I’m A Porn Star: Gay4Pay (VoD Review)

Starring: Various
Director: Charlie David
Running Time: 54 mins
Certificate: NR
Release Date: August 30th 2016

A couple of years ago, the documentary I’m A Porn Star provided an interesting insight into the world of gay porn, talking to various models – some gay, some straight, some bisexual – about their lives, work and how they got into the industry. Now it’s back with Gay4Pay, which as the name suggests, concentrates on the world of straight identifying men who have sex with other men on screen for money.

Are they really straight? Are they deeply closeted? Is it just about the money? Do they start out straight and end up further towards the other end of the Kinsey Scale after they’ve been in the industry for a while? Well, after watching Gay4Pay, the answer seems to be ‘Yes’ to all of those, but as you’d expect it depends on the guy.

The doc mainly consists of interviews with straight identifying porn performers, looking at what motivated them to start porn (unsurprisingly it started out as being about the cash for a lot of them), whether they’d thought about doing stuff with guys before (most but not all did) and various other aspects of their lives. They also talk to gay performers about their experience of working with straight guys, as well as vox pops on the streets to find out what normal people think about it all.

It’s a fairly interesting look into that world, and reveals a wide variety of different motivations the performers have, ranging from those who see it purely as a job and get limited pleasure from the gay sex they have, to those who like the sex and now see themselves as more heteroflexible than they did before. What they all tend to share is a pretty open attitude to sexuality and a conviction that what they do on screen doesn’t affect who they are in the rest of their lives. Indeed, it’s clear that for many ‘porn performers’, it really is a performance and a role that they’ve learned to play.

It is a shame it doesn’t go a little further into why the idea of straight guys fucking is such a big thing in gay porn, as it’s an interesting subject. It’s especially intriguing considering that when some of the guys are talking about how they’ve never particularly enjoyed the sex or been into their scene partners, it would be a turn off to a lot of people if they knew that when watching them perform. That said, while many of the guys say they’re not particularly into the sex, it’s hinted that quite a lot of performers end up having feelings for guys they weren’t expecting.

There is of course also a lot of very sexy flesh on display, although don’t expect this to be a full-on hardcore fest. While there are bits from a cornucopia of porn scenes shown, nearly all the man bits are carefully cropped. Of course this does add plenty of titillation to the film, but it also adds context to what the guys are talking about, particularly to aspects of how they view it as a performance, or what their wives/girlfriends think about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJpUrCtN4T8

While not quite as good as the first I’m A Porn Star documentary, which went into more depth about its subject’s lives, it’s still an interesting film. Does it answer all the questions about Gay4Pay? No, but that’s partly because it’s an enigma. What it does do is show there is no simple answer, as there’s a multitude of different motivations and reasoning behind why a straight-identifying guy would get into gay porn, but that in the modern world it’s easier for people to be part of that world without having to panic about what it means to their masculinity (although interestingly a lot of guys do still seem to have a few issues over whether bottoming affects their manhood).

Overall Verdict: If you’re interested in the world of gay porn, I’m A Porn Star: Gay4Pay offers a diverting look into the world of straight identifying guys who have sex with men on screen. It may not answer all the questions surrounding both why guys do it and why others want to watch, but it offers enough insights to be worthwhile.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac