The article originally ran in AVN Men magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Brock is one of the trophy boys at the 2020 GayVN Awards; he is also nominated for Best Duo Scene and is vying for a fan-voted award. In a candid interview, the newcomer opens up about dark days, recovery and shattering stigmas.
The first experience Brock Banks ever had with porn was watching a stash he found in his dad’s bedroom.
“There was this scene with like a secretary coming into an office, and the guy playing the role of her boss was Julian Rios. He’s just so hot…and after that, I obsessed with him a little bit and watched a lot of his porn. To this day, I still watch a lot of his porn. And I started watching gay porn, but I didn’t have any icons in gay porn—like one specific guy who I as obsessed with. It was more about the type of porn I was watching; I didn’t like anything with too much of a script, too much talking. It was more like the dirtier stuff. I’ve always been obsessed with Timtales, but it was also all the angles—everything was perfect, just so hot.”
When he initially toyed with the idea of entering the industry, Banks was just going to do clip content…until a legend got into his ear.
“I had a lot of friends who were doing OnlyFans. They were making all this money. I wouldn’t say I was struggling, but I definitely wanted to make more money apart from my day-to-day job—and one of my really good friends is Boomer Banks, so I talked to him,” Brock shares. “I asked him how to start an OnlyFans page, and he was kind of like, ‘Well, if you’re gonna do porn, you might as well just do porn.’ And I was like, ‘But I don’t wanna like be out there like that.’”
They went back and forth, and Brock relented.
“That night, I was talking to him about what my name was gonna be, and we kind of decided I would become one of his porn babies … there’s three officially right now. We chatted about that, and that kind of gave me a really great boost at the beginning, because I had a really good following. So I had kind of decided I was only going to do OnlyFans, and then the following day, he posted a picture of me on Twitter. I guess he got a few phone calls from a few different studios asking about me, and he was like, ‘Are you sure you don’t wanna do porn? People are very interested, you’ll do very well.’ And I was kind of like, ‘Okay, whatever. Fine,’” Brock laughs.
“I think my skepticism was always that my family would find out, people would be judging me, and then I got to a place in my life where I just don’t care about those things anymore. So it was kind of an easy decision … I just went for it. One aunt that I told—she’s a lesbian—she’s my cheerleader. But other than that, I told no one. I wouldn’t feel any differently if they found out, but I feel like, why cause someone more harm than you need to? I’m fine with what I’m doing, and it’s not going to change whether they know or not. So, I’d rather them just not know.”
The two Banks were soon paired together at Men.com for Brock’s first-ever shoot, which debuted on September 1.
“I was definitely a little bit nervous because I had never done it before—and also because it was Boomer, and he was kind of like a big brother to me. So having sex was a little weird because we already have an established relationship that has nothing to do with sex, and I don’t really see him in that way. It was weird, but one I got out of my head about it, I was like, ‘Just have fun.’ And it was really easy. And that just set me up for an easier work environment.”
Since then, Banks has been paired with more amazing talent, including Ty Mitchell, Mateo Vice and Nico Leon at CockyBoys; and he got a coveted post in NakedSword’s anticipated Scared Stiff sequel.
“I’ve met a bunch of really good people. So far, one of my favorite scenes was with Ty. We had a lot of fun together. I also had a blast shooting Scared Stiff 2 … it was so much fun. We were put up in this house in Vegas for the shoot, and it was like being in a Real World house, but with porn stars. We just had a lot of fun. That was really early into me doing anything, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, have I arrived?!’ They put me in this major movie, and my scene in that movie was crazy. It was so awesome. I just watched it yesterday, and I usually don’t watch my scenes. I feel like I’m not going to like something about my body or something. And that scene in particular was shot so weird, like going up and down the steps, (Link Parker is) on all fours and I’m following him from the back and he’s acting like he was possessed.”
That gave him a thirst for more story-based porn, which he hopes to continue this year—one of many missions he has.
“Scripted stuff is actually fun to do … I’m trying to jump into that. I didn’t like watching that as a kid, but actually doing it is hot. I watched this whole move from beginning to end; it was funny and it was very hot. I’m just going to try and work more. I want to get out there a bit more. I’ve also kind of noticed a little stigma recently with guys who are undetectable and kind of how we get treated. I had an experience recently with a studio that wasn’t the best, and so I’m trying to work on that. I want to push the boundaries a bit and see if we can prevent that from happening, but I don’t know where to begin. So that’s what I’ve been working on now.”
Part of the problem, Banks says, is that a lot of gay-content studios have straight people behind the scenes who are not educated enough on the issues.
“They don’t really know much about PrEP or being undetectable or what HIV is. Studios need to be more educated about it. I know there’s other people who have been having the same problem, but I’ve been noticing it more and more recently. And I think it’s because now, a lot of the studios are going fully bareback, whereas before they were using condoms and didn’t think they had to worry about it—people didn’t need to get tested for the scene. So now that they’re going bareback, guys that are undetectable are having issues because they refuse to shoot a guy who’s undetectable with a guy who’s negative. They’ll only shoot you together if you’re both the same status. So I don’t really know … I’ve just recently experienced it and it pissed me off, so I guess a little bit of anger fuels someone to make a change.
