COLLINGS, Beccy

The Perfect (Pornographic) Marriage?: Audrey Hollander and Otto Bauer

 

With their high-profile relationship and the series of ‘Supercore’ films bearing their name, Audrey Hollander and Otto Bauer provide a rare example of an adult industry celebrity couple who were able to transform their union into a brand, and through it clearly transcend the success of their individual careers.  Whilst part of this success can be accounted for in good business decisions and clever use of their individual strengths in partnership, this paper explores the role that audience awareness of their marriage might have played in attracting interest and positive reception to the couple’s performance of sex (and particularly, rough sex) on screen.

In the 2007 JM obscenity trial, audience knowledge of their marital status was used (and accepted) as evidence that a scene featuring Audrey being dominated by Otto and Rick Masters was neither obscene nor degrading to her (Kernes, 2007).  Indeed, their presentation as a real-life couple, enjoying hardcore sex and inviting their friends (who happen to be other adult stars) to participate is a repeated feature of their films.

This paper forwards the idea that some of the appeal of scenes featuring Audrey and Otto performing together might be linked to assumptions made about them as a couple (for example: as in love with, and genuinely sexually attracted to, each other) which contrast with those made about other actors and performances.  Above and beyond any innovations they may have made in presenting sex on camera, is Audrey and Otto’s true selling point that – at least for the years their marriage lasted – they represented to an adult audience a perfect couple, actually having the fantasy sex depicted in porn?

 

Beccy Collings is a PhD candidate in the School of Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia.