dropping $400,000 (£320.3k).
Dame Helen Mirren
Before she became a Dame for her services to drama, Helen Mirren starred in the erotic historical drama Caligula as Caesonia – the titular character’s wife.
The 1979 film was described by Helen as “an irresistible mixture of art and genitals” but by critic Roger Ebert as “sickening, utterly worthless, shameless trash”.
Produced by Penthouse, the film follows Caligula’s sex-fuelled, bloody rise and fall from power.
And Helen has described being on set as “like showing up in a nudist camp every day”.
The film was marred by controversy as, after filming had concluded, financier and founder of Penthouse Bob Guccione and producer Giancarlo Lui snuck into the studios and filmed several hardcore sex scenes using girls from Penthouse.
These were then put into the final cut, which caused the director Tinto Brass to remove himself from the work entirely.
He is listed just as the principle photographer.
Matt LeBlanc
Before he became a household name as the charming lead man of the iconic sitcom Friends, Matt LeBlanc had another much raunchier role.
In 1993, he starred as sexy bike messenger Kyle in the TV series The Red Shoe Diaries.
The Playboy-produced series was famed for its erotic, female-focused plots.
And Matt played one of law firm receptionist Trudie’s lovers in two separate episodes.
David Duchovny
Matt was not the only 90s star to find fame from soft-core porn, as X Files star David Duchovny also featured in the Red Shoe Diaries.
However, he was the show’s narrator Jake Winters – who discovers his girlfriend was having affairs, after reading her diary when she kills herself.
In order to reconcile with this, Jake spends his time asking women to write to him about their love affairs – which in turn, create the steamy sequences that make the show.
As the show’s narrator, David wasn’t onscreen for the most part – but he features in one episode.
Chloe Cherry
Legally born Elise Marilyn Jones, Chloe Cherry found fame as Faye – the blonde, dazed girlfriend of a drug dealer in the teen drama Euphoria.
She’s been described as one of the breakout stars of the show, but Chloe had already been acting as a porn star since she moved to Miami at the age of 18.
By 2019 she had starred in over 200 films and was also using OnlyFans to sell pornographic content.
However, Chloe has confessed she’s recovering from an eating disorder, after producers on the set of her pornographic films told her she was fat and needed to lose weight.
I’d rather just kind of stop…and have that really awesome porn career that went really well rather than trying to do more with it.
Chloe Cherry
Chloe ultimately began consuming 200 calories or less a day.
She has now stopped performing in porn, due to her age, and so that she can move into screen acting.
Explaining her decision to retire from porn on Emily Ratajkowski’s podcast High Low, Chloe said: “Yes, I’m only 25. Like I have plenty of time to do it but I figured I would stop now while I’m ahead rather than wait until I age out of something.
“I’d rather just kind of stop, and put a cap in it, and just tie it up in a nice bow, and have that really awesome porn career that went really well rather than trying to do more with it.
“If I were to be put on a scene with somebody the girl or guy like they might be like, ‘Holy s**t, it’s Chloe Cherry,’
“I’m just not comfortable with being seen as the celebrity of porn stars like it’s just with the nature of the industry with the way things work.”
Skepta
He’s a hardcore grime rapper but in 2011 Skepta starred in his own hardcore porn video for his song All Over the House.
The music video featured several porn stars going at it, as the title suggests, all over the house, while Skepta, 41, spits bars in the background.
The video went viral and caused controversy as people fumed over it going too far – but Skepta insisted he hadn’t really done anything wrong.
He told the BBC: “The video was not uploaded to YouTube, I didn’t keep retweeting about it and it was uploaded on to a site where it was allowed to be uploaded with a big warning saying ’18s only’.”
Jon Hamm
Jon Hamm is now one of the most famous actors in the world, having starred in everything from Bridesmaids to Mad Men.
But, while struggling to find work in Hollywood in his 20s, he worked as a waiter, as well as on softcore porn films.
Speaking on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast, he said: “There were certainly no genitals touched. I was in the art department, believe it or not.
“It was softcore porn, Skinemax late night what not, we shot in these dismal, dingy places in downtown LA, these stages…
“It was some dude in a sock and a lady with patches on her whatevers.
“They’d have these ridiculous scenes, like,” – puts on a gruff voice – “’What do you mean you’re lost? Let me give you a ride…’”