Porn star is fifth adult actress to die in three months Still, she said, high-demand performers can routinely pull in six-figure salaries because they have enough clout to negotiate ownership rights and can rebroadcast footage elsewhere. The phone stops ringing, and they say, ‘Now what?’ Porn stars aren’t the best at making a ‘what if’ plan for their future.” “When the camera is on, everybody is happy,” said behavioral scientist Gad Saad, a chair at the John Molson School of Business in Montreal, who studies the porn industry.