Below the Belt with

Raging Stallion Man of the Year

STEVE CRUZ

GIO     Steve, thank you for sitting down with me to do this interview! 

Steve It is a pleasure to be here and I thank you for having me. 

GIO     Let’s start by going back in time a little bit.  At what point in your life did you decide that you wanted to perform in gay porn? 

Steve Well I had always been a fan of gay porn and I knew people in the industry. I was actually pursued by some people in the industry for about 8 or 9 years before I decided I was actually ready to do this type of work.  Part of my initial hesitation was that I personally needed to be ready and confident in myself and it had to feel right.  Last year I was pursued by Raging Stallion and it was at a point in my life when I was feeling confident and I needed a change.  It was a perfect opportunity for me to start and they offered me a two picture deal that involved travel and Jake Deckard! (Big Smile)  I figured I could satisfy my curiosity, get a free vacation to Hawaii and have sex with one of the hottest men that I had actually beat off many times, Jake Deckard! 

GIO     Well that is a great way to enter the business for sure!  It sounds like you were quite a fan of gay porn before going in front of the camera.  How old were you when you saw your first gay porn? 

Steve I was 14 and it was probably a Falcon movie.  I cannot remember the title, but I do remember the scenario.  It was a trashy alley sex seen with guys fucking on a garbage can.  My gay uncle let me borrow that video and he also sent me home with a stack of MEN Magazines. Shortly after that I got my own subscription to that magazine.  I used to look at those magazines and fantasize about being on the cover of one and it is so cool that I was able to fulfill that dream by being on the cover of Unzipped Magazine in February 2007.

GIO     What is the title of your first film with Raging Stallion? 

Steve Lords of the Jungle and it was filmed on location in Hawaii.  My first scene partner was the sexy and hunky Blake Nolan and he was exactly my type.  He was perfect to take my porn cherry because he is that big, hairy and rugged type of guy that really turns me on.  Not to mention, he is the sweetest and cuddly man (Big smile). 

GIO     Were you very nervous shooting your first scene? 

Steve Normally I do not get very nervous and I am a pretty sexual person to begin with.  I did feel a little pressure though because I was brought into Lords of the Jungle as my entry scene, but I was also cast in Mirage in a bigger role and I felt a little pressure to give a good performance because I felt like if I did not do good I would not get to keep my role in Mirage.  So, yeah I was a little nervous. Thankfully they liked my performance though.

GIO     Initially you were not signed as an exclusive with Raging Stallion and you worked for some other companies as well.  Why did you not go the exclusive route at the beginning? 

Steve Politically I needed to stay independent for the first couple months of    getting into the business.  One of my very good friends is Brian Mills and he is a director at Titan Media and he had been trying to get me to do porn for many years.  The opportunity with Raging Stallion made sense to me, but I also wanted to work with my good friend Brian Mills because he is a genius director.  As soon as I got home from Hawaii, I called Brian and told him I had finally decided to do porn and I had just shot for Raging Stallion.  Thankfully, he was very happy that I got my feet wet with Raging Stallion so that when I came to Titan I would be better prepared for what it is like to shoot a scene. 

GIO     That is great that you did not burn any bridges initially.  What did you film with Titan Media? 

Steve I got cast in H2O and was able to fulfill yet another fantasy because my scene partner was Francois Sagat!  At that time, Francois was my ultimate fantasy man and if someone had asked me to pick anyone out of all the male porn stars that I wanted to work with, it would have been him.        Thankfully I had filmed my scenes for Raging Stallion first because I was much less nervous shooting H2O and I was fully prepared to have a totally hot scene with Francois Sagat!

GIO     Aside from Titan, you also got to work with the amazing Chi Chi LaRue. Tell me about how that came to be. 

Steve Well after I filmed my first three movies I approached Collin O’Neal and asked him if he could possibly introduce me to Chi Chi LaRue because I loved her work and really wanted to work with her on a film.  I submitted my photos to her and she cast me right away in When Bears Attack and immediately after wrapping up Mirage I was on a plane to LA to shoot with her. She liked my performance in When Bears Attack and then she cast me in LINK, her big film for 2007.  I am so happy that she and I hit it off so well and established a friendship.

