Come on, we all know what Fake Taxi is, but only a select few actually know what goes into creating one of the most recognisable brands in adult entertainment.
Well, we sat down with the brains behind Fake Taxi to find out how the viral franchise all started and what he really looks for when he's casting his stars.
Before getting into porn, the self-described serial entrepreneur dabbled in all sorts of stuff, including solar-powered water purifiers, but that all changed in 2006 when he co-founded YouPorn, one of the first major adult 'tube' sites.
According to Jonathan 'JT' Todd, it didn't take long for the platform to reach nearly 370 million monthly visits, becoming one of the top 30 most visited websites globally at the time.
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Despite the staggering success, the businessman from Kent says the operational challenges were 'getting too big and too hard to handle', because it was difficult to control and manage what was uploaded.
“So yeah, we sold YouPorn, and we started our pay site network," he tells me. "And Fake Taxi is the jewel in our crown, because of all the history that I had from all of the data from YouPorn, we knew that it's a lot cheaper to film scenes in a car.”
After being based in the UK for three years, they moved the whole operation to Prague because - for better or worse - 'it’s not illegal to film people being paid to have sex in public', he claims.
JT explains: “You know, we were running out of performers to film in the UK. There’s not that many UK girls. So we were having to fly a lot of the European girls into the UK to shoot, so it kind of made more sense filming everything over in the Czech Republic."
When it comes to casting, the entrepreneur says we look for 'character, because you want to believe that it’s real'.
“You discount that you’ve seen that performer in a different scene. You just want it to be real, and it’s like going to the movies. You want that movie to be in your mind as you’re watching it,” he says.
“We tend to look for the guys that are driving the taxis. They need to have a real good character. The performers, you just want them to look real, look like the girl next door, look amateurish, and that would look believable, can speak good English, or if they don’t speak English, they speak in their native language - and we always use subtitles anyway because most people watching porn can’t watch it with the sound on.
“From the very first English scene we put out, we always subtitled everything. That’s just something we learned from YouPorn; the girls that we look for, just amateur, nice-looking girls.
“Something about them, we like girls with red hair… we like them skinny, fat, big boobs, little boobs, tattoos, no tattoos. There’s just nothing particular that we look for, and we embrace everything.”
JT says he has 'the utmost respect for everybody that walks onto that location', even when people change their minds at the last second.
“Especially the first-timers, right before the scene. And it’s fine. Everybody on location, all the crew, they are in full support. No one goes, ‘Oh, for God’s sake’,” he adds, noting that he wouldn't, personally, feature in one of his films.
“The thing with owning a production company is it’s very difficult to create your reputation and to hold on to your reputation because so many things can go wrong on set. And the last thing you want is the boss or the crew being known as, like, predators,” JT adds.
“The same crew have shot for me for the last eight years. You know? We’ve never had a problem because everybody knows the rules, and it just comes down to respect above anything else.”
Although he does like to get in the cab from time to time, as he continues: “When I have friends come over to Prague, I’ll just go grab the Fake Taxi, and we’ll drive around.
“I’ll just show them all the sights of Prague in the back of the Fake Taxi. So they like that.”
And in case you were wondering, the cars they use are actual taxis.
“If we’re lucky, we get through one taxi a year,” he admits. “Because they don’t get worn out. The worse they are, the better it is for us. As long as there’s not too many bangs and aches and too many noises when you’re driving, as long as the suspension is fine, it’s good.
“But once they start making noises… we have to move on because the sound editors, they hate it when they’re editing and they’ve got a squeak.”
On the latter decision to put women in the driving seats, he said: “For us, Fake Taxi was always about doing the scenes in the car. You need to understand that it’s human nature for you to put yourself in the position of the guy in what you’re watching.
“We wanted the guys, the majority of people watching porn—70 percent are male—to be on the back seat, because they can relate to it a lot more.”
Beyond adult scenes, his team has launched a Fake Taxi cryptocurrency token that allows fans to engage with performers, access exclusive merchandise, and book one-on-one chats.
“We’re taking Fake Taxi from the backseat to the blockchain,” JT says.
Topics: Adult Industry, Sex and Relationships
Anish Vij