Although Slain claims to have once made $500 for a scene, those gigs are rare. But Slain's not ashamed of any lack of recognition. "I have no desire to be a porn star," he says. "I'm a rock star who does porn, not the reverse." That he doesn't have a band or a record deal doesn't seem to faze him.
This carefree affectation isn't uncommon among Slain's peers. Jordan Lane, a refugee from Weirton, W.Va., prefers to be called a "midlevel gonzo performer" rather than a mope, although he admits that either term makes him the human equivalent of "a piece of furniture" in the porn business.
"I came to Los Angeles to reinvent myself as a writer and underachiever," Lane says. "I can bottom-feed with the best of them." And, so far, he says, porn affords him a living. "You don't have to work hard, but you have to save hard," he says with a kind of poignant bravado.
Mark Kulkis, the head of Kick-Ass Pictures, a company that specializes in specific niche porn such as foot-fetish and gangbang material, says, "We pay $50 for a foot job. And we shoot one a week for the site. There are only so many of those gigs to go around. These guys are hanging on the edge economically."
Pornography producer-director Mike Ramone agrees and offers an explanation for why some men seek out mope work. "They're probably sex addicts," he shrugs.
Ambitious mopes who hope to break out of their niche sometimes come up with gimmicks and catchphrases in a misguided bid to establish an identity and stand out from the pack.
Hill, whose screen name was Steve Driver, used to say his signature was "monster hands." According to set photographer Gia Jordan, Hill "would wear these hands, like, from a Halloween costume. That was his shtick. He'd jack off on the girl with the hands and when he'd come he'd yell, 'Monster hands!' It was ridiculous."
Alana Evans, one of Hill's co-stars in the porn spoof Palin: Erection 2008, says that Hill — despite having a featured role as Barack Obama in the movie — was unlikely to be a breakout star.
"He was one of the new type of guys," Evans says. "He wasn't strong or dominant. He was scared. He struggled in his scenes. I knew he'd never be the next Lexington Steele. He'd rarely talk to the women. He was, like, a total nerd."
Hill was the youngest of four sons born to a black mother and a white father, a software developer who worked on the Space Shuttle launch-control system at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Stephen Hill lived with the family until his parents split up. The boy moved to Washington, D.C., and then Maryland with his mother but spent part of every summer in Florida with his father.
The move to D.C. was traumatic for the younger Hill, recalls his father, David Hill, now 68 and retired. "His mother obtained housing in a poor, all-black area," he says. "Stephen was severely mocked at his inner-city school because of his light skin and slight build but mainly because of the fact that he spoke standard English."
To counter the bullying, Hill was enrolled in a martial arts class, where, his father says, "He developed a strong attachment to Japanese culture that remained with him his entire life."
During his junior year in high school, Hill went to stay with his father in Florida. There, he showed an interest in becoming an Air Force pilot and joined the Junior ROTC program. Under the influence of the ROTC, Hill "developed an interest in guns and started talking like a young conservative," his father says.
The elder Hill also noticed bizarre personality traits starting to emerge. "He refused to wear his glasses, believing he could use willpower to improve his vision," David Hill says.
After requiring metal plates and surgery to repair an arm broken during a basketball game, Hill stated a desire to return to Maryland and enter the University of Maryland specifically for its Air Force ROTC program. "I did not discourage him," David Hill says. "But because of his eyesight and the metal plates in his arm, I felt it was unlikely he would be accepted for pilot training."
At the university, Hill was overwhelmed by his classes and did poorly, his father recalls. His main interest was ROTC, through which he had begun to take flight instruction. "Even in that he did not do well," David Hill says. And at the end of his sophomore year, Hill was rejected for officer training with the ROTC.
In 1998, his final year at the university, Hill found himself in serious trouble when, after he asked for extra time to finish a paper for his Math 111 class, his request was refused by the instructor, a graduate student. Hill lost his temper and mentioned that he had a gun. According to The Washington Post, he asked the instructor, "What's more important to you, giving me an A or your life?"
Hill's threat was reported to the administration, and he was picked up by campus police. Before his trial, he underwent a psychological evaluation and was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. At his trial, he admitted threatening his instructor, but claimed he did so only after the instructor solicited oral sex from him, a claim the instructor denied.
Porn isn't unique, we all know people on the edge it's sad that society doesn't do much for those on the edge.
why did you even bother to read this, if you care about the fringe of society, a fringe society of three year olds could have convayed more deeper meaning to such a hot sexy story. sincerly, morgan gorman.ps. the profile picture is hot.
I find it entertaining, that a porn director would call another person a 'd-lister'. YOU AREN'T EVEN ON A LIST TO BEGIN WITH!
The first sign of a problem was that he racked up credit card debt buying porn over the internet. Seriously... who buys porn over the internet?
Good article Mike. I'd also mention that the mopes cast as extras on Hollywood sets don't get fed as well as their pornish counterparts.
It's sad but not at all surprising to read about "Porno Samurai Killer"; that, also, didn't get the backlash it deserved.
I SEE that now the losers out number everyone,( include me I'm drunk ) And I mean EVERYONE !! That includes dead people..!! the hell is going on to OUR society ?
Reading the story, Hill's biography reads practically like what we now know about Jared Loughner. The guy had obvious untreated mental issues and finally fell off the rails.
boring. if he smelled funky then he shouldve showered more. crazy. and dont pornstars put their tongues and faces in all kinds of places im kinda surprised they care for smells.
