November 5, 1996

Porn Star Interview: Blue Blake


BY VINCENT LAMBERT

Blue Blake answers the door to his sublet wearing a towel and a smile. He’s freshly showered after a grueling day spent rehearsing for his New York stage debut in the hit play Making Porn. With his multiple tattoos blazing, Blake pads around barefoot, spooning Häagen-Dazs sorbet and explaining why he decided to leave sunny Los Angeles to spend a winter working off-Broadway in New York.

At age 33, Blake qualifies as a veteran actor onscreen, but it wasn’t until Making Porn writer/director Ronnie Larsen approached him on a film set that he thought about working onstage. “Ronnie thought I could act and asked me to do the play in L.A.,” Blake says. “I had such a good time that I wanted to do it in New York. I enjoy the discipline and challenge of working onstage. It’s a sacrifice being here, but what doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger.”

If you’ve only seen photos of this philosophical porn stud, you’d never guess that he speaks with a strong British accent. But Blake was born and raised in Nottingham, England. His mother was a model, and his father owned a gay club. He says that he was sure of his sexual orientation early on. “My uncle used to play for a British football team,” Blake recalls. “One time when I was about six years old, we went into the changing room and all the football players were naked. I remember they had these big fat dicks, and I wanted to put their dicks in my mouth! I was always very comfortable with my sexuality.”

At 18, Blake joined the Marines with his brother, Gage. After a 10-year stint and receiving a degree in English literature, he was unsure of his future. Blake had always worked out and in 1990 won the Mr. Drummer United Kingdom contest. After traveling to San Francisco to compete in the world finals, he began thinking of new career options.

“The porn business had always fascinated me,” he says. “I wanted to know more about it. In the gym, people would always ask my brother and me, ‘Want to do a porno movie?’ and we’d ask, ‘How much will you pay?’ We weren’t especially interested in the social ramifications of it. And it wasn’t the prospect of sex, because I always got a lot of sex anyway. It was the money that motivated me.”

So, in 1994, he and Gage starred in The Blade Twins: Raw and Uncut for director Jim French. (The brothers aren’t actually twins; Gage is one year older, but Blake says they looked enough alike to pass as twins.) Blake calls the film a “muscle jerk-off movie where I suck my brother’s dick. It turned into this underground hit. The studio made a fortune.” Then he worked on a Tom of Finland movie called The Wild Ones with his boyfriend at the time, Bull Stanton.

Although Blake went on to appear in Lube Job, Cockfight and more than 30 other films, he remains hesitant to label himself a porn star. “I don’t believe that there really is such a thing,” he says. “It’s a dichotomy. There are so many porn movies around and so many people who perform in them. There are porn performers, but very few porn stars.” He is also reluctant to endorse the business as a whole. “This is an industry that eats its young. I thought it was going to be a really cool industry, but ultimately I was wrong. It’s incredibly exploitative of people who are too young and naive to be exploited. It can be incredibly destructive.”

Blake says he’s avoided many of the pitfalls of the adult film industry because he didn’t start working until he was 30. Although his onscreen persona is anything but young and naive, Blake sees himself as “a little boy trapped in a big body. That’s why I enjoy acting, because I get to play these inhuman psychotic monsters, which is the complete opposite of what I’m like in real life. It’s interesting to delve into that side of yourself. It’s like therapy.”

When he finishes his run in Making Porn, Blake hints that acting in porn movies may not be part of his future. One possible explanation for this is the current man in his life. Blake has been involved for the past year with a California businessman who is 18 years his senior. “Porn horrifies my boyfriend, but I still do it to torment him,” he says with a laugh. “Actually, I’m madly in love with him, and I would give it up for him. He pampers me terribly. I like being spoiled and he likes to spoil me, so we have the perfect relationship.”

When asked whether he’s concerned that his imminent departure from film will disappoint his many fans, Blake answers, “People won’t even know I’m gone. That’s the nature of porn. I understand that now. When I first started, I wanted to leave behind something that I could be remembered for—like my movies for Tom of Finland and Colt—but it got out of hand. I did too many cheesy movies.” He smiles and heaves a contented sigh. “Now I’m ready to settle down—have a husband, a home and raise puppies. My days of wildness are over. I’ve crammed so much into my 33 years. Now it’s time to sit back and let the world go by.”

Reprinted from HX magazine (1996)

October 10, 1996

Porn Star Interview: Tom Katt



BY VINCENT LAMBERT

There’s one question that everyone asks when you say that you’ve met porn superstar Tom Katt: Was he hairy or smooth? It seems that after five years in the movie business, this muscle-bound screen stud still manages to keep his audience guessing. But on a recent stop in New York for an appearance at the Eros Theatre, Katt made it clear that when it comes to speaking his mind, there is no guessing involved.

