Pleasure: Porn, Power and Patriarchy

 

Ninja Thyberg’s in-your-face and unapologetic feature debut “Pleasure” wowed the virtual Sundance Film Festival in 2021 — but thankfully, a new audience gets to finally discover the film (more than a year later) on a big screen.
 
A raw portrayal of the porn industry and its effects on all participants, the film follows a 20-year-old woman named Linnéa (newcomer Sofia Kappel), who arrives from Sweden to Los Angeles. It’s in the glittering land of Hollywood that she assumes the identity of Bella Cherry, hoping to become an international adult movie star, but that path to fame comes with a slew of compromises and anguishes. As Bella starts to rise up in the industry, the stakes, too, are raised, and some of her shoots become increasingly harrowing, and friends and lines of trust get blurred in the process.
 
A coolly detached but nevertheless ballsy evisceration of the adult film industry, the movie is based on Thyberg’s own 2013 short of the same name. In that film, a young actress is asked to perform a double anal penetration scene to save her job. The feature film version features no shortage of challenging scenes.
 
Zelda Morrison, Evelyn Claire, Chris Cock, Kendra Spade, and Dana DeArmond round out the ensemble cast; both Morrison and director Thyberg were nominated at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
 
Long before the virtual Sundance premiere, “Pleasure” was accepted for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival that never was. “Pleasure” was initially acquired by A24 out of Sundance, with the distributor announcing that it would release the full uncensored version, as well as an R-rated cut, theatrically in 2021. A24 later parted ways with the film over its theatrical cut, with Neon making moves to scoop up the film and deliver it uncensored to audiences.
 
“I’m happy and relieved that my debut and life’s work is in the hands of Neon who dare to launch the film with my original vision, raw and uncut, to the American audience,” Thyberg told press at the time.
 
Neon added, “We are thrilled to be working with Ninja on this incredible achievement and look forward to releasing it, in the director’s vision, as intended.”
 
IndieWire’s David Ehlrich wrote in his review that while the film is “sometimes glossy for its own sake,” “Pleasure” turns the “candied porn veneer” on its head to examine the line between consent and coercion, pleasure and pain.
 
“The most instructive piece of advice Bella gets is to ‘enjoy what she does’ so that people at home will believe her enthusiasm, but what the man coaching her either doesn’t understand or understands all too well is that he’s also conditioning her to enjoy what she doesn’t,” Ehlrich wrote. “An industry that rewards its female performers for voicing their pleasure is an industry that punishes its female performers for voicing anything else…Less interested in giving pleasure than in taking it back, Thyberg’s film might end on an ambiguous note, but few movies have ever been so eager to bare the simple truth of those words.”
 
‘Pleasure’ Trailer: The Controversial Festival Hit About the Porn Industry Finally Arrives as Unrated Cut. By Samantha Bergeson. Indiewire, March 9, 2022.

After her prize-winning short of the same name, Swedish writer-director Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure dives into the world of the adult film industry with a critical eye. Her debut feature is an unflinching and layered examination of a stigmatised world, which we see through the eyes of a young Swedish performer who heads to LA to make it big in porn…
 
DM : You described yourself in the past as an “anti-porn activist” – can you tell me about this and your first experiences with porn?
 
NT : It started when I was 16. My boyfriend at the time and I were both virgins when we met and he showed me a porn film. I was very shocked, because it was so far from what my thoughts of sex were. I had a naïve, very vanilla view on sex and what I thought porn was. The brutality that I saw was so raw, and there was so much humiliation and degradation – the women were treated like sex dolls, only there to satisfy the man. It made me very angry, but also scared, because I realised how different my then-boyfriend and I viewed sex and how different the expectations were. So I became very engaged in an activist group against the objectification of women and anti-porn. At the time, I could only see porn as a male-gaze that objectified women. I didn’t have any other perspectives.
 
DM : When did that change?
 
NT : I kept on researching and wanted to learn more. The more I learned, the more I was introduced to other perspectives, and how filming sex isn’t a bad thing in itself. When I was focusing too much on the victim aspect, there was a lack of positive representation of female sexuality and desire. If you look at everything from a male perspective, then you start to reproduce that in your own head. I became interested in feminist pornography and realised that I couldn’t fight images of degradation, for instance, but I could try to put an alternative out there and create different types of images.
 
DM : Pleasure is a very impressive balancing act: there are several different perspectives, and you never reduce the porn industry as outright negative, even injecting some tender and funny moments.
 
NT : Thank you! It was wasn’t easy, and that’s why it took me 6 years to do! When I got access to that world, I realised that no one had done the film I was doing. It’s unusual to get such access, so I felt it was so important to do it justice. I wanted to show the real people behind the stereotypes, to be super exact with everything, and to be accurate with all the details. And as you said, I wanted to calibrate and get the right balance of showing as many sides of this world as possible. If you just show one side, it can be true, but it doesn’t give an understanding – you have to show as many angles as possible to paint a portrait that is accurate. I’m always trying to find new angles and even if I don’t have all the answers, I want to keep things open and encourage discussion.
 
DM : All the performers, apart from your lead character, are industry professionals. How did you manage to get such access to the LA porn industry and was it difficult earning their trust?
 
NT : I wouldn’t say it was difficult – it just took a lot of time. It wasn’t like I came the first day, asking: “Hey, can I come to a porn set? Hey, can I ask you all these personal questions?” I took it slowly, step by step, and it took years of developing contacts, spending time on porn sets, and finding the right people who wanted to be in my film. And the casting of adult film actors made it feel more genuine, which is something I was striving for.
 
DM : Sofia Kappel is phenomenal in the lead role – how did you meet her and when did you know she was the right person to portray Bella Cherry?
 
NT : It took me over a year to find her, because I knew I wanted someone who was special, someone who could carry the film and who could be both strong and vulnerable. I wanted the audience to be able to connect with her, feel for her, but not too far – she doesn’t need to be saved. She has agency and on top of her game, whilst being naïve. There were so many criteria, and no one matched for the longest time. Everyone around me started telling me that I was chasing a ghost! The thing is that I didn’t have a super clear idea of exactly how she was going to be, but it was like my research into the world of porn: I don’t know what I’m going to find but I’m going to keep on digging until I find something that is precious. And finally, I found her! So, it’s all about not giving up.

 

DM : It’s a very challenging role, especially for a performer who wasn’t in porn before and who makes her first acting performance in Pleasure…
 
NT : It’s a big thing to ask someone to play this part. I had to know that she was emotionally mature enough and that she had good support from her family and friends. We also didn’t have any intimacy coordinators on set, because we didn’t know about this at the time – we shot most of the film in 2018, and it wasn’t an established thing then. When I look back at it now, I think it’s crazy that I had to do all of that myself. That was a full-time job, to communicate about the details and to make sure that she always felt safe.
 
DM : Did Sofia have any say when it came to the script?
 