GIO     After working for the other studios, how did you end up as a Raging Stallion Exclusive? 

Steve Lucky for me the offer for me to come on board at Raging Stallion was still available after I did work for other studios and at that point I felt like I needed the stability of a contract.  At that time I was not with an agent that would advocate for me, and I felt I needed more focused attention.  I now have FabScout Entertainment as my agent for live appearances which is great and I have Raging Stallion as my studio that helps to promote my persona.  So now I am and exclusive with them and I love them. 

GIO     Speaking of Raging Stallion, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate you on being named the 2008 Raging Stallion Man of the Year!

Steve (Big Smile) It was something that I really wanted and worked hard for, so I was thrilled when they honored me with that title.  It was beyond my wildest dreams and I am now getting out on the road more and helping to promote the studio. 

GIO     How do you like performing live versus on camera? 

Steve Well it is all part of the package of being a porn star.  But, the two are very different.  My true passion is performing on camera. When shooting film  you are in a protected environment, plus it is not in real time.  Doing a live  appearance the audience sees all of you all the time and for me, I think it is more challenging to perform live.  However, I think it is more rewarding in a way because you can have a connection with the audience that you do not get on a set.  As a performer I like to be very connected with my fans and if you go to my Blog or Website you will see that my attention to the fans is very important to me.  I do love performing live though and I look forward to doing more appearances in the future.

Steve Performing Live at Steel, Ft. Lauderdale 

GIO     How is it for you to be out and about in your normal daily life to be recognized by people for your work in gay porn? 

Steve Luckily I chose a stage name that is also my real first name.  So, when I am out and people call my name, I do not have to stop and think about it. At first when people would call my name, I would stop and try to figure out how they might know me or how I might know them; but now I am getting used to it and it is cool. The first time I really noticed people recognized me was when I was at IML this year and it was kind of exciting.  I would lie if I did not say it feels really good to be recognized. 

GIO     Tell me a little more about your Website and Blog.

Steve Well my website SteveCruzXXX.com is currently free to everyone. I am adding a small membership area where I will do live cam shows for my fans and stuff like that.  However, that will be the only membership section to my site and everything else will remain free.  I am a firm believer that since the site is for the fans it should be free and updated on a regular basis.  If my fans want to purchase something, they can do that too through my store and that allows them to get my movies and also some personal items from me.  I know a lot of the porn stars charge money for their sites, but I just do not see how I can charge my fans money to read my Blog. I think it is preposterous to charge money for that! 

GIO     I have been to your Website and your Blog and I must say they are both great and I think it is very generous of you to give your fans free access.  Speaking of being generous; please tell me about your current volunteer efforts and your efforts to promote safe sex through your How I Roll campaign. 

Steve Before I started doing porn I did some work in the public health sector.  I am a designer and a lot of my clients were non-profits and the central focus of my work has been STD and HIV awareness and prevention. I am also very focused on Crystal Meth prevention.  I am very passionate about  this work. I think the experience of loosing a good friend at a relatively young age left an indelible mark on me and I feel a calling to give back to the community in whatever way I can.   

            Now that I am doing porn, I feel like I am a living example of sexual politics.  I am on the front line and in the high risk group because I am a highly sexually active person both on and off screen.  So I want to use my name and image to help raise awareness and hopefully prevent someone     from making the wrong decision when it comes to sex.  I think this work is very relevant right now because so many gay men are experimenting with bareback sex or doing it exclusively and for some odd reason it has become almost fashionable. 

