Ed Powers: A Man of His Own Invention

Late in our phone interview, Ed Powers says something I hadn’t seen coming, at all: “By the way, this interview here – I’ve announced it’s my last interview.”

Ed’s matter-of-fact manner in proclaiming this takes me aback momentarily. After all, I hadn’t called him expecting to be told, in effect, I was being given the responsibility of writing the final summary of an adult entertainment legend’s 33-year career. It was a particularly striking revelation coming at a time when I already knew this long, remarkable career hasn’t ended – and isn’t ending any time in the immediate future.

“I mean, how much can I talk about my career and how much can I talk about these other things,” Ed asks rhetorically, referring to the wide-ranging, hour-long conversation we are about to conclude. “I mean, eventually, I’m not even going to remember some things.”

There is indeed a lot to remember.

“What Hasn’t Changed?”

Even as a writer who primarily covers the adult entertainment industry, it’s not every day I get to speak to someone who has been filming porn for over 30 years. Naturally, I wanted to get Ed’s perspective on the ways the industry has changed during his career.

“Ha!” Ed bursts upon hearing my question. “What hasn’t changed?”

Ed begins listing some of the technological changes that have so influenced the adult industry over the last several decades, noting the shifts from film to video, from VHS to DVD, from brick and mortar to the internet – along with some details that likely wouldn’t occur to an outsider looking in.

“I didn’t start going to agents for talent until Dirty Debutantes in 1990,” Ed says, reminding me that he’d already been shooting porn for around two years at that point. “Now, I can’t even count how many hundreds of agents there are. The are some licensed agents, but there’s also so many ‘finders’ and ‘handlers’ and different kinds of people who play the role of ‘management’… that part of the industry has grown to gigantic proportions.”

As Ed continues, he talks about the number of people in the supply chain between the content producer and the consumer – and how this is an aspect of the industry which has come full circle, in a sense.

After the early days of adult movies being films shown in theaters, Ed notes that “people were making their own productions and then releasing it through Evil Angel, Elegant Angel,” and other studios.

“Now, the biggest difference is, you have people going direct,” Ed says. “You have actors and actresses going direct to the public. They go direct to the public through Pornhub, through OnlyFans, through ManyVids, through LoyalFans, Clips4Sale. Fans are buying, through those platforms, directly from the people making the movies.”

As Ed sees it, that industry arc has curved back around to where it came from – a more direct producer-to-consumer flow of erotic expression. He even has a great phrase for it.

“Returning to the Egg”

When he got his start, Ed was shooting content in a way that would come to be known as “gonzo porn” – a term derived from the “gonzo journalism” of the legendary, drug-addled journalist and novelist Hunter S. Thompson.

Ed sees not a straight line from the early days of gonzo porn, a porn genre of which he can rightfully claim to be a founder, to where the industry is now, but a line that traces in a circle back to the porn industry’s roots.

“People are shooting scenes right there on their phones,” Ed says, with the sort of emphasis you can expect from someone who can still recall the days when most phones had rotary style dialers. “I know a girl, she and her boyfriend are making footage all the time on their phones. So, it kinda reminds me of what I did – like I said, returning to the egg.”

In other words, the return to the egg is not just about the reduced separation between consumer and content creator; it’s also about the gonzo approach and the ‘guerilla filmmaking’ attitude that underpins it all. After all, what could be more gonzo than shooting porn on something that isn’t primarily a camera in the first place?

Authenticity Endures

One thing to note about the adult industry returning to the egg: The egg itself is much larger now than it was in the late 80s.

With so much more competition for consumer’s eyeballs and such a fundamental shift in the way porn is distributed and sold, once dominant brands have found themselves confronted with a great deal more competition than they used to have.

“Back in my day, you go into a video store when I was distributing my product, it looked like I owned the landscape,” Ed notes. “There was a whole Ed Powers section. I had the Dirty Debutantes, I had the New Ends, I had the Real Naturals… I mean, I had a lot of real estate in there.”

