All language subtitles for Louis.Theroux.Life.on.the.Edge.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10.English

- Hello.
- Hi, I'm Louis.

I'm Louis.
Oh, I can't shake your hand.

[laughter]

Louis narrates: For 25 years,
I've been making programmes

about life in all
its strangeness...

Stand by, information to follow.

-..mystery...

- Who are you?
- I'm Louis.

Who's Louis?

-..and angst.

You OK, Nikki?

Louis narrates: Trying to make
connections with people,

who are in different ways,
on the edge.

Not all of us wanna be
like this.

Louis narrates: Recently,
I decided to take a pause,

and trawl through my old shows,

looking again at some stories
that stayed with me.

- Yeah, this has stuff in it.

Louis narrates: And to reach out
to those I'd featured.

- Look at you,
Mr Beard-and-Moustache.

I know, don't I look
distinguished?

Louis narrates: To see how
their lives have changed.

- You've been married six times,

Henry VIII was married
six times,

so it's not unprecedented.

[laughter]

- Hey, how you doing?
- Good, how are you?

- Good.

Louis narrates: From all
the hours of programmes,

I've teased out a handful
of themes.

- This is gonna be the start of
the second American Civil War!

White Revolution!

Louis: Why did you run?

- Because they shoot anybody,
and they don't care who it is,

point blank range they'll
pull a gun out and shoot you.

Louis narrates: All of which
in different ways

go to the heart of what it means
to be human.

What connection is there between
a birth mum and a child?

[crying]

- Let me tell you something.

If you came from the ghetto,

your main focus should be
making it out,

taking your parents out,

and being something with
yourself,

you can't understand that,
then you ain't real.

Louis narrates:
Trying to figure out

what I've learnt about life...

[moaning]

..and about myself.

- There's nothing I could say

that would persuade you
not to do that?

- I'm gonna be like this
until I can try

to overpower my addiction.

Louis narrates: I know I come
across as British,

I was raised in Britain,

but I'm in fact half American,

my Dad is American
and every summer,

we would go to America,

and I would see my
American family.

And I've always had
a fascination

with American consumer culture.

It's perfected the art
of creating

a kind of theatre of capitalism.

A vast and tantalising spectacle

where even your strangest and
most forbidden desires

are commodified and turned into
a saleable product.

Louis: So, it's not on these,
not there,

we'll try...

[sighs]

Director: What is it you're
looking for?

The porn folder.

OK so this is porn-related.

When we made the porn episode
of 'Weird Weekends',

which was the second episode
we ever shot,

it was mainly due to me having
read a piece in the New Yorker,

about male performers and how
difficult they find it

getting an erection for scenes,

and the pressure that
that entails and the way

in which that takes a toll
on the performers.

Louis narrates: The San Fernando
Valley, north of Los Angeles,

the acknowledged world capital
of pornographic films...

It's an industry that revolves
around images of women,

my mission, to immerse myself
in the less well known

subculture of
the male performers.

Louis: So listen, I may be
interested in actually,

you know, trying it out
as a lifestyle.

- You want to get in a movie?

- Yeah, maybe get in a movie,
something like that.

Could I do that, do you think?

- Now, I mean how far do you
want to go with this?

- How far could I go,
hypothetically?

- You can go, if you can do it,
you can go all the way.

Louis narrates: At that time,

if you wanted to make it
as a porn performer,

there was one agent who you had
to go and see,

and his name was Jim South.

If I wanted to break in,
how would I start?

Is it people come in here and
that's how it moves forward?

Yeah, they come in here,
they fill out an application,

not a contract,

we take a couple of just
standing nude polaroids,

we give him a magazine,

tell him he needs to excite
himself,

we leave the room while
he's doing it,

he usually hollers "Jim!"

and we hurriedly go back
and take the pictures.

You're interested in magazine
work and movie work?

- Yes.
- OK.

Now, first of all,
for movie work,

it does mean actual sex,
actual penetration,

you don't come,
you don't get paid.

- Is that right?

You don't come,
you don't get paid.

- The bottom line is,

you're supposed to be getting
$250 for one sex scene,

if you do the hard core and
you don't do the pop shot,

then they hire somebody
which is called the stunt cock,

which is a guy that comes in
and just pops,

you can be the greatest stud
in the world in the bedroom,

bottom line is when you're
on a set,

and the lights go on,
it's a different story.

In the world of porn,

clearly there's a lot
of opportunities

for colourful participation,

and I think we even had a chat
like,

would it be appropriate for me
to actually perform,

like have sex on camera,
and quite evidently,

that's really uncomfortable
and weird,

so then the next step down was,
well, but I could get naked.

- So, Steve.
- Mmm?

- Do I have to have wood
for the picture?

- If you can, great.
- OK.

If you can't,
it's not a big deal,

- don't worry about it.
- OK, we'll do our best then.

Louis: Hey, you know
the polaroid of me

naked from the porn episode,
do you know where it is?

Steve, I'm ready.

- Put your arms like this.

