Amanda Seyfried is just the latest actress to play an adult film star, portraying ’70s icon Linda Lovelace in the recently released trailer for the upcoming Lovelace. From Val Kilmer to Mark Wahlberg, see actors who have preceded Seyfried with roles as porn stars in mainstream films. —by Rachel Osman
Clockwise from top left: AP; Radius-TWC; Getty (2)
She’s come a long way since Mean Girls! Actress Amanda Seyfried will play porn star Linda Lovelace, best known for the 1972 porn classic Deep Throat, in the upcoming movie Lovelace. It’s a departure from Seyfried’s usual roles, but one she took on without hesitation, she says. “It’s a risky part to take on, but I felt safe,” she told The Daily Beast. The movie, which also stars Sharon Stone and Peter Sarsgaard, hits theaters August 9.
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Several actors, including Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore, appeared as porn stars in the 1997 film Boogie Nights. Wahlberg stars as Dirk Diggler, a well-endowed but inexperienced young porn actor trying to make it big, while Moore plays the drug-addicted Amber Waves. Director Paul Thomas Anderson used the film to expand on his 1988 short The Dirk Diggler Story, which was based on real-life porn actor John Holmes.
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‘The Girl Next Door’
Although she’s most recently known for her role in the now-canceled Happy Endings, newlywed Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert played a porn star in 2004’s The Girl Next Door. Critic Roger Ebert described the film as “a dishonest, quease-inducing ‘comedy’ that had me feeling uneasy and then unclean.”
‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’
It’s not hard to guess what a movie called Zack and Miri Make a Porno entails. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks star as roommates who decide to make a porn video to help pay their bills. Director Kevin Smith had high hopes for the film, but it underperformed and made just $42 million at the box office.
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‘Rated X’
Before Two and a Half Men and tiger blood, Charlie Sheen and brother Emilio Estevez portrayed porn pioneers Artie and Jim Mitchell in the 2000 film Rated X. The Mitchells were known for directing the 1972 porn feature Behind the Green Door with Marilyn Chambers. In 1991, Jim killed his brother and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
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Playing a porn star in the 2010 film Meet Monica Velour wasn’t a huge stretch for Kim Cattrall, considering her racy role on HBO’s Sex and the City. In the film, her character is a washed-up porn actress with a stalled career who is pursued by a 17-year-old boy she meets at a gentlemen’s club. They form an unexpected friendship, but her many life troubles prevent it from becoming something more.
‘Wonderland’
Val Kilmer plays porn star John Holmes in the 2003 film Wonderland, based on the real-life murders of four people in Los Angeles in 1981. Holmes was one of the most famous porn stars in the 1970s and ’80s, although his later years were plagued by heavy drug use and crime. He was charged with all four Wonderland murders in 1982 but was acquitted on all counts and died six years later from AIDS-related complications.
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‘The People vs. Larry Flynt’
Courtney Love was nominated for several awards for her role as Althea Leasure, wife of porn publisher Larry Flynt, in the 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt. She meets Flynt, played by Woody Harrelson, while working as a stripper and helps him establish Hustler as a bestselling magazine. The real-life Althea died in 1987 after drowning in a bathtub at the age of 33.
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‘The Big Lebowski’
Tara Reid played trophy wife and porn actress Bunny Lebowski, one of her first major roles, in the 1998 cult hit The Big Lebowski. Reid has discussed a second Lebowski movie in the past, though directors Joel and Ethan Coen have said they have no plans for a sequel.
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