What do you do after leaving mainstream TV for an award-winning career in porn? Both — because, spoiler alert, you can do both.
You can if you’re Maitland Ward, anyway. Two decades after she first charmed Boy Meets World fans playing leggy redhead Rachel McGuire in the latter seasons of the ’90s sitcom, the former TV star made waves — and headlines — when she launched her adult career with 2019’s Drive. Despite early speculation the sitcom star’s foray into adult entertainment would be little more than a flash in the pan, Ward’s pivot to porn was a runaway success, and the AVN award-winner’s rise to the top of the adult industry has been swift.
It’s not just the speedy success that sets her apart from the pack. Ward has been vocal about the empowerment she’s found in her transition from mainstream acting to adult entertainment, and her embrace of the porn world represents a refreshing departure from traditional narratives that tend to frame the adult industry as an inherently exploitative environment from which performers, especially female ones, are desperate to flee. Ward’s outspoken support for the industry she’s fallen in love with, especially as a performer coming from a mainstream background, adds a crucial voice and perspective to the often volatile conversation surrounding an oft-stigmatized and misrepresented industry, career choice and community of entertainers.
Now two years into her adult career, Ward is making a return to mainstream TV — but don’t worry, she’s not leaving porn behind. In fact, she’s bringing it with her. Forthcoming comedy series The Big Time stars Ward as a famous adult performer trying to save a struggling film studio on the brink of failure. The series, on which Ward will also serve as a producer, cements her status among a growing number of stars (including actress Caitlin Stasey) whose experience is blurring the barriers that have traditionally separated the worlds of porn and Hollywood.
With The Big Time set to begin shooting next month, we caught up with Ward to talk porn, mainstream and the quickly evolving middle ground in which she operates.
InsideHook: In an essay for The Daily Beast last summer, you wrote that, contrary to a common misconception that the adult industry “ruined” you for mainstream, mainstream actually ruined you for mainstream. What made you want to return to mainstream TV with The Big Time?
Maitland Ward: Mainstream had really put me in a box. They could only see me as this person who was on a famous sitcom and they wouldn’t give me a chance to play anything else. Adult really allowed me opportunities to play sexy and serious characters and also discover how much I love to sexually perform. Porn made people wake up and take me seriously. If it hadn’t been for porn, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to go back to mainstream in the way I want to.
How do you think, or hope, this project will be different from your past experiences in mainstream television?
I hope that people can see me in a new light. I won’t be forced to keep in a box that feels safe for networks. I’m a producer on this project, and that was important to me, to really have a say in creative control. I also want the stigmas and the taboos to go away regarding porn. Just because you perform sexually on screen doesn’t mean you can’t act in mainstream and thrive there too.
Do you expect this partial re-entry into mainstream to shift your public image at all?
I’ve been blown away by how excited people are for me to film this project and to see it. I hope people see that I can do it all and there’s no shame or stigma in regards to porn and definitely no more typecasting for me in mainstream. It really took my entire journey away from mainstream, to porn and back again for people to let me through the door.
How do you hope to represent the porn industry in The Big Time?
This script is just such a fun and positive depiction of the industry. I was worried when the writers and producers first approached me about starring in it that it would be a typical show where porn was seen as this scary thing. But it was so much the opposite! You really get to love the characters and they become a family. It’s a lot like the people in porn, a close-knit community who have a lot of fun. I think people will really come away with the feeling that porn and working in it is a normal thing, because it is.
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What have fictional representations of the porn industry gotten wrong in the past? Are there any common misconceptions The Big Time hopes to challenge?
I always hate it when productions about porn focus on the most dire and dismal elements of it. It’s always about someone being taken advantage of and drugs and someone taking a downward spiral into it. Porn is never seen as a success story, and for so many it very much is a success story. For me it is. I hope to show it as a hopeful place to be and not this dark underworld the mass public envisions. We all go to work on professional sets, we just have sex with each other and are naked at the coffee machine on breaks.
You’ve been vocal about a desire to see the “walls come down” between mainstream and porn. Do you see The Big Time as a step towards dismantling that division?
Absolutely. It really marries both worlds in such a fun and upbeat way. And it’s really heart-warmingly hilarious. That’s not to say we won’t have sexy scenes too. It’s just a great porn- and sex-positive depiction of the industry, one we haven’t seen before.
Do you think the relationship between mainstream and porn has shifted at all in recent years?
The shift is really happening, especially with the younger generations. People in their 20s and 30s, and most positively women, don’t have the stigmas that older generations have. They grew up with the internet and their sexually active years include porn. It’s a very normal and healthy thing for them to watch it. I think we’re losing those stigmas more and more and that scares the anti-porn movement, so right now they’re really trying to make moves to silence the industry. But they can’t. Everyone watches porn. It’s a normal thing and I think this show will really do a good job of painting that picture.
Will viewers within the porn industry have a different reaction to the show than those outside of it?
I think people outside of the industry will be surprised at how normal the industry is and how fun it can be. I think people in the industry will be happy to see something that isn’t trying to use antiquated stereotypes to shock viewers. It’s like when Sex and the City came on the air and everyone was shocked that the women were so open talking about sex and at the same time so highly relatable. I think that’s what we have here.
What do you hope people will take away from this show?
That sex and porn is normal, because it is. And the people you see having sex on screen are real people with real lives and real responsibilities. They fall in love and mess up and do hilarious things just like anyone else you meet. Porn can be a place that’s light and fun.
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