What is an adult talent agent and do you even need one?

There are a lot of misconceptions about agents and I thought today we would go over some of them.  With so many available platforms do you even need an agent? The answer isn’t as simple as you might think.

Nikki Benz is a great example of what I’m talking about. She has been in the adult industry for many years and is a well-established performer with a great brand. Nikki also knows many of the producers if not all of them and they know if they want to work with her all they have to do is email her because they have worked with her before so they’ll have her contact information.

Because Nikki has a good reputation once she has worked on proving for many years, they know that if they hire Nikki she will show up on time, be sober, and do what is expected of her.

So these are all reasons why the Nikki Benz’s of the world don’t really need an agent. A publicist to market her brand and an assistant to deal with her crap work or emails sure, but an agent? Not really.

Sadly we are not all Nikki’s.

We haven’t all been in the adult industry for years we don’t all have a huge Rolodex which includes the names email addresses and phone numbers of every adult producer and even if we all have that sometimes even that alone is not enough.

Like I said before, Nikki Benz has proven herself over the years and that is a huge issue with some producers. Imagine hiring a girl and having her show up four hours late and having her not look anything like her pictures — those are all very big deals to producers and the reason why some are scared to hire talent they don’t know and don’t have experience with.

Making a mistake in hiring the wrong talent could cost them thousands of dollars in production fees or more specifically in lost production fees. That’s something every single director/producer tries very hard to avoid. I mean who wants to piss away $1,000 if they don’t have to right?

This is where an agent comes in. An agent can not only help you get in contact with producers, actually, they do it for you — but an agent can also use his or her reputation with the producer to get them to book you.

If the producer knows that an agent is always honest then he will trust that agent if the agent says you are someone they need to work with.

Or if the agent says hey this girl looks exactly like her photos then a producer knows the agent is telling the truth because they have an established relationship.

A good agent also makes sure their talent is stable and shows up on set. A lot of girls flake on shoots. One girl, in particular, missed like 15 scenes in one year. She was hot though so producers still insisted on booking her. Since she had an agent, he would warn the producer about her problem with showing up.

This crazy bitch would come up with every excuse. A fake pregnancy or two, a dead grandma or two or three. She once even faked a suicide. In truth she was so fucking high she thought she was going to die. More than three people were there and witnessed this incident. When she got called out for being a lying whore that she is, she still kept with her lie about how she tried to kill herself because she was all upset. #BUILLSHIT. But the point is, she’s a flaky bitch that in the past has cost producers a crazy amount of money for now showing up.

An agent acts as an intermediary between the talent and producer. In this case they came up with a written agreement in which she signed and said something like, if I flake on the job and cancel the scene up to 72 hours in advance I will pay the producer a $100 (or something small like that) cancellation fee plus repay the producer any money he or she put out in advance such as hotel cancellation fees or the cost of airline tickets (if any such fees existed).

If she flaked 48 hours in advance then the fee was doubled, like $200. If she pulled her shit 24 hours or less she would have to pay $300 (again plus any other money the producer fronted like the cost of an airline ticket).

For each and every booking the girl took she had to sign this agreement. We call them kill fees, but in mainstream they are called production damages and in porn $300 may sound like a big fee for cancelling a job but in Hollywood, those kill fees can be a few thousand or even in the millions. I kid you not.

It’s just one of the ways an agent keeps things running smoothly. An agent is like an insurance policy. For a small booking fee, a good agent can ensure everything goes smoothly when it comes to talent.

An agent also looks out for the talent when it comes to shady producers and let’s be real, in our world, there are a ton of them! Oh come on, you all know the kind of douchy douche bags I’m talking about. ^^

One day the very lovely Emma Hix (@emmahixofficial) was booked on a Jimmy Lifestyles shoot for a boy-girl scene. She showed up and surprise, surprise – the shoot wasn’t a boy/girl but it was actually a boy-girl-girl with some promotional acting prior to the scene beginning. The producer tried to get away with pulling a fast one. He isn’t alone, this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME! It’s one of the most common shady acts of an adult producer.

A girl with an agent will find this happens to her far less often simply because producers know a good agent won’t stand for this kind of thing.