While Ed’s brand doesn’t have that sort of dominance in the real estate market known as the internet, where corporate giants like MindGeek have gobbled up so much mindshare in recent years, he has maintained his niche by staying true to himself and his proven approach.

“I always had that knack of being comfortable with the girls and the girls being comfortable with me,” Ed says. “That has not changed.”

As much as his movie-making style, it’s Ed’s approach to talent which has been imitated – but rarely truly duplicated – over the decades. He’s also properly seen as a pioneer in the filed of amateur porn, one widely respected and admired by those who have followed in his footsteps.

“I hear from people who give me kudos for opening the door for them, so to speak, to do things in a similar vein,” Ed says. He begins listing names — Chazzy Amateurs, 18 Auditions, Jay Bang Presents, DP Productions, Chris Simon69, Tadpole XXX studio in Las Vegas, Vic Hammer, Colin’s Cuties – of people who have publicly expressed their admiration for his work.

As he does so, Ed exhibits the trademark sincerity, humor and humility which have propelled his career. It’s clear he’s not listing these people because he wants to emphasize his own influence; it’s because he wants to be sure he doesn’t leave anyone out, because he so appreciates their kind words.

“They’ll say ‘you’re the legend,’ or ‘you’re the star I followed’ – meaning star like the North Star,”

Ed says, his pride evident, but tempered by a sense of “Who, me?” bewilderment.

“A few of them are average guys, one or two are chubby guys like me,” Ed continues. “I mean, I wasn’t always chubby, but I was always the average guy. They do a huge amount of business and they have a huge following and I hear from them telling me that I was somewhat of a guiding light – and that means a lot to me.”

Ed then recounts a story about being at an adult trade show and being hailed over to the Penthouse booth by a couple of the magazine’s photographers.

“They said: ‘You changed the way we approach the girls. The way you approached the girls was so successful, we modeled ourselves after you to get the girls to feel comfortable to shoot for the magazine.’ That blew me away because I seldom get approached by photographers. You talk about authenticity, if they approach a girl that way, they’re going to get pictures where the girl is really comfortable and natural.”

The way Ed says things like “that means a lot to me,” or “that blew me away,” it’s abundantly clear he’s not blowing smoke. The depth of his appreciation is part and parcel of his trademark authenticity. And as our conversation continues, it’s clear this authenticity has been noticed well outside the adult industry, too.

Mingling in Hollywood – and Cannes

“What I was doing got recognized on a different level,” Ed tells me. “When I was doing Bus Stop Tales – I won’t mention names – but there were a couple of mainstream actors, people who won Oscars, who said ‘I saw that Bus Stop Tales, and I know acting – that’s not acting, they’re so real.’”

Ed said he wasn’t going to mention names, but there’s one he simply can’t resist mentioning here.

“Al Lewis, who played Grandpa Munster came up to me once at an Al Goldstein party and said ‘You know what I like about your stuff?’ And I said: ‘That it’s real?’ and he said: ‘Absolutely!’ I would get that kind of thing a lot.”

He didn’t just get “that kind of thing” from Grandpa Munster, of course. Among the many stories Ed told me, the ones surrounding the Cannes Film Festival may be my favorite.

“I was invited to sit down at dinner at Cannes….” Ed’s voice trails off. “I don’t know if I should mention this, because it’s controversial, in a sense – but it was Roman Polanski who recognized me.”

(I assure Ed it’s not a crime to be recognized by someone who is a criminal, or to have dinner with that person, so he definitely should tell this story.)

“So, I’m sitting next to Polanski and a woman comes over and says: ‘Is this seat taken next to you?’ and it’s Catherine Deneuve! So, I’m like ‘Of course not!’ So, it’s like Catherine Deneuve (Ed pauses and says her last name again, emphasizing the French pronunciation of Deneuve), and then Gerard Depardieu comes and sits down next to her, and there I am, Ed Powers. I look across the way and I see Paul Fishbein from AVN. So, Paul wrote in the next issue of the magazine that – lo and behold! – he sees Ed Powers at Cannes, sitting there at a dinner table with such a luminary crowd.”

