Verity

Porn star Jessie Rogers was 18 when a director forced brooms and bananas inside her for hours until she was swollen shut and crying on camera - then told her she wouldn't get paid if she stopped. A male performer raped her off set. Another beat her head against the floor until she bled, choked her unconscious twice, and locked her in a bathroom. She contracted herpes on set. Over 10 urgent care visits. When she told her agent she'd been raped, he stared at her blankly and said: "So, did you guys have fun?" She found the ad on Craigslist when she was 17. An agent called and said it straight - it's porn. She was booked for her first shoot the day after her 18th birthday. A Penthouse spread. Her first few scenes were awkward but fine. She thought she could handle it. The solo shoot on the East Coast was where it started. The director made her insert objects - brooms, bananas, whatever was around - for hours. Her body swelled. She was in real pain, sobbing on camera, begging to stop. He said: we won't pay you if you stop now. She kept going. Back in LA, her agent kept booking her even when she was sick. She trusted one male performer enough to see him outside of work. The last time they were together, he raped her. She says it herself: "The way we had sex the last time I saw him - it wasn't consensual." She went to her agent and told him what happened. He stared at her with a completely blank face. Then he said: "So, did you guys have fun?" That was the day she quit. Years later she stood in front of the California State Assembly and testified for a bill requiring condoms on porn sets. She told legislators what no one in the industry wanted them to hear. She walked into porn at 18 through a Craigslist ad. By the time she walked out, she'd been raped, beaten, infected, and ignored - and the man responsible for her career asked if she had fun. Does the porn industry protect its performers, or does it just replace the ones it breaks?