James Deen, Boy-Next-Door-Style Porn Star, Takes on Hollywood Movie and Lindsay Lohan
James Deen has earned wide fame with his wholesome look.
March 1, 2013 -- What if that dashing boy-next-door, who seems wholesome and has a cute smile, was on the Internet beckoning and ready to romance your every whim and sexual fantasy?
That's what women and teenage girls find so appealing about James Deen.
With his curly brown hair, soft blue eyes and fit body, this 27-year-old porn sensation from Pasadena, Calif., looks like he could be a neighbor, a classmate or that cute guy at the bar. That appeal has turned him into something of a porn sensation with fans much younger than 18. It's a fact that many parents might find disturbing.
"If there was a 15-year-old girl, an underage girl, an underage guy, an underage person that is viewing a scene that I'm in or any sort of porn, chances are they're doing that because either they're curious. They're horny, whatever it is. They're sexual enough that it is something that they desire, that they crave, that they want, and it's not necessarily a bad thing," Deen told "Nightline" in an interview last year.
These days, the porn star who had made more than 1,000 adult films, is going mainstream, starring in a new movie, "The Canyons," with troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan. The low-budget film has not been released yet, but it is already making headlines for its cast and their on-set drama.
WATCH: 'The Canyons' Movie Trailer
Deen is part of today's voracious, unstoppable American porn industry -- by some estimates, a $13 billion business -- that now targets and reaches a new demographic: teenage girls. Evidence of that is in Deen's star status.
"Everyone has sex," Deen said. "If your daughter is 15 or 18, and you know, at some point, she's gonna have sex with somebody."
Christina Ahlsen, 21, told "Nightline" last year that she had been a fan of Deen since high school and started watching porn around age 10.
"My first legitimate encounter with porn was when I was in fourth grade and I searched Playboy," she said. "It was early adolescence. I'm at a very curious stage."
At the time, Ahlsen said she checked up on Deen through Tumblr, and even had a setting to track when his name is mentioned on the blogging platform.
"The first time I saw him, it was kind of really relieving," she said. "Because in porn, the males are usually guys I'm not even close to being attracted to. He is just accessible, he looks like somebody that I could see at, you know, a coffee shop or something and actually approach, I mean, if he were, you know, just a regular guy. He is a regular guy."
Women, Teen Girls Find James Deen's Wholesome Style Appealing
And she's not alone. There are thousands of women who share Ahlsen's enthusiasm for all things Deen and participate in an active online community -- from trading images of him to posting fan-made pictures to writing swooning messages. Some of them so young, "Nightline" could not interview them on camera. Their parents have no idea that secretly they have a crush on a porn star. It is a phenomenon that not even the man at the center of it fully understands, but it's one that he fully defends.
"I'm not intentionally encouraging anybody in any way," Deen said. "If it's happening, awesome. I have no issues with a 15-year-old, 16-year-old, 17-year-old girl reading my Twitter. I have no issues with anybody that is old enough to understand. I understood what porn was and everything when I was 6 years old and I don't think that having knowledge of what it was led me to my decision to be in porn."
So how did Deen make his transition from a young Jewish kid growing up in Southern California to a porn sensation? He claims that he first became interested in become a porn star when he was in kindergarten and found an old porn magazine.
"I picked it up and I'm like, 'Oh my God, this is the cool, this is awesome,'" he said. "It was this weird moment that I will always remember where I was like, this is what I want to be when I grow up. I want to do this."
Deen said he was even suspended once for telling a teacher he dreamed of becoming a porn star. His career took off much later after he turned 18 when he began sharing stories about his life online.
"Basically, until I started my blog, I really thought that no one really knew who I was," Deen said. "Because the way I always say it is, 'I'm only useful from my belly button to my knees,' and I think everything else is pretty much just there."
While we can't talk too much about what is posted on his blog, for obvious reasons, we can say that mixed in with photos of his well-endowed co-stars are tweets about the toast he ate for breakfast or the burrito he wants for lunch.
But among his massive following of fans are many who are under 18. Deen said he can't control the underage kids who want to watch his porn films.
"I understand that they are minors," he said. "I'm not saying that they should be viewing porn. I'm not saying that. And I'm not encouraging underage kids to go to my blog. In fact, I don't think they should. The law says, if you are under 18, you can't view porn."
Make no mistake, critics and fans alike love his films, and they say Deen is different -- a porn star who holds hands with his leading ladies, who gazes into their eyes and is quick to be romantic. But for the kids watching all of that, Deen said he does not want to hear directly from them.
"I've had a couple of times where somebody will say something to me. I'll respond, via direct message, and then I'll get some sort of thing where they're like, 'great, when I turn 16 I really want--' and I'm like, 'oh, wow, I got to be careful with that,'" he said.
And while tackling Hollywood with his new film, "The Canyons," might be another step in his film career, Deen said he enjoys the work he does in porn.
"If I had to do porn, I probably wouldn't enjoy it," Deen said. "I get to do porn. I get to go to set. And I get to, you know, make out with girls. And I get to meet different people. And I get to, you know, experience all of this stuff. It's awesome. I can't think of anything else I would ever want to do or be."