Justin Matthews was 17 years old when he was first recruited to be a model for SeanCody.com, a gay pornography website founded in the fall of 2001. The money seemed good enough ($2,500 for a solo video), but mostly he was excited for the opportunity to escape Alabama. He waited a few months until his 18th birthday, and then, under the name Taylor, went on to shoot a number of scenes for them between 2011 and 2014.
By 2014, bitten by the acting bug, so to speak, Justin (rebranded from Taylor) went on to work with a number of studios including GuysInSweatPants, CockyBoys and Men.com, becoming as close to a gay porn star as one can within an ecosystem that no longer pumps out giants like Jeff Stryker, Zak Spears and Erik Rhodes. And yes, that’s him starring as Mormon Missionary Boy #2 in Falcon Studios’s Room 106. There are no small parts, eh?
He’s gone on to perform in hundreds of scenes over the last 12 years. Asked in 2020 what his favorite dessert was by a popular gay blog, Justin Matthews responded, “Salad, hoe.” He’s racked up more gay sex scenes than most of his peers in the industry, with one key distinction from most: He’s not gay.
The term “gay for pay” (performers who participate in same-sex scenes on film but identify as heterosexual in their everyday lives) has complex affiliations. Some applaud those who do it for being so open. “There is something really attractive about the fact these guys are open-minded enough to go ‘there,’” gay porn director Brad Hammer wrote in an essay for the Huffington Post. Others see them as taking away opportunities from gay-identifying performers in the same vein as the often revisited argument: “Should Straight Actors Play Gay Roles?” I decided to seek out Matthews to get his thoughts on this and a myriad of other topics related to the fascinating world of gay pornography.
Take me back to the origins of your entry to gay pornography.
I think I was deleting my Myspace account at the time, honestly. It was that long ago! I was 17 years old when someone first hit me up. They were like, “Hey, do you want to come do a solo video at SeanCody?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure! Let's do it.” Then they asked, “How old are you?” and I said, “I'm 17” and they were like, “Oh, shit! Hit us up next year.” So I turned 18 a few months later and flew out to San Diego and did my first solo. While I was there, they were like, “Do you want to make some extra cash?” and I was like, “What do you guys have in mind?” They showed me the site and I was like, “Absolutely not!” I was 18 years old and straight as a board. [Laughs] So I went home and I lied to my mom. “I did a photo shoot. Just a regular photo shoot” and she's like, “Well, where are the pictures, son?” I had to think, and then I said, “They're on the way.” So I had to hire a photographer to cover it up. I got some professional pictures to my mom and she was like, “Son, that was great! Good job.”
So what persuaded you to do more after the initial “absolutely not”?
I was thinking about the dollar signs. I was born into poverty, so I was just thinking, “How can I get my mom out of poverty? What can I do?” I’m from a little beach town in Alabama called Gulf Shores. That's where I grew up. You travel through a bunch of farmland and then all of a sudden you're at the coast. It's a beautiful, beautiful beach, connected to Pensacola and Destin in Florida. It's a very touristy town. People survive off of tourist tips and whatnot down there. A lot of people serve tables. There's no middle class down there; there’s poor or rich. Mom didn't have a lot of money, I had separated parents, the whole nine yards. So when the opportunity presented itself, I went through and I did the gay porn, you know? I did it.
Do you recall how much you were paid for that first solo scene?
I believe $2,500 or something like that.
At the time, that was a lot of money, right?
As an 18-year-old fresh on the scene, $2,500 was the most money I’d ever seen in my life, so I was like, “Absolutely. Let's do that.” They wanted me to jerk off and that's something I did every day, right? So I said, “Why not?” and just went for it.
How would you describe your teenage self?
I'm pretty much like I am today: wild, rambunctious, crazy and I just take opportunities. Like I said, that was the first opportunity that I could have taken out of high school, and I just took it.
How did the SeanCody recruiters come across your Myspace profile?
I have no idea.
Were you posting content that would have made them think you'd be right for gay porn?
No. I think they literally just go after straight guys for that specific role. I don't know what it was. Maybe it's because people in the industry like watching straight guys bang. Honestly, like 50% of the people that I've ever filmed with have been straight. It's just crazy to look back on all that. I haven't really thought about it in a long time.
Do you think you haven't thought about it because it hasn't crossed your mind or do you think you’ve made an effort to not think about it?
Maybe both, I guess. I don't know. I just haven't really thought about how it all started in a long time. That's pretty crazy.
What was filming that first solo scene like? You’re 18 years old, it’s your first time traveling across the country, and here you are in a room that I imagine had at least a few gay men watching you jerk off. Had to be a little… strange.
