During his first-ever fuck in front of the camera, Chris Steele was pounding away when his partner suddenly ran off the set and locked himself in the bathroom. He returned 30 minutes later, throwing his legs in the air. "I stick my dick into his butt-hole and, no lie, it was ice cold. Ice cold!" recalls Steele with a laugh. "He had been in the bathroom sticking ice up his butt to make it numb. They told me later that he said I was fucking him too hard."
It was part of an interesting introduction to the porn world in 1998 that had Steele second-guessing himself. "Porn was not at all what I thought it was going to be — it was a lot harder," he says. "And I had a career. I had been running clubs, so it wasn't like I was ready to just walk away from all that. But my boss back in Dallas found out I was doing porn. He didn't approve and fired me. Had that not happened, I might not have done another movie."
After his first film, he was signed as an exclusive with Studio 2000. Various studios and 21 hit films later, Steele had sharpened his behind-the-scenes skills so well Falcon hired him as Director of Production in February 2004.
"When I started in porn, I knew kind of where I wanted to go. I was a little older, and I could look at porn as, 'Hey, let's try and do this right.' I had studied up on it, and I discovered that all the guys that were really well known and had made a name for themselves had become exclusives, so I knew that was what I wanted to do."
He also knew how to market himself without risking overexposure, launching his own website in the early days of the Internet (1999), participating in live chats and webcam broadcasts; starting a stripping career; acting on stage; and being picky with his films.
"I only did three or four a year, and I always wanted the starring role and the box. If you look at the list of movies, I was pretty adamant that they put me on the cover. I wanted the publicity from doing the movie, because I wasn't doing ten to fifteen movies a year like some guys."
After a string of Studio 2000 hits, he appeared in Rascal Video's first feature, Steele Ranger, and the Titan smash, Heat. He, with Michael Soldier, won a Best Sex Scene award for Raging Stallion's Cops Gone Bad, and he appeared in other hits like Falcon's Deep South films.
But his favorite scene is in Studio 2000's Czech Point. "I was very flattered to get to fuck Pavel Novotny [Jan Dvorak]. He's beautiful," swoons Steele. "And then after fucking him, the next day at the gym he walks up to me while working out. He doesn't speak any English, and he rubs his butt and goes, 'Sore!'"
Steele's last on-screen performance was Unzipped Video's In Bed With, in which he fucks Falcon exclusive Josh Weston. He insists his days in front of the camera are over. "My motto now is, I only take my clothes off for fun," Steele says.
Moving on has been a breeze for Steele, who started writing scripts and working as a production assistant at Falcon before working there full time. "I came to California in July of 2003 and worked on Quarterback Sack, which I also wrote. That was my first time: I was the condom and lube boy. It was fun, and it was different. I enjoyed being on the other side of the camera. At the same time, I could relate to what the boys were going through because I had been in their shoes."
Seven months later, he was hired full time. And the results speak for themselves: Taking Flight 1-2, Steele's first foray into directing (he doesn't count 2000's Steele Pole) has become Falcon's all-time best-selling title.
"Chi Chi LaRue was supposed to direct it and she had a heart attack," Steele recalls. "The Falcon board called me into the boardroom... it was like The Apprentice. Then they had a meeting and called me back in and said, 'Okay, we're going to give you the project.' That was on Monday, and I left on Wednesday for L.A. to start directing, so I didn't really have time to worry or be nervous. I just went into it with the confidence that I had been working in production, I knew the system, I had been in front of the camera. I just went into it with the attitude of: This is a big responsibility, they've trusted me with this, there is a lot of money riding on this movie, and I'm not going to let them down."
Steele cites LaRue as having a strong impact on his career, but it is John Travis who he credits with being his biggest influence. "I shot my first five movies with John Travis, and I learned a lot about directing from him. John always films three fuck positions so I always film three, if I can," Steele says with a laugh. "I'm also personally a huge fan of rimming. There's a lot of films I've seen where nobody rims anybody through the whole film, and I’m like, 'What's going on?!'"
It's that signature touch Steele shows off in the Jocks film Flex, and in Falcon's new two-part Cross Country. Steele has also finished Spokes 3, a sequel to two of Falcon's most popular classics.
"Each movie you do, you hope you make a really good movie that people like, and I always take a lot of pride in the casts. I don't really have a lot of long-term goals other than that. I'm the Director of Production at Falcon," he says with awe. "I don't know where else I can go from here."
Photo courtesy of FalconStudios.com
