Ron Jeremy (Picture: - - - - ). You know him. Many claim to love him. And not even your grandmother can avoid him.

The happy, hefty, hair-overrun hardcore porn veteran has become an iconic media fixture, expanding his celebrity status from X-rated entertainment to the talk show circuit and high-profile cameos in Hollywood projects to a gig on the WB network series The Surreal Life.

The Brooklyn-born ten-incher also appears at seemingly any public event where a photographer may be present, prompting hacky non-wits to endlessly parrot a line that wasn't funny in the first place: "Ron Jeremy will show up at the opening of an envelope! Haw Haw!"

Outgoing, energetic, ever-affable Ron was happy to talk nudity with MrSkin.com and we're happy to bring you the results.



We know all about your X-rated work. What do you think about the nudity in non-porn flms?
I find it very offensive - no, I'm kidding. But one of the things I say when I lecture is that at least porn is an honest industry. I do a lot of colleges and I debate Susan Cole and other feminists. And what I point out is that the feminists shouldn't have a problem with porn because we label it, letting you know from the very start what we do and what you're going to see. Whereas they often sneak sex and nudity into advertising, whether R-rated films or PG films. Even television -- and the Superbowl! So I said, at least we're more honest about it. But I never watch a film for nudity. I watch a mainstream film because I want to see a mainstream film. But if there's someone nude who I always wanted to catch sight of I think, "Oh that's nice! That's a little surprise."

What about a movie like Larry Clark's Bully?
Now, I didn't see that for the sake of the nudity but I was just shocked how much was in there. I like Larry Clark's work, ever since Kids. But I was amazed at seeing how much sex was in Bully. Not just the nudity - but bumping and grinding (Picture: - 2 - 3 - 4). Bijou Philips throwing hot candle wax and Rachel Miner taking a pee. These are known performers doing amazing things, almost hardcore.

Have you seen Ken Park, his newer film? It's got a lot of sex in it. Tiffany Limos gets naked and gives a guy a blowjob.
They show the actual oral? They don't block it? You actually see the dick enter her mouth?

There are clips on MrSkin.com, and you see the guy's hard dick and her mouth on it (Picture:1 - 2 - 3 - 4).
Well that reminds me - one thing that I would say that I would be curious to see, but again it's not just for nudity, but because a girl that got nominated for an Academy Award did a BJ scene for real. I'm sure you heard about it-

Brown Bunny.
Right. I knew about that thing beforehand, because Vince Gallo told me about this, before he even made the movie. And he was even making a joke, "What does a porn actor take, to do a better come shot?" And I'm saying, "What?! Why would you need to know that?" So I said, "Okay, just take some celery or egg whites and maybe it'll taste better or something." He said, "No, I want to make it more." I said, "Why do you want to know that for?" He said he was going to do a film like that. I said, "Get outta here! You're a liar, who's going to distribute that?" He goes, "You watch, you wait and see." So I said, "Well, what actress are you going to get for it?" He said, "You'll be surprised too." And he had Winona Ryder originally, and then finally it went to Chloe Sevigny, who did it (Picture: 1 - 2 - 3). This is an actress nominated for an Oscar, for Boys Don't Cry So that was a big move. Yeah, so THAT I'd like to see! For the sake of seeing what goes on. But other than that, though, I wouldn't sit through an hour and forty-five minutes just to see some woman naked in it.

Is it because you've seen too many naked women already?
Maybe.

When you're doing a porn movie, do you even notice the woman's nudity?
It's still a turn-on, of course. If I walk in the door and see a cute girl, I'll think, "Ooh, I get to work with her today, how nice." Now, if there was someone mainstream I was dying to see nude I'd have to say I always liked Michele Pfeiffer. Did she ever do a nude scene? A lot of men must want to see her naked. If you told me she was totally nude in some scene, top and bottom, a real good look at her, not just a little quick flash, then maybe I'd fast forward to it or something. Alanis Morisette too, I think she's a turn-on.

What if a regular director asked you to do a mainstream-type sex role?
I had to recently. Actually, it felt funny. I did an episode of an upcoming HBO series called Black Tie. I had to do a simulation sex scene and it was my very, very first time. It was only a couple of months ago, and I had to wear a sock. It was so funny. "So that's how those guys do it!" And they made a joke, saying, "We ordered a special extra-large sock for you Ron." And I said, "Uh ... thank you." And the girls wear things too, they wear these patches over their vaginas. So she had a patch and I had a sock. [laughs.]

