© 1990 Rich Grzesiak, all rights reserved.
"I am considered to be the Lou Reed of gay porn." So claims J. D. Slater, a resident San Francisco pornographer extraordinaire, whose 37 year old flesh has graced dozens and dozens of video porn titles - which range from aptly entitled stuff like Hard to racier epics like I Need It Bad.
Sometimes it seems Slater has been an active participant in the gay porn trade for at least as long as Martha Graham has been involved with ballet - he started out in the early seventies and somehow, despite opportunities to burn out from bad health, drugs, or age, he's endured, even triumphed over the obstacles that normally retire you quickly from the video sex screen. What's remarkable is his graduation to producing and directing and owning a gay porn company, a relatively new enterprise he's christened Izzat Productions.
For Le Salon (a well known video group) he recently directed two works of true erotic style, Motorsexual and a very personal look at the people who work in the porn trade, The Confessions of J. D. Slater. Both invariably touch on the leather world and, like most of his work, spring from an intelligent, "artsy" sensibility. With Izzat Productions, he has deliberately narrowed his focus to leather sex, with works which sport a cinema verité look. For many, he's the Mapplethorpe of video porn.
Slater describes himself as a "bad boy of porn": "As far as safe sex in my work is concerned, I will not preach or morally judge, I am simply a documentarian of sexual incidents. What an actor does is completely his own decision I let an actor do exactly what he wants, any way he wants to do it. Some directors think it's their job to instruct the public on safe sex, and for them, that's great, but that's not my responsibility."
Slater makes no bones about the risks he enjoys in creating video erotica: "My job is to capture certain moments which as time goes by are rarer and rarer. It upsets some people, but I get more complements than criticism."
"Of the people who started with me in The Business, there's me and Al Parker - we're the last of the dinosaurs. Most have retired, died of the disease, or burnt themselves out on other things: some died of drugs, some simply went crazy, but they weren't too tightly wrapped to begin with."
So, dear reader, here's your big chance - an opportunity to really hear an enfant terrible from one of the most secretive of gay male subcultures, the pornography business. I picked J. D.'s brains on almost everything, and here's what we dished up:
Rich Grzesiak (RG): The stereotypical pornographer sports trench coats and dark sunglasses, his empty life exploiting others' sexual needs. How does that image square with your own?
J.D. Slater (JDS): Well, the sunglasses fit [chuckle]. I have many interests aside from pornography - I paint, sculpt, write, compose music. Porn takes up approximately 20% of my life; sex occupies another 40%.
RG: Is it healthy for sex to preoccupy 40 to 60% of one's life?
JDS: For me it is. I get nervous if I don't get laid, not that it's a preoccupation. One of the few perks of being in the sex business this long is you don't have to do a lot to get laid. I have a few steady boyfriends who are in and out of here - they're switching nights now - so even if I didn't want to, sex would still consume 40% of my time.
RG: A common objection non-gays have to the gay lifestyle is the homosexual obsession with SEX: "That's all you people ever think about, going to bed with each other."
JDS: I think sex is probably the most democratic form of expression humans have; sex is definitely an area where god was the most democratic. Every person has an equal ability to express and feel sexual fulfillment. We're all different, but everyone has the same ability. You cut through a lot of the bullshit in bed. Most of my best friends I met by picking them up for other reasons.
I used to very much enjoy anonymous sex. Now I prefer steady partners.
RG: It seems pornography is more important for gays because it's an outlet for safe sex.
JDS: That accounts for 80% of porn's popularity. The other 20% derives from Americans' fondness for escapism - viewing porn involves less feeling and involvement than actual sex itself.
RG: Does your age and resumé give you the credentials to judge how popular erotica is in 1990 as opposed to a decade ago?
JDS: Over the last 10 years, with the explosion of video, the audience for erotica has developed certain gay cult groups. In gay circles, porn has become so accepted it's on a par with having paper towels in your house. Everyone has a VCR, and at least a couple of fuck films in their video collection.
Everyone has at least a minor interest [in porn]. More porn is selling and the market is dividing up into more specialized audiences; major porn companies like Catalina, Le Salon, VCA, have been losing business to people who patronize small firms like Palm Drive Video (an S&M/fetish company). Falcon has such a die hard following as their product is so consistent. Catalina's titles are dropping off in popularity because they have mined their end of the market so thoroughly - who needs another movie about a blonde twinkie sitting by a pool?
RG: Why do most gay porn films feature California blondes who always look coked up to their eyeballs?