- OK, just tell me how you want
me posed?

- Pose like this,
hands together,

smile, very nice.

- Say sexy things.

- Don't move like that because
I'll get the wrong idea.

Smile, get dressed cowboy.

- 21 after 2.

- OK, this is how we're gonna
do the scene.

Miss Thing, walk off.

- I'm supposed to give
his dick a lick

and say, and then say,
"Do you wanna go out with me",

why can't I just go,
"You wanna go out with me?"

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Huh?

'Cause this is the power,
you know.

[moaning]

Louis: Going into the world,
I was embarrassed

because I thought maybe I will
think it's quite sexy.

And it's sort of a relief when
you're there and you realise,

oh no, it isn't sexy at all,
it's sort of,

mechanical and perfunctory
and it's like watching someone

on a weights machine,
do you know what I mean?

Going up and down.

The one thing that I've noticed
about guys,

is that they've come in very
sweet, very open,

very tentative, um,
and almost tender at times,

and then as you see them film
after film after film,

you kind of see that glazed
look go over,

and it's the look,
it's the change,

and you suddenly realise that

you too could be
a piece of meat,

a hole in the wall, or whatever
fantasy is inside their head,

it's a degree of the,
of the utmost impersonal.

As fun as you'd think
it would be,

or might be, that's part of
the con, it's not really.

- Walk off.
- You guys go off this way.

Louis narrates: The male
performers in straight porn

were by definition less
valuable,

and they were paid less and
it was harder to make a living,

but one of the few who did
make a living

worked under the name John Doe.

- I understand from talking
to Susan a little bit

that one of the biggest
challenges

is keeping what they call wood,
is that right?

A lot of guys don't have
what it takes, man,

because, you know,
you're supposed to make love,

make beautiful love,

and that's not what
you're doing here.

- Do you get a lot of people
coming up to you saying,

"Hey man, I want to do
your job," that type of thing?

Yeah, you know,
some of them are happy,

some of them are standoffish,
they look at you

but they don't want to
approach you, some of them...

Some of them get cocky,
you know,

"I can do that.
Oh yeah, you gotta go to work,

"ha-ha, oh yeah right,
you got to go to work, sure."

- That must get kind of
irritating in a way

when people regard you,
take your work seriously,

they don't, they say,
"Ah you just have sex."

- No, it doesn't irritate me,
I just stay home more.

Louis: I'm gonna buy
one of these

with my first pay check
as a porno guy.

Well, you know what,
with your first pay check...

- Yeah?

-..for the month, you actually
could buy one of these.

- Really?
- Sure.

- Do you think I could make it?
- Yeah.

- No.
- Absolutely, man.

- Why?

I've seen a lot of guys
come and go, man,

but you're, you can do this.

The main thing was to try
and identify

a male performer who was new
to the business.

And it was critical that
that was the right person

because the whole attempt
was to see the industry,

and the travails of the male
performers hinged on

the audience, kind of,
identifying

with the male performer
that we followed.

- You must be JJ? I'm Louis.
- How you doing?

- How's it going?
- Oh, alright.

- Can we come up?
- Oh yes, come on.

Jim South told me that
you're the man to talk to

about understanding
the porno business

because you're a successful
young up-and-coming porno actor.

- I guess.
- Is that right?

- Sounds good to me.

- So can I hang out with you
for a few days,

- would that be alright?
- Oh, please do.

Louis narrates: He was two weeks
into the business,

he'd signed with Jim South,

and he just seemed like
a nice guy.

A kind of can-do attitude,

he had a work ethic
and he was focused,

and he seemed sort of
vulnerable.

So, in a way,
it became JJ's story.

So I went with JJ to the set
of his next movie,

which was the biggest one he'd
done, up until that point.

- JJ standing by, you ready?

- Alright, we're ready to shoot.

- Let's roll sound first to
get up to speed.

- How you feeling?
Pretty good?

- Yeah.
- You got wood yet?

- No.
- When do you do that?

- When I'm gonna have sex.

[LAUGHTER]

Director: let's go, places.

- Hey, break a leg.

- Sound speed marker, please.
- 11 after take six, marker.

- And action.

- Pull out.
- That's a cut.

- I don't think we are gonna be
able to do this.

- No? Alright, fine.

- We got to check on Mr wood?

Louis: What's happening?

JJ right now is having
wood problems.

- Really?
- Yeah.

- Why?

- With all these people around,
could you do it?

- No.
- I couldn't either.

- OK there, JJ?
- Let's go, JJ.

- Are we there guys?

Louis: You delivered in the end,
right?

Oh, yeah.

- But what about, as far as...

..the man goes, you know,

pretty solid? Wood?

The end, near the end, yeah.
Beginning, no.

- Really?
- Yeah.

it's just, so many people,
there's a lot of people,

nervous kind of in front
of Shanahan

because he's a big director,
as soon as you get nervous

it's hard to work but, yeah,
near the end he went fine.

So in addition to the challenge
of getting wood,

there's also the worry
about contracting an STD,

and in fact while we were there,
there was an HIV scare.

