IR: Given that those things that you went through--including the trial--must have been very painful, was it difficult to decide to participate in the documentary?
HR: I had turned down press from 1985 to this film. Because I learned in my recovery program that being a public figure was not healthy for me and led me to the jets, and the girls, and the parties, and you know, all the trappings you can fall into. And I had refused to do any press because, you know, everybody wanted to do sort of superficial, sexy interviews with me. And Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey [writer-directors of the documentary] and Brian Grazer [producer of the documentary], when I chatted with them, all saw the story the same way I did. And that is a story of redemption. The possibility of helping another human being who may be suffering. And we had the same fix, and so the decision wasn't a difficult one. It was one I did a lot of research on. And I thought long and hard on it. But I'm glad I participated in it because I already had several calls from people who said, "I heard about your story long ago, and you're the reason I'm sober today." And it makes one feel really very, very good. It's better than any paycheck you can ever get to have somebody say, "Thank you. Thank you for helping me save my life."
IR: I can imagine.
HR: And the experience was an absolutely wonderful one. The two directors were just dolls to work with. And I'm happy with the finished product.
IR: Do you think the documentary is successful as a social and political history of the era, or at least that facet of the era?
HR: Of that facet of the era. You know, there was a lot going on then. There were women's rights, black rights. There was the Freedom of Information Act. There were so many subculture revolutions going on at once. That the advent of pornography--feature-length on the big screen--versus the ten-minute stag films that we had prior to that. That it was just another force that helped free up people's sexual inhibitions. Because if you grew up in the '40's and '50's like I did, you did not have sex until you were married. And that any woman who had sex was bad. And that sex was reserved specifically for your wife. And all of that changed in the '60's.
There were a lot of revolutions going on. Anti-government protests. The SDS [Students for a Democratic Society, a radical student activist movement]. The protest against the Vietnam War. The sexual revolution. The changes in theater. I mean Off Off Broadway, Cafe La Mama, WPA, you know, so much changed in America. You know, "Easy Rider" motion pictures that started to show a new culture and a new generation.
And I think kids today who are in their twenties or teens are enjoying freedoms that they didn't have to fight for. But we did. I did. I'm 58 years old. After I got out of the Marine Corps, I lived in the East Village [a neighborhood in lower Manhattan] during the era of hippies. I mean I went to the Fillmore East. And I saw Jimi Hendrix, Mama Cass and, you know, any number of great performers of the time doing their rock 'n' roll. And who was the guy from The Doors? Jim Morrison. I mean these were the people who were musically making statements at the time. And they were using their music to really shout about, you know, the life they wanted today. And we never had that opportunity in the '40's and '50's--you were either one way, or you didn't fit in. I mean this film specifically talks about the sexual revolution and pornographic films' involvement in that revolution. It certainly doesn't cover the whole myriad of the SDS and social change and black rights and women's rights. And it's very special interest in that it [the documentary] covers pornography's role in that sexual revolution.
IR: What do you imagine viewers of the documentary might take away from it, especially those who might not have been aware of the cultural and political impact of the movie "Deep Throat"?
HR: Well, I'm hoping that, you know, younger people realize that we had to fight for certain rights. I mean, does pornography belong in society? As long as there is an audience for it, the answer is yes. As long as it is not thrust upon the general public. Like "Nipplegate" was. Remember Nipplegate with Janet Jackson?
IR: [Laughs, remembering the furor over an incident at the 2004 Superbowl where Janet Jackson’s breast was briefly partially exposed during a television broadcast.]
HR: I mean people were watching a football game, and suddenly they were looking at a nipple. I mean these were tickets that people had to buy, and as long as they wanted to see these movies and they weren’t blasted in front of the theaters and nudity was in the streets--it was a fight to give people the freedom to explore these sexually explicit materials.
IR: In what ways do you think society has changed in the years since the release of "Deep Throat"?
HR: I'll give you a prime example. I was tried in Memphis, Tennessee, in a federal courtroom for being a member of a conspiracy to transport interstate obscene materials. They were trying to hold an actor responsible for the distribution of a film because they felt as though it was off-color. [He goes on to say that now the very same film is readily available for watching in respectable hotels in the very same city.] If that doesn’t spell change, I don’t know what does.
