Why This Gay Porn Director Doesn't Have to Fake Cum Shots (Out)
Read the full article by Mikelle Street at Out.com
Their work is reflective of a shift in the industry.
Jay Austin’s first suspension scene was a grueling six hours during San Francisco Pride in a sordid alley behind a Chinatown theater. There, the adult film actor was blindfolded, flogged, shackled, and manhandled by co-star Max Cameron for Kink Men’s Bound Gods series. He even had a hook plug stuck into his butt while being suspended by ropes from an outdoor stairwell — all for, according to the scene, the crime of littering. It was, in a phrase, a tough shoot, being forced to maintain a hard-on while upside down with the blood rushing from your extremities. But there, throughout the shoot, as a position of support that’s rare for the adult entertainment industry, was Isabel Dresler, a nonbinary transmasculine producer, who went on to become one of Austin’s favorite collaborators.
“Izzy was the first one that gave me arnica gel for my rope bruises after that scene,” Austin says of the producer — the gel would later soothe his pain and prevent bruising on his muscles. “They have always made me feel safe and advocated for on set. The director would suggest something like putting a butt plug hook up my ass without lubing it up; all I would have to do is look at Izzy, and they would suggest maybe letting me warm up with it first.” And that process — putting the performer first and prioritizing both their comfort as well as their limits — has made Dresler a favorite of porn stars in an industry that is re-orienting power in their favor, and they are creating award-winning work that is demanding recognition.
“I always set myself up to not be recognized for the work I’ve been doing,” Dresler says. “Especially with kink. It was all very hush-hush.” So originally, they didn’t actually plan on attending the GayVN Awards in January — an event that’s often described as the “Oscars of Gay Porn.” But, at the urging of models from CockyBoys, with whom Dresler had been recently filming, they attended, finding two of their own scenes competing against one another for Best Fetish Scene. And then JJ Knight, a CockyBoys model, was pulling them up on stage to accept their award, although they were dressed in a black Fruit of the Loom t-shirt and jeans smeared with lube from shooting over the past 72 hours. “Tie Me Up! Dick Me Down!,” their CockyBoys scene, had won.
Dresler’s career started in the adult world as a performer. After taking professional photos of a woman they met at a fetish party, the referral mill kicked in: They found themselves booked out, first with cisgender women and nonbinary femmes in photo shoots, before working in transmasculine performers like Viktor Belmont and James Darling, the latter of whom starred in Dresler’s first film.