The 26-year-old actor got his start in the porn business in 1991 when he met and was offered a job by the owner of Fox Studios (which briefly renamed him Thom Payne). “I jumped in with both feet,” Katt says. “You hear stories about people getting suckered into it or all that shit, but it was never anything like that for me. I figured, what the hell? I’m young—someday I’ll be old and saggy. You only live once. I don't view this as being something wrong and terrible. I feel no guilt for anything I've done, even though certain sectors of society might want to push that feeling on me and my peers in this business.”

Born and raised in Georgia, Katt grew up in an Italian/French household. “But it wasn’t hard-core,” he laughs. “You wouldn't go to my house and see it as a scene out of The Godfather or anything. We weren’t that bad.” Besides the 20 films he’s appeared in, including Abduction 2:The Conflict (Falcon) and Total Corruption 2 (HIS), Katt has also pursued a career as a bodybuilder. When he’s not working as a personal trainer, he spends most of his time preparing for his next competition. In November, he will head to Italy to vie for the amateur Mr. Universe title. “I have a competitive streak in me,” Katt says. “I just can’t get rid of it.”

However, working in gay skin flicks hasn’t exactly been helpful to his bodybuilding career. Katt, never one to mince words, turns serious. “Let’s face it, this is the closed-minded U.S.A. What a lot of people do behind closed doors—which is no different from what I do on film—they’ll crucify me for. It’s very hypocritical. On the amateur level, in this country, it hasn’t hurt me. Professionally, I don't think it’s possible to compete here, so I’ll go to Europe. This isn't the only country that has bodybuilding.”

And if he had to choose between a life of powerlifting or powerfucking for the camera? “I enjoy both careers,” Katt says, “but let’s face it—the sun rises and sets a lot quicker in porno. I don't think I’m too much of an old has-been yet, but I don't want to push it to the point where I’m old and tired and everyone is sick of me.”

Although Katt says that he’s bisexual, his work sometimes proves problematic when it comes to the romance department. “It’s impossible to be in a relationship in this business,” he says. “It’s like, ‘I love you, honey, but I’m gonna go get fucked in a movie, see ya later—kiss.’ I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me, and I wouldn’t do it to someone else. I’d like to be in a steady relationship, who wouldn't? I hope it’ll happen eventually.”

In the meantime, Katt keeps a low profile and takes his celebrity in stride. He still lives in Georgia and stays close to his family. “I don't go to them and say, ‘Hey, Pops, check out my new movie.’ I've shown them some magazines I was in. People around me know. I don't make a point of flaunting it. I don't make a point of hiding it either. If they know, they know; if they don't, they don't. If they have a problem with it, they can kiss my ass.”

As he preps for his next bodybuilding competition, Katt has been touring as a dancer and fielding movie offers, including a possible teaming with Ryan Idol and Ken Ryker. “I’m nowhere near the point of being jaded,” he says. “I’m still having a great time.”

As he looks down at his baby-smooth chest, Katt laughs, “Yeah, a gang of thugs tackled me and shaved me!”

Got it, guys? Smooth.

Reprinted from HX magazine (1996)

September 30, 1996

Porn Star Interview: Kurt Young




STORY AND BOTTOM PHOTO BY VINCENT LAMBERT

Porn director Jerry Douglas is sitting in the living room of his Upper West Side apartment recalling the first time he met Kurt Young. “We were in the offices of Image Video,” Douglas says, cigarette poised in midair, “and I thought, now there’s a possibility for the lead in my next film. After talking to him for 10 minutes, I was sure.” Two months later, porn’s leading auteur sent Young a script, and the results are currently on view in Flesh & Blood (All Worlds Video), a Hitchcockian tale of twin brothers gone wrong.

Across the room, the star in question sits nestled in an oversized leather chair. Dressed in ripped jeans and a white tank top, Young, 22, listens intently as Douglas continues. “Kurt Young is the most talented, intuitive actor I’ve worked with,” he says. “He’s the most dependable sexualist I’ve worked with, and I adore him as a person.” Douglas knows of what he speaks—his nine Adult Video News and Gay Video Guide awards glisten prettily on a tabletop in the next room. The porn veteran pauses long enough to smile at his leading man and ask, “Now, have I embarrassed you enough?”

For a porn star, the lanky Young embarrasses quite easily. “I’m the kind of person who won’t walk around the house without a shirt on,” he says, blaming his insecurity on a bout with chubbiness in his early years. The actor, who has appeared in such films as Handsome Drifters, Hot Summer of Sex and Tradewinds, has only been in the movie business for about a year. He says he doesn’t usually watch his films, except to fast-forward through them looking for his mistakes. “I look better than I used to,” Young says, “but I’m definitely not where I want to be.”