We've had two positives
in less than a week.

- In what?
- In HIV.

I mean, now it's like,
forget this,

I'm not risking my life
any more, you know,

to make this much money,

I can make this much more money,
you know, doing other things.

- What do you reckon, JJ, are
you worried about these tests?

No, I have a death wish
so it doesn't really matter.

[laughter]

Louis narrates:
The porn world felt like maybe

the music industry would be
like, with,

kind of,
glamour and young people,

attractive young people
and excitement and creativity,

but then another part of it
seemed to be bound up

with a certain quality of
self destructiveness,

or dysfunction with people
who were trying

to figure something out
about themselves.

Or maybe who had been damaged
in some way,

or were trying to process
something

that they'd grown up with.

I suppose,
the open question was,

to what extent that was helpful
to them

and to what extent they were
being exploited

or allowing themselves
to be used, you know.

Was it actually gonna end up
being positive for them?

In 2006, nine years after
we made the documentary,

John Doe took his own life.

JJ and I stayed in touch
and became friends.

He left the porn industry,

and became an IT consultant,
and ended up moving to Ukraine.

[Skype dial tone]

There he is!

- Hello.

[laughter]

- What was it that was
appealing to you

about the idea of working
in porn?

- Part of it was,
25 years ago Monday

is when my son died,
and after that point,

I pretty much spiralled
downward,

basically standing at the bottom
of that bottomless pit,

and looking up and seeing
there was no light

at the end of the tunnel,

You know, I was truly broken

and that makes you do
strange things,

and one of the things
I appreciate

about the documentary is I think

that's a very good capsule
in time

of where I was emotionally
and mentally,

exactly during that period.

- John doe went on
to kill himself.

Did you know him at all?

Yeah I mean, we weren't friends,

but I've met him several times
on different sets.

Do you have a sense of
what was behind it?

The male performers
I was friends with,

there was always an underlying
issue of depression,

and when a man chooses
to commit suicide,

it's usually
because of depression.

Working in the adult industry
is similar to a drug,

you get that adrenaline rush,

so I think it naturally attracts
people

that have some underlying
craziness as it were,

and that's not necessarily
a bad thing,

it's what makes us who we are.

[baby crying]

I heard a baby,
which means maybe

it's a good time to mention

that you're not only now
happily married,

but you also have
a young daughter.

Congratulations.
You've been married six times.

Which, you know, Henry VIII
was married six times,

so it's not unprecedented...

[laughter]

..but he was a little older.

- It took a lot of failed
relationships

for me to truly understand
who I am,

who I need to look for
and how to truly build

a loving intimate relationship

that's not just based on just
carnal physicality.

Louis: Tapes.
Young people know about tapes.

DJ Indo Smoke, Bay Area Rappers.

I've been a fan of hip hop
since the late '80s

and I remember my friend Joe,
Joe Cornish,

made me a compilation tape,

and it had on it a track

called 'Paid in Full'
by Eric B & Rakim.

I fell in love with it.

you felt like you were plugging
into bulletins

from dissident America,
that it was telling you

something important about
the state

of the disenfranchised
youth of America,

about racism in America,
about structures of inequality.

♪ You are now about to witness

♪ The strength of street
knowledge... ♪

Louis narrates: Then a year
or two after that,

NWA appeared,
the first big gangsta rap group.

♪ Straight Outta Compton

♪ Crazy mother fucker
named Ice Cube ♪

♪ From that gang called
Niggas With Attitude ♪

♪ When I'm called off

♪ I got a sawed off...

Louis narrates:
It was intimidating,

occasionally offensive,
frequently misogynistic,

but also, captivating.

So I was curious about
that tension

between what was real
and what wasn't,

and whether the lyrics and
the personas

reflected their real lives,

and how much of it
was putting on an act.

We filmed the episode
in the South,

which was then emerging
in the new force in rap.

There was a rapper,
and impresario and mogul

called Master P, who was making
an absolute tonne of money

by controlling the whole
process of making the music,

but also distributing the music,

bypassing the major labels
and had created an empire

in the South, specifically
Louisiana.

I ended up going back
to his house,

he then lived in Baton Rouge,
in a gated community.

Do you want to shoot some hoops?

Yeah, I'm not very good,

I don't even know
why I suggested to do this.

- Oh yeah, you horrible.

It all started right here
with this tank right here,

you got to be a soldier,

and being a soldier you got
to be able to keep it real.

- What does that mean,
'keeping it real'?

- Keeping it real,
being yourself.

- Being yourself?
- Being yourself, I mean...

some people take keep it real

where they got to be the baddest
person in the world,

the hardest person
in the world...

- Yeah, like a gangster.
- That ain't keeping it real.

- Are the neighbours friendly?

I knocked on all of them doors
and told them

that I'm here and
I'm not going nowhere.

- Did you seriously?
- Yeah.

And, yeah that doesn't sound
reassuring,

that sounds almost slightly
threatening.

