Porno Collin O’Neal writes

Comme je farfouille dans mon ordi pour des archives, je tombe sur ce texte de Collin O’Neal, qu’il a probablement publié sur son blog ou ailleurs. Et comme ça date de 2007, je trouve que ça a déjà une valeur historique, sur ce qu’il faisait, sur ce qu’il voulait faire et tout. Même si les amatateurs de porno gay se sont tournés vers des acteurs plus neufs, je reste toujours très fidèle à Collin. Le mec est un des straight shooters les plus consistants du porno gay US.

I grew up in a small town about 40 minutes by car from San Francisco, but I left when I was 20 for Miami. I have only been involved in porn for about 5 years.

People never guess that I am Irish, but both of my parents’ ancestors are of Irish origins. I say ancestors because both my mother’s and father’s family have been in the United States for 8 generations. I am not sure Irish guys are as popular as other types of guys. At least in America there is something called the “Irish curse” which refers to Irish guys’ not having such big packages, you know. I also don’t think I have such an “Irish” look and was not sure what a typical Irish look was until I went to Boston that has a large Irish population and I don’t think I look anything like them. I do know I am “Black Irish” a kind of Irish that have darker more Spanish features.

I’m glad you always think I deliver the goods but it is all based on the fact that I did porn only when I felt like it and with someone I wanted to do it with. The most important interaction between two people to me is chemistry and I took that need for chemistry to my porn career. You won’t find hot guys having boring sex in my productions but you will find normal guys having really hot chemistry laden sex.

I think a model should only partake in sex acts he is comfortable with. I also think sometimes porn can be a bit extreme for the sake of companies thinking porn needs to be something of a fantasy, thus a gay man’s fantasy is something more extreme than they would normally do in their own lives. However, sometimes our fantasies are not solely based on one certain fetish. I am not saying I am vanilla, but rather I find different locations and experimenting with different types of guys more intriguing than extreme sex. And once again, I think chemistry is more important than the models or a fetish. If my models want to do something more extreme or different, I let them go at it as long as they are sexually turned on by it. As for me, I am open to trying something as long as I feel comfortable.

HotHouse was the first porn company I worked with and I only planned to do one movie with my boyfriend at the time Arapd and then leave the industry. HotHouse called me several times asking me to come back and do more and finally after much thought I decided to sign a one year contract with them and put the money aside to make a down payment on flat in South Beach, which I did. I stuck with HotHouse because of the contract, but we did not always agree on some issues. We went through some tough times, but Steven Scarborough and the HotHouse crew and I made amends and I went back to make one final movie outside of my contract. One thing about HotHouse and Steven Scarborough is that he always treats his models very well, at least that is how I feel, and that is why I agreed to sign a contract with them in the first place. I must say that I have no complaints about any of the other studios I have worked for and am in fact very close to Chi Chi LaRue who has advised me throughout the startup of my own company.

I do not think I entered the porn industry at a moment when my type became popular at all. I think an attraction to my type and other types have always been around, but the porn industry for the longest time thought porn consumers only wanted to see smooth overbuilt muscle guys having sex. Hairy guys use to be a niche market until studios figured out that porn consumers liked to see different types of guys in porn. I do not think I am an icon in any way ; that is not something I was searching for. Rather, I would love for people to look up to me as a role model. First, it would be a HUGE project to shave or trim my body hair or to even shave my face every day and I am very fortunate I was born with very soft gentle hair on my chest and legs. I am also proud that my body is 100% natural. I started working out when I was 18 and never took any special supplement or any type of steroid. I believe in to each his own and there are some bodies out there that I have drooled over that are built by steroids. But I hope that all guys out there can look at me and think my body is achievable naturally. Oh, and I have really good genes when it comes to my legs !

Yes, I shoot that far ! I can actually shoot that far twice a day, but I can shoot even further if I hold back for a few days and take Viagra.

First, in America, cumming on someone’s face or near their mouth is not considered unsafe sex. Most health professionals do not believe facial cumshots are risky but then there are other health professionals that believe you should only suck a cock with a condom and not lick an ass. Second, personally, I try to be as safe as possible in my porn and when I was asked by the model to cum on his face/mouth I thought that would be ok from my understanding of safe sex practices that are accepted by the majority of health professionals. If a model asked me to fuck him without a condom or cum while he was sucking my cock, I would not consider such acts.

I do not think HIV status is something that should be discussed until you and your sexual partner plan on doing something “unsafe.” I work in an industry that does not ask the question of HIV status as to not cause discrimination within our community. There is still a horrible stigma in the Untied States against HIV+ people and I use to be one of those people until I educated myself. Education is the only way to prevent discrimination and the spread of HIV.

I believe the porn industry is part of sex education for young gays. I know many people involved in the bareback industry argue against the “monkey see monkey do” concept, but I defiantly do not. People even argue about the fact that people do not go out and kill when they see a violent movie, but look at our world today ! I was in Lebanon last year during the war and saw death and destruction and just look what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur to mention a few. People see and people do. People see violence and then re-enact violence. So, when young gays see people having bareback sex they go and try it especially if they have not been taught any different. When bareback companies are advertised on storefronts and are the first movies you see when you go into the porn shop basically you will pick it up and then want to try it. HIV may be more manageable these days (the side effects of the drugs have yet to be completely void of issues), but isn’t our goal to eradicate HIV. I guess herpes, hepatitis, and syphilis have been eradicated too, right ? Now, unsafe sex is not something that we, as an industry, should promote. I believe there will be a big backlash very soon against the bareback industry and I think the David Awards was just the first small step.