NT : Yes. I rewrote the script once I’d given her the part, basing it on her a lot. I wanted her view on everything, and she was very much part of developing the script and the character. She did a lot of research with me, she met everyone during the casting process… We worked a lot together on finding the right compositions, on finding the female gaze, because my first impulse would probably be to reproduce the male gaze – that’s how our brains work. You do what we’ve been constantly shown everywhere. In order to do that, we rehearsed the sex scenes a lot and tried out different camera angles, approaching the scenes from a technical point of view. Sofia wasn’t just an actress – she was part of the whole process.
 
DM : Was it difficult to get the film financed, considering the topic and the explicit moments in the film?
 
NT : It wasn’t that bad. In Sweden, I was already established as a short film director – I had already had the short film Pleasure in Cannes and Sundance… It’s not that big on an industry back home, so everyone knew me, and they knew that I was legit. And artistic freedom is valued a lot. I got backing from Platform Produktion and Ruben Östlund, and when he won the Palme D’Or for The Square in 2017, that really helped. Of course, people were nervous about the film – they didn’t say ‘no’, but there were a lot of meetings. They were a bit scared of it, but they understood it was their job to back it and make sure that the artistic freedom was met.
 
DM : Was your goal with Pleasure to shift perspectives and to make people view porn and the porn industry differently?
 
NT : Yes, because what the film is criticising is the patriarchal and capitalistic structures and the power dynamics in the industry, not the sex work itself. Sex performance is not as emotionally damaging as many people assume, but my film only focuses on mainstream pornography. It doesn’t show the alternative scene at all. The system that the lead character finds herself in is a metaphor for patriarchy and the mainstream images dominated by the male gaze. The alternatives are not that present in my film.
 
DM : It’s still a very stigmatised genre, and it often seems like Hollywood is reticent to change. The second that there is a film which moves things forward by offering more nuanced perspectives, the system fights back by throwing out a 50 Shades of Grey or a 365 Days, films which reinforce this male gaze and objectification of submissive women. Do you see that changing?
 
NT : I think that the industry is changing a lot. People are aware of the problems in the industry – a lot of them are working hard to change things when it comes to working conditions. A lot of performers are also getting more power through social media, for example. And when the women in the industry get more power and can speak up more, the view will shift on the performers and the stigma. When it comes to mainstream porn and mainstream media, I think there’s always pros and cons, and I think that in the future, the feminist movement is going to be more aware of this.

People mix things up – many think all that all porn is one thing and only see the exploitative aspect of the male gaze in porn. It’s important for people to see it for what it is – power structures are the problem, not the sex. More awareness about that is vital, but there’s still a long way to go, as people still consider it as being taboo, despite the huge amount of pornography being consumed today. It’s a big part of our culture, yet one that still is kept in the shadows. But I definitely see it as going in the right direction though and Hollywood is changing a lot. There is definitely a revolution happening within Hollywood – whether or not it’s a short trend remains to be seen.
 
Ninja Thyberg
 
The Swedish writer-director made an impression in 2013 with her short film Pleasure, which won the Prix Canal+ in the Critic’s Week section at Cannes, and with her short Catwalk in 2015, about fashion and power structures. She explores social issues via the prism of sexuality, and the themes related to body, sexuality and patriarchy are explored in her debut feature film Pleasure, an ‘extension’ of her celebrated short, which boldly explores the male-dominated world of the sex industry.
 
Pleasure: Porn, power and patriarchy. By David Mouriquand. EXBERLINER, January 13, 2022. 

An actress portrays a nomadic woman leaving her life for the American west, experiencing real people who play versions of themselves. It’s a hit movie from an international female director who made a big splash at Sundance. And if you think I’m talking about Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, you are mistaken. The picture in question is Pleasure by Swedish director Ninja Thyberg, and it’s about a Swedish immigrant’s experience in the LA porn industry.
 
Acquired by A24 with plans to release uncensored and R-rated versions, Pleasure stars Sofia Kappel as Bella. She arrives in America from Sweden with 25 tattoos, pierced nipples, and is ready to toe the line between business and pleasure. Bella becomes Bella Cherry, an adult actress known for “stunts” (e.g. double anal). It propels her to stardom but, of course, more money for Bella also means more problems with friends lower on the totem pole and men higher in the entertainment hierarchy.
 
We spoke with Ninja Thyberg out of Sundance about Kappel’s creative role in shaping what Bella would and wouldn’t do in porn, how male porn characters use feminist rhetoric to convince Bella to degrade herself, if Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls influenced the film, and how Pleasure is not only about the porn industry but the power structures in all entertainment.
 
The Film Stage: Did you cast real porn actors and production people for the film?
 
Ninja Thyberg: Yes. Except Sofia Kappel, who’s the main character, everyone else in the film is played by actual people from the adult industry. All of them are playing themselves. Mark Spiegler, for example, plays himself with his real name—but others, like the more unsympathetic characters, I would say they are playing someone completely different than themselves. All of them are not playing the profession that they actually have. So some porn actors are playing directors. It’s a bit of a mix, but they are all from the adult industry.
 
The Film Stage : Is there anything you wrote that Sofia wouldn’t do?
 
Ninja Thyberg  : There was definitely stuff that she didn’t want to do that I took out. This is something that she says herself: the things you see that look like hard things to shoot were, most of the time, not the hardest things for her. Things she didn’t want to do were mostly small details. Things on the personal side she would be uncomfortable with. But we developed the last part of the script together. When Sofia got to the part, she also became, creatively, part of the process. It was important for me that she would be comfortable with everything, and that the character was as close to her as possible, to give it the right energy.
 
The Film Stage  : When Bella wants to stop filming a sex scene that involves torture, the two male actors use girl-power rhetoric to convince her to finish the scene. What do you think of American feminist rhetoric being deployed to make Bella do things she wouldn’t want to do otherwise?
 
Ninja Thyberg   : It’s something that I’m criticizing in the scene. Since I’m Swedish, the film is also like a Swedish view of the American dream. The idea that I see as part of the American Dream is: you are supposed to be strong and confident and believe in yourself no matter what. I think the idea of “the American Dream” is very individualistic and doesn’t look at the whole picture of justice.

 
The Film Stage  : While watching Pleasure I thought of Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, which is like his Dutch perspective of the American dream. Was it an influence on the movie?
 
Ninja Thyberg    : I actually haven’t seen it, which is, in a way, a little bit embarrassing, but also I’m trying not to imitate work, but rather work with stories that are part of our shared collective. Those very traditional story types––we all have them inside of us because they are such a huge part of our culture. So I think even if I haven’t seen the film, I can do something very close to it because it comes from the same source. I’ve read in the last two days many different people are mentioning Showgirls, so I feel like I definitely need to watch it.
 
 
The Film Stage   : Since you began shooting the film in 2018, many performers shifted from studios and gatekeepers to OnlyFans.
 