            I do not know what came first, the bareback film or the practice of bare-backing in people’s personal lives.  Unfortunately, they both seem to fuel each other right now and it seems the sales of bareback films are at an all time high and I think it is tragic.  Now is the time to raise awareness and hopefully turn this dangerous behavior around before we have another epidemic on our hands.  I speak to many young men and I am amazed at      how ignorant they are when it comes to understanding what we went though at the onset of the AIDS crisis in this country.  They do not know what it is like to almost loose and entire generation of people. I do not think they would be taking the risks they currently are, if they had the right history and education of the risk factors associated with bareback sex. 

            I am creating a website How I Roll which launches in January and I have partnered with the Stop Aids Project to provide STD, HIV and Drug information in an effort to give people the right information to make up their own minds.  I am not preaching, but rather providing factual information to gay men in an effort to help them make smart decisions.  I am hopeful that if you are an HIV negative person and you are given the facts; you are going to want to wrap it up every single time you have sex.  The site is not just for negative men, it also have very important information for the positive community as well.

GIO     I applaud you for your efforts in promoting safe sex practices and being an advocate for this very important subject.  Have you received additional support from within the industry for your efforts?

Steve One of my biggest supporters is Chi Chi LaRue and I truly appreciate her backing me up on this endeavor.  Since the very beginning AIDS crisis, Chi Chi has been a proponent for safe sex and her “Wrap it Up” campaign has been very successful.  Unzipped Magazine has come on board as a sponsor and Raging Stallion and Titan are also supporting my efforts and I love them for that.  I am encouraging other models in the industry to go to the website too.  There they can post a paragraph in support of How I Roll and I will also link back to their respective websites.  It is a grass roots effort right now, but I am hopeful that this message will reach the community and in turn help people make informed decisions when it comes to sex and drugs. 

GIO     That is awesome!  Aside from porn and your volunteer efforts, what do you enjoy doing for fun? 

Steve Well I am a very creative person and I love doing graphic art and painting.  Additionally I am a musician and I play the bass.  So most of my free time lately has been with my new toy “Thor” which is my bass guitar and I sometimes practice up to two hours each day.  So right now I love doing the music when I can and I am also writing my own music.  I also wrote the screen play for my next Raging Stallion movie that we are going to film at the beginning of 2008 and that was a very exciting process for me.  The screen play is called Hotter than Hell and it will be the big summer movie release next year. 

GIO     Wow, you truly are a busy guy!   

Steve Yeah, I like to keep busy and I also love to travel. 

GIO     Where is the one place you have not been that you want to travel too? 

Steve Well the favorite place that I have been to recently would have to be Berlin because it is an emerging and changing city right now and is full of color and life.  But my all time favorite place to go is Paris and I get to go back there in January.  The two places that I have my heart set on traveling too are New Zealand and Tahiti.  I would love to film a movie in Tahiti! 

GIO     What do you consider your best qualities are? 

Steve I think my strengths are my integrity and my work ethic.  I try to just keep it real and when I am working I put my whole heart into what I am doing. 

GIO     What do you think you need to improve upon? 

Steve My weaknesses would be that I do not take enough time to rest and relax. I really need to allow myself time to meditate and chill out.  My number two flaw would be that I need to be a little more sensitive to other people around me when I am all consumed in work. 

GIO     Those are very honest answers.  You are portrayed as very hyper-masculine, dirty and a bit raunchy.  Is the work you do on film indicative of how you are in your personal life as well? 

Steve To some degree yes, as I said integrity is important to me.  When I started porn, I wanted my persona to be as close to whom I really am and that is  why I kept my real first name.  As for the sex, most of it is what I really like to do.  But, the stuff you see on screen is more of a performance. Let’s be real, nobody is really having sex like that in their homes, it would be impossible to keep that intensity up in your personal life.  But, I do love the stuff I do on screen and that does fall over into my personal life. I like to spit, be aggressive, nipple play, have my ass smacked and rougher sex play is hot to me.  Not too rough though, I am a grey hanky guy. I also like  water sports. Sex is all about the other person you are with though and sometimes I want to be the total pig bottom and other times I may want to be more dominant.  You never really know until you meet that guy and vibe off of each other. 

GIO     Is there a fantasy that has yet to be fulfilled? 