I've never read that New Yorker piece, and I don't live in LA, so this is all new to me. It may be insensitive, but I find the story fascinating.
This article is biased and condescending, plus it rambles and misses the point... Dislike. Thumbs down.
This is a really weird, strange journey into the mysterious world of porn. I just wanted to know about the murder.
This cookie-cutter L.A.-porn-noir piece is inappropriate:
This is one sad, difficult story of mental illness and meaningless loss that does not particularly need to be told, and certainly not in this way. We all read "The Money Shot" article by Susan Faludi in the New Yorker and have ever since suffered its progeny of L.A.-porn-noir reportage, so this article is hardly compelling or groundbreaking for its style or its "ironic" observations.
To the extent that it is news, it should be told directly and factually, out of respect for those involved - particularly the decent father of this troubled soul.
I'm disappointed in the L.A. Weekly for publishing it.
What's the point of covering up for the LAPD now? Everybody is dead. Hill didn't jump; he was tazed off of the cliff by the cops. The whole thing was taped and on the video you not only saw the tazer shots but you could see the wires coming out of his back as he fell to his death. By only mentioning the bean bags and characterizing the death as a suicide, the credibility of this whole article is undermined. The truth probably died with Dong and Driver. Who really knows what happened when all you have here are the comments of either people who weren't there or those with no objectivity. This is journalism?
This guy was on a downward spiral for a long time. Can you imagine another industry where he could fine people who would let him stay a year at their place of work while showing major character flaws and ultimately intense mental illness? As Hill neared his psychic cliff represented by getting kicked out of the studio and decided to kill some people before suicide by cops, its interested to note Mr. Wong might have died because he hesitated when Hill attacked due to their friendship. Crazy people live among us. Work in every industry. Hill meant to kill and would have killed more people if he had a better blade or more training. But consider why he didn't use a gun? Too expensive? Not the "warrior's" way according to his mind? And after the long standoff, he takes the longer plunge. What was he thinking? Hill was someone's son, someone's friend. Whatever else this story is about, the star is David Hill. And he is not unique. We are in an age where the mentally ill are left to roam the streets, treated in an emergency room if they are dying, then put back where they collapsed.
I found this on Google News, too, and it is indeed a good story. I've always known that pornography was run by and performed by human garbage. It's hard to believe that these losers do what they do for only $50 a scene. Not surprisingly, the porn industry supports the Democratic Party. Democrats and human garbage are inseparable.
Sitting at home on your computer and classing people as "human garbage" certainly does put you on higher moral ground. I'm sure you'll be getting off on your self-righteousness when you look at all that foot fetish porn tonight.
WOW - amazing how you turned this into a political jab at Democrats. Can you find a way to link cancer to Democrats too? You are so clever.
only the typical self righteous conservative would believe your crap...lol, nobody else possesses this level of self absorbed, elitist ,privileged, sense of jesus-ness.....a story about a bunch of losers in an trifling industry and you inject it with your toxic point of view and compare them to being liberal, fuck you you cunt!
Yes, and conservatives are the people who voted in an entire party who stated bluntly that they were going to fuck everyone in the ass by not doing anything to help anyone but their Corporationalist masters. Thanks for that, The-Cheese. Why do you hate America?
he must have missed the part where he has a narcissistic disorder and his father said he sounded like a "young conservative."funny thing is most conservative sex scandals are of homosexual nature and not just something like an affair but more like male prostitutes, airport bathrooms or fantasizing of orgies.oh the hypocrisy .
Hill was most probably demoniacally possessed. The Dark Lord's orders are summarized by the following: Deceive, Defile Destroy. Porn does that very efficiently..... even for the "stars".
shut the F-up, you sound like a real bitch! get your head out of your ass and stop trying to rationalize with your make believe "devil", what a joke...
You would be amusing if I didn't know what was in store for you. Sometimes a peculiar 'bad' smell is associated with the possessed. Quite rare, but unmistakable if you know what to sense. Its more like rotting meat than BO. No amount of showering or baths help and it gradually gets worse. The porn girl who got out of the car probably got just a psychic glimpse of what she was riding beside.
bad odor? maybe he didnt floss?" you would be amusing if i didnt know what was in store for you"? so now your special and have the details on the devil, and know whats in store for me!....put some of your special powers to work you genius, perhaps play the lottery "see the numbers" pick em and win enough money to pay someone to believe your bullshit....lol
I'm from Cleveland and saw this article posted on google news. I'm glad I clicked on it. This article is great. Very well written and I learned a lot, and its like a story.
Yet you probably spend your entire day beating off to them naked. Wonder what that says about you...
I had heard about this when it happened - and even saw a blurb of the crazy free fall video - but this is a genuinely good article, something I rarely r on the web anymore. Kudoz!
Is this a real story, because if so one might accuse the author of sensationalizing a tragic event...
Forcing low level drug prisoners into slave labor at 'for-profit' prisons is inhumane and trashy. Extending "payday loans" to poor people at usurious interest rates is inhumane and trashy. Foreclosing on people's homes at the drop of a hat is inhumane and trashy. Some porn is rather declasse', but the only thing (inhuman)e about porn is your opinion of a normal human activity that's been going on for time immemorial.Enjoy.
If you want to place blame, blame our Failed Mental health system, as long as they don't come in swinging the swords the hold em for 72 and send on their way!
Also Apple has had 17 suicides at it's I phone plant, do you feel the same about the Capitalist that drive people to suicide?