Emma Hix’s agent (Foxxx Modeling) is just as responsible for that booking as the producer and the as the talent should’ve never been in a position to renegotiate her fee based on the fact that the booking was not what it was supposed to be. That’s an agent’s job to handle the booking and the fees. Her agent failed her in this one and I strongly believe as a result she shouldn’t have had to pay her agent his fees for this shoot. He didn’t do his job so why should she have paid him?

But he didn’t just fail her because of the issue with the bait and switch scene type, but also because when shit hit the fan and Jimmy Lifestyles sexually assaulted her on the set, the agent didn’t come through. Where the hell was Foxxx modeling during all this scandal? Nobody heard a single word from them.

So when I’m referring to an agent, please know I mean a REAL agent, one that has your back. One that will support you and not throw you under the bus when there is a problem with a producer.

But enough about Foxxx Modeling. Honestly, that wasn’t the point of this article. I just get easily distracted by dumb asses. 😛

More reputable agents have a list of glowing producers and don’t book them on those sets in the first place. The reason is because they want to avoid their talent being put through what Emma had to go through in the first place.

Some people may say a job as a job and the girl should take the job for the money even if they don’t like the producer. But I disagree and so do many others. Some girls won’t work for low-end producers like Jimmy Lifestyles for any amount of money. #PornDeservesProfessionalism

Anywho the point is, a shady producer will always be a shady producer nothing is ever going to change that and this is where a good time agent can benefit you.

Another benefit of having a talent agent is when it comes to getting paid. We all want our money, right? A  producer is far more likely to screw over someone who doesn’t have an agent because that agent may prevent some of his other girls from working with the producer as a result.

Another reason is, a producer knows that unlike your typical performer, a good agent has money and they don’t mind spending it on a lawyer to sue your ass if you don’t pay up. A lot of companies know porn stars (and affiliates) are always broke so they can afford to fuck you over knowing you can’t afford a lawyer to sue them.

Chris Strokes was recruiting girls to shoot in Mexico for Legal Porno. MANY didn’t get paid and they didn’t have the money to hire a lawyer to sue Chris Strokes, Legal Porno or the production company down in Mexico. Then Chris Strokes fucked up. He conned a girl with an agent, and that girl went to her agent, confessed she booked the scene behind his back and you know what? Even though she fucked up, he still had the girls back. Used his money to hire a lawyer and got that girl and two others paid. Sadly to date none of the others (those without an agent) ever got their money and to this day all of those scenes are available on the Legal Porno site.

See what I mean? You can’t trust anybody!

Luckily the few girls who had an agent got their money eventually.

So again, all arguments why one would want an agent.

But now let’s look at the other side of things. Not everyone needs an agent. Someone like Aaliyah Hadid is killing it with her OnlyFans. She’s making crazy good money on her own so why does she even need an agent? She doesn’t. She’s well known, has a good following of fans from the time she shot traditional porn on a traditional set. But now is doing her own thing and making crazy good money doing it.

Why should she pay some agent to book her a scene when she can make just as much money shooting her own content? (If not way more)

She shouldn’t. I’m really proud of her marketing prowess. She’s doing great and she’s not the only one.

In the end, you have to decide if getting an agent is right for you. All I can say is look for a good one, not some loser like the guy over at Foxxx Modeling who puts your life at risk by booking you on low-end shoots or won’t have your back when you are fucked over by said low-end producer.

Also make sure your talent agent is also not a talent themselves. You don’t want a conflict of interest. There is one “agent” out there booking his girls in shoots with himself and insisting they do their first anal with him. No they don’t actually even get paid for their first anal, instead, he gives them a small housing credit.

A real agent will not only make sure you get paid for your first anal but also make sure you get a bonus! Several companies will pay you a nice bonus for first time shoots including your first boy/girl, your first IR, your first anal and so on.

A real agent (Yes Riley of Hussie Models I’m looking at you) cares about their talent, not themselves. A REAL agent, not a shady fuckbag, puts his attention on getting you bookings, not trying to trick girls into shooting their firsts with him for little to no money.