In December of 2017, the adult film world was shocked by the suicide of August Ames, an up-and-coming 23-year-old performer who had recently taken the industry by storm.
Ames’ death came on the heels of an ugly social media confrontation prompted by some controversial comments she made about a fellow performer.
“Whichever (lady) performer is replacing me tomorrow for @EroticaXNews, you’re shooting with a guy who has shot gay porn, just to let cha know," Ames tweeted just two days before her passing.
"BS is all I can say… Do agents really not care about who they’re representing?… I do my homework for my body.”
The tweet prompted immediate backlash from both fans and fellow performers, many of whom accused Ames of homophobia.
Ames — who was herself bisexual — quickly clarified her position, tweeting:
“NOT homophobic. Most girls don’t shoot with guys who have shot gay porn, for safety. That’s just how it is with me. I’m not putting my body at risk, i don’t know what they do in their private lives.”
The charge to denigrate Ames was led by fellow adult performers Jaxton Wheeler and Jessica Drake, who recently claimed she was harassed by Donald Trump.
“Performers, by all means, f–k who you want to f–k…but if you’re eliminating folks based on the fact they they (sic) may have done gay or crossover work, your logic is seriously flawed," Drake tweeted.
"Reality is, WE DON’T KNOW who does what with whom when there are no cameras.”
Within hours of Drake’s tweet, Ames was found dead in a public park roughly 20 minutes from her home.
Her death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
At the Adult Video News Awards six weeks later, Ames’ widower, Kevin Moore, was greeted with thunderous applause when he took the stage to defend the right of all performers to work with whomever they choose.
Drake was in the audience as fans wearing t-shirts honoring Ames gave Moore a standing ovation.
The narrative that formed around Ames’ death was quick and convenient — PC hysteria had led to rampant cyberbullying, which resulted in Ames’ decision to take her own life.
Now, however, in a new podcast entitled the Last Days of August, author Jon Ronson argues that the situation is far more complex than originally thought.
Throughout her life, Ames was open about her traumatic childhood and her struggles with mental illness.
Ronson says her short time in the adult film industry shattered Ames’ psyche, a theory he formed after viewing the final scene that she filmed, which has never been released to the public.
“When you think about it, what we were watching in that moment was the moment that she decided to die. That’s what we were watching and it’s awful,” Ronson recently told the New York Post.
“That was the truth of it, that was the moment when she reached the point of no return. The Twitter bullying may have been the icing on the cake, as some people described it.”
Ronson says the scene very clearly took Ames outside of her comfort zone as she was brutalized by a domineering Russian porn star named Markus Dupree.
“On more than one occasion in the footage, Markus forcefully repositions August, which visibly startles her,” Ronson’s co-host, Jessica Misitzis, says in the podcast.
“She says ‘Whoa s–t!’ and at one point Markus picks up her pink thong, stretches it around her head, jerks her around by it, and then shoves it in her mouth.
“At the end of her scene, August is interviewed by a crew member to establish consent for legal purposes. She’s staring straight into the camera, holding up her check for the day’s work, her makeup’s gone and her hair is pulled back, she looks resigned and emotional and hollow all at once," Mitzis adds.
"‘Were you treated OK?’ she’s asked. And flatly, and quietly she says, ‘Yes.’ For the first time in this footage, all the camera is focused on is August’s face and she seems like she’s verging on tears.”
In text messages viewed by Ronson and Mitzis, Ames complains to a friend that Dupree went "full on War Machine," a reference to the adult perfomer who assaulted Christy Mack in 2014.
Six weeks after filming that scene, Ames took her own life.
The Last Days of August is currently available on Audible.