JDS: Because the big companies who dominate porn video have convinced themselves blonde is all that will sell - a winning formula which will continue to make money. That worked well for a while, but as the audience changed and grew, these firms didn't. As their market declines, they are stepping up this Stepford Wives mentality of regimenting what should and shouldn't go into their films. Much of the new porn being produced is emerging from new directors who have an impossible time finding a distributor. The distributor gives them The Formula: X number of blondes, brunettes, sex acts, etc. New directors are very nervous about deviating from The Formula, so they make Pleasure Beach for the 900th time.
Rarely does a distributor allow a porn director to use his brains in his work. I was very lucky when Le Salon allowed me to make something unorthodox like The Confessions of J. D. Slater - I tried to complete it for over two years. HIS Video and LA Video wouldn't touch it - they compared it to The Formula, and claimed it wouldn't work. Many big distributors consider me risky, not as far as sales go, because I have always delivered a good product, but they're terrified the next film I do will open up with a blonde being fist fucked by two bikers who in turn have sex with great Dales.
RG: Maybe their concerns are legitimate. When the Far Right attempts to legislate censorship of pornography, they equate gay sex with bestiality and animal husbandry. Your interest in videotaping the gay leather subculture contributes to those fears, don't you think?
JDS: Leather is where my audience lies, but I've been very lucky in being able to stay on the legal side of censors. When it comes down to actual sex acts in my films, there really isn't anything all that radical - critic John Rowberry says they're isn't anything original in my films, I just have a knack for making it look dirtier than other people [do] Most sex in my work is fairly ordinary; it's the joie de vivre of my cast which makes it seem different.
RG: You are updating what porn director Christopher Rage started - you're interpolating late 20th century cinematography techniques into videotaping erotica. If Falcon Films were to video the same sexual acts you do, it would be competently done, but would take no chances, involve no exotic angles, etc. So they lose the sexual magic you preserve through your unorthodox videography.
JDS: With Falcon, everything is perfectly lit, and centered, with no shadows, not a cigarette in an ashtray remains to be seen, no one's hair gets mussed - they concentrate only on the dick and the face. I view videoing sex as a composition statement - there's a whole lot more going on than the Dick and ass as far as what is most expressive, or where the energy is.
As a result, I don't watch a lot of gay porn, as most of it upsets me. The directors I study are Hitchcock, Friedkin, Truffaut, and a lot of Fassbinder. Those men influence my work more than other gay porn directors.
RG: While much has been written about gay pornography over the years, there still remains this terrible mystery of how gay porn is actually produced. Help me solve this Chinese puzzle: How do distributors go about finding the Jeff Stryker of 1991?
JDS: In LA, for example, kids arrive in town, want to make some extra bucks, and agents find them. Just about everybody in LA has done a fuck film, so you can ask every third person for advice.
RG: "You've got the cock; I've got the money; you'll fuck him for so much and this often" Is that how it goes?
JDS: You may not even have to get hard - they have "stunt dicks."
RG: Huh?
JDS: A "stunt Dick" is a fake Dick that very much resembles the Dick of the person you're supposed to be seeing. You wear it, and it may look harder than your own Dick would.
RG: What's the difference between Southern California gay porn companies and a San Francisco firm like Falcon Films?
JDS: Falcon has a much greater concern about aesthetics. In LA, they throw two bodies into a room, and they want sex taped now! Falcon takes great pains to ensure the men are displayed to their best advantage and are paired with people who complement one another physically. They're very good at what they produce, but I wish they would loosen up a little bit with how they tape scenes.
RG: Does a royalty ever apply to a sexual performance? Can a Jeff Chandler or a Ron Flexx collect a residual from sex work?
JDS: The companies very rarely offer a participation deal. If they do make such a commitment to a porn actor, it's out and out lying. If you get into arguments over money, you ruin the relationship with that distributor and can blow a career very quickly. The moment you do, you know you're doomed.
Most distributors will tell you they know what's going to sell, but they really don't know how they will do in the marketplace. Many porn flicks come to a distributor and meet with real disinterest - then sell very well. The first film I directed for VCA - Hard - is probably still the biggest film they ever released - absolute fortunes were made from that movie! I won't even tell you what I collected as a performer and director in it! I did OK financially with Confessions of J. D. Slater, but nobody expected it to sell the way it has. Even I thought its sales would be long term through word of mouth.
RG: Does organized crime participate in production of pornography?
JDS: No, not really - we're all audited to death. The biggest misconception about pornography is that we launder money for the mob.
The U. S. government wants to know where every dime goes. I keep receipts for Kleenex used.
