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Back in the day, everybody seemed to have an opinion about Ron Jeremy – and maybe that was part of his appeal.
He was probably the most ubiquitous of all male adult film stars, and certainly the most polarizing.
In the early days of The Rialto Report, I was keen to interview him. My interest has always been in tracking down stories from the golden age of adult cinema that have never been revealed – but even though Ron’s story had been told many times before, I was still keen to ask him about his life and career. After all, Ron was ranked by Adult Video News at No. 1 in their “50 Top Porn Stars of All Time” list, who described him as the most recognizable porn ambassador to the world, ranking him ahead of people like Jenna Jameson, Marilyn Chambers, and John Holmes. In addition to his hundreds of adult films – both as an actor and director, he appeared in countless mainstream movies and music videos, there was a documentary and a best-selling biography, he was hired for personal appearances all over the country, and he was a brand spokesperson for products that included rum, cigars, beef jerky, and of course, male enhancement pills.
I met up with him at his home in Los Angeles on several occasions, and we often spoke about doing an interview – or rather I listened to him talk in what seemed like one continuous sentence, unable to get a word in between all of his detailed anecdotes and memories.
And then came 2017, and the multiple allegations of years of sexual misdemeanors.
In truth, the stories had circulated for a long time before that. It’s just that now they were suddenly taken more seriously in the era of Me Too, splashed across newspapers, magazines, and social media. I’d heard the accusations for years too – just as I’d interviewed people who worked with him, who’d described him as respectful and considerate, I’d also met ex-colleagues who criticized him for being predatory.
My interest was centered on his early career, which was why I was excited when I came across a previously unpublished interview with him from the late 1980s. It was a conversation between Ron and Barbara Nitke that took place in, where else, a New York diner, not far from Queens where Ron was born and raised. At the time, Barbara was carving out a career as a still photographer on adult film sets in New York, and she was putting together a book of her pictures that she intended to be accompanied by a series of interviews with the stars. The book, ‘American Ecstasy,’ was eventually published as a picture book with short clips from the interviews, many years later in 2012. It’s a fine testament to the mid-1980s industry in crisis, transitioning from high budget, scripted film productions to smaller and cheaper video shoots.
When Barbara interviewed Ron, he was experiencing the same transition – and the same existential doubts that came with it. Barbara asks about this – and more, in this conversation, which is presented here for the first time. Remarkably, given this was almost 40 years ago, she also asks about the women who were refusing to work to him at the time.
Many thanks to Barbara Nitke for sharing the interview with us. You can find more details about her work at Barbara’s website and hear our podcast interview with her here. Copies of ‘American Ecstasy’ can be purchased here.
Thanks too to NSS for the audio restoration and mastering.
This podcast episode is 50 minutes long.
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“Nobody does it better…. Makes me feel sad for the rest….”
You’ve done it again, excellent, insightful conversation.
Ron is certainly polarizing, but all voices are important to be heard, and hearing how he deflects in this interview is revealing, I feel.
The fourth segment (and final segment) is fascinating. Ron finally drops his guard for a moment, and you get a glimpse behind the mask and bravado. He basically admits that his career and the business has been a disappointment to him, but that he can’t escape.
He shoulda stayed a teacher….
As a longtime fan of The Rialto Report, it’s been a real pleasure to be part of the team restoring and preserving these interviews for posterity.
Awesome Article And Podcast Keep Up Good Work
Man, he was so full of himself. Fantastic article/podcast as usual!
I had a friend when I was 13 who had an older brother who had copies of Adult Cinema Review in the top cabinet a bathroom cabinet. I looked at one and Ron Jeremy was all over it. The first porn movie I ever saw on satellite TV the same year was “Tigresses and other Man-eaters”, which was his debut film.
As the years went by when I saw porn, I often saw Ron. Thin Ron, fat Ron. Ron was obviously smart and witty. And he seemed to savor the sex in many of his scenes. He provided a carnal playfulness for viewers to vicariously enjoy. He was the king of post climax reinsertion, repeat penetration, partial internal ejaculation, and other bits. Talking dirty.
As I aged, Ron became the “Hedgehog” and acted more like a caricature of himself. I started to feel sad for him. He settled for porn. Similar to Jamie Gillis.
This interview proves that he may have had low self esteem. The verbal diarrhea betrays a certain starvation for the right kind of attention or love.
I have read many positive accounts of his character. Was he just a sexually spoiled, emotionally unintelligent innocent who crossed some lines unwittingly? Or a predatory menace? Who knows? The answer may lie in the middle, as it so often does.
I can’t imagine he’ll live for much longer. We cannot deny his impact in erotic cinema.
Thanks Rialto Report!
Hyapatia Lee has a Youtube channel that’s mostly new age stuff, but she did have a video up offering her take on the criminal case against Ron Jeremy. The upshot was that she claimed Jeremy always had an issue with respecting boundaries of any sort. He was the type of person who, if you where having a meal, would just start eating off your plate without even bothering to ask, and then get upset if you slapped his hand away.
Fantastic episode as always, and thanks for the brief glimpse into the world of Ron Jeremy’s mind. So many different layers to that man. Who was the “real” Ron Jeremy…to the world & to his own mind. Would Ron J. Hyatt have been part of the man’s psyche as time went on? I don’t want to pass any judgment on him, especially since 2017 onwards. I enjoyed his performances. A larger than life legend…a legend too large for his own mind.