This wasn’t the only fun Ed had at Cannes, though.

“I went to the red carpet and I saw Elizabeth Taylor walking down the red carpet, so I decided to walk along next to Elizabeth Taylor on the carpet going into the theater,” Ed says, impishly cherishing the memory. “And I saw one of my famous film friends, so I yelled out ‘Hey, hey – it’s me, Ed!’ and he looks over and he’s so surprised to see me walking practically right next to Elizabeth Taylor.”

The Well-Travelled Pornographer and His Crazy Brushes with Fame

As a man who has filmed porn in nearly 40 different countries, it’s no surprise that Ed has far more stories up his sleeve than a couple funny anecdotes about Cannes. Over the phone, Ed takes me on a whirlwind tour of his travels, many of which he made while shooting his popular Global Warming series.

Ed checks off the names of countries, stopping to make a few side comments along the way: Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Belarus, Russia (where he shot Vol 281, 282 of Dirty Debutantes, not scenes for Global Warming, Ed notes) Sweden, Italy (“I made The Colors of Passion 1 and 2 in Rome”), Denmark, Japan, India (“not to film, though”), Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, England (“finding English girls to work with me was not easy, but I did shoot some nice British girls.”), Korea, Germany, Spain, Holland, France and Hungary (“a big spot where a lot of people are still shooting.”)… the list could go on, but you get the idea: Ed’s been around.

Ed emphasizes how much he enjoyed working with the women in these countries – and, possibly even more so, how much he loved the food.

“In Japan, teriyaki and stuff like that – I’m not a sushi guy,” Ed explains. “Thai food. Wonderful. Brilliant, that Thai food. Have you eaten Thai food? Some people are afraid to eat it. Some people are afraid to eat Indian food! Isn’t Indian food just… man, it’s euphoric.”

Some places were more tourist-friendly for an epicurean like Ed than others, however.

“France was… I don’t know,” Ed hesitates. “I didn’t know how to order in France.”

Discussing his travels jogs Ed’s memory and reveals another funny tale, this one from a trip to Korea.

“What was strange about Korea at the time I went there, I noticed that security was all running around – like something was definitely happening,” Ed says. “Nothing bad, but you could tell something was up. So, I went over to one of the hotel managers and I asked him ‘What’s happening?’ And he said Vladimir Putin was coming to stay at the hotel. He was there for the Asian Summit.

“Later, I actually came across (Putin) in an elevator,” Ed continues. “To tell you the truth, I was in the corner of the elevator and the guys who were with him were so big, I could barely see Putin. So, as they were leaving, I yelled out the one thing I know in Russian: ‘Dasvidaniya!’ And Putin stuck his head back in the elevator for a quick second and he laughed when he saw me. And he said: ‘Dasvidaniya!’ That was a crazy brush with fame.”

Launched by Powers: The Debutantes who Rose to Fame

Late in our call, I ask Ed an almost obligatory question for someone who has filmed so many young amateur performers over the years: Who are some of the big names who filmed with you early in their careers and went on to greater fame?

“What’s funny about that question is, throughout my career people would tell me ‘Oh you shot so many girls,’ and I’d think, well how many who actually made it big?,” Ed muses. “But later, when I would sell my DVDs online, I’d research to see what the girls went on to do, some of them went on from me to do 36, 156 – 250 (laughs) – movies, who weren’t ones I thought would go on to be a big name.”

