Ashley Fires, porn star who accused James Deen of sexual assault, slams being nominated alongside him for 2020 AVN and XBIZ Awards
In 2015, adult entertainment actress, producer, and director Ashley Fires revealed that she had been sexually assaulted by actor James Deen. Now, she's nominated for an award alongside him.
For the 2020 AVN and XBIZ Awards Deen has been nominated for 14 awards in total. Calling it "a boy’s club, business as usual" she said in a recent interview with the Daily Beast, "I think he’s back. More and more people are like, ‘Oh poor James Deen, he’s such a nice guy.’ People are like, ‘Why don’t you like him? He’s so nice,” and I’m like, ‘Well, rapists don’t rape everyone…’” One of those nominations is for a scene with Fires for Best Gonzo Release - 'Analized.’ "I have never been in a scene directed by James Deen in my 17 years as a performer. I don’t know what that’s about but he’s pawning off second-hand content like it’s his work," she said. He denied any knowledge of his directorial credit to the Daily Beast.
Fires said that she had hoped that her speaking up would have encouraged safer work environments in the industry but her #MeToo story became a mockery. Many colleagues refused to work with her.
At the time she made the allegations, she was at a "high point" in her career, she recalled. She took a break for a short while after and then started again. "I was working a lot and my rates were really high and I was always nominated, so yeah, I was kind of at a high point in my career. It was naive. I thought there would be change, that there would be value afterward, that people would engage differently, and look at consent and on-set behavior." She also recalled being bullied by James Deen.
She was the third woman to accuse him of sexual assault. Fires told the news outlet earlier that the incident had occurred in a communal bathroom in Kink. "I reach for my towel to dry off, and he comes up from behind me and pushes himself and his erection into my butt," she had said.
He pushed her against the sink as she said, "No, no, no James, no," and he let her go and followed it up with "You know, later if you want to fuck around I’m in room whatever-it-was" she said. She said that the lack of accountability was because of white male privilege and politics.
"I really think it’s because of the unique reality we are living in right now, this normalization. You have Trump—look at how many women have gone public? Yeah, no big deal. He can just grab ‘em by the pussy, and it’s on tape, but no big deal, whatever, let’s reward the guy, make him president," she said.