This unlikely screen stud was born and raised in Maryland. Young calls his childhood “predictable” and “normal.” He played sports and “liked anything dealing with water,” which may explain his current job as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. He attended college at University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied kinesiology. It was there that he first became aware of the gay scene. “I told my close friends, ‘At some point, I will sleep with a man,’ ” he recalls. “I was curious. After all, you only live once. If there’s something you want to do, you should do it.”

Something else Young wanted to do was leave Maryland. “The place was a trap,” he says. “I was being carried by my parents, and I was just taking advantage of it. I never really had to do anything on my own.”

So, after hooking up with boyfriend Matt Easton, he decided to move to Los Angeles. The lovers found an apartment in Santa Monica, and Young started working 60 hours a week as a lifeguard. But money was tight, and Easton began looking for an agent who could get him into the porn industry.

“Matt answered an ad and two days later did a scene,” Young says. “He came home four hours later with a nice check. I thought, if I did one, we could buy some furniture.”

But Young says it was also something he had been interested in for a while. “I always liked porn; I watched it. I don’t see a difference between watching it and being in it.”

He also found that sex on-screen was a big ego booster. “When someone like Jerry picked me for Flesh & Blood, that gave me some kind of confidence that I know what I’m doing and that someone out there likes me.” Young saw his dual role as twins Eric and Derrick in Flesh & Blood as a great opportunity. “I was really lucky to get it. And it was such a challenge. I’m in practically every second of the movie. I had to work really hard to make sure that people didn’t get bored with me.” Young’s mutual admiration for director Douglas was also a motivating force behind his performance. “I just wanted to do a good job for Jerry,” he says with a smile.

Although Young’s relationship with Easton ended several months ago, they remain friends and roommates. Young is currently involved with model/porn director David Thompson. Together, they have formed a dance group that tours around the country. Young says that it’s hard to maintain a relationship, but “I’m a trustworthy person. If the other person has a problem with my work, that’s understandable, but it’s something I like to do. It makes me happy, and it has nothing to do with sex.”

The actor hints that his future plans may include stage work (he’s read for the lead in the road company of Ronnie Larsen’s Making Porn), but for now he enjoys making movies. “I get to meet nice people, and I’ve made really good friends in this business. It’s like any other job—you go for your eight hours and do the best you can.”

Reprinted from
HX magazine (1996)

September 15, 1996

Porn Star Interview: Dino DiMarco


BY VINCENT LAMBERT

He’s been called the “Delta Burke of porn,” but as Dino DiMarco sits before me in tight jeans, diaphanous black shirt and motorcycle boots, he looks anything but. Currently on the third leg of a 15-city tour for the film Night Walk, DiMarco has just strutted his stuff in a 20-minute dance routine at the Eros Theatre in New York. Although he’s been touring for several weeks, the dark-eyed, classically handsome star looks fit and trim. And he’s certainly eager to talk.

It’s been a long journey to the top of the porn world for 28-year-old DiMarco. Born and raised in Rochester, New York, he is the oldest of three brothers. At age 17, he moved to Manhattan, where he worked as a model for Elite. But DiMarco, who is of American Indian and Irish descent, actually failed at his original career goal: becoming a runway model. “They said I was too short and too fat,” he recalls with a laugh, “so I quit.”

When life in the big city proved overwhelming, DiMarco moved to Florida and joined the Air Force. After working as an auto mechanic for more than two years, he decided to pursue his education in the Pacific Northwest and received a degree in marine biology from the University of Oregon.

Upon graduation, DiMarco relocated to Los Angeles and started working as an extra on such shows as Baywatch, Dave’s World and Star Trek. “I spent a whole season as a bailiff on Picket Fences,” DiMarco says. “Oh yeah, it was real exciting. I got to sit in a brown uniform in the back of a courtroom for months!” He also did extra work in film, appearing in Three Wishes with Patrick Swayze and Crimson Tide. “I’m the guy who pulls out a gun to help Denzel Washington take over the sub,” he says.

But DiMarco’s stints in showbiz were strictly part time. He soon landed a job as a phlebotomist in an AIDS clinic, where he drew blood. So just how did he make the transition from doing lab work to porn work?

“Well, my roommate at the time was Coy Dekker, and he was a porn star,” DiMarco says. “When he asked if I’d be interested in working in the industry, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. So I called my mom—she’s known I was gay since I was a kid—and I said, ‘Mom, what if I did Playgirl?’ And she said, ‘That would be cool.’ And I said, ‘What if I did gay magazines?’ She said, ‘I could live with that.’ And I said, ‘What if I did a gay movie?’ And she said, ‘Well, would you be the boy or the girl?’ I said, ‘I’d be the boy.’ And she said, ‘I guess I could live with that.’ ”

But even with his mother’s seal of approval, there were still doubts. “Everyone said, ‘If you do it, you’ll never get a boyfriend,’ ” DiMarco says. “And I thought, well, I’m broke, I don’t have a boyfriend now, so I won’t have a boyfriend, but I’ll have the money. So I took the money.”