You have the option to take some kind of supplement to help you get a little harder, or you could just watch some porn in a little room that I called the boner station until you were ready. Then, when you were ready, you’d just run back into position and continue what you were doing. And being a newbie as that's happening, you're panicking. There are six people in the room, all getting angles, telling you to do this and that, so it's a lot of mental work at the same time that it’s physical. A lot of trips back and forth to that room. Sometimes, you would go soft and have to go back to the boner station so many times that you could tell they were getting frustrated. That puts more strain and more pressure on you. There's a lot of pressure on these new models when they're just starting out.
It seems that studios predominantly hire gay men now and don't go after straight men like yourself as much anymore. Is this an accurate read?
Honestly, I think it's all about the looks of the person. That's what it comes down to. If they're hot, the studios will do anything they can to get that person to film. They’re just looking for fresh, hot, young talent.
So after you shoot the solo, you go home, you do the fake photo shoot for your mom. Was it SeanCody that reached back out to you or did you just eventually decide to go for it?
They just kept reaching out and they were like, “Let's get you back out here!” and they flew me back out for two scenes and then the very next month, they flew me back out for two more scenes. Being 18 years old making over three grand a scene, it was insane to go out and do four scenes and have money that you've never seen in your life while also trying to hide it from your family.
Looking back to those early days when you were 18, 19, 20 years old, is there any part of you now that feels like you were taken advantage of?
It’s weird to look back and remember a random recruiter saying, “Hit me up when you’re 18.” You didn't really know what you were getting into. You were just told you're coming out to do a solo but when you get there, you find out it's for a gay site and then you’re kind of just like, “Fuck it, I'm here, let's get this money,” which is what it was all about. So looking back, it was kind of misleading.
You're from Alabama, which I do not understand to be the most accepting of places for LGBTQ+ people. Did you have any trepidation that people would find out?
I was terrified of that at first. I was always trying to keep my social media private and just hoping that no one would find out. I was actually walking in the mall in Alabama my second year of filming and this guy walks up and goes, “Is this you?” He was with his wife and kids, but on his phone background, he had me in a position and I was one of his little screensavers or something. That blew me away. I realized that people actually watch this shit, and people were going to find out eventually.
Did you struggle with people thinking you were gay in real life?
Oh, yeah. That was a big thing that I had to deal with from my friends and even my family. They were like, “You can talk to us, honey,” and I'm just like, “You guys don't get it.” I’ve totally tried to get into it over the years to make my job easier. There have been a few scenes with models where it was easier to get into because they were just so tiny and feminine that it was easier in my head and there were some moments where I was like, “Oh! That felt good for a second!” My scene with Sean Ford was like that. It was probably one of my best scenes if it were to come down to chemistry and stuff like that. Like, even coming close to bisexual or something.
Does it bother you when people like me assume that you are gay or at least bisexual?
Everyone assumes, all the time. Even people from high school have hit me up randomly and been like, “You want to come hang out? I came out as gay a few years ago,” and I’m like, “Dude, I know you’ve seen my work and stuff, but that's not how I swing in real life.” That's always been a challenge for sure. Even telling girls that I've been with that I've done gay porn and they're just like, “Oh, so you're bi…” Everyone wants to put me in a box and I don't accept any of these labels. I don't conform to that bullshit. I like what I like when I like it, and a hundred percent of the time outside of filming I've only been with women. The only time I've ever been with guys is on camera on a set.
Tell me about filming that first non-solo scene. You had never been with a guy before, and you had to fuck a guy for the first time — on camera in a room full of other men.
It took about 12 hours. We were there until 1 a.m. because at the time, the studios were doing two cumshots, so you had to get both in a single day, and that was crazy. I've never heard of such a thing after that from any studio, but that's what they did then. I guess they were just trying to get as much as they could out of one trip and out of one model. It was intense, man. There were a lot more trips to the boner room; a lot more of the little supplement just to get it up. It took a toll on your body. Afterwards, you get these draining headaches and you can't eat anything. The first time, you feel like you’re panicking and your body is rejecting what’s going on. But for the camera’s sake, you’re still getting in there and getting it done. At the time, I was in a place of survival, so I would go to places in my mind and watch different types of porn just to keep myself excited. That first scene was probably the worst one ever, and then slowly after that, things just kind of get easier. You get more comfortable with people in the room. You just learn not to think about that stuff and compartmentalize it.
Did you enjoy any part of it?
The cumming part. [Laughs] That means everything was done.
So, if I may ask, why not straight porn? I know your gateway was gay porn, but why not transition?
I was stuck in that trap for the earlier few years of my career, and then I found out that you make almost three times as much in the gay industry than you do in the straight industry. I wasn’t going to go bang some chicks that I can bang this weekend on camera for less than I can just go bang this dude and make a fat check, you know? And it's all super safe in the industry. We — porn actors — are the safest people to have sex with on the planet because we have to get tested so much, as opposed to banging some college girls (or guys, whatever you’re into) on the weekend.
