A while back, Alex Roman – a director at Helix Studios who’s been filming gay porn for 7 years, went on Reddit for an Ask Me Anything session. What a great opportunity to learn what it’s like behind the scenes of the gay porn industry.
- Also Watch: Go Behind The Scenes Of A Gay Porn Shoot
1. Porn stars are NOT Recruited on the street. (When someone stops next to you, run!)
The Question: “About 4 years ago, walking down a street in the LA area, a guy in a really nice car pulled up next to me, asked me how old I was, and then asked if I ‘want do porno movie’. I politely declined without asking for more info. That’s not how casting is ever done, right? Would I have been murdered if I’d gone with him?
“Lol well this situation is usually happening at some kind of gay event or club. Like I wouldn’t approach some dude standing outside of a high school or anything”
2. Some porn directors just wanted to be filmmakers, and ended up filming naked men
The Question: “Hi Alex!! I’m a Helix Fanatic!! And a Kyle Ross Lover ❤. So, did you always know you wanted to become a Adult Film Maker? Or was it something you stumbled upon?”
“I was interested in movies and film-making ever since I was a baby, and I was exposed to porn at a pretty young age since we had Cinemax in my house growing up.
So I always knew I wanted to work in film-making in some way, and after film school an opportunity presented itself and I wasn’t opposed 🙂
It works out pretty well because at Helix, we get to flex our creative muscle sometimes. As opposed to some other studios that are more cookie cutter, beige-couch-in-front-of-a-beige-wall type studios.”
3. There are less “gay for pay” models than you might think. But they make a lot of money…
The Question: “Are most actors ‘gay for pay’ as the rumours suggest? And how much do they get paid?”
“We work with straight models occasionally but all of our regular models are gay. There are some studios that use mostly straight guys.
It really comes down to how hot someone is and how well they perform. We don’t discriminate against straight guys 😉
The model’s pay varies greatly depending on experience and performance. I can’t say exact numbers but our top models drive Beamers and Benzs.
Guys in gay porn generally get paid a lot more than guys in straight porn which is why there are a lot of gay4payers. Being a model is also about being an entrepreneur, there are a lot of other ways to earn money as a model.”
4. Not everything you see is real…
The Question: “Is the sperm real? I read somewhere that its not real.”
“I’m glad you asked this, it’s one of my biggest pet peeves in this business. At Helix we never ever use fake cum but I know of a lot of studios that do.
It’s usually Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser. That’s the one that looks the most like cum. You can always tell when it’s fake too because it doesn’t have quite the right viscosity.
This reminds me of a story but it’s kind of graphic. At the studio I worked at previously, before Helix, we had one model who could never cum. He was a great performer with a huge wiener but he could never cum no matter how long he jerked it.
Anyway, we were preparing to do a fake cumshot with a bottle of Cetaphil and all. And we’re about to do it, and the guy just grabs the bottle of cetaphil out of my hands and puts the end of the pump into his urethra, and proceeds to pump 4 big pumps of Cetaphil into his wiener.
And I just stood there like wtf. Then we said action and he squeezed the Cetaphil out of his wiener like he was squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. So we got the shot and that became the way he came from then on. I don’t consider myself to have a weak stomach but that grossed me out.”
5. The actors are not all from poor, broken homes
The Question: “In straight porn I read about the actor’s child abuse, substance abuse, and other assorted issues past and present. Is it any different for gay actors?”
“I think it’s a funny misconception that every porn model is this deeply troubled and broken individual. Most of the models we meet and work with don’t have any issues and are relatively well adjusted.
It could be said that just the fact they’re in porn makes them a certain type of person, but they’re mostly normal people with normal life goals.”
6. How do the models always know to change positions on cue? Well, they get a cue!
The Question: “Can you talk about the logistics of filming? Like talking about when to film closeups and swivelling shots. I’d imagine a lot of work goes into getting the right angles.”
“We shoot with two cameras, one of us is wide and the other is closeup and we have a production assistant (Andy Taylor, also a model) who holds the boom microphone.
So there’s three of us there during filming. We usually discuss the positions with the models beforehand so we know what to expect. When the cameras roll and the models start having sex we try to say as little as possible to keep the sex natural. Sometimes I’ll ask them to move their arm or leg if it’s blocking something.
We usually also cue them when to change positions so we can have a shot set up for that. The sex usually lasts about 45 minutes then all of the best shots are edited down to a 20-25 minute scene.”
7. Gay porn models are sometimes mistaken for armed forces
The Question: “Have you ever gotten in an awkward situation when someone asked what you do for a living?”
“It’s usually more awkward for them lol
Usually it’s when there’s a big group of us eating out after a shoot, the server will ask us what we do for a living. Then we all look at each other and ask “banana?”, That’s our code word.
If we decide yes banana we say porn. If it’s no banana, then no.
Usually they give a “oh….right on” response. Or sometimes they don’t believe us. One time a guy was like “hahaha… no seriously, Navy??”
8. Size? Don’t believe the hype
The Question: How promiscuous and sexually active are porn models in their private lives? Also, most porn studios lie about the size of the male model’s dick… how do you think your models compare to the general public average?
“Models are all different, some are very promiscuous and some only have sex when it’s on camera. I’d say they’re all very sexual people but how they express it varies.
Unfortunately internet dick size is well established as being 1-2″ longer than real life so it’s too late to fix peoples perception of size. So basically everyone has to lie whether they want to or not. If we’re going by the stuff that says average is 5.5-6″, then the average model’s dick is bigger, usually 6.5-8”.
9. Getting the right angle isn’t as easy as you think!
The Question: “What’s the most creative/craziest thing you’ve done to get the right angle?”
“There was one time that was pretty funny where Kyle had to straddle me so I could get a POV angle with him looking into the camera.
And one time was kind of dangerous, where I had to hold my breath underwater to film a hot tub blowie. And probably the most difficult one was a 1:30 long Steadicam shot that tracks all throughout a hallway in Scandal at Helix Academy.
That one was tough blocking the camera moves, actors, and extras and it took 20 takes to get the one we used.”
If you want to see the work being done at Helix, you can check them out via this VERY NSFW link.