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Porn Icon James Deen On "Fifty Shades," Straight Guy Hangups, And If He'd Ever Do Gay Porn

[caption id="attachment_183626" align="aligncenter" width="610"]in bed Deen with Liam and Levi[/caption]

At just 29, adult film star James Deen has been featured in GQ, appeared in Paul Schrader's The Canyons, and even has his his own (NSFW) cooking show, James Deen Loves Food. He's been nominated for an AVN Award (the porn Oscars) a record 68 times, and works with the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee to improve working conditions in the industry.

But the most famous male actor in the straight porn world has yet to cross the divide into the world of gay porn—until last week.

Related: James Deen Calls James Franco A "Dick"

On Valentine's Day, Deen made an appearance on the first episode of In Bed With Levi + Liam, a web talk show featuring gay porn actors Levi Karter and Liam Riley. The CockyBoys-produced series aims to bridge the distance between the straight and gay porn worlds.

"I think it’s important to have open discussions between the different areas of the adult film industry," Deen told Shalom Life recently. "Just because we don’t appear in the same style of scenes doesn’t me we aren’t all part of the same business. Breaking down existing barriers that negate equality is extremely important to me.”

We sat down with Deen during a break in filming and got right down to the business of pleasure.


NewNowNext: Is there homophobia in the straight porn world?

I think so, yes. I think people need to be trained—it's a matter of re-educating.

One of the things we want to work on is losing the line between the gay and the straight industry, because it is all one industry. There’s a lot of bi or gay-for-pay or straight-for-pay performers that will jump around. The idea that we are two separate industries is asinine.

[caption id="attachment_183629" align="aligncenter" width="337"]James Deen-LOGO Photo Credit: RJ Sebastian[/caption]

How will your audience react to you being on a gay-porn talk show?

Look, I’m proud to be involved. I think it’s important that people within our industry get very comfortable with the fact that there are different types of adult films being shot, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not all ultimately making adult films.

I don’t participate in boy-boy films, but it’s still all the same “house.” We’re facing the same issues from outside the industry regardless if it’s gay, straight, queer, bi, or whatever.

Quite a lot of gay guys would love for you to do a boy-boy film. Is that in the realm of possibilities?

The problem is that I’m not bisexual. Never say never about anything, sure, but I don’t think so. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m straight. I used to have trouble saying ‘I’m straight,’ thinking if I ever met a guy I wanted to fuck, yeah I’m going to fuck him. I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh wait, I’m straight.”

But I was hanging out with my friend and he said, "That’s the most bullshit pussy-ass answer, just fucking admit you’re straight!"

I realize now I’m straight. I’ve accepted it. I’m dealing with it.

Some straight men have hangups about any sex involving their butt, like rimming—even if it's with a woman. Why is that?

Rimming is awesome—and I don't see how it is ‘gay.' If the desire is to have a member of the same sex lick your butt then I would say that would be ‘gay,’ however, I lick lady butts and have ladies lick my butt all the time. I don't see where or how that can be misconstrued as [gay].

Am I missing something? Is it because buttholes are gay? Buttholes aren't gay. Whoever said that needs to go pick up a copy of Everybody Poops.

[caption id="attachment_183647" align="aligncenter" width="407"]jd_solo_29 Photo: Doc Johnson[/caption]

Do you ever feel like you've had enough sex?

Never. I once woke up and said, “Oh shit, I have to go to work today and realized I said ‘I have to’ instead of ‘I get to.’

I realized what was bothering me was that I was working too much so I cut out all the people I don’t like and only operate with companies with proper ethical standards.

How many women have you slept with on camera?

No clue. I’ve been doing this 11 years, a scene every day, and the first couple years multiple scenes a day. But now I’ve slowed down and I’m only doing 20 scenes a month.

Will you go see Fifty Shades Of Grey?

I doubt it. I didn’t read the books, [but] there was talk about my being in the movie.

How serious was that talk?

Probably very unrealistic. I have met people from Focus Features and talked to them in a very hypothetical sense, and there’s been emails that have been pretty fun. I’ve been up for a lot of things lately and I’ll drive around and see the posters and recall being up for this and up for that.

I think I would’ve had fun with Fifty Shades, but I don’t think they would have done it on my terms. But sure, I would’ve loved to have been in it.

Looking back at The Canyons, what do you retain from that experience?

I’m really proud of it—I think it made me a better actor. I give myself a B, maybe a B+. I was watching it recently and thought ‘I could have done so much better.’

But it was my first real narrative feature and it was a good experience.

What was it like working with the film's screenwriter, Bret Easton Ellis?

That man’s a genius. I still see him very regularly—he was the one that yelled at me for not owning my ‘straightness.' He’s the most down-to-earth normal, humble person.

[caption id="attachment_183648" align="aligncenter" width="406"]James Deen and Bret Easton Ellis attend the "The Canyons" premiere at The 70th Venice International Film. James Deen and Bret Easton Ellis[/caption]

When I first met him, he was telling me ‘I wrote this book Less Than Zero and people liked it. And he told me like he thought I'd never heard of it.

That shit defined my fucking childhood! I grew up in Los Angeles and, yes, I read Less Than Zero.

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