Take it how you want to.

Louis narrates: He'd been raised
in one of New Orleans'

most dangerous housing projects,

and was now among the highest
paid entertainers in America.

His annual income was estimated
to be $60 million a year.

How much would you say you owe
to, you know, the rap game?

I owe all of it to the rap game.

Who is this on this one,
Master P?

- That's me,
these portraits are all of me.

- This is my home recording
studio.

I look at this $800,000
chandelier and say,

"Wow, I made it."

Louis: These are your vehicles.

do you ever worry that
you'll be perceived

as losing your credibility
on the streets

because you are so
comfortable now?

Let me tell you something.

That's what I'm telling you

about being a soldier and
keeping it real.

If you came from the ghetto,

your main focus should be
making it out,

taking your parents out and
being something with yourself.

You can't understand that,
then you ain't real.

Louis: The back bone
of the episode

really turned out to be
a character called Mello-T,

who'd been a successful rapper,

and unlike many of the people
in Jackson,

had enjoyed success in New York.

They referred to him in Jackson
as 'The Godfather.'

Louis narrates: And what made
him unusual as well

was along side his rapping,
he also claimed to be a pimp.

- How you doing?
- How you doing?

- You must be Mello-T.
- No doubt.

- I'm Louis, Louis Theroux.
- I heard a lot about you.

- Good.
- A lot about you.

- Yeah, you're looking very,
very smart.

- This is just Mello's style,
this is like,

worldwide international
Godfather gangster pimp style.

- Yeah, yeah.

- That's how I'm bringing
it, you know.

You know I'm in
the music business

but the scripple business,
the prostitution business,

that's been my business
for the last three, four years.

- That's stuff you do? Now?
- Right, yeah.

Right but it's the money,
it's the money behind my music,

it's the money that finances
the studios

that finances
the music business.

- Because in Britain,

to be a pimp would be
considered definitely...

- Illegal, just like being
a drug dealer.

- Illegal and maybe immoral,
well immoral, yes.

- Same thing here.
- Yeah.

It's the same thing here,

and you can go to
the penitentiary for doing it,

and you can get killed
for doing it.

Louis: Mello was
a perplexing figure.

Obviously the fact
that he'd said

he was a pimp was troubling,
but at the time,

in my naivete,
I continued to think

he might just be playing a role.

Is this for, what's it called?

[Mello starts rapping]

♪ This goes out
to all the young folks ♪

♪ You know what I'm saying

♪ Young kids thinking you want
to get into this game ♪

♪ Pimping

♪ True testimony

♪ It's where I want to be man
for real ♪

♪ You came from London
just to hear my story ♪

♪ I'm in the hood
witness be the glory ♪

♪ Now I'm a pimp and
I gots to break a hoe man ♪

♪ Ain't getting no educated

♪ But that's the way I make
my dough man ♪

♪ Now Louis

♪ I'm in this shit
trying to be good ♪

♪ I'm on my way they say
to Hollywood ♪

♪ I be pimping all night long
trying to make my paper ♪

♪ If my bitch come in short
I have to break her ♪

♪ This game was real man
I ain't no lie ♪

♪ This from the top of my head
man ♪

♪ Every night I could die damn

♪ Now I always be a G

♪ But I can't let these streets
get the best of me ♪

♪ I feel you, Louis.

Louis narrates: With Mello-T,
he was in a way

the personification of that
whole idea of well,

are you rapping about something
as a reporter, right,

describing it,
if you say you did something

in a rap is that because
you're describing a lifestyle

and bringing the news about it
to an audience?

Or are you actually just
boasting

about doing terrible things,
that you actually did do?

As I spent more time with him,

I realised he really was a pimp,

and the line between the fiction
and the reality

was at best blurred,
and maybe even non-existent.

- Hi, how you doing?
- This is Sunshine.

- Nice to meet you.
- Are you sunshine? I'm Louis.

- Number one, this Fantasy.
- Hi, Fantasy.

- This is a couple of my girls.

- How you doing?

And, so are you having
a rehearsal,

I mean what is happening,
this is odd, isn't it?

[gunshots]

Ooh, be careful with that,

I don't think you should
put it down there.

- It's where I keep it.
- Yeah.

- I've been doing that since...
- It could go off, though.

- No it ain't gonna go,

I've been doing it since
11 years old.

- Yeah, you could shoot your
testicles off, basically.

- Baby, no man,
there's where I keep it,

that's where I keep it,
I believe in coercive power,

that's fear, and sometimes, man,
that's the best understanding

in the world, like when a woman
got a pistol to her head,

seems like she's gonna
listen better.

That's quite shocking.

- Not really, not to me,

everybody fascinated with
the bad guy,

everybody want to know, man,
how it is to be a pimp,

how it is to be a gangster,
you know what I'm saying?

But couldn't you just go ahead

and rap about being a pimp
and not actually be a pimp?

- No, no it wouldn't work
for me,

you understand what I'm saying?

- Why?