Ninja Thyberg     : That’s definitely because of the coronavirus. Of course, that’s a huge, huge shift. When I first started researching the industry in 2014 and started to get to know this world and the people, OnlyFans didn’t exist. I think that’s why it’s not part of the story—because OnlyFans became big after I had written the script. But I think it’s really interesting to see the power shift. That, more and more, the women are in control over production and it’s so much more safe. All the men previously owned the material or were also between the paycheck and the performer, so I think it’s a very positive development in one way, if you want to look at how much power women have over their work situation. And then the men too, of course, but in the mainstream porn world it’s not very common for guys to be stars. It’s in gay porn that the guys are important stars, but it’s usually focused on women in mainstream or heterosexual porn.
 
The Film Stage    : To that point, I noticed a lot of male porn performers are not attractive and often handle the camera as well as perform. I can’t help but make a connection to the traditional film industry. You have an ugly guy like Harvey Weinstein—and hundreds of men who run the global film industry—who are very much like the performers and gatekeepers in Pleasure. Even four years ago, Harvey Weinstein walked in the Women’s March at Sundance. I see Pleasure as a story type in our shared collective, as you called it, and a story about entertainment in all its forms as much as it’s about the porn industry.
 
Ninja Thyberg      : Definitely. The film is, to me, not actually a story about the porn industry. It’s a story about our culture and power structures within each industry. When it comes to a mainstream movie industry or other media, they are super similar. It’s just that when it comes to the porn industry, the things that I want to say are taken to its most extreme point in porn. When it comes to showing patriarchal structures, what I find so interesting is women who take control over their image and become directors of themselves as a sexual object. They are sitting in both chairs as director and the performer; they are both the subject and object.
 
What I want to talk about is capitalism and what it does to human relationships. It’s very easy to make a point about that when you use the porn industry as a metaphor. But it’s a comment on our society rather than my comment on the porn industry.
 
Pleasure premiered at Sundance Film Festival and will be released by A24.
 
 
Pleasure Director Ninja Thyberg on the Evolution of the Porn Industry, Power Structures, and the American Dream. By Joshua Encinias. The Film Stage, February 18, 2021. 

An interview with director Ninja Thyberg and actress Sofia Kappel about their feature film “Pleasure”.
 
Berlin – “Pleasure”, the feature film debut of Ninja Thyberg, is already one of the films of the year. In it, the Gothenburg native gives an unembellished, but non-judgmental, inside view of the US porn industry. 19-year-old Linnéa (Sofia Kappel) has only one goal: she wants to be the next big porn star. To do this, she left her Swedish hometown and moved to Los Angeles., USA She received her first orders quickly, but the horizontal business was relentless. As “Bella Cherry,” she quickly realizes that the only way she’ll survive in this industry is to do whatever is asked of her, without exception. But how far will she really go?
 
Sofia Kappel, who, despite all her verve, also shows great vulnerability, is sometimes glamorous and sexy, sometimes unvarnished and downright brutally photographed in the independent production of real stars of the porn world like Chris Cock, Dana De Armond or The Hobbit similar “Godfather” Mark Spiegel surrounded. She does it brilliantly by never denouncing her character, who lies to her mother about her career in the USA and mercilessly outdoes her competitors. The newcomer received the award for “Best Actress” at the Art Film Festival. Ninja Thyberg also received numerous awards for “Pleasure” as a director, screenwriter (together with Peter Modestij) and producer and was nominated for “European Discovery” at the European Film Awards. The duo chatted with Marc Hairapetian during their visit to Berlin at the hotel nhow. We used first names in conversation; this is so common among Swedes.
 
Marc Hairapetian : Ninja, you already made a short film called Pleasure in 2013. So have you been thinking about making a film about the porn industry for a long time and what is it that fascinates you about this topic?
 
Ninja Thyberg: I don’t know if I would choose the word “fascinated” but I’ve been interested in the subject for 20 years. In this respect, “Pleasure” is actually a long-term project. I worked on it from different perspectives. After seeing porn for the first time that was purely aimed at satisfying the male urges and leaving the females out and about, I became a rampaging anti-porn activist at 16, of course without knowing anyone my age in that industry. Later I had a lot of contact with the feminist movement of former porn actresses. I also wrote an essay on the subject.
 
When I became a director, I realized that I also wanted to deal with it on film. For the short film, which doesn’t have the same characters and doesn’t have the same story, I had very little money available. I decided to delve deeper into this world that had actually repelled me before. That’s how I got access to real porn sets a year after the first “Pleasure” short, which wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Before that, I had only seen documentaries and read books about it. But it was important to me to give a realistic view of the porn industry from the inside, because it seemed too cheap to me to only judge it from the outside. That’s why a second, much more complex film called “Pleasure” was created.
 
Marc Hairapetian  : You used a lot of people from the porn business. Were they satisfied with your film in the end?
 
Ninja Thyberg: Not everyone was happy with it. But the men were more annoyed than the women, because with Sofia Kappel in the role of Linnea I approached the subject from a female point of view. Of course, everyone had read the script beforehand. I partly understand their irritation, because I wasn’t interested in what we show, but how we do it. It was different than what they had in mind. I not only celebrate their business, I also show the dark side and the sexual and psychological exploitation of the girls. For them, however, it is their profession, which they instinctively want to defend against any outside intruder.
 
 Marc Hairapetian  : In the new version of “Pleasure” Mark Spiegler also acts as himself. He looks like a friendly hobbit. It’s hard to believe that he is the most influential actress agent in the US porn industry. Was it difficult to get him on the project?
 
Ninja Thyberg: I met him very early. He trusted me surprisingly quickly, even though he wasn’t sure whether I would attack or defend his industry. Others, as already described, were not so aware of it, and perhaps got involved with vanity on “Pleasure”. From the start I told Mark Spiegler to play himself because I couldn’t find another actor to play him. Of course that flattered him.

 
Marc Hairapetian   : Sofia, Pleasure is your first film as an actress. Did the real porn actors and actresses involved support you in finding roles?
 
Sofia Kappel: It was really the first time that I stood in front of the camera. I had no acting experience at all before. The real people from the porn area – as well as Ninja – have helped me immensely. In order to embody my character credibly, it was important to me to talk a lot with women from the area. They took my fear away. It’s just her job, so it’s totally normal for her to walk around the set naked all the time. They probably all saw me as a “little sister” and I am still grateful to them for their support. The guys behind the camera at the porn biz were helpful too. It’s her job to make the girls look good at work. They position you so that you always look advantageous in the “live action”. I wasn’t aware of that before. So I learned a lot from them in that respect. As in the “serious” film sector, there are still too few women working in the direction or camera department in the porn biz.
 
Marc Hairapetian    : In general, Scandinavian countries are traditionally very open when it comes to porn consumption. Do you have the same critical view of this industry as your director?
 
Sofia Kappel: I don’t think in black and white categories. There is a wide spectrum within the porn industry. I met quite a few, actor or actress; they are very happy about their job. They go on set feeling safe from the pre-health checks and have loads of power, but there’s a very dark side to that too. I’m very critical, but more in the way that I find it odd how many boys, but also girls my age, consume porn to get turned on. It’s not the porn stars that are questionable, it’s the system!
 