I started working in porn a long time ago for a firm called TMX. Back then, 80% of the porn houses, both gay and straight, in America, were owned by a Middle Eastern government. I'm serious - I used to get paid with that government's checks! 42nd Street in Manhattan paid for a Middle Eastern war. It's one of those nasty little truths which they don't want to get out.
A European government owned pieces of the porn business, while Lloyd's of London had an interest in a porn flick called Centurions of Rome because the money which paid for it came from the Brink's job.
But all the money I've earned from pornography came from clean sources.
RG: Are drugs a problem in the production of porn?
JDS: They can be. I myself, of the multitude, was sober as a judge for every porn flick I made except two, which I absolutely hated. One was an experiment to see if I could perform sexually while drugged, but as it turned out, I couldn't. I might have a beer at most before filming.
On my set, I don't tell the kids what to do but drugs are probably not recommendable, because they show up on your face right away. When I tape sex, the adrenaline starts going almost immediately, and that should suffice as a drug for most.
When I edit my tapes, I try to leave out images which might encourage someone to experience harm if they do not handle it correctly You never see a narcotic or a bottle of liquor in my films or any indication of such behavior. I used poppers in Motorsexual deliberately - to be as politically incorrect as possible, to do everything one wasn't supposed to in 30 seconds.
I am criticized whether I do it or not. I am, after all, the bad boy of pornography.
RG: Why have you formed a new porn company [Izzat Productions]? What do you hope to achieve?
JDS: I just started, and am breaking the first rule of show business to never use your own money. I didn't want to deal with any partners.
RG: You're working in a very risky area, as not everyone wants to see the kind of sex you're videoing.
JDS: True. I'm not broadcasting, I'm narrow-casting, targeting one specific group and luckily for me that audience has a lot of money and is very loyal.
RG: How do you find the guys who appear in your films?
JDS: I've been to bed with them all.
To be perfectly honest, that's not why we went to bed. My right eye focuses like a camera, and I look down and suddenly I realize how well they'll photograph. I have a jeweler's eye for sexy men, and I am never wrong on how well they'll look.
It's not a requirement for people to have sex with me in order to appear in my films - but it works out well so I can learn what turns them on, how they'll get off, and ultimately how I can pair them up with other people.
RG: I often get the sense that many porn stars are into S&M, but they fear doing it publicly, or the people making The Flick tell them S&M does not fit The Formula for salable porn.
JDS: Even if S&M were permissible by The Formula, they all want to be tops. You're wrong when you say most porn actors are into S&M. While it may appear that way, when you pull out the accouterments that go with making a leather sex video, most stare at it the way a caveman looks at a car. They like the look because of leather's costume-like appeal - enough vests and armbands and everybody looks like god.
RG: I'm fascinated by porn actor Jack Lofton - how he can do vanilla sex in a Falcon video, and then perform as top and bottom in a tape for you.
JDS: Most porn directors want all their sex to be cut and dry - this one will be top, this guy a bottom, and we can't mix it up or the audience itself will be confused.
RG: Can you imagine a middle class gay man doing porn and still retaining respectability? Is there a lot of risk involved?
JDS: No. Everybody has done it; it's no longer a shock or scandal to realize your next door neighbor has done a porn film.
RG: If I appeared in a porn film I don't have to worry about someone giving my boss a copy?
JDS: No. I wouldn't recommend people in a government job do porn. Most people I work with just want to do one or two films, get it out of their system, and be done with it.
I believe as long as what you're doing is what you want to do, you can approach it with a certain amount of dignity. It's undignified to watch two kids being paid to have sex who obviously have no interest in each other - that's embarrassing. If you're up there and look good - no one I've ever worked with ever run into any flack.
After I started in porn, I stopped for a few years and got involved with a Manhattan promotional company which did business with major record labels and some of the best clubs in town. No one ever gave me any trouble.
If you have the attitude you're embarrassed at what you've done - people can hold it over your head.
RG: Did porn star Kurt Marshall (The Other Side of Aspen, Part 2) die of AIDS and drug addiction?
JDS: I've heard that rumor, too, and frankly don't know. Every time someone doesn't see me for a few months, they automatically bury me.
RG: So, to sum up: who's responsible for your success?
80% of the credit for my work belongs to my casts. It's not so much what I do, but what they do. I just stay out of their way.
March 2001 update: I have a radically different opinion of Mr. Slater today (compared to what I did in 1990): he is an interesting artifact of the Porno World. His persistence is enduring, and evocative of the person he really is.