I mean, it's just like me

rapping about building
computers,

you feel what I'm saying,
it ain't what I do,

you know, but I break a hoe.

- It's just,
I thought it was like,

you know, wrestling where,
OK, they are quite strong

but you're basically
pretending to fight,

- you're portraying a character.
- not me, not me.

- Do you know what I mean?
- Not me.

The character is real,
you understand me?

And this character who I am,
might get me killed for real,

straight up, and that's what's
so real about my life.

- That's got to be a bad thing?
- No, it ain't no bad thing.

Ain't nothing bad
about dying, man,

you understand, especially
for the cause, you feel me?

Straight up, I'm gonna be
a hero, man,

we'll be like the rest of them
like Jessie James,

and Billy the Kid and all
of them, you understand me?

[gunshots]

Louis narrates: As shocking
as gangster rap can be,

in terms of the lifestyle
it seems to promote,

you've also got to remember
that's the world

that many rappers
have grown up in,

that's what they've seen all
around them in the projects,

but at the same time
it is also true that,

in putting so much emphasis
on authenticity,

there's a real danger that
the music ends up,

kind of making being a gangster
a hallmark of realness,

that that's something you almost
have to aspire to be.

You know and I still listen
to it,

I still like it, and I feel
that you can't extract

all the darkness, that's part of

what makes it powerful
and special.

You know, I guess,
some things in life,

you don't arrive at
a neat position on.

Time went by, and I continued
to be intrigued by Mello,

I guess I was curious about
whether

he would change his life.

Four years after filming,

I went back and saw him again
for a book I was working on.

[Mello rapping]

Louis narrates: He was still
writing music,

still pimping, and still saying
he wanted to give it up.

This saying that, you know,

your past can be full of spots
but your future is spotless.

My future is spotless,

now my past is maybe
full of spots.

Louis narrates: I remember
saying to him,

I'm confused, like,

do you hate the game or not,
which is it?

And he said, "I hate the game,
but I love to do it."

Which is kind of deep.

The world is set up in such
a way

that there are past times
and pursuits

that may be poisonous
and dangerous

and that know we're not supposed
to get involved in

by conventional morality,
and yet, in spite of ourselves,

we find ourselves drawn to them,
and we can't resist.

Like many people, I've always
been fascinated by Las Vegas.

A city dedicated to catering
to our most secret

and forbidden impulses,
our lust,

our gluttony, our greed.

Obviously, there's gambling
all over the world,

but Vegas really does represent
something

very primal and fundamental
to the American psyche

or to American culture
generally.

I'm a fan of kind of altered
states of consciousness,

and worlds that feel different.

I genuinely find it seductive
and beguiling,

like that world of the casino,

like I understand some people
might feel

that it's really unappealing,
kind of crass and garish,

I like all of that,
in certain doses.

- Are you winning?

- Oh no, ha-ha, not at all,
negative 20 for the trip.

-$20?
- No, $20,000.

- Whoa.

- You winning?

[LAUGHTER]

- Are you winning?
- Yeah.

- Are you?
- Yes.

Louis narrates: Really,
the back bone of the film

was a businessman called Allan,

who had a mattress company,
based somewhere in Canada.

Now what can you tell me about
this guy that's coming in?

This guy that's coming in,

is one of my closest friends
from Toronto, Canada,

he's, we used to say he's
the Mattress King,

because he has the largest
manufacturing plant

for mattresses
in all of Canada.

This guys, like,
he's a friend of yours?

- Yes.
- So, you don't...

- He's a friend of mine,
he's a high roller,

one of the biggest
high rollers.

- Is he?

And he's also godfather
to my little girl, too,

so it's a whole thing.

- What's up, buddy.
How you doing, you alright?

Alright, you doing OK?

Say hi to Louis.

- How are you, Louis.
- Nice to meet you.

- Louis' from the BBC in the UK.
- I've heard so much about you.

Louis narrates: Once in a while
he liked to cut loose,

come down to Vegas
for a wild weekend,

get treated like a king.

- This is home for three days.

What do you think guys? This OK?

- Seems quite nice.

- It's about 15,000 square feet,
this suite.

Louis: 15,000 square feet?

And this is all part
of the deal?

- This is it.

- This is provided free?

- This is the largest suite
in North America.

- Wow.
- OK, that I know of.

- And Allan gets it for
as long as he's here

and everything's comped in here.

- It's all comped,
complimentary.

Allan: It's all about gambling,
isn't it?

- Is there any technique to
where you're putting them?

Are you basing that on a hunch,
or?

- Just picking what you feel.

He's just got to cooperate.

- He's not cooperating.

- Sheesh.

- That's bad.
- Yeah, it is bad.

- Ah, it's just warm up.

Louis: At least we're having
a good time.

- Well you know, we don't like
to lose money either.

Right now, this is more money
than some people make in a year.

It's a lot of money.

And do you know what they say,

if you can't afford it,
don't do it.

It's 17, we got it.

- How about that, now you're
into some serious money.

- Now you're up 50 grand.

