It's been a long, hard climb for Brad Armstrong. From his days in the early 90s as a college student and male stripper in Canada; to numerous modeling sessions for mags such as Playgirl, Hustler, and Penthouse; to countless gigs as a performer, writer, and director in the world of adult film and video, Armstrong has had to work to gain ground nearly every step of the way. And while he's not quite where he wants to be in his life and career, Armstrong looks back and finds that he's fairly satisfied with the journey so far. "Sometimes, things just work out for the best," he relates.
Early in his career, Armstrong had a romantic relationship with performer (now director) Dyanna Lauren. "I'm terrible at remembering dates, but this would have been maybe six or seven years ago," he says. "I was with her for a couple of years, and that kind of cemented me into the business."
Armstrong worked feverishly during that time, appearing in over 100 adult films and videos. Despite his success as a performer, his real ambition was to work behind the camera. "I went to college for commercial art and advertising, so I came into the business with an art background," he says. "You don't ordinarily see an art director on the set of a porno, and realistically, before I came along, most people didn't even think about that. But I always thought that was one of the things that was lacking in adult film," he opines. "So I started doing a lot of art direction, which to this day is probably what I'm still best at."
When working as an art director, Armstrong prefers to be credited under his real name, Rod Hopkins. "I always think it looks funny when you watch a movie and see the same guy's name forty times. And I think because I have mainstream ambitions, and because art direction is most likely how I would break into that arena, I wanted to keep it separated from the rest of my work in that way... Not that I don't take the rest of what I do seriously."
Indeed, it was Armstrong's desire to become what he calls "a complete movie maker" that led to his years-long business partnership with the film-school educated Greg Steel.
"When I was working on my first movie, I knew how to make everything look pretty," relates Armstrong, "but I didn't know camera angles and all the technical jargon that goes along with movie making.
"I was friends with Toni English and [Steel] was one of her editors, so I took the movie there, and he did a really good job with it. He and I got to talking, and I thought that there were some things he could teach me about the technical side of production."
Over the next few years, the two collaborated successfully on dozens of projects. Ironically, what is arguably their single greatest achievement as a movie-making team, Wicked Pictures' 1996 pirate epic Conquest, also marks the last time the two worked together.
"When it comes to any type of art, when you've got two people thinking two things, there's bound to be a bit of creative differences, egos, whatever you want to call it," Armstrong confides. "When we went into production on Conquest, we'd already decided it was going to be our last project together... so he did what he was best at and I did what I was best at and it was great. We knew there was no way we were going to make a better movie together than this one. So it was natural that we would grow from there and go our own ways."
After a year freelancing, Armstrong signed an exclusive contract for his services with Wicked Pictures. In two years there, he has authored and performed in some of the company's best product, including the five-A rated fireman 'n' sex flick Flashpoint. In recent months, Flashpoint has enjoyed a place high atop adult DVD sales charts accross the nation. "I've done a lot at Wicked that I'm proud of, but if I had to pick one movie I guess it would have to be Flashpoint," says Armstrong. "To have that huge cast and all those locations... with the fires burning, the costumes... and to do it all in nine days. Sure, there are little things here and there you'd change if you could, but overall I feel really good about what we accomplished with that."
As for the future?
"The mainstream is definitely a goal, though I don't know that I would never make another adult movie if that happened," says Armstrong. "The Greg Darks of the world have gone on to mainstream success and they still dabble in adult, so I know it can be done."
Armstrong reveals that he and Wicked president Steve Orenstein have been "kicking around some mainstream ideas, kind of like the things Wicked already does" which they may implement "down the road," possibly through a subsidiary company. "I've also been approached by someone in the mainstream who's looking to do a project with quite a bit of... I guess you'd say bold erotic content. So we'll see."
For now, Armstrong is trying to appeal to what he sees as a largely untapped segment of the porn-viewing public. "Because of what gonzo has done to the business, which is to bring in a lot more people who like the harder-edged stuff, I feel, and I know that Steve [Orenstein] feels, there's a ton of people on the other end of the spectrum who miss the way adult movies used to be, with a story and characters," he says. "If we can take those elements, where there's a reason for these people to be having sex, where it's a part of the story - if we can take those elements and combine them with good production values, maybe like what you see on late night cable but with hardcore sex, I think we'll not only bring back the viewers who feel left out, but we can interest new viewers who've maybe never seen a porno, or only a gonzo or a wall-to-wall that wasn't for them."
No, Armstrong hasn't reached the top just yet. But the view up here is starting to look pretty damn good.