Article from same year involving Ron Jeremy:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-12-17-me-3053-story.html
I think Dian Hanson summed it up best (in her podcast) when talking about Ron Jeremy. The times changed but Ron Jeremy didn’t. It was the calmest, most rational observation on the subject I’ve heard yet.
Thanks PS,
I deeply appreciated your insightful comments. From my own perspective, I always wonder why Ron was required or expected to change/conform.
He was just out there living his life as an authentic, wild and crazy, version of himself.
When the world decides to shift and the eccentrics/on the fringe personalities are suddenly considered a danger to society, weird shit tends to hit the fan.
Best regards, – Thelma
This interview must have been recorded in 1987.
During the interview, Jeremy alludes to a recent porn role where he plays an evangelist who is overcome with a spirit and turns into a sexual dynamo.
This describes his role in “Deep Throat II” with Krista Lane as the daughter of Linda Lovelace:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156458/
Mandrake – I worked on Deep Throat with Larry Revene and can confirm that it was shot in the fall of 1986, so I don’t follow your logic that the interview must have been recorded in 1987. Deep Throat 2 was may have come out in 1987, but you do realize that there is a period of time between shooting a film and its release, right?
We have the release from the interview: dated October 17, 1986.
Oh wow I can’t wait for this! I am a big Barbara Nitke fan, I have many of her books. Thanks!
“Oh, Jeremy did it again”. Once the allegations came out in 2017, I remembered that he was more grabby than the other male performers in many scenes. I was also wondering why after all those films, He would have a reason to force himself on those girls. Perhaps he felt he would be expected to act like that after being in XXX features for so long. I do remember other interviews where it seemed he had a problem with boundaries.
I read his book and saw the 2001 documentary and got the impression he was ultra- hyper because he really seemed to grab any kind of gig he could find, hoping for that big break. Sadly, with that image, it’s somewhat naive for him to think he would be a big Hollywood star (Jamie Gillis and Marilyn Chambers were in different types of cinematic ventures , but had to go back to porn). And some of the Golden Age performers, particularly John Leslie and Juliet Anderson , could have done very well in mainstream entertainment.
“The times changed, but Ron Jeremy didn’t” sums it up pretty well, unfortunately.
Rialto Report continues to be awesome-Thanks so much.
Ah man i miss Ron, the guy is a great interview and person to listen to even though he doesn’t let the interviewer get a word in. I personally think the accustations against him were mostly overblown, people overreatecting, and a lot of revisionist history/memory going on. Was he a horndog and a bit grabby? yeah, but look at the industry he was in. It happens. I remember one of his accusers was some girl who asked him to autograph her tit and then later said it was assault because he touched it.. i mean really? I think a lot of those stories were jealousy from other guys, and fat shaming, because when he got older and fatter some girls were probably ashmaed they had sex with him on camera, who knows but that’s my take. I’ve personally met him and he was cool. My wife and i used to work in the pro-am part of the biz in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, we ran a swinger website that was part of a network, all amateur couples or single girl websites, and part of that was going to the adult conventions and meeting other couples and sometimes people from the porn biz for shoots, kind of like what Onlyfans girls do nowdays with content trades. And one year we were in Vegas for Internext, or Xbiz.. i can’t remember which off the top of my head but it was one of those annual ones, and one night my wife was getting ready to do an all girl shoot with some other girls, it was an all girl pajama party gets wild type of photo shoot, so while they were getting ready a few of us guys went downstairs to the casino, and as we got out of the elevator Ron was there talking to some people and i was like hey look it’s Ron Jeremy!, and we stopped and talked to him, and it turned out he was staying on the same floor as us, this is around 2004 or 5, i think near the end of his performing days, and he was doing some amateur type movie there while appearing at the con. Anyway he gave us his room number and said stop by later that night as he’ll be up there later if we wanted to chat some more. Fast forward a few hours, i go up to my room and the girls are all there ready to start their shoot, and who is there? Ron! one of my buddies wives bumped into him in the hallway and she was all dolled up and he was asking her to be in his film lol. Long story short they invited him into our suite and he was there ALONE with them for over an hour, and didn’t harrass any of them, he was actually giving them tips on lighting and stuff which was pretty cool, we invited him to hang around for the shoot and he actually took the photos for my wife’s shoot, uncredited. When we posted the pics on our website without mentioning who took them we had a comment section and i remember a lot of comments were like ‘wow these are better than usual, great angles’ etc.. and since i was normally the photographer i felt a bit insulted but found it funny at the same time. One of our swinger friend couples actually ended up appearing in one of his films after that, i can’t remember if it was one he shot there, or later on, but it was pro-am thing where he bangs swinger wives. We had a great time with him. Wherever you are now Ron, you are missed by some people.
Fantastic work as always. Ron Jeremy is an American icon – that cannot be denied. There is a great interview with him on the youtube channel soft white underbelly 6 years ago.
I think this was a good interview. I honestly don’t see the issue people have with Ron. I agree with him in terms of people being jealous and simply making shit up about him. He’s an intelligent, articulate guy who comes accross as fair and level-headed. I find it hard to believe this guy was ever a ‘predator’. People talk shit for the sake of talking shit. One thing’s for sure, no matter what people say about him, his IQ is certainly higher than most.