 
Marc Hairapetian     : Ninja, how did you find Sofia?
 
Ninja Thyberg: That wasn’t easy at all. To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t really have a clear idea of what my protagonist should look like. Over a period of one and a half years there were auditions all over Sweden – even before Corona. I also sent out character descriptions all over the country and thought I would never find a suitable actress for Linnaeus until my acquaintances drew the attention of Sofia, who had actually never been in front of the camera. She is a natural and with her sensitivity, but at the same time tough nature, really perfect for the role. She was 19 when we met. We were shooting just months before the pandemic hit, and I knew Pleasure would change her life forever. Therefore, as an older friend, I feel responsible for her.
 
Marc Hairapetian      : Sofia, some scenes are very hard, for example when the two men rape you for hours for a sadomasochistic flick, which you can see in excerpts and which you then tell your agent in turmoil, only to then fire him. Did you have to cross physical and mental pain limits here?
 
Sofia Kappel: I wouldn’t say the rape was the hardest scene we shot. It was all choreographed and staged to look more violent than it was. We always shot short takes. On the set were not only ninja and cinematographer Sophie Winqvist, but also Revika Anne Reustle, the actress who played Joy, who is one of my best friends. Everyone in the room was allowed to yell “Cut!” That’s why I felt safe and even enjoyed the challenging scene.
 
 
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Ninja Thyberg, born October 12, 1984 in Göteborg (Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län), received numerous awards for her feature film debut »Pleasure« as a director, screenwriter (together with Peter Modestij) and producer (including the 2021 Göteborg Film Festival prize for “Best Feature Film” and the “Blue Angel” at the Art Film Festival for “Best Film”) as well as nominations at the European Film Awards as “European Discovery” and at the Sundance Film Festival in the category “World Cinema – Dramatic”. The feminist and anti-porn activist had already caused a stir not only in Sweden with her short films “Pleasure” (2013) and “Hot Chicks” (2014).
 
Sofia Kappel, born April 27, 1998 in Ekerö, received the Blue Angel for Best Female Performance at the Art Film Festival for her debut role.
 
Feature film "Pleasure": "It's not the porn stars that are questionable, it's the system!"  By Marc Hairapetian    Padeye, January 13, 2022. 

 The distributor of “Pleasure,” Swedish director Ninja Thyberg’s mainstream movie set in the porn industry which debuted digitally at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, held a screening yesterday in Hollywood for “cast and crew,” including several prominent adult-industry actors and directors who agreed to help with the project.

 
After the screening, director, producer and model Lance Hart tweeted, “I got asked to be in a movie about porn. I said I wouldn’t do it if it made us look bad. I was promised it wouldn’t; I was just playing one bad guy. It got bought by A24 and went to Sundance. I just watched it, and the central plot was a cheap shot making us look bad.”
 
“I know how hard it is to make and edit a movie,” he added. “Things don’t always go as planned, but the whole takeaway of the movie is basically, 'You’ll get really fucked up if you do porn.' Meanwhile my wife, friends and I are thriving emotionally and financially in our industry.”
 
Acclaimed director and Gamma creative director Axel Braun tweeted, “We all got duped into helping [Thyberg] make a movie that would have never happened without our support. But hey, ‘Pleasure’ was a hit at Sundance and Ninja Thyberg got signed by CAA.”
 
“I was promised the same,” Braun replied to Hart about Thyberg’s commitment to treat the industry fairly. “Instead we got a shock-value cautionary tale showcasing in great detail the negative side of our industry and zero of the positive. I'm very disappointed to say that while ‘Pleasure’ may be morbidly entertaining to watch, Ninja Thyberg has failed us.”
 
Concern Over Director's Past as 'Anti-Porn Activist' Resurfaces
 
“Pleasure” was shot over two years ago in the San Fernando Valley, with involvement of several people connected to the Spiegler Agency — including Mark Spiegler himself, who appears in the film — and prominent industry names such as Hart, Braun, Small Hands, Casey Calvert and others.
 
There had been concern among industry figures about “Pleasure” due to the fact that during the Sundance promotion, Thyberg had started mentioning that the movie was part of her “journey” from being “an anti-porn activist” to realizing models and others in the adult industry were people, too.
 
Earlier this week, XBIZ repeatedly asked the distributor, indie mainstream powerhouse A24, for a screener copy of the film or to be able to attend yesterday’s screening and a Q&A with Thyberg.
 
While constantly insisting that they were “very interested in what the industry press had to say about “Pleasure,” A24 adamantly refused to allow XBIZ to see the film at this point, even though mainstream reviewers were invited to the Sundance screening by the producers and wrote stigmatizing statements about the whole industry in their reviews.
 
"Yes, the movie was shown at Sundance, but now A24 has 'locked it down' for the time being for press," XBIZ was told.
 
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, one of the country’s top critics, reviewed “Pleasure” at Sundance and thought the film endorsed a generalizing, deeply stigmatizing view that “the real paradigm shift in porn — it’s one that underlies a spiritual shift in the culture — is how extreme so much of it has become. Simply put: in porn, 'extreme' is the new normal. I’m not just talking about the rise of fetish porn, the prominence of B&D and other ‘categories’ that were once relegated to the sidelines. I’m talking about the 'rough' vibe that now courses through so much online pornography, and how it has turned porn into an increasingly dark arena for acting out a kind of ritualized, eroticized aggression. Porn used to depict, more or less, what was known as vanilla sex. Now, to put it bluntly, more and more of it is about hate-fucking.”
 
“I make a point of this only because that’s the world that Ninja Thyberg has made a movie about with ‘Pleasure,’” Gleiberman added.
 
When asked about Thyberg's background as a self-defined former "anti-porn activist" in Sweden, a source close to the production told XBIZ that the director's statements about social and cultural issues "sometimes get lost in translation."
 
Sweden is the country where the Nordic Model of criminalizing sex work (i.e., shutting down the sex workers' source of income) originates and is openly espoused by supposed progressives. Other supposedly progressive Swedish figures regularly lambast "the mainstream porn industry" with outdated stereotypes and generalizations.
 
'We Were Duped': Adult Industry Figures React to Ninja Thyberg's 'Pleasure'. By Gustavo Turner. XBiz, July 1, 2021

After the initial public reaction by some industry figures to an advance screening of “Pleasure,” Ninja Thyberg’s mainstream indie movie set in the porn world, co-star Evelyn Claire, who also attended the Hollywood screening, spoke to XBIZ to explain why she believes this is “an important film” that could prove “good for the adult industry.”
 
In the course of an hour-long interview, Claire offered a staunch defense of Swedish director Thyberg’s intentions, aesthetics and creative approach, and of the potential for "Pleasure" to effect positive change in problematic aspects of the industry as experienced by talent.
 
Ultimately, as she emphasized throughout the interview, Claire believes that initial reactions by older, male industry figures who after the screening declared themselves to have been “duped” by Thyberg into collaborating with an “anti-industry” project were due to a lack of understanding based on gender and generational issues.
 
