I'm tell you I'm not going: The Tré Xavier Interview

Tré Xavier is an retired adult entertainer and blogger who writes about love, life and anything he feels he needs to get off his chest on his blog : Tré X-Ray Vision. He has also written blog entries fro Pitbull Productions's ThugPorn blog and is a contributing writer for MOC Blog. (I love Victor from MOC so it doesn't surprise me that he has Tré as a contributing writer; good Job). He is an accomplish writer, having the ability to create vivid pictures and expressing valid points has gotten his opinion published in a book review for Flavamen Magazine and in The Advocate. Before his retirement for studio based gay porn he was an active participant in fighting for racial equality in gay adult entertainment. Since his retirement, he has continued that fight while resurrecting his skills as a dancer, singer, artist, poet and songriter: many of which can be found on his youtube page. Make sure you look up Tré.! Dunkins Playground abosoutely loves him, and I was honored when he accepted my request to interview him. I love when I see people accomplish more from porn than to follow the path of being complacent on just fucking in front of the camera.
Here are the questions...

Dunkin: Who is Tré Xavier?
Tré: "Tré Xavier" was a persona I made up for porn. It was made to be the sexual side of me that would do all the sexually adventurous things that the real me, L, wouldn't do. And the only reason "Tré" would do those things is because it was done in the supposedly "safe" confines of a porn set. Over time however ( mainly because of my blogging) "Tré" and L became one and the same. Hence, why I will soon start using my legal first again totally after the 1st week of 2011.

Dunkin: Take us back to when you first started to do porn, what was the draw to the gay adult film world?
Tré: I was always curious about sex and porn. At one point, I considered using getting into porn as a way to figure out my orientation. Good thing that didn't happen, now that I define myself as a predominately gay bisexual. Me on a straight porn set with the wrong woman (which most are) would have been a disaster. Anyway, I finally figured out my orientation just a few weeks shy of turning 31. Fast forward 3 years later, getting into porn was still on my mind, and I figured  since I still look good for my age, was single, that I should go for it. PLUS, being that most gay men use porn as a way to figure themselves out, I figured that seeing me showing myself so comfortable with my sexual orientation could help those who were in limbo with their orientation as I once was. Sadly, other companies don't think that way. Hence the birth of the " gay for pay" genre and "DL" themed videos from companies like Latino Fan Club and Pitbull.

Dunkin: How was it your 1st day on set; were you nervous or did this come second nature?
Tré: I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous beforehand. But once we got started, it was second nature because I've always felt that I was an exhibitionist at heart and this was at last my chance to show it the world and myself. So it was actually EXTREMELY liberating.

Dunkin: I know you a lot about HIV in the porn industry, so what is your opinion on the popularity of bareback porn especially in the gay adult industry?
Tré:  I say to each his own. I advocate safe sex, but I'm not going to say that I've never barebacked and show myself to be a hyprocrite like some of thoese in Chi Chi LaRue's " Shut Your Hole" PSA have been accused of being. Some people get caught up in the moment, others are with someone that they trust just that much that they'll take that risk, while others just want the sex so bad that they just don't give a fuck. Bareback porn reflects all of those scenarios and more. So if people ( especially studio heads like Chi Chi LaRue) want to attack bareback porn saying how unhealthy it is, then why don't they make just as much over "gay for pay" which can be just as unhealthy to the pysche then body, as barebacking can be to the body then psyche. Thereby studio heads ( like Jet Set's Chris Steele and Michale Lucas) would stop hiring gay for bitches in denial like Jeremy Bilding , Dean Cox and Wolf Hudson.

Dunkin: What made you decide to say your going to retire?
Tré: Part of it was because of all the stands that I've taken, I got blacklisted by "mainstream" porn studios and I refused to ( 1 ) tone it down like sell out Diesel Washington once advised, or ( 2 ) go into the thug porn genre again, because I feel Blacks and Latinos deserve a better image than that put out there. I lowered myself going there and getting paid Pitbull Productions's chump change, and almost did it again chasing after Chocolate Cream Productions. After a photoshoot I did for a photographer named Zack Hyman, I woke up, grew up and realized that my fighting words to make the porn industry better was showing me that the industry wasn't fun at all. So I decided to go back and pursue the creative endeavors I had before getting into porn and I've been happier ever since.

