Nikki Benz. Instagram: @nikkibenz
On Monday, porn actor Nikki Benz began tweeting about an alleged sexual assault during a scene for Brazzers, a Canada-based porn production company. By Wednesday, several other female performers had publicly reported similar experiences with Brazzers and the director, Tony T.
Benz’s initial tweets on Monday called the scene in question “horrific.” She continued, “I guess when I’m signing out and I tell you I’m not ok with the scene, you make me say I’m ok so I get paid.” On Tuesday, she said, “It wasn’t supposed to be a rape scene.”
The details of her allegations were not completely clear from her tweets, and Benz, who is out of the country, did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for a comment on Wednesday. But she did tweet, “The director himself put his hands on me and was choking me.” She said she called “cut” and explicitly said she was not okay with the scene they were shooting, but the shoot continued.
Brazzers posted a response on its website, emphasizing that “we do not produce content ourselves.” The statement said the scene was “unscripted … with the artistic direction left open to the producer’s discretion” and promised an investigation of the allegations. A representative for Brazzers’ parent company, MindGeek, a heavyweight in the industry, didn’t immediately respond to BuzzFeed News’s request for a further comment. Tony T could not be reached.
On Tuesday night, porn actor and director Dana DeArmond tweeted that Tony T and two other Brazzers directors “have all pulled this same shit with me. I was told to keep quiet and reprimanded by my agent.” She continued, “Brazzers directors cross the limits of female performers and bully them so they don’t talk about it.” Porn performer Gen Padova replied to Benz, tweeting, “I’ve worked with [Tony T] many years ago and have a very good idea what you dealt with.” Porn actor and model Carter Cruise, apparently referring to Tony T, said, “That guy is psychotic.” And porn actor Devon said, “Same thing happened to me.” She added, “They only apologize to #certain girls, when Mr. T steps outta line.” DeArmond, Cruise, Padova, and Devon did not immediately respond to requests for further comments.
DeArmond also tweeted that a male performer was instructed to punch her in the face on a Brazzers set because “I ‘could take it because I worked at Kink’” — a BDSM and fetish-focused company in San Francisco. “Brazzers owns the porn industry,” DeArmond wrote. “Women have no other choice than to accept the abuse or not feed their families.”