She also repeatedly stressed that most of the “bad” things portrayed in the film about the industry are “things that happened” and that Thyberg shined a much-needed light on “many things about the industry that must change.”
 
“The film is extremely hard to watch, I will admit,” Claire told XBIZ. “It’s the rawest, but also the most honest. Even Axel Braun [who tweeted his negative reactions after the showing] said at the screening that, ‘It was too honest’ and that he felt that people would see this and hate our industry.”
 
"It’s important to remember that when Ninja was doing her research on the industry, as she interviewed everybody, she got some real, real stories from people," Claire said. "People who had been through shit. So I think to discredit that this shit has happened is insulting to us talent that have gone through shit, been lied to, been told to act like everything is great for the sake of preserving this industry, when there is so much room for improvement.”
 
Claire also urged people “to watch this movie to see that female perspective. The entire movie is shot from [main character] Bella’s perspective and her emotional struggle [in] finding her voice and what her boundaries are.”
 
“I think it’s gonna be difficult for male viewers to watch this film,” Claire told XBIZ. “I think men are going to have a hard time watching a female-gaze film, period.”
  
 
Porn as Seen Through 'The Female Gaze'
 
  
Through Bella’s perspective, Claire added, “you see how unsexy [a porn set] is, and then you see how it looks on the camera, and it’s sexy. That’s what the guys see. That’s what the guy is always seeing. They don’t see themselves. I think it’s hard for them to see themselves. But that is how we see them.”
 
“How many times have I shot with somebody I don’t fucking like, and I don’t like their dick, but I gotta pretend I do?” she asked. “That is real. That is fucking real. They don’t ask us who we want to shoot with, most of these companies just book us with this random fucking male talent that supposedly are ‘good at keeping their dicks up.’ That’s the only requirement.”
 
Claire thinks that people on Twitter who have not seen the film will unfairly pre-judge “Pleasure” based on the initial reactions from men at the screening, including Lance Hart and Braun.
 
“At the screening there weren’t that many women or civilians,” Claire explained. “There were a couple of women, and they liked it. I think women will really understand this film, better than guys will. Because of just how hard it is to watch the non-male gaze, for once.”
 
She particularly disagreed with Braun — who used the forum to accuse Thyberg, who spoke to the group via Zoom, of trying to “make the industry look bad.”
 
“The movie is more like, ‘The industry isn’t bad per se, but there’s a lot of elements in this industry that must change,'" Claire explained. “And they are going to change. It cannot continue the way it is. It’s now possible with OnlyFans [income] — all these girls no longer need to take every single shoot that they get booked for.”
 
 
A Movie Three Years in the Making
 
 
 Claire has been working with Thyberg on this project continuously since 2018, when she was cast as Ava, a glamorous “Spiegler girl” — a term that the film imbues with almost magical qualities to shorthand the idea of "the top of the porn world" — who becomes both aspirational icon and nemesis to protagonist Bella.
 
Although never quite a "Bella," Evelyn Claire was much less experienced back when she was cast. “I am Ava now, life imitated art — I became a 'Spiegler Girl' after the film. I feel like it’s my duty to be a loudmouth and say something as a privileged girl in the industry — I am so lucky, but that’s just based on how I look. I have a look that got me far, and to pretend that doesn’t have an effect on my experiences is ignorance.”
 
“But I wasn’t a Spiegler Girl until I got in this film,” she added. “I was just a little camgirl who’d only done two scenes. ‘Oh, movies!’ I thought when I auditioned — and I got it. Originally they wanted Lana Rhoades. I came out for two weeks to start shooting.”
 
Asked about her first reaction at this week’s first viewing of the completed film, Claire deadpanned, “I looked really damn good."
 
Obviously, she added, “I really don’t want this film to flop, that’s me being selfish. But also... all this [negative] stuff has happened. The men of this industry feel really uncomfortable about it, and they need to be part of what changes it and how we treat our talent and the working conditions and not lie to girls with, ‘I’m gonna make you a star.'"
 
Claire believes the industry has an obligation to incoming talent to “teach them how to build brands” as well as other practical skills to help them thrive and build a lasting career.
 
“The lack of professionalism is the problem in this industry,” she added. “And that becomes the stark difference between these legitimate companies that care and take the [proper] measures and are willing to spend money on making sure that it is a positive experience for all the talent involved,” versus companies that do the opposite.
  
 
'Good Sets' vs. 'Bad Sets'
 
  
During the interview Claire retold the entire plot of “Pleasure,” with an emphasis on what she sees as Thyberg’s nuanced, multi-layered approach to the subject.
 
XBIZ's account of the movie is based on multiple interviews with people who saw it. XBIZ was actively prevented this week from viewing the film by the distributor, who alleged the film was "locked down” after its initial Sundance Film Festival showing, where most mainstream reviewers saw it.
 
When the character of Bella first arrives in Los Angeles, Claire explained, she tells customs she’s there for “pleasure,” fudging her questionable immigration status with a reference to the supposed enjoyment she believes she will experience from her work choice.
 
“She’s clearly down, but she’s not been informed how the industry works at all,” Claire said. “And then her first agent [played by real-life agent Tee Reel] fails her. But that happens, man! That happens right now in this industry."
 
Claire flagged one particular scene as an example of Thyberg's conscious choice to contrast “ethical porn” sets with “bad sets."

 
Bella is booked for a BDSM scene for Kink.com with a female director played by real-life director Aiden Starr and costar Small Hands. “She discovers doing the scene, ‘Wow, I like being submissive, this is great.' That scene was the most accurate, positive part of the movie in showing the aftercare and the whole team caring for her, making sure she’s good and giving her a chance to just relax and not rushing her out the door.”
 
“It was so important to show that [aftercare],” Claire stressed. "But then she goes back to her agent and tells him, 'I think I wanna do more rough scenes. Yeah, I think I really like it.' And the agent books her for an abusive set."
 
“Right off the bat, the movie shows you the problems and the stark difference of what a ‘good’ porn set is like and what a fucking shady, shitty porn set is like. She gets there and it’s like, ‘Get ready, fill out this paperwork by yourself, let us know, we’ll be waiting for you.’ That’s wrong! You’re not supposed to do that in porn. [It should be] ‘Hey — do you need anything from the kitchen?’ That’s how you’re supposed to handle the talent on a porn set, right? Right off the bat you can tell she’s in a shitty scenario, and it’s all men on the set. All men.”
 
The men proceed to pressure and coerce Bella to stay through a very rough scene that she becomes increasingly reluctant to perform.
 
“Bella says, ‘Stop, stop, stop —I don’t know if I can do this.' And they go, 'No baby, you’re so good, do it just a little bit longer.' They'll say anything just to keep her there and just finish the scene, and that happens in reality! That happens. And so she’s coerced into staying.”
 
"When Bella has finally had enough, the true colors of the director pop out and he says, ‘You just fucked over everybody. You’re not gonna paid' — and that also happens, man! Her agent gets mad at her instead of being angry at how she was treated on set.”
 
