Max Speaks!

HOLLYWOOD—It's been about six weeks since adult director Max Hardcore was released from the Long Beach halfway house where he'd been a resident for several months as part of his transition from imprisonment in a federal prison camp on the Texas/New Mexico border, and EMMReport reporter/porn star Angelica Raven got the much-maligned Max to say a few words about his experiences for the EMM camera. The interview was shot at the recent AEBN/LA Direct Models party at the Hollywood club Playhouse, and can be found here. "Can you believe that someone this awesome actually just got out of jail," the incredulous Raven began. "Why would they put such a sweet man like you in jail?" "Well, I've done a few things that made a few people mad," Hardcore understated, and recounted one of the central charges during his 2008 obscenity trial: That his distributor had sent copies of the European versions of several of his movies to an undercover FBI agent, though in this interview, Hardcore declined to note that he had specifically told that distributor not to send those versions to certain U.S. locations, including the Central District of Florida, where the prosecution took place. "The authorities didn't like that very much, that's for sure, and I paid a steep price for it," Hardcore noted. "See, in Europe, they allow things like fist-fucking and urination and what-not, but it's unwritten code that they don't tolerate that type of video in the U.S.." Raven, a veteran of such movies as Fucked Up Handjobs 6 and Wheel of Debauchery 4, as well as apparently a current Max girlfriend, then questioned how she could have been allowed to do similar material in a recent photo-shoot for Hustler magazine, to which Hardcore responded, "Well, it's tricky. I mean, it's a matter of opinion law. The obscenity law by itself is hard to understand for most people because it's a matter of opinion law, and you don't know if you've broken the law until you get convicted for it, unfortunately." But though Raven was new to the adult movie business when Hardcore was prosecuted, she voiced concern over whether she would be able to use her speculum—a favorite Hardcore toy—in her personal life, because "an anal speculum while I'm getting a cock in the pussy feels absolutely amazing!" "You may actually get in trouble for that," Hardcore claimed. "If the federal government is peeking in your bedroom window, you could actually go to jail for that." Actually, she couldn't unless it were obvious that she was attempting to put on a public show, but it's understandable that Hardcore would be skittish about any government surveillance of sexual activity, since his own such activities garnered him a 46-month prison sentence. "The reason I went to prison was, I was convicted of ten counts of obscenity in central Florida, which is a pretty conservative district even though they have a lot of strip clubs and stuff down there," Hardcore summarized. AVN attended Hardcore's trial in May and June of 2008, and daily reports on the trial can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. "If you're in federal court and they're playing your movies, adult movies, a lot of people would think that, you know, it's so strange, it's so bizarre," Hardcore analyzed. "That's the reason, one of the reasons I was convicted, was because it's such a bizarre and unreal situation, to have the prosecutors playing your videos in federal court. I'm telling you, it was pretty strange." "That's not really fair, I think, personally," Raven opined. "Call me crazy, I dunno, but the kind of stuff that you do to me is the kind of stuff that I personally enjoy looking at. I love looking at the kind of stuff that I would do, and then taking it just a step further so that I kind of know what's that next level, ohmigod, and it gives me that adrenalin rush, and I think that's amazing for somebody to try and ban that. To me, doesn't that [violate] one of our amendments?" "Yeah, you would think so," Hardcore responded, "but unfortunately, the government can crack down and control the laws of morality and a lot of people feel that it's not fair, but unfortunately, that's the way it is. And I really got hammered good. I got convicted on the ten counts, as I said, and served almost 30 months of a 46-month sentence." And how did Hardcore spend his time "inside"? "There wasn't a lot to do," he explained. "I worked out a lot because the only other alternative was to watch televison, and I didn't want to watch any TV at all. And we had our jobs, so I made the best of a bad situation. I used to the time to improve myself in ways that really matter. I quit smoking and I quit drinking... I worked out every day; I worked out like hell... You work out for two years straight, you're gonna put on some muscle, too." "But I'm moving forward," he added, "and I wanted to come down and I wanted to thank a lot of the people that supported me in there, because a lot of people wrote. In fact, I got thousands of letters while I was there, many from people in the industry and a lot from fans from all over the world and I'd like to thank them for writing in. That was really nice. When you're out there, when you're in prison and you're getting letters from peole all over the world, even one letter is special, and I want people to know that I answered each and every one that I got, and I really appreciate it." Hardcore specifically thanked John Stagliano, "who was very helpful in my cause," and Jeff Mike of JM Productions. "Both those guys were big supporters of me in the industry," he said. "I don't want to say anything bad about our government," he continued, "but a lot of people feel—me included—that it's not very fair, and the government shouldn't be in the business of regulating morality, but that's what they do and that's what they've done, and I suppose they're going to continue to do that for as long as we're around." Truer words...