Dunkin: Do you feel as if porn has given you a platform to be influential in the gay community?
Tré: Yes! That's actually why while I may talk bad about the industry sometimes, it's the very reason that I don't regret doing it. For starters, doing live apprearances for porn has made me better at on stage improvisation. I feel porn was for some reason the path I needed to go in order to get to this point. I wasn't getting there trying to be a mainstream performer, so this is the hand I was dealt by fate.

Dunkin: If you didn't do porn, do you think you would still be doing the work you do now?
Tré: No. I might not have even started blogging if it wasn't for porn. So I actually think I would be struggling to get recognized way more than I already do.

Dunkin: I read your blog: Tré X-Ray Vision and I love it. But tell the readers of Dunkins Playground about it. What message(s) are you trying to convey?
Tré: There are many messages that I try to convey with my blog. I think that's what makes people like it. Even if you get an update emailed to you , you never know what I'm going to talk about next, or what lesson can come out of it. And there's always a lession, even if you're beating your meat in the process; there's always a lession that I've learned that I want to pass on to you.

Dunkin: I know your performing on Dec 2, Red Umbrella Diaries: Family Affair, but can you tell Dunkins Playground a bit about that?
Tré: The Red Umbrella Diaries is a monthly reading of sex workers ( past and present) telling their stories. It's held the first Thursday of every month and all the stories have a common theme. This month, the theme is " Family Affairs" so I was asked to do a piece about my mom learning of my porn career.

Dunkin: How  does it feel that people recognize you as "Tré Xavier" in public? Do you feel as if people judge you because of the negative connotation porn stars already have?
Tré: I don't get recognized much in public. At least not by people brave enough to approach me. But when I do, it has always been by people who appreciate what I do with my blog more than my work as a porn actor. And since that means that my intellect and inner beauty is making a better impact than my outer beauty; I'm more than a little grateful. Of course, there are those people who are judgemental assholes who throw all porn actors in a fishbowl, thinking that we're all the same and we will do anything with a pulse and anyone for a buck. However, I will admit that there's a great many porn actors out there who don't help that assumption.

Dunkin: I know we were having a twitter discussion on what I call " scene chemistry". What is your view on why certain scenes are better than others? Is it the directors fault or the models?
Tré: Some scenes are hotter than others for that very reason. Studios are hiring more escorts than actual exhibitionists to do porn. There's a reason that an escort turning their trick is behind closed doors. The emptiness of that fuck is something that sane voyeurs don't want to see. As for whose fault this is, it's the fault of both the director and the model. The director should take the models desire into consideration and models need to stop prostituting their desire all for the sake of the almighty dollar. And I say thhis as someone who has prostitued my desire. The vast majority of my scenes, I was not given notice of who my scene partners were. I was often lucky that they were someone I was attracted to. However, there were times like with " gay for pay" asshole Double R  in " Love Of The Dick 4" , that both Pitbull and I were at fault because ( 1 ) they should have given more prior notice, and ( 2 ) when I saw him, I felt his energy was that of an asshole, so I should have never went through with it. So it's a case of how 2 wrong's don't make a right.

Dunkin: I know you're retired and doing a lot of advocacy work, but can we expect a cameo appearance any time soon?
Tré:  I doubt it. The industry is going deep in the direction I just mentioned and it's making me want no part of it, not even in a cameo. If I make any knod of return, it has to be on my terms, with someone I want to show the world me getting it on with so that there is no faking the chemistry. Because the word "actor" in the term " porn actor" is supposed to be simply for lack of a better word. Porn actors are not supposed to actually ACT.