 

 
 
An Oversized, Fictional, All-Powerful 'Spiegler'
 
The film features the oversized character of fix-it-all, make-you-a-star “Spiegler,” played by real-life agent Mark Spiegler.
 
Thyberg’s movie has an intricate interconnection with the real-life Spiegler Agency. A lot of the talent involved in “Pleasure” is connected to the agency, including Claire herself. But the movie also elevates a distorted image of Spiegler into a truly one-of-a-kind deus ex machina.
 
Claire is conflicted about this blurring of reality and fantasy. “They introduce this notion of a Spiegler Girl early on in the movie, when Bella sees my character at a photoshoot.”
 
“It’s me being hot, I look fucking great,” she laughs. “Bella asks, ‘Who’s that?’ and she’s told, 'That’s the new Spiegler Girl — the A-listers of porn.'"
 
Claire defends the film’s hyperbolic treatment of Spiegler, noting “people actually say that! In reality, we all know that it’s just an agency. But people do say that.”
 
In the film, following her harrowing experience, Bella decides she needs to become a Spiegler Girl herself. That kind of will-do-anything-to-get-there attitude is something Claire thinks is 100% truthful to the ambitions of current starlets.
 
Spiegler turns her down, so she decides to self-book and contacts a studio called “Black.com” in an obvious reference to real-life brand Blacked; both critics of the film and Claire herself have flagged the plotline as contrary to current industry procedure.
 
“It was unrealistic to hit up ‘Black.com’ to offer to shoot for them for free and do double-anal," Claire said. "Obviously, real-life performers don’t just call a major studio and say, 'I wanna do something for free and you can throw me into the most extreme scene available.'"
 
“That was definitely not realistic,” Claire admitted. “Still, they do a really good job of showing the difference [between] shooting for a company that runs things correctly [like Black.com] — they’re not forcing her, they let her choose the male talent — as opposed to [the abusive set].”
 
“Then she goes back and says, 'Here, Spiegler, I just did double-anal, ha-ha,” and Spiegler signs her. All of a sudden she’s [booking] stuff.”
 
Claire wishes certain other moments in the film "were a little different" for the sake of accuracy. "But for the most part, for being a fictional story based on real stories Ninja heard, I think it excels and it’s a beautiful film.”
 
An Emotional Triangle
 
Claire also commends the film’s central emotional triangle between Bella (played by Swedish actress Sophia Kappel), her less successful friend Joy (Revika Anne Reustle) and the cold, aloof Ava (Evelyn Claire).
 
“The friendship between Joy and Bella was wonderful,” she told XBIZ. “It was a big part of showing the humanity of these girls, when they’re off camera.”
 
But then, in a very old showbiz narrative trope with ancestors such as “All About Eve” and “Showgirls,” the film forces the protagonist to choose between friendship and ambition, and Bella ends up throwing Joy under the proverbial bus.
 
“When Bella betrays Joy by not telling the truth of what she saw with Cesar [a villainous role played by Lance Hart], she puts Joy in a very fucked up situation and fucks her over so that she can keep her job,” Claire explained.
 
“Lance did a great job playing the bad guy,” Claire added. “Almost too good. I understand why he is worried industry men will look bad, but if people watch this, then they should know how not to act. The movie shows us why it’s wrong to behave that way. I think this film is important for industry people to watch as well, to see themselves. These are people. They are not just ‘another girl coming through,’ they are people with lives and emotions and aftercare is important.”
 
“Ninja said ‘It’s a really complex movie’ and there’s so many levels to it,” she continued. “It’s a hard watch! I think there’s a bit too much ‘trauma porn’ for my own personal taste, but the way it was shot it was actually quite tasteful. It was disorienting, but it wasn’t that you’re really seeing what was going on — you just know.”
 
Claire said that she “feels bad for Lance” because there was more of a context for his character in the full script Thyberg had shown people at the beginning of the process.
 
“There was a lot that got cut,” Claire confirmed. “There was a script, and I read the entire script and everything completely makes sense. There was a lot more to the movie that did not end up making the cut because we weren’t able to shoot [the full script].”
 
People familiar with the original script and who were at the screening told XBIZ that the version they signed up for in 2018 had a part in Los Angeles and another whole part in Sweden, making the film much more centered on Bella as a character, not just “a film about porn.”
 
The Swedish section was never shot. “They reduced it down to a long phone call with her mom, who’s very supportive and encouraging,” said Claire. “She supports her daughter. It’s very positive. It’s a good conversation.”
 
The finished film, Claire added, is “a lot of Bella reflecting on what she needs to do next. It’s not about Sweden but about her conflicting solo journey, where she only has her friend Joy.”
 
“You need to have conflict to make a movie,” Claire added, echoing something Thyberg said at the screening.

 
An Anachronistic, Pre-OnlyFans Reality
 
The other issue that Claire thinks is a valid criticism of “Pleasure” is that with the fast pace of change in the 21st-century world and the movie industry, the film’s long production period has made it a bit anachronistic.
 
“I feel it’s a little outdated,” she admitted to XBIZ. “When Ninja was doing her research, I feel that was a time in porn where we were not empowered as we are today, with OnlyFans and all these platforms where we can control our own content. Having the power of our voices, that we are heard when we speak out  — that wasn’t really the case when Ninja was doing her research. And obviously Spiegler doesn’t force his girls to do ‘everything’ anymore. So that’s a little inaccurate too,” she laughed.
 
“I would set this film in 2015,” she continued. “I think it’s important to tell the average person that the industry’s changing and it will continue to change and sites [that highlight abuse in their branding] will continue to be less popular. Because what people want to watch is people who actually have chemistry, you know? I think it’s actually more dangerous to say that this film is negative for us, because if you say that it’s a negative film, more people are going to agree that the adult industry is purely negative.”
 
Moreover, Claire thinks that “it’s insulting to the civilian viewer to say that they’re just going to say that ‘the porn industry is bad.’ They’re going to say, ‘It is a mixed bag, and there are bad people in the industry ready to take advantage of girls.’”
 
XBIZ pointed Claire to civilian Owen Gleiberman’s influential Variety review after Sundance, where he saw the movie precisely as an indictment of most current porn, which he generalizes as violent.
 
“Is he in the porn industry? Is he a woman?” Claire asked.
 
“No.”
 
“So, fuck him, fuck his opinion.”
 
“But you just said the average civilian is gonna see it as a mixed thing.”
 
“I think it’s gonna be difficult for male viewers to watch this film,” she repeated. “The emotional gravity of this film is so important. I think it actually has a chance to get through to people — what the problems are in this industry. They even touch on the racism. I wish they would touch on the trans issues as well.”
 
“'Pleasure' is not a bad movie and I don’t think it deserves a smear campaign because it would make us look worse and guilty, for trying to cover it up. I think it’s a good film. It’s not something I’d say is my favorite movie, even though I look so good in it. I felt it was raw. It was an accurate representation of shit that girls have gone through. It would be a boring movie if it followed Ava’s little cakewalk. That [wouldn't be] a good movie about the porn industry, [one] that doesn’t show you how the hard realities are.”
 