Ed begins listing names, admitting he’s worried about the possibility of leaving anyone out: Francesca Le, Dana Vespoli, Jessa Rhodes, Mimi Miyagi, Tabitha Cash, Julia Chanel (AKA “Lydia Chanel”), Anisa, Aurora Snow, Audrey Hollander, Marilyn Star, Leanni Lei, Sunrise Adams (“also Sunset Thomas, who is Sunrise’s aunt,” Ed notes), Katie Morgan, Stephanie Swift, Alicia Rio, Kylie Ireland… you get the idea: It’s a long list. He even shot one performer who had a measure of mainstream fame, Jaimee Foxworthy (who performed in adult under the name “Crave”), who was featured on the TV show Family Matters.

Ed also observes that there have been some performers who have only shot with him – and while that means they didn’t go on to broader fame with other producers and studios, they should be recognized, as well.

“Some girls only worked for me, who were extraordinary,” Ed emphasizes. “We gotta talk about Kami Boh, we gotta talk about Azteca… you know, the girls who only worked for me and who were very popular in my series.”

As he recounts stories of his time working with these women, Ed’s sincere affection for them shines through. Far from being just a bunch of people who appeared in his films, Ed describes them the way one does a highly valued coworker, or even a family member. And it’s not pro forma; like everything else he says on this call, when Ed talks about appreciating and cherishing these performers well beyond the work they did on camera, he means it.

One Era Ends, Another Begins

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that Ed has decided the interview which informed this feature will be his last. Don’t take revelation that to mean Ed is retiring, though.

“I will be working with my partner, Brian from AMA,” Ed explains, adding that “when I work, it will mainly be in Florida.”

Ed also has new releases going to HotMovies.com exclusively, like the brand new The Next DIRTY Debutante: Isabel Moon, which just hit the site on March 5, his official EdPowers.com site, available for promotion through ARL Cash and the soon-to-be-released GrandpaEdPowers.com. He also speaks glowingly of Vanessa Vyne, star of The Next Dirty Debutante: The Movie, a lovely young brunette Ed he refers to as his “protégée.”

In his self-effacing way, Ed also addresses why he won’t be getting back in front of the camera any time soon, be it for an interview or to perform.

“I got really big, especially with this quarantine, I gained weight on top of my weight,” Ed laughs. “So, I’m not quite ready to jump in front of the camera again – but the last two times I did, I made sure the girls called me a ‘dirty fat old fuck.’ Because if I don’t ask the girls to call me that, we’re eventually going to hear it from some reviewer anyway. So, at least they know that I know.”

Having girls refer to him as a “dirty fat old fuck” is just more Ed being Ed – which is to say, Ed being honest about who and what he is. It’s a humility that even comes through when Ed is saying things that might otherwise strike people as braggadocious.

“I was the first to do what I did, when I did it, starting with Bus Stop Tales, going to the bus stop and finding people who would partake in a documentary, basically,” Ed says, in the same matter of fact manner he talks about being a ‘fat old fuck.’ “We were documenting what it was like to get in some stranger’s car and go to their house and talk about sex – and not know if sex would actually happen, or not happen – and then, pretty much whatever happens, happens.”

Ed is quick to give credit where it’s due too, listing other pioneers and peers who were instrumental in setting the table for future amateur porn producers to come.

“There are other guys, of course, like Randy West, Joey Silvera when he came along to do his own thing, he said he had modeled it after what I did with Randy,” Ed says.

This is, I think, the secret to the longevity of Ed’s career: To the extent he has “contrived” anything, it was the Ed Powers character – but that contrivance is so firmly rooted in the man himself, the only real difference is the moniker he adopted as a stage name.

“I grew into being ‘Ed Powers,’” Ed explains. “I’m a man of my own invention. I carried myself as me. I became my persona and my persona became me, hand in hand. Thirty-two, almost thirty-three years of being Ed Powers, I am Ed Powers.”

He is indeed Ed Powers, one of the adult industry’s singular, enduring, authentic voices and a trailblazer in the truest sense of the term. Many have followed in his footsteps, but there is – and can be – only one Ed Powers.