Congratulations, Gus! You've just won Performer of the Year! How do you want to celebrate? "You want the truth? My instinct was to turn around and leave the club," he says. "When I heard my name called I suddenly became more self-conscious than I ever have been in my life. My twenty seconds onstage are something of a blur. My friend had to tell me what I said. I do seem to recall that I planted a big wet one on Jake Andrews, who was onstage presenting, so I guess I wasn't completely out of it."
One of the most respected, hard-working, and well-liked men in the business, Mattox capped another busy year by etching his name alongside an illustrious list of past winners. But the bigger news came less than two weeks later, when the star announced his retirement from XXX.
"I've decided that, Garbo-like, I shall retire Gus Mattox at his peak," he wrote, saying he feared anything else he did would be anticlimactic. "There's really no way I can top that award."
Big Rig from Buckshot will be his swan song, but Mattox doesn't rule out potential directing and writing gigs in the future. In the meantime he has started a monthly column in Unzipped magazine and, in March, was cast in a Broadway-bound play, Some Men, by Terrence McNally, which premiers in Philadelphia this month.
"I can honestly say every film I made last year had something special about it. LeatherBound was my first movie for COLT/ Buckshot. That was a real career goal for me. I also got to work with director Kris Weston a second time," Mattox says. "Gale Force was directed by Joe Gage. Enough said. Dangerous Liaisons ended up being one of the highest-profile movies I've done. Nightcallers brought Chi Chi and me back together after a break (and I love the picture of me on the cover — not always the case). And finally, Big Rig was one of the most enjoyable shoots I've ever been on. Period.
"In my two-and-a-half years in the business, I got the chance to work with every director I wanted to work with. There are a few performers I wish I had been teamed with," says Mattox, citing Spencer Quest, Matt Cole, and Colton Ford as a few that got away. "I might just have to see if I can't work that out on my own."