His first film was Matt Sterling’s All American, and he doesn’t recall being nervous. “I just remember it was a really long day,” he says. Several films for Catalina followed, and DiMarco’s career took off, along with any doubts about his new profession. “It’s stupid to lie about it if you’re gonna do porn,” he says. “You might as well have the balls to admit it because somebody is going to see it. I’ve had people I knew before I did porn come up to me in the grocery store and say, in a really bitchy tone, ‘Oh, we’ve seen your movies.’ And I’ll say, ‘Oh really, which one? Did you like it?’ Listen, I take my clothes off and fuck people in front of other people. If they’re gonna try and embarrass me, they’re gonna have to do better than that. Besides, everyone who is important to me—my mom and my boyfriend—knows, so I don’t care.”

The boyfriend that DiMarco is referring to is his current flame, Sal. The two live together in West Hollywood, and they recently solidified their relationship with a commitment ceremony and domestic partnership papers. Although DiMarco says that his lover is the jealous type, even Sal is a fan of the movie that put this screen stud into a Christian Dior tux. “Night Walk was the hardest to make, but it’s definitely my favorite movie,” DiMarco says. “We worked really long days, sometimes from 9am to 4am. The sets were huge; it felt like the set of Batman or something. And there was rain and wind and a sports car and Art Deco furniture. It’s just a cool film.”

Although DiMarco has two new movies (Lost in Vegas for All Worlds and Idol in the Sky for Men of Odyssey) and Ronnie Larsen—writer and director of the off-Broadway hit Making Porn—is courting him for a play, he says that what he’d really like to do is return to school for a degree in animal behavior. But mostly he’s content with the quiet life he shares with Sal; their dogs, Sammy and Sky; and their six-foot Burmese python, Lucy. “People think it’s so glamorous, but my life isn’t that exciting,” DiMarco says. “Doing movies and touring and dancing is like a fantasy. But it’s really just a job like any other.”

Reprinted from HX magazine (1996)

August 6, 1996

Porn Star Interview: Cole Youngblood


BY VINCENT LAMBERT

Cole Youngblood is a virgin. As he sits in his dressing room backstage at the Eros Theatre in New York City, looking nervously at the red light on the tape recorder, he makes a startling admission: He has never given an interview before. Yes, this buffed boy who has taken the gay porn world by storm in the past year has managed to avoid the probing eye of the press. Until now.

Youngblood (pictured above, right) has just steamed his way through a sensuous dance number onstage, wearing an American flag, military cap and nothing else. His ease with the audience belies the fact that he’s only been dancing and acting in skin flicks for less than two years. As he sits his hunky self down, Youngblood admits that he’s more than a bit nervous. So, how is this 23-year-old paramedic from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, enjoying his foray into adult films?

“It’s a lot of fun, but it’s work,” Youngblood says. “It’s a lot more work than it seems. You know when you’re shooting a movie, you’ve got to get this angle, that angle, stop, start, do this, do that. It’s hard.” But not hard enough to keep him from appearing in 10 films in the past year.

“He’s an incredible performer,” director Chi Chi LaRue says. “He’s got a big dick, and he loves to eat ass, which makes for a good porn star.” Youngblood had sent LaRue some photographs two years earlier that she says were “blurry, weird shots and didn’t make him look good, so I never pursued it. Now, he’s a big star and I turned him down!” The drag superstar recalls that the first time she and Youngblood actually worked together, he was very nervous at first, but “all he needed to do was stick his face in someone’s butt in order to get hard.”

Though he has appeared in such films as Studio Tricks (Catalina) and Black Muscle Machine (Brick House), Youngblood says Download (Falcon) is his personal favorite: “It was my first. I felt a lot more comfortable than I thought I would. And there’s one scene with Marco Calles and Kevin Dean that was very hot.” But he admits that he’s not a big fan of his own videos. “I never really watch them,” he says. “I’m too critical of myself.”

Although Youngblood still makes his home in Pennsylvania, he flies out to Los Angeles about once a month to make a movie or do a photo shoot. He remains close to his family, and says that his parents and sister have come to see him perform onstage. “
It was strange,” he laughs, “but they said, ‘We want to know exactly what you’re doing,’ so they came one time. I think that was enough for them.”

As for his personal life, Youngblood claims that at the moment he’s single. “It’s tougher to have a boyfriend in this business,” he says. And though he hopes to continue his education at some point, for now, his career comes first. “I figure I better do it while I can,” he says with a laugh.

Somehow, we get the feeling that this interview won’t be Cole Youngblood’s last.

Reprinted from HX magazine (1996)