Disney actress Maitland Ward was thrust back into the limelight in 2019 when she made a shock career move into the porn business.
The 44-year-old has since scooped eight major industry awards including Best Actress for the film Muse at this year’s AVNs – the porn world’s Oscars.
Rather than be cancelled by mainstream TV for the drastic transition, Maitland has landed a role in new US sitcom The Big Time.
Filming next month, she will play a world famous porn star who teams up with a nerdy writer to reinvigorate a failing studio.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, she says: “I’ve been renewed! I really never had harsh judgement come down on me that I was warned about and that a lot of people expected.
“In fact, my career has been really celebrated, even by groups of people I never would’ve thought.
“Young women have been the most supportive and vocal. They tell me how empowering it is for them to watch me take my life and my sexuality into my own hands and not be ashamed by it.”
Maitland – who was previously most famous for starring in teen show Boy Meets World in the late 90s – credits the porn industry with reigniting her acting career.
She shot to fame in 1994 in US soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful before landing the role of Rachel Maguire in the Disney teen drama two years later.
The character was at the centre of a love triangle as pals Jack and Eric competed to win her affections before deciding they’d all be better as friends.
A smattering of roles followed, most notably in comedy White Chicks in 2004, before acting work dried up.
Maitland felt she was typecast and unable to land meaty storylines, but that changed when she teamed up with porn heavyweights Vixen Media Group and its Deeper series of films.
She says: “I do more deliciously twisted, dark and serious acting pieces than I ever have in my life.
“These are the roles that Hollywood wouldn’t let me play, aside from the sex, because they had put me in a typecast box that I couldn’t escape. That is until porn.
“What I’m doing in porn has really made mainstream Hollywood take notice. It’s actually opened doors for me in mainstream and allowed me to have new opportunities there too. Porn has given me my acting career back.”
With her fiery red hair, sultry come to bed eyes, stunning figure and award-winning performances, it’s hard to imagine Maitland lacking confidence in the bedroom.
However, it took time for the married actress to understand it was okay to embrace her sexuality.
She says: “I was so shy sexually when I was younger. If you told me back in my early 20s that all this would’ve happened I would’ve never believed you!
“My shyness was mainly me about me not feeling like I was allowed to have control over my sexuality. I had to be a good girl. I had to play this role.
“Also, I wasn’t nearly as confident of my body and seeing myself as this powerful sexual creature. But I was always curious… My sexual journey has been one of self discovery and exploration and I love that my courage, step by step, overpowered my fears.
“I am an adventurer and sex is the biggest adventure for me. So I think my success in the bedroom, both on and off screen, comes from a place inside me that constantly asks ‘what do I want to take on next?’
“And who would’ve known when I started out at Disney that I’d end up living a fairytale in the adult film world, winning an AVN award for Best Leading Actress for my work in Muse and more.”
While adult websites like PornHub and XVideos are among the most visited in the world, the industry is still somewhat taboo in mainstream culture.
But its female friendly focus makes it more progressive than Hollywood, according to Maitland, who points out women are paid more than men and shape the way things are done.
She says claims the industry is misogynistic are usually made by people who want to see women covered up.
“That’s actually where the misogyny lies; in the shaming of women for how they want to use their bodies and sexuality, and how they want to make money with it.
“Performers are building brands and businesses and empowering themselves in ways like never before. Porn is an industry where women can thrive.”
Documentaries delving behind the scenes of the industry by the likes of Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson revealed an almost familial bond between porn actors.
It’s something borne from sharing the most intimate parts of themselves and the level of trust that is needed to perform well, says Maitland.
Intense scenes often leave her feeling like at the point of collapse and require 10 hours of sleep to get her energy back.
She says: “It reminds me so much of my The Bold and the Beautiful days, in that it is an industry unto itself, set apart from mainstream and also judged by it, but it is also wildly popular, and because of this everyone is connected and bonded in real ways.
“Everyone works with everyone and knows everyone, and if you’ve been performing for any length of time you not only form close relationships with other talent but also the production staff and crews.
“Some of the friendships I’ve made in my relatively short time performing are ones I consider to be strong and lifelong.
We’ve been with each other during our most intimate situations, so there’s a bond that forms there and also a trust.
I feel more confident and comfortable on porn sets than I ever did in mainstream. Even, and most especially, with all my clothes off.”
A number of the actors featured in the aforementioned documentaries seemed to gravitate to the industry after experiencing troubled personal lives.
Most tragically was August Ames, the subject of Ronson’s Last Days of August podcast, who took her own life in 2017 after a massive social media backlash to a tweet she wrote about a gay actor she had been due to shoot with.
But Maitland’s own background is as traditional and secure as it gets.
“My parents are still married and living in the house I grew up in. I had the most stable childhood,” she says.
“If anything I was sheltered, so I wanted to break free from that, especially sexually.
My journey has been all about my own sexual self discovery. It’s had nothing to do with me running away from anything. It’s the opposite. It’s had me running to something I’ve wanted to do.”
At 44 Maitland is a latecomer to the business, making her meteoric rise to the top even more impressive.
And as the industry continues to evolve and adapt, with a more diverse range of performers and directors, she feels she still has plenty left to give.
“Sexual performance is so much a part of my art and who I am that I will never leave it behind completely. I think it’ll grow and evolve in all sorts of ways but it’ll always be a part of who I am and what I do.”
sunit
