Basic Trope: A stock excuse for an actor (or other creator's) Old Shame, such as Pornography, low-budget genre films, Infomercials, selling drugs, prostitution, stripping, low-budget commercials, etc.
- Straight: Alice, now a big-name actress, has it leaked to the public that she used to do porn. When questioned, she replies that it was a long time ago, she was a nobody, and she was desperate for money. And she's not proud of it, and would rather forget about it.
- Exaggerated: Alice was directing porn at the time, and gives this excuse.
- Downplayed:
- Alice admits she used to work for a porn site, on the billing side.
- Alice appears as an extra in the background of a Porn with Plot film, and not even in a sex scene, for like two seconds.
- Justified: It takes time to make it big; sometimes, money gets desperate when you're Waiting for a Break, and you'll do anything, even if it's humiliating, stigmatized, or even illegal, just to keep food on the table and a roof over your head.
- Inverted: Alice, a big-name actress since childhood, becomes a porn star.
- Subverted:
- Alice did appear in porn, but she was tricked into it or coerced into it, and she was underage; she wasn't a willing participant, but a victim.
- It's not porn, but rather a low-budget Kitschy Local Commercial, or a low-budget Sci-Fi film, or an Infomercial.
- Double Subverted: Alice claims she's a victim to take away the heat of the stigma. She was really a willing participant partaking it for money.
- Parodied: Alice's "embarassing" secret is having cosplayed in cons, where she also sold hentai doujins and/or fanarts of a very obscure comic series that even nerds would be embarrassed to admit liking.
- Zig Zagged: Alice changes her story, depending on who's asking her about her past porn career.
- Averted: Alice did not star in any porn, or do anything else she's ashamed of.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "It was either porn, or homelessness, and I chose porn."
- Invoked: Alice is Waiting for a Break, and moves to LA, where the cost of living is insane. She can barely afford the apartment she lives in, plus the utility and grocery bills. It gets to the point where she's facing eviction, or where she's had her electricity cut off, or where she's actually been evicted. She takes a job doing porn out of desperation, just until she gets back on her feet.
- Exploited: Alice starts her own porn company, given that she has "experience."
- Defied: Alice refuses to take the job, because she's afraid of what others will think, that it could ruin her career, not to mention she's worried about catching an STD or getting pregnant. She simply moves back in with her parents, perhaps even gives up on her dream of Show Business.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
