LOS ANGELES—With the industry still stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic, GayVN caught up with some talent in front of and behind the camera to see how they were handling the time off—and what they see ahead for their industry and community. In this installment, we chatted with director Marc MacNamara, who has been one of the busiest men in the business during social distancing—and recently won the Best Director (All Sex) prize at the Grabby Awards for his Men.com film Everglades.
BJ: Where are you right now? In general, how do you think the people in your area are exhibiting safe behaviors?
MM: I'm in Miami and it's 50/50. But it’s very clear wherever you go—there are smart, sane, responsible people out there who are considerate and working together to end this pandemic, and then there are Trump supporters. Guess which ones aren’t wearing masks.
How have you personally been adjusting during COVID-19? How has life changed for you and your loved ones? What have been the biggest adjustments?
I contracted C19 after a shoot in Hawaii last February. I was very sick and lost 20 pounds, but it wasn’t until I did the antibody test recently that I found out what I actually had. It’s no hoax, and it’s very strong. I’ve had several friends pass from it in NYC and our government’s sad, anti-science approach to it has been quite infuriating.
I am a small business owner, and the government and Trump’s response to C19 has looted my business of hard-earned money and taken the lives of over 100,000 Americans. He blamed the Chinese.
Now, Trump has continued his racist and violent rhetoric, leading to riots and the loss of lives and business all over America. He blamed black people.
When does the blame fall on the leader? When does the blame fall on the people who chose this path?
I, as well as many Americans, were forced to get on this plane with a pilot who has no experience. The pilot has encouraged the flight crew to segregate us, attack us and to shoot holes into the very plane we are all in. The aircraft is now nose-diving into a mountain side and the passengers are being blamed.
I say it’s time for the passengers to take back control. Unbuckle your seatbelts. Prepare for turbulence. Take down one of the biggest terrorist this country has ever seen: Donald Trump.
What has been the hardest thing for you, and what do you miss the most?
I miss hugs and anal.
When do you think the porn industry can get back to creating content, and how will this affect how things are done in the near-term and longer-term? (testing, travel, etc.)
I haven't stopped working. I've written two big movies and prepped the rest of my year and am ready to make it work, whether it’s at-home content or on location. I've filmed several web-based scenes and directed them remotely—we did a Tiger King parody that recently debuted with Diego Sans and Dante Colle; all will be on OnlyFans.com/nastyboys.
I also did a “Chat Roulette” scene with Diego and Jarec Wentworth. The guys hadn't seen each other since they filmed a threesome together many years ago, so it was fun to have them catch up on camera—and then jerk off.
I've also revived my interview series NSFW, and just did Jarec and another big star that retired years ago. We did a two-part Jarec interview, which was pretty amazing, and he revealed quite a lot—including a bombshell about another gay porn star mixed up in his arrest. Coming up on the interview series we have Jonathan Agassi, who was one of the stars of Men of Israel as well as The Last Day, Inside Israel, Missing and Awake [for Lucas Entertainment]. We also already shot interviews with Pierce Paris, Alex Mecum, Paul Canon, Sean Duran and a few others.
I also filmed a scene called “Boomer's Bootcamp.” Since Jarec has been out of the porn gig for five years, I set him up on a call with Mr. Banks to have a little coaching on showing off on camera and playing with his hole and jerking off.
I also filmed “Zoom Meeting” with Diego and Drew Dixon, about a business meeting gone right.
With Falcon/NakedSword, we have a game show series that I'm hosting. The first installment with Jarec, Calvin Banks and Ty Mitchell came out at the end of May with mystery guest Bianca Del Rio, and we have a second episode with Paul Canon, Skyy Knox and Dante Colle—with mystery guest Latrice Royale.
I also remotely directed a scene for them, “Fuck My Husband,” where Jarec goes on a business trip. When he gets to the hotel and video calls his husband back home, he catches him cheating and getting fucked by another guy (Nick Fitt and Clark Davis), so Jarec decides to get even and directs the “hooker” to fuck his husband harder and harder.
I will also be doing a reunion with the cast of Tarzan on onlyfans.com/nastyboys.
I’ve seen firsthand how many gay men on the hookup aps don’t seem to care about social distancing and are more than ready to still hook up with a stranger. How do you feel about that, and what would you say to them?
This is like being in a school team project and we will all be graded as a team, but we got stuck with some dumbass teammates who aren’t pulling their weight.
I think this is a deeper emotional void in many men that have a necessity to feel desired and to sexually explore no matter the consequences. If it were Ebola going around, I don't think their behavior would change. I would encourage anyone who is putting their own sexual needs above the safety of our communities to spend some time with a pen and paper and write down their positive attributes and work on adding to that list instead of subtracting from it during this time.
Realistically, how long do you think it will be until gay men can feel comfortable hooking up on the apps? (I know personally, that thought of that answer scares me, because it could be a while and I just wanna suck a dick, dammit!)
I mean, who doesn't want to suck a dick? Even my exes are looking good at this point—but, this is our opportunity to eliminate self-doubt and prove how strong our willpower is. But how long do I think it will take for gay men to feel comfortable hooking up on apps? Probably quicker than it took me to type this sentence. I bet you have a dick in your mouth while you’re reading this.
Talk about the importance of porn during this time for people, who need safe ways to get off, relieve stress, etc. Now more than ever it seems porn is proving how much of a purpose it has.
I always thought porn plays an important role in societies all over the world. If we didn't have this outlet, where would that built-up energy go? I bet up to no good. So now more than ever, tune in and save the world hand over wrist.
What lessons about life should this pandemic be teaching us?
When life gives you lemons, shove them up your ass and put it on OnlyFans. In other words, be ready to pivot and don’t back down when shit gets sour.