What if the director were to ask you to do a non-sexual nude scene in a movie, just appearing nude for some other reason.
Oh, I would do it. I've done it a few times. I did a nude scene for Rif Coogan, who directs a lot of cult-type films. The film was called Denial. I had a scene in a Jacuzzi, where I talk to the camera, and I was nude, though because I was in the Jacuzzi you only see me from the waist up. But then the girl has to spank my bare tushy afterwards. What is also kind of funny, speaking of nudity, was the show The Surreal Life 2, which I was in. I chose my nudity very carefully in that. What's funny is all the participants went to a nudist camp and - actually, Tammy Faye ran out crying. She wouldn't get naked, she wouldn't even be in the place! But what happened was I was there with the rest of the cast, and we were playing volleyball. The way it worked was you got extra points if you actually went nude. The whole cast pressured me to do it but I said, "Nope. It's too easy." It's too typical that the porn star'll get naked. I made a statement right there and I held to it. I said "If anyone else in the casts drops trou', I'll do it." Isn't that smart? Erik Estrada wouldn't, Vanilla Ice wouldn't, Trishelle Cannatella and Traci Bingham wouldn't. Of course, Tammy wasn't even there. Vince Neil's girl did, but she wasn't in the official cast. It turned out to be a smart move, because later on in the evening Trishelle finally did it, she got nude, at a dinner thing (Picture: 1). So I said, "Okay, a deal's a deal." So I went and did it. And then Traci Bingham went bottomless and had a little bit of trouble with her fiance.

But what do they show when it comes on TV?
They blur it. But the Surreal Life producers are brilliant. They were blurring clothing! Isn't that genius? When Erik Estrada flashes open his robe he had a bathing suit on but they blurred it.

So people think he's naked.
Isn't that smart? I was sleeping on the bed and they blurred my entire body, but I wasn't even naked. They did a lot of that on that show. Personally I didn't mind, but maybe the actresses did. And when it comes to real nudity, don't a lot of them get upset about their nude scenes after the fact? Like that famous scene in Basic Instinct, when Sharon Stone does that open leg move. They took that out of the video and the DVD didn't they?

It's on there.
It is on there? I thought they took it out, because they didn't want anyone freeze-framing it and stuff. It actually is in there? Because I saw it in the theater, and that was like a big shock, the whole world talked about it. Sharon Stone was upset, she claimed that the director lit from the floor and didn't tell her that her vagina would be visible.

David Lynch directed the film Mulholland Drive in which there's a scene where Laura Harring drops her robe. But then Lynch himself approved fogging the frontal nudity for the DVD.

He let it go on the film, but he didn't let it go on the DVD. In a way that's silly, because people on the inside of the industry can get ahold of the real footage anyway and start releasing it and pirating it, putting it on the Internet. But what he does is by fogging it, at least he keeps the consumer from getting at it easily. So I understand the logic. It's fascinating. What I always say too when I am lecturing is that voyeurism was around before nude scenes in movies and it will be around after us. Even if you have a very healthy and good sex life, you might still enjoy watching some nudity and be a voyeur. A lot of feminists are anti-nudity, they say that healthy voyeurism doesn't exist, but it does. They say sexy movies are for people who can't get it, but people who do have a good sex life often like to watch something to get turned on or to get enthusiastic about sex. And also if you have a bad sex life, or no sex life, people are often voyeuristic for that too. I mean, it crosses all boundaries. Whether you have a good or bad sex life, being voyeuristic is something all people seem to do. You can't help that. They found nude depictions on cave walls -- drawings of people in sex positions. Voyeurism won't change anytime soon.

So are you a voyeur at some level, then?

Well, I wouldn't really go much out of my way, but let's say right now while I'm talking to you on the phone from my apartment, if I knew there were a couple of naked college girls running around in the hallway, I'd probably go, "Hold on!" and go right to my peephole and peek outside my door. But if someone told me there were naked girls downstairs on the street, I wouldn't go all the way down the elevator to see. That I would not do. So that's pretty much where I draw the line I guess. If it takes alot of effort I might just pass. But if it just involves turning my head or walking a few steps - I'll do it! I'm a voyeur, but not a hard-working voyeur.

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