I imagine you’ve had experiences with models where they wanted to have sex off-camera.
Oh, dude, that’s every single set that I’ve ever showed up to. At least one of the models from either my scene or one of the other scenes that are going on will be like, “Do you want to come back to my room tonight?” or, “Do you want to film some OnlyFans?” and I’m like, “I love you, but no, I do not want to do any of that shit with you. I'll go smoke a joint with you or something, but that's about it. We can go to the pub down the street and have a beer or something, but I'm not going to fuck. I just did that on camera two hours ago and I’m tired, and all I can think about now is women.” That's how I balance it out. I do the deed with the guys and then I line up my weekend. There was this almost toxic masculinity that I had to overcome when finding that balance.
I feel like you were part of a different era of porn than the one we find ourselves in today, an era in which pornstars were treated better and paid more than they are presently. Is there a year when you think things started to change?
It had to be like six or seven years ago. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, all the studios across the board started paying models the exact same rates. You could tell it was some kind of internal thing where all the people at the top met up and talked about it and all decided to pay models less so they have more money for XYZ. We noticed that the pay went down and it's only been going further down since. I think most studios right now are only offering a thousand bucks or something for a model to just come in for the first time and test the waters.
Can you talk about the transition into doing studio porn? In the work that you were doing with SeanCody, you were more or less a version of yourself; you weren't playing a part. But then you find yourself doing studio work, which sometimes has plots that require acting.
That was crazy. That transition happened over at CockyBoys. It was just different having a script thrown at you. A lot of times, I was just Will Ferrell-ing that shit; I didn't remember my lines, so I said something else and they’d be like, “Oh, that’s perfect!” and that makes scenes really fly by when you know the plot of the story and you can kind of bullshit through it and have fun with it. That was really what it's all been about over the past few years: just making it fun, so it doesn't suck.
In terms of how it works today: Because you're not attracted to men, when they show you a scene partner, what rubric are you using to determine whether or not you want to fuck them?
Do they look like they take care of themselves? How are their teeth? [Laughs] That kind of stuff. You can be picky, especially if you've done it for a long time. You do get a little seniority here and there and that does happen in the industry, and you've got to own that shit. I’ve put the fucking hours in, I’ve put a lot of dicks in my ass, I’ve put my dick in a lot of people and dealt with a lot of bullshit, so I can say all these things. Also, if you meet someone you’re going to be doing a scene with before filming and they're being weird on Instagram or hitting you up before the scene like, “Hey, come to my room, let's bang,” and you're not responding, that's the kind of stuff where sometimes you draw the line. I don't want to film with this person who’s acting weird and pushy.
Do you consider yourself a pornstar? Is that a term you would use?
I wouldn't say that. I would say I’m a porn model. I’ve modeled in the porn industry. You're not going to see me run around saying, “I'm a pornstar.” That's so cheesy.
Talk to me about OnlyFans, because you're someone that existed in this industry before OnlyFans. People are generally pretty positive about OnlyFans because it gives people the ability to earn this cash flow. But I also feel like for someone like you who was in this industry before, it actually decreased your value. It democratized gay porn, but that can have a negative impact on people in the porn industry that have been around longer.
The demand for models has grown, but the pay is somehow still decreasing. I don't know what the deal is with that, but they can't find new models because everyone is doing OnlyFans now; they’re doing their own thing. OnlyFans just took over and took all the models away from the mainstream studios, and the pay went down too.
What advice would you give to the 17-year-old version of yourself?
I would have said to wait a little bit longer and don't settle for the first opportunity because good things are coming. And to be more specific with the universe [laughs], because porn is going to make you miss out on a lot of opportunities. There's some stuff that I’ve totally missed out on, like MTV’s Floribama Shore. I got recruited to be on that TV show. I made the top eight. I went through a month-long audition process, signed all kinds of stuff, stayed in a hotel for two nights with no phone, did all the psych evaluations and everything like that, and then the week before filming, I get told that my gay porn history is going to be a PR problem. I went through that whole process just to get told that because I did something in the past, I don't have a future in other areas.
Where do you want to be in 10 years? Do you plan to continue doing adult work?
No. I'd like to do some more mainstream stuff, man. I don't care if it's behind the scenes on a set somewhere just making a movie. I love every part of making a movie and all the production people that are behind the scenes, even on porn sets. Those are the people that make this shit happen. That's where all the work is and I love all that and I've gotten good at it over the years. I still want to work in the film industry but I want to move away from the adult film industry, just because it’s become so money-based and they're trying to save every dollar they can without taking care of the models. Models need to be treated better because when they’re new, they’re fucking terrified. I've had to hold hands with models through sex before because they're extremely uncomfortable. It’s their first time, and they realize it's not just sex; it's work. It’s not all just cupcakes and butterflies.
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