“Even in our society besides porn, that’s happening. People are uneducated and don’t know what undetectable means, they don’t know what PrEP does, so education is key. We need to actually step up and talk about it, because I think people are still nervous. There’s still a stigma, and models are afraid of getting turned down. But it’s being talked about more and more; I just think it’s harder to talk about it in the sex industry, because at the end of the day, you tell someone, ‘Oh, someone has HIV, that’s a no-brainer…,’ they’re not understating what undetectable means. It just starts with a conversation, and eventually it turns into something bigger.”
It’s one of many passions that has fueled Banks in his life away from the camera.
“Before I got into doing porn, I was a hairstylist. I’m still a hairstylist, I’m just doing less hair and more porn. That’s how I ended up (in Los Angeles). I’ve been doing hair for six years. I eventually want to open my own salon, that’s my goal—make as much money doing porn as I possibly can and open up my own business. I’ll probably keep doing porn anyways. I just want to be in an artistic place; I do that all the time and it makes me happy,” Banks says. “My day to day involves some sort of art, whether it’s photography or doing hair, drawing. I’m also a gym rat; I go to the gym twice a day. I’ve also been sober for five-and-a half years, so usually, I have an AA meeting as well…that’s kind of my life right now.”
He's also adjusting to life in his new city, which he moved to last fall.
“I’m still getting used to L.A. guys. I went from being in New York and having a full-time job—also doing porn, also creating OnlyFans content, and also going to AA meetings and meeting up with friends—and I moved to L.A. not knowing anyone and having no full-time job, just making OnlyFans content and doing porn. So I’ve had to really chill out a little bit. It hasn’t been easy,” he says.
“I think people here, it’s a very different vibe, obviously. It’s not easy to make actual friends here; it’s easier to make like a bunch of party friends and people to go out with, like go out to dinner—but since everything is such a far distance away, it’s harder to actually meet up with your friend when you want to; everyone has to drive. Whereas in New York, you could just hop on a train and be where you need to be in like 15 minutes.”
The oldest of eight siblings that are about 12 years apart (“It all falls on me!”), Banks and his family grew up in split households as his parents separated and had their own children. He grew up in Florida, where his struggles with addiction began.
“I started working in nightlife in Miami when I was about 20, and because I was at the bar, I always got offered drugs and alcohol—and it was always free. So that’s where my drinking kind of started. And then when I moved to New York at like 24 years old, I got introduced to meth. It was just very casual to me—I went to one hookup’s house and he offered me meth, and obviously it wasn’t like, ‘Do you want some meth?’ It was just like, ‘Do you want a bump?’ And I was like, ‘Sure.’ I had done plenty of coke before, so it wasn’t a big deal.
“And I just remember being up for like five days and just going from one apartment to the next, hooking up with random people—and it actually felt awesome. I was like, ‘This is amazing.’ I didn’t know what this was, but it was so good, and I had awesome sex with hot guys. So I feel like the next two years chased that one moment. I kept getting high on tina so I could feel that same moment—the hot guys and a lot of sex. And it just got really dark really fast. I ended up being homeless for like a year and a half, and I had no money, no job, no friends. I ended up going into rehab in Florida, and I got sober. That was five years and eight months ago.”
After successfully getting himself back on track, Banks has made it his mission to help others facing the same struggles.
“I want to help people in the program get sober, help try to get people into rehab, because it’s just really sad to see where your life can go when you’re hooked on a drug or drinking. It’s funny, because when I started doing porn, a bunch of my friends were like, ‘Be careful! The porn industry is full of drugs!’ And to be honest with you, I haven’t experienced that at all. I haven’t experienced anyone being high on set or anything like that yet, so I’m pretty lucky. I feel like if I go out to a circuit party, I’d run into more drugs than I will doing porn,” he says.
“So it’s been awesome. The good thing is that I come from a place of sincerity, and I’m not bullshitting anyone ever. So being in the porn world has been pretty easy because I’m pretty straightforward about things. I’m not trying to people-please, and I’m pretty professional. If I was not sober and doing porn, I don’t know what that would look like. There’s a bunch of guys that I have noticed that have issues, and instead of pointing it out to them, I was like, ‘Here’s my number if you ever need to talk.’ And especially around those guys, I’m always like, ‘Yeah, I’m sober; yeah, I did meth.’ I talk about it a little bit more. I try to help people as much as possible; if there was any way I could create a group for these guys, it would be awesome. When I go to an AA meeting here in L.A., there’s usually always one other porn star there, so it’s pretty common. I’ve met a lot of sober porn stars; you just never know. A lot of people always assume things about people that aren’t correct.”
Banks notes that the path to rehab is different for everyone, and that his AA experience is a lifelong commitment.
“And that’s not a bad thing. I think when you say something like, ‘Oh, I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life,’ it makes people scared to think about it. I’ve found a community of people who get me, and have a place where when I’m going through some really shitty days or having a crazy experience, I have somewhere to go to talk about it—and that’s something I feel the world could benefit from. I think if there were meetings that people would go to, like support groups in general, it would really help. So I’ll probably go forever,” he says. “When you’re done working the steps in AA, your goal is to find other people to help through the steps. Once you become a sponsor, you just kind of sponsor people for the rest of your life.”