- Why not stop now,
and then you're 50,000 up?

Did I fly six hours to play
for 20 minutes?

If you stop now, would they kick
you out of your suite?

- No.

No, they never do that because
they know I'm a gambler.

Louis narrates:
Allan was a family man,

but I think Vegas for him
was a chance to step out,

and kind of, sort of,
be James Bond for the weekend.

- Big, yeah, oh!

Louis narrates: It was a case
of spending, you know,

the days with him,
filming with him,

but also trying to figure out,
like,

how much is he enjoying this?

And there were definitely
moments when I thought,

this feels actually not
that fun.

Allan: Vacuum cleaners,

these are vacuum cleaners
at the Hilton.

What is the appeal?

If it's just random,
you're just pushing a button,

it's like working in a factory.

- You're not really,
we're just hoping

that you're the one,
to come to Vegas

and have the opportunity
of winning

- Want me to put more money in?

- It's quitting time,
I have a meeting,

so I'm gonna love you
and leave you.

I'll spin one more time,
see I would have won there,

but why you didn't win is
because you changed,

you were getting rid of your
credits.

[slot machine sounds]

- Didn't you just say
it was quitting time?

- Yeah, we're just gonna
spin one or two more times,

just to make sure the machine
is finished with me.

You never know.

That's a gamblers problem,

when to quit.

In the end, what I found
myself thinking about

was Allan's relationship
with Richard, the casino host,

and this tension between
being his friend,

but also Richard basically
needing Allan

to gamble as much as possible.

- Hey, what's happening buddy?
- How you doing?

- We're doing OK.

- I've been hearing rumours
about you.

- Well, are they good or bad?

- 250 in the hole.

- Ah, listen,
I'd be happy with that, I think.

- Really? Why, what happened?

- It was a little nasty
in there.

- What happened?

- Cards change.
- 300,000?

- Oh, I don't know.
- 300,000?

- Pesos?

How did he make out, Richard?

How did who make out, Allan?
You got to ask him.

He's going home with
a heavy loss.

What would you have liked
to see,

this isn't the ideal outcome
for you, or is it?

What would be the best outcome
for you?

- Well, just the fact that he
comes in

is the best outcome for me.

Whether he wins or loses,
it doesn't go into my pocket,

I'm just here as a marketing guy
to bring him in the building,

and keep him at the tables
as long as I can.

Keep him at the tables as long
as you can up to a point,

so not so he hurts himself,
or is...

- No, I keep him at the tables
for as long as I can,

and that's whether he wins
or loses,

so it doesn't matter.

My job is to bring certain
players in

and keep them at the tables,

and keep them gambling
on the property, that's all.

with him and with a few others,
my friends,

they're friends of mine,

they're more friends
than they are players,

it just happens I work here,

and that's where they come
to visit.

Look at that smile,
that's a million dollar smile,

he can never lose.

Slightly less than a million
now.

Listen, you know what makes
a good person a good gambler,

somebody that can,
whether win or lose,

they're still gonna smile.

So fast forward a few years,
one day,

while browsing the internet,

I come across a picture
of an Uber receipt,

and it says, thank you,
your driver was Allan,

and there's a picture of him.

So naturally, I assume maybe
he's lost his fortune,

and maybe he's gambled it away.

Then I checked with someone
who knew Allan,

and they said, oh no,
he's still got all his money.

He's just, he just liked to get
out and give people Uber rides,

as a way of meeting people.

You know, I think there's
a safety in Vegas

being in the desert, right?

It insulated from the rest of
the country.

I sort of regard it as a place
that's fun to visit,

but somewhere that you wouldn't
want to be the, sort of,

representative of what
the broader society

should aspire to be.

That part of America
that is catered to providing

for your most basic impulses...

..and that there's a risk that
goes along with that.

You know, the risk is that
you lose control...

..you get swept up in addiction.

Louis narrates:
After the Vegas show,

I made more programmes
that dealt with

the extremity of American
consumer culture,

and just the vast array
of opportunities

to change yourself physically
beyond recognition.

And what is it about the work
that you enjoy?

You could not like your nose,
have a big nose,

and you can go and spend
three years

on a psychiatrist couch,
and you'd come out

maybe liking your nose better.

I can do that in one hour,

and you'll like your nose
better,

so that's the magic
of plastic surgery.

Pectoral implants,
bicep implants.

Louis: Yeah, and has all
the work been done

by Doctor Chugay?

Except for a couple of my very,
very early surgeries,

back in 1987.

May I ask your age, Steve?

I am, I never talk about my age,

but I am approaching a half
a century old.

- Quite remarkable.

Louis narrates: And you also
have the opportunity

to remake your own
mental landscape.

I tend to see the American
culture

of psychiatric medication
at its edges

as a kind of surgery
for the soul,

a chance to remake your own
personality,

or your own sense of well-being.

- Come on Hugh, don't worry.

Have a seat, have a seat.

- How do you do? I'm Louis,
nice to meet you Hugh.

- He takes extended-release
Adderall.

