Catching up with Colt model-cum-GayVN-nominated porn director Ray Dragon

Ray Dragon is starting 2005 off with a bang. Following the successful release of his first directing feature, Whiplash, which dropped at the end of last year, Dragon was honored with five GayVN Awards nominations, including Best Leather, Best Specialty and Best All-Sex, as well as Best Videography and Best Threesome. Not bad for a first-timer!

Best known for his years as a classic Colt model in the mid-‘80s, the versatile Dragon dropped out of the business for 12 years to focus on his own line of clothing (catering to New York City’s fashion-conscientious gay community), and appear in several local theatrical productions, including one at the New York Metropolitan Opera. He made a triumphant return to adult entertainment with a sizzling turn in Titan Media’s outdoor-sex epic Gorge, and followed that up with appearances in Colt’s Reload and Couples II, as well as Titan’s Woodsmen. Not content to rest on his laurels, he launched his own Website (www.raydragon.com), then followed that up with his own production company, Dragon Media, releasing two well-received short titles in 2003, Working Men and Porn Star Training (both were nominated for GayVN Awards) and completing his first full-length feature, the fetish-heavy Whiplash, which has gone on to receive extremely generous praise industry-wide. It’s enough to give somebody a case of…well, whiplash.

What sets Whiplash apart from other “specialty” titles is its understated naturalness. Rather than take his models from Point A to Point B in over-choreographed sex scenes, Dragon simply trains his cameras on his stars and lets them do as they please. The results, while sometimes unconventional, are nothing short of extraordinary. What’s more, Dragon doesn’t present fetishistic content as anything sensationalistic; instead of calling undue attention to it, he seamlessly integrates it into the video so that it feels, well, ordinary. “I just want to capture real sex,” Dragon says. “The way it is when it’s not being filmed.”

I recently caught up with the busy star by phone (he’d just finished videographer duties for SmokingHunks.com) to see how he felt about his multiple nominations, his opinion on fetishistic porn, and what the future has in store for him.

Ray Dragon: Yes. There was a lot of tough competition out there this year—a lot of competition.

The movie is nominated for Best All-Sex and Best Specialty, which I think is a nod toward your ability to present what some might consider to be kink and fetish in a brand new light. Did you set out to put a new spin on kink?

Not really. I think all of the sex industry is about fetishes, in one way or another. So whether leather is still fetish or whether it’s mainstream, I think the sex business is all about presenting those different things to people [without regard to labels]. I didn’t necessarily set out to make a “kink movie.” I mean, there’s a very interesting flogging scene that kind of ties the scenes together, and that one was always planned for the movie. A very good friend of mine was the whipsman, and my current boyfriend [Frankie] was the floggee. The rest of it, like the fisting and the watersports, had more to do with what the models wanted to get into than anything else. I just went along with it. (laughs)

What I think most people react to when they see it is how spontaneous and unchoreographed the sex is. Was that important to you when you set out to make the movie?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m a little tired of badly directed sex. I’ve been through enough of that myself. So yeah, it was important. I was actually very lucky, too, that all of the guys seemed to get along and were really into it and [were] certainly having a good time during the whole process. Some of the other shoots I’ve been on myself… It wasn’t always quite like that.

It seems to me that directing a movie like that—one that is so free-flowing and in-the-moment—could get out of hand very quickly. How did you keep yourself in check?

I had a good crew. They handled things for me that I didn’t even have to think about. All of these shoots seem to be insanely chaotic, so you have to be on your feet and you really need a good crew to keep it all together for you.

Do you think that your experience as a model helps you as a director?

Absolutely. I’d like to see some of these fuckers [porn directors] go through what they put other people through. (laughs) It would change their whole attitudes.

Do you prefer directing to performing?

Absolutely. I don’t really care for performing. It’s never really been a comfortable thing [for me]. It’s not something you get to relax into and have any fun. It’s always enormous amounts of work.

I remember you telling me once that you don’t watch a lot of porn yourself. Who doesn’t have time for porn?

I gave up once I started back in the business. It was like fashion—the more I was doing it, the less I looked at fashion magazines, to the point where I never looked at them ‘cause it really had no baring on what I wanted to do or the direction I was going—other than maybe to know what not to do. (laughs)

When you do watch porn, do you go back to the old stuff, or is there any current stuff that excites you?

I like Joe Gage’s stuff, some of his current stuff, and of course his old stuff is always great.

Does that mean you’re rooting for Back to Barstow to pick up a couple trophies this year?

Well, not if he’s running against me! (laughs) Actually, I have worked with Joe and think he’s amazing, so of course.

Are there any plans for a follow-up to Whiplash?

Like Whiplash 2 through 10? (laughs) I don’t know. I would think I would do something totally different—a whole different concept. I don’t really have anything planned right now, so I’m not even thinking about it.

Were you happier to get the recognition for your direction than you’ve been for your performing?

You know, it’s all the same to me. Recognition for anything you do is always good.

You run the majority of your business off of your Website (www.raydragon.com). Tell me how your site came about.

There was an article in The New York Times several years ago called “Porn: The World’s Most Profitable Backlot” about the economics of the adult entertainment business and how it had become a legitimate billion-dollar industry, and I thought, “I’m already in the public domain,” and I’d never really capitalized upon that, so I thought maybe it was time to start. It’s plugging along. In adult, it’s all about amassing a library of work for people to look through. It builds every month.

And you’re shooting exclusive content for the Web, right?

Yeah, a lot of it. I try to do as much as I can, especially in the photography work. I do use stock photo sets on occasion—mostly of porn stars in the very beginning of their careers, like Cole Tucker and Tom Katt—that bring back memories for me. I get a kick out of having that kind of stuff on the site, too.

A lot of pornstars say how much they like keeping in touch with their fans through their sites? Has that been the case for you?

There’s a message board up there, but I don’t use it too often. There are hardly any words on my site. I’m not really one for the English language. (laughs). Just to write is annoying to me; there’s a block. But I do post a lot of the messages that I get from [the fans], and occasionally I’ll respond to the really good ones. A lot of them are very, very complimentary, which is really nice.

Do you have any upcoming plans for the site that we should know about?

Boy, everyone keeps asking me that. (laughs) I’d like to get organized and offer digital downloads on the site; that’s probably the next project.

Everyone seems to be responding well to your content. They play Whiplash on the video monitors at the Faultline here in L.A., and guys are always saying how hot it is. Are you happy with what you’ve accomplished?

Very much so. And I have to agree with them. Whenever I’m sitting here doing the video editing, I inevitably seem to always have one hand on my dick. (laughs)

Nice. So, you’ve started 2005 out fairly well with an extremely well-received movie and now five GayVN nominations. What are your hopes for the rest of the year?

To keep the momentum going, baby!