Who is Rocco Siffredi? True story behind Netflix's Supersex

"Through the most famous living porn icon, it investigates how masculinity is constructed and the (still unanswered) questions of desire and power that dominate the relationship between men and women today."

But what is the true story behind Supersex, and what is it about? Read on for everything you need to know.

What is Supersex about?

Netflix's new drama series Supersex has been loosely inspired by the real life story of Rocco Siffredi, born Rocco Tano, who went on to become the most famous pornstar in the world.

The show focuses on the story of his family, his origins and his relationship with love, explaining how he went from "a simple guy from Ortona" to the top of his industry.

Creator and writer Francesca Manieri said that when she was first approached to write the series she "burst out laughing", because her journey and his life "couldn't seem more incongruous".

She continued: "I accepted the offer to embark on this journey because, as a woman, I wanted to take on the risk and the privilege of narrating masculinity, starting from a man who has inarguably become an emblem of western masculinity.

"Listening to his life story, an emotional geometry gradually unfolded within me, along with the desire to portray not the porn industry or its intricacies, already so well-known to the global audience, but rather what lies behind the porn industry.

"Not the emblem itself, but how that emblem, that icon, was constructed, and what price a real, flesh-and-blood person must pay for that translation to occur.

"An icon, an emblem, is like the ultimate incarnation, the precipitate of an entire construct. Rocco is his c**k, and his c**k embodies the system of meaning within which a man becomes a man.

"As such, I wanted to retrace his life, immerse myself in a long coming-of-age story to narrate the 'becoming' of this icon, hoping that by recounting the process, the 'diseased' roots of masculine construction would gradually become apparent.

"I hoped that by seeing the cages within which the two genders are constructed and normed, the possibility of reflecting upon, and perhaps even of subverting, the cages themselves would arise.

"But all of this can never be enough for writing. What was behind his life story that attracted me beyond the desire to wrestle with the construction of masculinity?

"There was the story of life in provincial Italy, there was a story of brothers, the pain of poverty, there was the cage in which certain beings are born, there were women as objects of mystery, there was the desire for redemption, the fear of failure, there was death, love, and sexuality. It seemed to me that everything was there, everything about him."

Who is Rocco Siffredi and what is the true story behind Supersex?

Siffredi was born Rocco Antonio Tano in 1964 in Italy.

While his mother wanted him to become a priest, he has previously revealed in an interview with Vice that he was "already very sexually active at age 11", and that when he was 13 he found a magazine featuring a pornstar, called "Supersex". He saw the images and said, "I want to do this business."

One of his brothers initially told him he was "completely crazy", but eventually told him to go to swingers' clubs in Paris if he wanted to get into the industry, which he did.

However, Siffredi has said that the real reason he wanted to go into the pornography industry was the money, because he wanted to "give something back to" his mother, after the loss of one of his brothers. Claudio died when he was just 12 years old, and when Siffredi was six.

After he was discovered by French porn actor and director Gabriel Pontello, he made his debut in 1986 film Sodopunition pour dépravées sexuelles. His stage name was taken from the character Roch Siffredi in the 1970 film Borsalino.

He later started working with long-time collaborator John Stagliano and his production company Evil Angel, and also founded his own company Rocco Siffredi Produzioni, which was based in Budapest.

He worked as both a performer and a director and became incredibly well-known and influential within the industry.

Siffredi met Rosa Caracciolo in 1993 and they married sometime later, going on to have two sons, Lorenzo and Leonardo.

He announced he would retire from performing in 2004, but started to visit prostitutes two to three times a day due to sex addiction. He returned to performing in 2009, announced his retirement again in 2015, but has since returned to the industry.

His rough performance style, which he admits is "visually" violent, has been considered by some to be "borderline misogynistic", a claim which was put to him by The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern.

He responded to this charge in 2017, saying: "When you don’t understand this kind of sexuality you only see violence. But if you understand this sexuality, there is no violence. It’s an interchange of pleasure, pain and pressure."

He continued: "But none of it is about hating women, or who is more strong. Thirty-two years I do this business. If I hated women, I’d be in a mental hospital."

A documentary film about his life, called Rocco, was released in 2016.

Supersex is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

Check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

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