Rocco Siffredi - Porn Career

Porn Career

Siffredi met porn actor Gabriel Pontelo in a French sex club in 1984. The actor introduced Siffredi to producer Marc Dorcel and director Michel Ricaud, who cast him in his first pornographic role, Belle d'Amour (1989). Siffredi then stepped away from porn and worked as a fashion model, but returned to the business after two years with the help of porn actress Teresa Orlowski. Siffredi went on to perform in both plot-based and gonzo-style pornography, with styles of sex ranging from conservative to extreme. However, it was Siffredi's performances involving rough sex, anal sex and analingus, and his psychological intensity and athleticism, that earned him recognition and ultimately a cult following. Through collaboration with John Stagliano's Evil Angel studio, and then his own Budapest-based Rocco Siffredi Produzioni as both a performer and director, "Rocco" became one of the most powerful and recognizable personalities in pornography. "Rocco has far more power in this industry than any actress," John Stagliano commented in 2001.

Siffredi's rough sex performances include spitting, slapping, spanking, deep throat, irrumatio, urolagnia, hair pulling, choking and general roughhousing. Despite these sexual practices becoming more common in pornography in the 2000s, Siffredi's on-screen behavior is distinct from most present-day depictions of dominant men in sadomasochistic or erotic humiliation scenes. He often places himself in submissive poses, such as smothering his face with an actress's feet or buttocks, or accepting physical retorts such as slaps across the face. He is also known for pouring verbal praise on his co-stars during scenes, and indeed he is revered in some facets of Italian popular culture as a romantic. Siffredi on rare occasion portrays the submissive fully, in films like Rocco More than Ever in London 2, Animal Trainer 11, and Marquis de Sade, appearing in drag in the latter. Actress Bobbi Starr noted of Siffredi, "ny girl in the industry who has been with him . . . will tell you that they have done things with him that they never do with anyone else." Speaking of his female partners, Siffredi says, "I want to see emotion . . . fear . . . excitement . . . the eyes going up from being surprised."

Siffredi's most iconic and notorious performance may be alongside Sidonie Lavour in 1995's Sandy Insatiable, which depicts him forcing the actress's head into a flush toilet during anal sex. In 2009's Rocco Returns to L.A., Siffredi recounts the production of the scene as both spontaneous and consensual, before re-enacting it with an insistent Bobbi Starr. Siffredi is known for several long-term professional partnerships: his series of torrid performances with Kelly Stafford, his world travels and video productions with John Stagliano and his mentoring of and on-screen performance alongside Nacho Vidal. He is known for including members of the "Rocco Siffredi Fun Club" (his fan club) and anonymous local European men in his films, and for staging productions and seeking female talent in varied locales including Budapest, Prague, Russia, Brazil and Canada. Although different in tone than his famous gonzo films, Siffredi is also known for his performance in 1995's Tarzan X: Shame of Jane (originally known as Jungle Heat) alongside his wife Rosa Caracciolo.

In June 2004, Siffredi declared that he would retire from performing in porn for the sake of his children, and instead focus on direction and production. "My children are growing up," he said, "and I can no longer just say 'Dad is going to work to make money for the family.' They want to know more." Regarding Siffredi's long career, Axel Braun commented, "The problem is that he's been trying for years to find an 'heir to the throne,' but it's no easy task. He thought he found him in Nacho Vidal, but then Nacho went his own way." Siffredi, while continuing to direct, was largely absent as an on-screen performer for nearly 5 years. However sexual frustration, and disappointment as a director with his male talent and the state of the porn industry overall, led Siffredi to return as a performer in 2009.