Adderall is an amphetamine
that controls ADHD,

which allows him to fidget less,
and kind of focus more?

- Exactly.
And then the Tenex,

which the doctor at the time
had said might help control

some of the impulses,

and he takes for the bipolar
disorder Seroquel,

200 milligrammes of Seroquel
in the morning.

- Which is an antipsychotic?
- Exactly.

- Atypical.

Louis narrates: All of it
seemed to speak

to this idea of America
as a world

in which every imaginable
product was on offer,

and every problem had
a consumer solution,

but always with the risk
of going too far.

Opioids are now the biggest drug
epidemic in American history.

I'd known about the opioid
crisis for years and years.

Newsreader: We spent some time
in one city

to get a sense of just how wide
and deep this crisis is,

and how opioids have changed
the very fabric of life there.

OxyContin,
this prescription painkiller

that has some opiates in it,

it used to be referred to as
'hillbilly heroin',

that was in the late '90s.

Some patients may be afraid
of taking opioids

because they're perceived as
too strong or addictive,

but that is far from
actual fact.

I got my life back now,

now I can enjoy every day
that I live,

I can really enjoy myself,

and before,
even a good day was hell,

I mean I couldn't enjoy nothing,
but now I can enjoy myself.

Louis narrates: They used
cheesy customer testimonials

to proclaim the drug was safe,
and of course, it was a myth.

Big Pharma ended up being

the biggest drug pushers
in America.

The area we were in,
West Virginia,

is particularly hard hit.

First of all, you have jobs

that take a lot out of you
physically,

welding and steel work,

so you're already looking
at quite a lot of people

looking for pain killers
and getting them.

And then when the laws were
tightened

and OxyContin became harder
to get,

then people turned to heroin.

- May I come in?
- For sure, man.

- Should I take my shoes off?

- No, no, no, you're more
than welcome man, for sure.

You know, a lot of people
migrate from

dabbling with pain pills, right?

That's what happened to me.

I mean, it happens to everybody,
that's what happens to...

- Go on, how did it work
in your case?

- I got hit by a car
and that almost killed me.

- How old were you?

It happened September 26
of 2010.

- So this is seven years ago,
you were about 26?

- Uh, yeah, exactly.

Louis narrates: The situation
in Huntington was so bad,

it seemed to be more or less
the full-time job

of the fire service
to go around reviving people

who were overdosing.

[sirens blaring]

- ..breathe for you,
so you can do other things.

[mumbling]

- Hey Melanie,
what did you take, honey?

Melanie: Nothing.

- No, that doesn't work,
we gave you some medicine

that only works if you took
something,

so did you do heroin?

- I guess so, yeah.
- Yeah.

- Did you snort it?
- Mmm.

- Did you shoot it?
- Mmm.

I've done stories before where
you arrive

and you sort of have to work
to get to the story,

and maybe it's less than
advertised,

or not quite the same
as advertised,

but Huntington really was, well,

it was as bad as people
said it was.

[dog barking]

Louis: Hi there.

Louis narrates: One of
the people we focused on

was a 25 year old woman called
Katillia,

who lived with her boyfriend
Alvin.

- You OK, Katillia?
- Yeah, I'm fine.

- I just needed to go
to the restroom real quick.

Louis narrates: I don't think
she'd originally

been prescribed OxyContin
or a prescription drug,

but I think one
of her friends had,

she dipped into his or her bag,
recreationally,

liked it and then carried on.

Louis: I don't want to sound
paranoid,

but she's not,
is she shooting up in there?

- You OK?
- Yeah, I'm fine.

- Did you ask if I was shooting?
- Yeah, she's shooting.

- Are you doing it now?
- Yeah.

It's not, it's not,
it's just like a rinse,

I've already done
my morning shot.

It's something that kind of has

a little bit of something in it
that will kind of relax me.

How many times do you shoot up
a day then?

I mean, it's at least six,
seven.

- How old were you when you
first got involved

- in a serious way with opiates?
- Serious way?

- When I was about 17.

Was there anything going on
in your life?

Were you just partying
in a normal way

or was there something else
going on?

- Well growing up,

my family does a lot of
manual labour work,

a lot of people would take
medicine here and there,

that would kind of keep them,
keep them...

- Functioning?
- Yeah.

Underneath it, she was so
intelligent and charming,

and seemingly capable of
so much, that it was very sad.

In her background, she'd been
placed for adoption by her mum,

raised by her great uncle.

It was obviously really
complicated,

and then you add that
to a culture

in which these highly addictive
prescription drugs

are freely available, and
you are being set up to fail.

This could be anyone who could
find their life

turned upside down.

It's you, it's me, it's your
mum, it's everyone else.

- How old are you, Edwin?
- I'm 42.

- 42?

I mean I have a degree
and everything.

It's, I mean I had a business
up until six months ago.

- What sort of business?

Computer business.

I was doing network auditing
and penetration testing.

That's a good living.

- It's a great living.

I made a lot of money at it,
I mean...