I started World of Men for many reasons, but my main reason was being bored with mainstream porn. I saw the same guys being used by many different companies and some guys that I thought should not even be in porn. In addition, the porn industry seemed to becoming a factory and it was obvious in the models eyes (you know, lack of chemistry). (Maybe that is why people turned to watching bareback porn). Another major reason to start my own company was to combine my love of travel with making porn. I think people want to see something different, someone different and something they have not seen before.

Lebanon has a special place in my heart. I use to live there and go back often. I saw that poor country throughout the years rebuild itself miraculously from the first time I went in 1996. I felt secure enough to shoot a porn there, so for about 8 months I was doing my best to organize the models and locations. I think people were ready for a porn that was actually filmed in the Middle East with some real people from the region instead of dressing up Latinos as Arabs or putting together ridiculous sets, I mean, you can’t build a bombed out building or the intrigue that goes with the fact the viewer knows it was a risky move.

The filming for Lebanon went quite smoothly compared to some of my other shoots. I filmed there just a few months before the war started so that was fortunately not a concern during filming. The only time I felt really concerned for myself, crew and models was when we were shooting some non sexual parts at some ruins and had the police and eventually the secret service investigate us. I had one tape with sex on it that I shoved in my underwear and Francois Sagat and Martin Mazza took another model to the bathroom to erase any nude photos on their still cameras. I was also able to get the police on my good side by giving them some Viagra. Also, it may seem as the “region” is troubled and that is what our media portrays Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, but the fact is life is quite normal on the ground there. One country that is troubled is Israel and I feel uncomfortable and nervous every time I go there ; I never feel that way in Lebanon, Syria or Jordan.

Everyone in this world has sex. I do not think politics nor even war prevents people from having sex. Those of us living in peace are actually intrigued by this contradiction in political turmoil and sex. I also could have never predicted the nasty war that was going to happen right after I finished filming Lebanon. I think people, especially Americans, are intrigued by this region and that is why Lebanon was so popular. I hope some day soon the region can be in peace, but that will only happen with an independent sovereign Palestine. The bigger issue in the region is the harassment of gays. Lebanon is very liberal and even Syrians are not known for harassing gays. I definitely would not want to be gay in Jordan and especially not in Palestine or Egypt at the moment thought. With peace will come liberalization and accepting of differences. Lebanon has had 15 years of dealing with such issues making it a much more liberal than its close Arab neighbors.

There were some other tense moments when filming Lebanon. When I went to pick up Francois Sagat at Damascus airport the taxi driver tried to hold me hostage for my cell phone. I had to jump out of a moving cab in an unfamiliar poor neighborhood and call a friend of mine for help. Fortunately another taxi driver came by and was very nice and honest and took me right to the airport where Francois was eagerly awaiting my arrival. When I was shooting the scene in the bombed out building there were several times that the models had to pull up their pants when some people came to close to the building. This group of bombed out buildings is very public, but many Lebanese are still afraid of going near them since Syrians use to live in them until just after Hariri’s death and the Lebanese pushed many Syrians out of the country. I also had to change locations at the last moment when my friends told me to film in his apartment and when he opened the door I was shocked about how un-authentic the apartment looked. It was baby blue and maroon and I had to pull out the vodka and leave the shooting for the next day. After a night of drinking my cameraman and I woke up early to go buy authentic Arab tapestry to make another friends’ apartment look authentic. When I went to go plug in the lighting I was being stupid and accidentally electrocuted myself. I think that was enough fun for a porn shoot !

I use to live in Lebanon for about 1 year back in 2000 and would have stayed longer if it were not for September 11, 2001. I have many friends there and go back at least once a year. I just spoke the other day to one of my good friends who is a DJ and he just did not seem to be in the best mood since Lebanon is currently struggling to replace their Pro-Syrian President with a defiantly Pro-Lebanese President and this process has ended in many bombings in the past few years.

I personally do not think that attraction to Arab men is a fad or will pass. I think that many Americans are not sure what an Arab man looks like. In fact, Arab men do not look the same at all. Even Lebanese have different features than Syrians and Jordanians. From Morocco to Algeria to Lebanon to Iran, men across the region are distinctively different but most have facial features that are strikingly masculine. Strong sharp jaw lines, large prominent noses and the shape of their foreheads are something most gay men like. As far as the Latino and Black “trend,” well, I do not think it is such a trend in our personal lives, but rather a trend in porn. We have been inundated with Latino porn filmed mostly in Brasil and after a while it becomes common place and quite boring. I am not fond of companies that go for the money. For example it is very cheap to shoot in Brasil so you can make a lot of money from just shooting in Brasil. Now many companies are going for the quick and easy money in bareback porn. You see, trends in porn are based on profit, that disgusts me. As far as our personal preferences, well, everyone is attracted to something different. Some white men just love black men or Latino men or Orientals. I would hope that gay men are attracted to certain features and such rather then being racists. In most part, I have found that attraction is not racist. I know there are gay men out there that are a bit racist, but as a Producer and as a gay man I cannot promote racism. If I receive a complaint about filming blacks or Latinos or any other ethnicity I just do my best to ignore such complaints.

You can definitely find much of my stories on the net ! I have a blog on my website, www.collinoneal.com, but it is only in English. I have been concerned for many years about not translating my site, but get ready France, next year (2008) you will finally be able to read my website in your native language ! In regards to myspace, well, I have to admit I made a huge push to put it up, but not a huge push to keep it current, but that is on my to do list !

Myspace is a very strange website sometimes. I cannot speak for my good friend Chi Chi, but I personally administer my myspace. If you ever wondered, I usually take a look at the profile I approve to make sure the person is above 18, is gay, and is not going to spam me. It is much easier to weed through profiles before approving them than cleaning up a huge mess fake profiles can cause ! So yes, I am selective about the profiles I approve, but I will not disapprove any gay man.