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Journalist, sexist, businessman, ladies' man: Call the gent behind the Playboy juggernaut whatever you please. He prefers you call him Hef. Hugh Hefner recently phoned from the Playboy mansion to plug Playboy Home Video's The Story of X, a history of the skin flick by Oscar-winning documentarian Chuck Workman. We listened. At 72, he sounds nostalgic for a romanticized past, optimistic for an idealized future, and avuncular all the way around. What a swinging uncle!
EW: What are you wearing?
HEFNER: Black pajamas, of course.
EW: What was the first stag film you ever saw?
HEFNER: I don't remember. It would have been at a typical smoker soon after I graduated from college. At a Legion hall or someplace. It starred very unattractive people.
EW: What makes for a good stag film?
HEFNER: A combination of things — the attractiveness [and]enthusiasm of the performers, the nature of the, um, activity.
EW: Do you have any favorite sex scenes from Hollywood movies?
HEFNER: There aren't many truly erotic ones. There's Body Heat, but the most intensely romantic moments are probably from the days of the production code.
EW: What do you make of the Boogie Nights theory of adult film, the idea that pornography declined in quality with the advent of video?
HEFNER: It's true. The material changed. It became less plot driven and less character driven and more simply about explicit sex.
EW: What do you think the future of pornography is?
HEFNER: Well, the real question is, What is the future of sex?
EW: What is the future of sex?
HEFNER: The hiddenness of sex and the shame and guilt of it are increasingly eroding. Explicit sex is becoming part of the commonplace. Mass communication makes that a reality. Some of us who were raised in a more romantic time may miss the mystery that goes with that hiddenness, but I think that on this rather lonely planet, the celebration of sex is a very good thing.
