Adult Actress Olivia Lua Found Dead at 23
This is the latest in a string of untimely porn star deaths.
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Adult actress Olivia Lua died Thursday in Las Vegas. Lua’s agency, LA Direct Models, announced her passing in a statement quoted by XBIZ.
In many of the photos she posted on her Instagram, Olivia Lua looked thoughtful. Maybe appraising her look in a selfie, maybe wondering how her followers would react to her pics.
It’s hard to figure out what was on her mind, and it’s also hard to determine why people—men or women—go into porn at all. What does seem clear is that it’s consuming them. And killing them.
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LA Direct Models head Derek Hay reportedly acknowledged something that is obvious at this point: This kind of tragedy is becoming commonplace.
“Much comment has recently been made on the number of adult stars having passed in the last year,” Hays reportedly said, “and with great sadness we must inform that the list has grown longer. May she rest in peace.”
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In the last month and a half alone, the following deaths have hit the porn world hard:
– Adult actress August Ames committed suicide after an avalanche of cyber-bullying.
– 20-year-old LA Direct Models client Olivia Nova died, her cause of death unknown.
– Yuri Luv died from a drug overdose.
– And Shyla Stylez, 35, also passed from unknown causes.
Rolling Stone reports that these performers dying in the prime of life has the porn industry at large understandably concerned:
But the rash of sudden, consecutive deaths has prompted some performers to call for change in an industry with a low barrier to entry, minimal oversight and nearly non-existent job security despite extreme working conditions. Unlike pre-Internet porn stars, performers today face the added pressures of social media interactions, increased competition without increased pay and a demand for more physically taxing sex scenes – all of which can exacerbate existing mental health or substance abuse issues. So is the adult industry doing enough to protect its performers?
AVN Hall of Famer Ruby told Rolling Stone that as far as she’s concerned, the porn industry “really don’t care whether we die or not.”
“In fact,” Ruby continued, “I’m going to be probably a little crass here, but this is true: They’d prefer we die because they can make money off of us forever.”
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Jewels Jade—who gained some mainstream fame after it was discovered she’d filmed scenes with her Navy SEAL husband—essentially agreed with Ruby. Every layer of the porn industry from production companies to directors, she told the magazine, doesn’t “care about the girls. They care about the fans.”
As for Olivia Lua, LA Direct Models indicated she succumbed to serious issues with drugs and alcohol. Her family and friends were concerned, the company stated, about “the volume of prescription drugs prescribed to Olivia and the danger” they posed. “If this was mixed with recreational drugs or alcohol,” the statement concluded, “it is believed this to be the cause of her passing.”
Like August Ames and Olivia Nova, all that’s left of her now are photos and videos, no real answers. Other than it seems like one of the greatest dangers in the skin trade is what it does to some performers’ minds.
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