- Did you? How much?

At one point, I was making
at least over 200,000 a year.

- Are you serious?
- Yeah.

- Did you hear that Mickey?
Edwin's a computer boffin.

It kills movie stars, man,

it doesn't discriminate
on who you are.

- Getting off of it,

it's always waiting around
the corner for you to stumble.

Absolutely it is.

There's no chemical solution
for a God-sized problem, man.

- No, there's not.

I've stolen from my own kids
to get high.

I've let guys suck my dick
to get high.

I mean it's,
you'll do whatever it takes.

[mobile phone ringing]

There's nothing I could say

that would persuade you
not to do that?

- Add a lighter to that...

It's not bad, I've had better,
it's not bad.

- How long are you good for now,
do you think?

Probably with this,
maybe a couple hours.

If I had something stronger,

it would last a good six hours
at least.

This, just a couple of hours.

- Right now, I'm gonna be
like this until,

until I can try to overpower
my addiction.

Louis narrates: Since I finished
the film about Huntington,

the situation continues to be
awful.

More than 100 people die
every day in America

from an overdose or opioids.

Increasingly,
what's been happening

is local governments and state
agencies have sued

the big pharmaceutical companies

for allowing their drugs
to be abused,

and for the cost of the public
health crisis that's ensued.

What I take from it is the ease

with which people can be swept
up in a situation

not of their choosing,
robbed of their free will,

and made prisoners,
of desires created in them

by some outside entity.

[Skype dial tone]

- Hello!
- Hey.

Look at you.

[giggling]

You look different,
you look younger.

Is that possible?

Younger, I couldn't.
No, not possible with me, no.

- Maybe heroin has life
preserving properties.

Ha-ha, probably.

What happened after we left?

- It got really crazy.

- What had you been injecting?

- Pretty much everything.

- Was it meth or heroin?

- Both. And crack.

And so you just went
to the dark side?

Yep.

Forgive me if this is
an intrusive question,

but are you clean now?

I mean, besides the casual drink
here and there...

Yeah, I would count that
as clean.

- You OK?
- Yeah, I'm OK.

- Are you getting hot?
- I'm just...

- No, I'm not getting hot.
I need to move positions.

Show me around a bit.

I'd like to see a little bit,
stand up and lift it up,

wave it around show me
a few things.

Louis narrates:
Katillia overdosed massively,

woke up, she'd been beaten up,
she was on life support,

and as she explained it to me,
she nearly died,

and that seems to have been

the trigger for her to change
her life.

- Are we heading out back now?

- Yep. We do have tomato plants.

You do some gardening?

- Yeah, just tomato plants.

- That's nice.

- Got a tomato growing
right here.

- There we go.

- That'll be good for at least
one BLT in a couple of weeks.

[imitating British accent]
'Tomatoes'.

What I am pleased about
is to see

that you are doing well

because I don't know that I knew
for sure

which way you were likely to go
when I filmed with you,

so I want to say congratulations
on how far you've come,

you know, because you are
an example of how it can happen.

- Thank you.
I want to make sure

that what I've done it gets
turned into something positive.

Because I have built back
relationships

and I am gonna make sure
I hold onto them,

mostly with family,
people who are more important

than the people I was around.

To make mistakes and to
occasionally self sabotage

or get in your own way,

I think is part of how you
learn.

- Take care, Katillia.
Thank you.

The idea, oh well,

people should just do everything
in moderation, always,

I don't really believe that.

A, it's not realistic,
but B, it's not really desirable

because one of the great
satisfactions of life

is getting through scrapes,

making mistakes
and then doing better.

It's inextricable from what
it means to be alive.

Right now, there's nothing you
could give me I'd do over this.

- Why?
- Because I like this.

Whether it's an act or not,

you feel like they give
a damn about you.

- Do you... Looking back,
do you have regrets?

I don't feel that's healthy.

I think it's much better
to look at,

instead of looking at something
as a regret,

look at it as a lesson learned,

and look at it as something that
will help build

who you are and help build
your character today.

Because otherwise,
there's just no point to go,

"Man, I wish I wouldn't have
done that,

"I wish I wouldn't have
done that,"

because we can't change
the past, we can't.

When my son died, inside,
I was still in so much pain,

that working in the adult
industry is almost

like a therapy,
like a type of therapy

that helped me get through
that stage of my life,

that I don't know what would
have happened,

had that particular part
of my life never occurred.

That's fascinating,
I didn't expect you to say that.

Director: Take six, marker.

Louis narrates:
Pleasure in general,

I think it's simplistic to
imagine

there's, you know,
exactly the right amount

of indulgence or risk taking,
or naughtiness,

however you want
to characterise that.

On one end,
you're ruining your life.

Well, that's clearly bad,
or dying of a drug overdose,

and then over here is leading
a blameless life

that is utterly without
any pith or grit,

you know, totally boring.

And so in between there,
you've got to find your place.

Director: Where are you?

I'm about there.

A lot of martinis.

Captioned by Ai-Media
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