“More emotion!”

The director gets behind the camera guy and cues me again. I perform. I roll my eyes in pleasure. I moan deeply. I bang my hands on the table.

For a few months I had this TV gig talking about food in Korea. But the reason I got the gig was for my eating performance. Koreans truly enjoy watching people eat with gusto. Consider the meokbang phenomenon, where people watch others eat live on the internet.

These are performances. Yet they’re not fake. Eating is an intimate act, like sex. Eating is a pleasurable act, like sex. Eating is an emotional act, like sex. And both can be messy.

I’m male. I’m not creepy (I hope not). Until recently, I have viewed porn the same way most men do. I also have a fascination with what happens behind the scenes. How much of this is acting? Are they really enjoying themselves? What goes into making your average porn clip? How much prep? How much is lighting, makeup, editing, and focus?

During one of my early shoots, I had a tough time. The way it was set up, I had to eat at three restaurants back to back. I also had another shoot for another show somewhere else that evening. When I eat on camera, they do multiple takes of the same bite from different angles with different lenses. When you see me take a bite of sweet and sour octopus, I actually ate that bite five times, each time with lust. It struck me that I’m basically a porn actor. I perform an act that everyone does, but for some reason they prefer watching me do it. Watching me do this act fires up primitive desires. I enjoy it. People like the way I do it. The only difference is that what I do is more acceptable in public.

Well, sometimes I spit.

By the time we did the third restaurant, I hit a wall. I couldn’t swallow anymore. So they had a production assistant standing by with napkins. I shove a massive amount of food in my mouth, make guttural noises, look directly at the camera with passion…

“Cut!”

The assistant handed me the napkin, where I spit my food out.

After that shoot, I thought of porn as inspiration. I wanted to make my eating to look sensual yet natural. I considered porn for something other than the–um, usual reasons. I particularly liked how certain [N.S.F.W!!!] performers [also NSFW! You’ve been warned] performed. They looked like they were truly enjoying themselves, but I could tell some of the shoots were going long. They were somehow making it look natural. Now folks, stop snickering.

I guess that’s basically what makes a good porn actress. You have to actually really enjoy what you do. Yet you are still performing. You need to amp it up a bit. You need to convey that this is the best you’ve ever had it.

I took that with me on future shoots. When things started going long, when I was getting a bit fatigued, I’d think about Lily or Arial. Okay, then I’d get aroused, but still. Keeping their professionalism in mind helped me become a better food porn performer on camera.

Now, more than a few times, I have been stopped on the street or have gotten fan mail. They all say one thing in common.

“I love watching you eat.”