Dunkin: Did you have a mentor/someone you looked up to in the industry?
Tré: The closest to a mentor I would say would be former pornstar Will Clark for his charity work like Porno Bingo which I will be appearing at next week. But I never had anyone active in the industry as a mentor. That's another reason why I got into it because there was no one that I could look up to, so I felt I had to be the one to show that there is beauty in Black men beyone the big , brawny gym-rats with a bald head erasing his African hertiage, as well as beauty in darker complexioned Latinos; since I am part Venezulan. AND that all Blacks are NOT tops. That's why even though I'm versatile, I've never topped on camera except after I retired in my X-Tube video " Tré Xavier with Lucky Irish".

Dunkin: What is some advice you'd give to potential porn models?
Tré: Make sure you're doing it to be an exhibitionist. They porn buying public wants to see people really enjoying the sex and the person (s) they're with. If you don't demand that of a director, then you're allowing the porn studio to be your pimp, and you, their prostitute. And voyeurs are not putting out their hard earned money to see the dead faking eyes of a hooker.

Dunkin: What did/does it feel like knowing that guys are getting off to your work? ( Some people still adore you Tré LOL )
Tré: I'm very flattered by it. Especially now when I do a video on X-tube, Rocket Tube, or GayForIt.com I'm more proud of those videos than most of the studio based porn that I've done, because those videos are made by me, knowing that the voyeur in you is being satisfied by seeing me " genuinely " being sexually satisfied, be it alone or with someone else.

Dunkin: Tell Dunkins PLayground something about you that hardly many people know ?
Tré: Well, I'm so open about most things, if there's something that hardly people know; it's because it's something they reall have no business knowing. So i'll try to throw you a bone by telling you that I've been masturbating almost daily since I was 9. And since I didn't lose my virginity until I was about to turn 31, that might explain why I'm just learning now how to jerk -off and cum while getting fucked. My dick has had almost 22 years of knowing only my hand before experiencing another person touching it. That's longer than most marriages, straight or gay.

Dunkin: I know a lof of potential porn models are on X-tube, do you feel as if X-tube is a graet way to launch their porn career?
Tré: It may be a great way to launch a porn career, but for the reasons I previously mentioned, it's not a great way to prepare you for the industry itself. Because in most videos on X-tube, people are with someone they actually want to be with. An overwhelming number of porn studios don't take that into consideration. That;s why many people who are " X-tube sensations" who go on to work for studios don't last long in studio based porn. Because the "scene chemistry" as you called it was killed by the director.

Dunkin: Your doing a bunch of different projects, which project stands out the most and why?
Tré: The reading of my poetry series, " The Industry" set for January 7th. Because it was born of my video, "R.I.P. Tré Xavier- Porn Actor: 1 Year Later" which was very therapeutic for me. So this poetry series furthered that therapy to make me even happier than I was when I intially retired.

Dunkin: What is a day in the life like for you? What is on your daily schedule?
Tré: Because of what I see in the streets and on TV, a 1001 blog topics running through my mind that I never have enough time to write about, but so badly want to. So I'm just living my life making due with what I have time to address.

Dunkin: What other big things you have in the works? Any secrets you care to tell?
Tré: Sometime in 2011, I'm supposed to be acting in an independent film called " Stronger, Harder, Give Me More!" Besides that, there's nothing else big in the works. And there's no big secrets, If I don't tweet about it fully, I tweets hints, so it won't be a secret for too long.

Dunkin: Got anything you want to get off your chest? Any beefs? Any thank you's?
Tré: No beefs. I could say some more things about some of the people I've mentioned here, but I think your questions gave me a the chance to say plenty. What I would like to get off my chest are the BIG THANKS to all the loyal fans that have follwed me from the beginning , new fans just learning about me now and those that I stand to make in the future. Every opinion I have, do and will give and every stand I have, do and will take, I do it because I know you're listening, and/orr don't have the platform to say what your heart is craving to say. So THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK GOD FOR YOU!!