A Bottomless Pit of Desire with JV Marx

JV Marx is a performer, actor, and professional gooner based in Los Angeles.

LFEO: How does performing influence the relationship to your own body? Do you feel a stronger connection to it?

JV: Well, I’ve certainly deepened the relationship to one part of my body (link in bio). 

But on a serious note, of course. I approach everything I do – on Onlyfans or on stage – with an open mind about what my body can be, can feel, can express. It’s made me more curious and slower to judge about what I might like or not, or what “type of person” I am or can be perceived as – because under professional obligation, I’ve tried a lot of things I wasn’t necessarily “into” at the start. 

LFEO: Has performing changed how you relate to yourself outside of work? What perspectives or lessons have you carried into daily life?

JV: My self-out-of-work and my self-in-work aren’t all that different. In terms of adult film, I’m widely recognized by gay people, which is incredibly flattering, and physically speaking that tends to make my chest puff out and I stand up taller and regard my own reflection with a sort of lampoonable bravitas. It’s not entirely unwarranted but it is funny that I get like that. In terms of having studied acting, I mostly just notice like… people’s physical patterns and subconscious choreography and spatial relationships and stuff. I’m quick to call it like it is and say how I feel. I notice when two strangers are sitting on a bench and subconsciously moving in similar time signatures. It’s not incredibly useful; it’s just kind of charming. 

I’ve also learned to just say “no” to things I don’t wanna do on stage or on camera, which was the most important thing I learned in school. These student filmmakers — they’ll kill you. 

LFEO: Do you have any advice for someone struggling with shame around their sexuality or body?

JV: It’s just totally none of my business, I think everyone is cool and hot. Learn to live with your shame or don’t, it’s not a huge deal. Everyone’s ashamed. Life is, like, medium-bad at best. Maybe give up the idea that you’ll ever be free from shame and just try to have fun. 

LFEO: You’re also a literal clown. How did you get into that and what has that world been like?

JV: I’ve been doing clown, really, since I was like 8 years old or something. We put on plays in our neighborhood, children and adults, under the direction of this West End actress who ended up in Maryland. Everything we did was clown, because she was classically trained and that’s just part of the make-up there. The very first thing I did in any kind of rehearsal for anything was a clown march entrance for a Rude Mechanicals scene in Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Since being in Los Angeles these last oh… three years or so, I’ve become more enmeshed in proper red-nose honk honk theater clowning. There’s a huge community here for that. I love it. Very hardworking people! Some of the best! 

LFEO: Clowning and gooning both play with exaggeration and absurdity. Do these worlds overlap for you and do they inform each other?

JV: The long answer starts with “yes” and the short answer starts with “no.” 

In terms of “yes” – Gooning is typically pretty large and exaggerated and exposing, and emphasizes exaggerated “negative” qualities and states just like a clown does – shame, pride, lust, sloth, masculinity, femininity, addiction, goofyness, stupidity, etc. The gooner and the clown are both engaging in contrast to how a civilised person should behave. 

There’s some overlap in skills I’ve come to possess, too, but suffice to say I’ve spent a lot of money turning my body into an instrument of ridiculous expression and still owe my student loan providers quite a bit more! 

In terms of “no” – there’s just nothing like fetish-horny about clowns to me.

LFEO: If you had a day completely off with no obligations, what would you do?

JV: Jork it (my peanitz)

LFEO: Do you have any rituals before you perform in any capacity? On camera, on-stage, or as a clown?

JV: I warm up by playing around, generally. Like I’ll fuck around off camera pretty often before hitting record, or in rehearsals, I’ll just mess around for the fuck of it to get into a good body-space. It depends on the project, though. Like different plays and pornos all work differently, and my approach changes a lot from thing-to-thing. Like I did one play where me and this dude would, like, sniff each other and repeat these bizarre made-up memories to one another to get in the right headspace. That was super mentally ill of us, but it was also just unique to and appropriate for that project. 

LFEO: Favorite recent reads?

JV: “On Photography” Susan Sontag

LFEO: What’s something you know about acting now that you wish you knew earlier?

JV: I wish I knew that sex work was a way better career for a young actor than waiting tables – I figured that out just in time, but jeez things would’ve been a lot easier had I been flush with pussy-cash at an earlier date. 

LFEO: How do you think our collective relationship to pleasure shows up in the larger systems we live inside?

JV: I haven’t actually read Deleuze and Guttari, I just have that book on my shelf to impress hot goth chicks. 

LFEO: What makes you feel the most safe?

JV: My cat. My Fortnite. My Peach-icey vape. 

LFEO: Having been in the game for a minute, has your relationship to desire changed?

JV: It only grows, really. I’m like a bottomless pit of desire. 

LFEO: When I think of you and your work, I see someone who has a fearlessness about living in the now, an acceptance of the moment. Is that a choice you’ve cultivated, or has it always been natural for you?

JV: Well thank you! What you have before you, though, is someone who would’ve done anything for attention like the moment he was born – which included being brave at certain points. I’ve been lucky to have wonderful family and teachers and mentors and friends who all love and support me no matter what, though. So in terms of any noble qualities I might possess or lean on in my work, I had and still have a very nurturing support system.