Claire then offered a very specific example of a performer who entered the industry around the time she did.
 
“I knew her really well. She doesn’t shoot anymore. She’s had one of the most tragic stories I’ve ever fucking heard. And, you know, the shit that she went through and was told and manipulated to to do, it’s why she’s still not a porn star. This has to change. People need to be aware so it can be prevented from happening over and over to new girls who don’t have experience. And that’s the biggest thing about ‘Pleasure’: Bella comes into the industry not knowing anything. The difference between me and her is that I was a cam girl for a while. You look at why some girls do better than others and it’s because of not being taken advantage of by shitty agents, by production companies that don’t see you as a person, and frankly I don’t think they should be in the industry. But you can’t shut down things that easy. It’s whack-a-mole, they’ll pop up again later under a new name.”
 
  
A Generational Divide
 
What about the older female performers who were at the screening or were involved with the film and also Tweeted that they felt the film was exploitative?
 
“I think that all the people who’ve been in the industry a long time will feel guilty,” Claire said. “There’s a lot of problems in this industry. I think the only reason I stay is because my voice is heard. When I speak up I’m heard and that is because of reputation — I’ve been around for six years. What I’ve seen in this short time is a lot of change. Sexual harassment courses probably weren’t a thing when [those older performers] joined the industry. You have to think that it’s hard for people to watch themselves playing monsters. I mean, I play a bitch! I played a very beautiful bitch. I’m not upset about it. My instructions were to actually play very aloof, neutral and distant. And it comes across as so bitchy! I’m not necessarily a bad person in this film, but I’m a bitch. I think that’s real too.”
 
“I think that a lot of girls that have been in the industry, that got chewed up and spit out are going to understand this film a lot better than [an older male director] who makes a lot of money off of them. You have to consider that bias as well. How much privilege these people are speaking from. This movie shows the people who aren’t privileged and how it is.”
 
The film, she said, also depicts older, jaded performers in a way that may make their real counterparts uncomfortable. “These [older] girls are sluts, they love fucking, you know, they love money and it’s a job, but they’re complacent and they lost the will to stand up and say ‘Hey! I need and deserve better.’ Of course people are gonna complain if they got a character that wasn’t wonderful.”
 
“It’s important that they show the hierarchy in porn, the competitiveness in porn. It really isn’t for everybody. As I said, it’s a tough watch. I’m not gonna say it’s an easy watch. It’s so hard to watch. But I think it’s necessary.”
 
“I stay in the industry because there are good people. And the film shows that! Aiden Starr shows what a good director does that cares, tells you, goes over things, ‘If you need to stop, what do you say?’ It was very accurate to how things should be. It’s just a really hard realistic look on what the less ideal path is that happens all the fucking time.”
 
Thankfully, Claire added “these days we have resources, we have OnlyFans, we have APAG, we are working towards more unionizing. Of course I wish that shit was in the film.”
 
“I think the emotional impact of this film may actually help performers get more rights, the public will see. As long as it’s explained in a very educated way, I feel that this movie won’t be misinterpreted as a blast against the industry as a whole, but as a thing that says ‘these are parts of the industry that must change and this is why.’”
 
 
'I Think It's Actually Very Helpful'
 
 
When XBIZ asked Claire why she thinks Thyberg — an admitted former "anti-porn advocate" who recently told the Swedish press making the film made her "stop hating men" — cast porn performers instead of mainstream actors, she quickly replied “because Ninja actually respects sex workers. And there’s no one better to play porn stars than actual porn stars.”
 
But couldn’t that also be because she wanted to claim her views are endorsed by major industry figures, like Spiegler, his models, Braun, Hart — or even AVN, whose Vegas trade show figures prominently in the film, and one of whose editors is an actor in the film and was allowed by distributor A24 to attend the supposedly “no-press” screening?
 
“Would you want her to cast Bella Thorne as Ava?” she retorted. She had a point.
 
“Look, it’s important to be able to criticize Ninja," Claire continued. "But the movie’s done, it’s coming out, and it’s our job now to explain what’s true, what has changed and what should change and what the film highlights as problematic and why it can’t continue that way.”

 
“Nothing is gonna stop girls from joining the industry. ‘A new girl turns 18 every day,’ they keep saying. If this helps people see that it’s not all fucking glamour, and that stark difference [between legit companies and abusive sets] … I think that’s actually very helpful.”
 
“I think 18, 19 year-olds have unrealistic expectations,” she continued. “A fresh 18 year old with no life experience, thinks ‘I’m great, I can handle it’ and they find themselves in an echo chamber of people saying “You’re amazing, you can do this, you’re the best, do triple anal — in Prague!’”
 
“There’s a lot to this industry that needs to be looked at very bluntly. There’s room to change and if this helps people understand, that’s good. Long-term it’s our job now to [educate] people on what the point of the film is: ‘Understand who you are, be true to yourself, ultimately it’s your choice and you don’t have to do shit you don’t want to do.’ Bella learns that.”
 
As a concluding thought, Claire repeated that “when the movie gets launched, it’s gonna be very important to listen to how girls feel watching it, because guys are gonna have a hard time watching it because it’s shot through the female gaze. That’s a given. People aren’t used to seeing movies through the female gaze — especially in porn.”
 
Throughout the interview, Claire referred to the director as "Ninya," the correct Swedish pronunciation of "Ninja." People familiar with the production told XBIZ that while she was shooting, the American crew told her to embrace the "Ninja" — as in the ancient stealthy warriors that infiltrated enemy locations — because it was "more badass" and she had seemed to adopt it.
 
Yesterday, as Twitter was reacting to the negative industry views of the press screening, someone commented, "Never trust a ninja."
 
Ninja Thyberg responded with a "like."
 
Co-Star Evelyn Claire on How Ninja Thyberg's 'Pleasure' is a 'Good Film for the Industry'.  By Gustavo Turner. XBiz, July 2, 2021.

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In the opening scene of Pleasure, an airport worker at passport control asks Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel) if she’s in LA “for business or pleasure.” “Pleasure,” she replies, with a knowing smirk, a wry joke about the nature of Bella’s “business”: she has come to LA hoping to become the next big porn star. Soon, though, we realise her answer was the first sign of many that the nineteen-year-old Swedish expat isn’t prepared for the realities of working in the adult film industry. Business and pleasure, suggests Ninja Thyberg’s feature debut, are things the patriarchal industry sees as one and the same. The men in front of and behind the camera too often align themselves with the average porn viewer, treating their female collaborators as pleasure objects rather than colleagues.
 
Thyberg’s film is a forensic, authentic look at the inner workings of the porn industry, and particularly, how consent operates in that space; to make it to the top in porn, she suggests, you have to allow your boundaries to be eroded. Thyberg’s cast and crew is made up mostly of real workers in the porn industry — lead actress Kappel is not, although her unfamiliarity with that world aligns with her character’s outsider status. The result is a film that doesn’t sensationalise porn, because, for most of the people on set, making porn is their everyday lives. Instead, we get a rich sense of the minutiae of being on a porn set: the way crew members casually chat in the lead up to a shoot, the space and time (or lack thereof) given to actors to prepare for a scene, and how much of each scene is choreographed versus improvised.
 
Naked bodies are never sensationalised by Thyberg’s camera — operated by cinematographer Sophie Winqvist — unless the body in question is alarming to Bella. In Bella’s first scene, for example, her male co-star’s penis is briefly shot in extreme closeup as she contemplates the prospect of putting it in her mouth. Thyberg’s shallow focus closeup, with the tip in focus and the man’s waist blurry in the background, emphasises its size and protrusion. The penis feels like a threatening object, too much too soon for newbie Bella who only just landed in LA and was thrown straight into this scene with little prep. By contrast, we first see Bella’s naked body when she’s shaving in the shower to prepare for this shoot. Even though we see all of her, there’s nothing leering about the still camera, which observes her from a moderate distance as she clumsily contorts her body to reach every stray hair. The camera’s relationship to Bella’s body is the same as Bella’s own relationship to her body: mundane, familiar, not overly precious. At the same time, the up close sound of the razor on Bella’s skin is so loud in the mix that it feels violent.
 
Although Pleasure takes place in a highly competitive industry, Thyberg depicts Bella’s housemates, fellow porn actresses, as sweet and supportive. They even throw a celebration when Bella later moves out to work with a higher-level manager. A central part of the film is Bella’s bond with Joy (Revika Anne Reustle), a wild, fierce, but loveable fellow actress. She defends Bella against Ava (Evelyn Claire), a high-strung “Spiegler girl” (aka girls represented by the most demanding and successful manager in the biz), and she helps Bella by taking photos of her deep throating a banana for Bella’s Instagram. Still, it’s notable that Bella and Joy’s friendship first sparks when they’re making fun of Ava behind her back. It’s an early instance of women screwing over other women, an instinct Bella learns to follow as she gets closer and closer to the top.

 
Partway through Pleasure, Bella stars in a BDSM scene with a female kink director, Aiden Starr (who plays herself); the focus on consent in this scene illuminates how a sex scene should be directed. The buildup to the shoot is lengthy and reassuring: Starr establishes consent and boundaries with Bella, discusses and reiterates safe words and actions, and ensures that the male co-star is on board. Starr remains professional throughout the shoot, reassuring Bella that she looks beautiful, but never touching Bella in a sexual way. It’s the only scene in the film where a director checks in with Bella midway through the shoot. It’s also the only one where female pleasure is discussed and encouraged: Starr tells the male actor to make Bella come; the director of Bella’s first scene told her when she had to (pretend to) come. Despite the extremity of the scenario in Starr’s shoot — Bella is tied up, strung from the ceiling, and whipped — Bella feels safer than she does on any other porn shoot in the movie. She leaves the set covered in red, raw rope marks, but because Starr and her team look after Bella and talk her through aftercare, the damage to her body feels far less egregious than the emotional scars that other porn shoots in the film leave her with.
 
Watching how Aiden Starr creates a safe space on set changes the way you watch every other porn shoot in Pleasure — it even retroactively made me question moments of Bella’s first shoot, which I had previously dismissed as not that bad. I took it as given that Bella was just thrown into her first scene with little prep. I warily accepted that the crew was almost entirely male and that Bella’s pleasure wasn’t a part of the scene. When Bella briefly backed out of the shoot, nervous and unsure of what to do, the director put on a reassuring voice to convince her to come back. He told her that she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to do, but then reminded her that he had hundreds of girls who would happily take Bella’s place, along with the $900 that came with the job. At the time, an alarm bell rang in my head that screamed “COERCIVE LANGUAGE,” but I wondered if I was reading too much into it, and moved on. As soon as I saw Starr’s scene, I remembered Bella’s first shoot and suddenly understood everything that the male filmmakers she was working with should have been doing but weren’t.
 
Starr’s scene is also contrasted with Bella’s next shoot, which involves rough sex, as well, but under the direction of a male crew with little concern for Bella’s wellbeing. By placing these two scenes side by side, Thyberg highlights how BDSM scenes are not inherently unsafe, but just like any scene, they require consent and strictly reinforced boundaries. In the second BDSM shoot, Bella is given no prep time, and when she steps in front of the camera, the director calls action without discussing what her two male co-stars are going to do to her. There’s no safe word established, so when the scene gets too intense and she calls out, “No!,” it takes a while for her co-stars to stop. When they do, the director uses thinly veiled coercive language: “If you need to [stop], you need to, but try not to stop.” Just like Starr did, he tells Bella she looks beautiful, but he does so while leaning his body against hers on the floor and kissing the top of her head, condescending to her and treating her like a sexual partner rather than an employee.
 
Perhaps even more disturbing than this rape scene is what follows, in the aftermath of Bella’s traumatic shoot, when she almost quits the industry but then decides to come back fighting by pushing past her own boundaries. Bella’s initial reaction is to fire her agent and resolve to move back home to Sweden, as she’s determined to never put herself in that position again. Thyberg cleverly styles and structures her decision to make a “comeback” like the pivotal moment of a sports drama: our hero hits rock bottom, then returns stronger than ever with a training montage. The image of Bella gazing determinedly out over a body of water at dawn, in a hoodie, after receiving an encouraging phone call from her mother, looks like something straight out of a Rocky movie. Then there’s the training montage that follows, set to a peppy pop song, except instead of lifting weights, Bella is practicing using butt plugs of increasingly large sizes to prepare for a double-anal scene. This would be the triumphant comeback in a hero’s journey narrative, but in the porn industry, a professional triumph means Bella forcing herself to engage in sexual acts she isn’t comfortable with. As Spiegler tells her earlier in the film, she won’t rise to the ranks of the girls he represents until she’s willing to engage in the most extreme sexual acts.

 
In the film’s final act, Thyberg goes on to show how abusive behaviour is passed down from abuser to the abused; Bella is encouraged to objectify and coerce other women in order to advance her own career. First, it’s Joy, who Bella requests as the second girl in a boy-girl-girl sex scene. When they find out that the male co-star is a guy with a vendetta against Joy, and he starts to abuse her behind and in front of the camera, Bella refuses to stand up for her in fear that her own reputation will be tarnished. Later, when Bella does a scene with Ava, we see Bella replicating the exact behaviour that previous male directors and co-stars have inflicted on her. She is aggressive and violent toward Ava in the scene, venting her frustrations on the rival actress without asking for consent or explaining what she plans to do. It’s a disturbing scene, but the real wake-up call is Ava’s nonchalant dismissal when Bella tries to apologise for what she did. To Ava, no boundaries were crossed, because to become the reigning queen of the LA porn scene, as Ava is, she had to push herself so far that she no longer had any boundaries to cross.

Sundance Review: Navigating consent in Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure. By Orla Smith. Seventh Row, February 10, 2021.