Steve I have pretty much lived them out already.  The one fantasy that will probably never happen in my career is to do scenes with Damien Cross and Francesco D’Macho, but they are both exclusive to other studios and I do not think I will ever get to do scenes with them.  They are both so much my type! I am certainly open to a private invitation from either of them though (Laughs).  I do have varied tastes in men and I would love to fulfill another fantasy with one of the hottest jock types out there right now, Johnny Castle.  I met him this weekend while he was dancing at Cupids and he is my new straight boy fantasy!  He is really a nice guy and even though he is straight, he deserves all the accolades he is getting right now because he is a super nice guy. 

GIO     It is obvious that you have a passion for tattoos and you blog is even called Ink Blog.  Tell me about your tattoos. 

Steve I have the phoenix rising out of flames on my back and that was a pretty important tattoo to me.  I was living in Seattle and going through a hard time because I had chronic fatigue syndrome and the mainstream doctors were unable to do much for me.  So I turned to holistic medicine and did acupuncture meditation and other stuff to help me recover.  That tattoo is a symbol of me going through a dark time in my life and being re-born and stronger after that experience.  Right after that I also started running and just being able to run and feel my heart beat was like a re-awakening for me.  The water band on my arm is my first tattoo and that was significant because it is reminiscent of a famous painting that I really liked and this famous tattoo artist Eddie Deutch and I am also a water sign and water is an important element for me.  Right now I have a tattoo in progress on my arm that is a water serpent, again because of my love of water and I also like dragons. The serpent is also a little like the Phoenix because they shed their skin.

GIO     Let’s talk about the big Epic Film by Raging Stallion this year, GRUNTS.  Tell me about your experience on this project. 

Steve This movie is as close to a Hollywood movie as I will ever get.  We went out to Central California to a ranch and re-created a boot camp.  The movie action was very intense and I play one of the Grunts going through basic training.  A few of the guys in the cast were from the military, so they  brought a very realistic element to the basic training scenes and we all were put through our paces filming those scenes.  During the day, it was 100 plus degrees outside while we were filming the training scenes and at night we would shoot the sex scenes.  It was a very grueling filming experience, but also very fun!  I have not seen the final edited version yet, but I know that the scenes were very hot and I was at the top of my game   for this movie in terms of my sex scenes.   

            I play one of the Ramirez brothers in this movie. I am the first to enlist and then later my brother enlists. We both become part of an experimental weapon that is used on us as test subjects. The weapon is a gas that makes you incredibly horny.  It is actually loosely based on an experiment that our own government was messing around with not too long ago. The US Government was trying to develop a chemical that would turn enemy soldiers gay (Laughs very loud)!  As funny as that sounds, it works really well in this film and it would have to in order to get two brothers to have sex with each other.   

            The central scene in the 2^nd movie in the series called Brothers in Arms is about the Ramirez brothers hooking up with each other and having very hot sex.

GIO     Hmmm, an incest scene…how interesting. 

Steve Yeah, it may raise a few eyebrows in the red states (Laughs).  After all we are not real brothers in real life and the plot line does not really  define what type of brothers we are, so that is left to the viewer to decide.  The guy who plays my brother is from Europe and he is very hot.  His name is Orlando Toro and everyone says we look a little bit like each other.  Once we got our hair cut the same and our mustaches the same, it was a little eerie how much we resemble each other.  However, I think he is the good brother and I am the 'bad-ass brother'.  He is much sweeter than I am. He tops me very well in the movie (Big smile). 

GIO     Well I am sure that scene will fulfill many fantasies for many people out there.  Speaking of bottoming…you have certainly gained a reputation for being a power bottom and it is my opinion that a truly good bottom is the one in control, would you agree? 

Steve That is actually the policy at Raging Stallion when we are shooting a scene, they tell all the tops that the bottoms are in total control.  That is one of the reasons I decided to be an exclusive with Raging Stallion along with the fact that they are one of the only studios still shooting the epic style of porn film with plots. Most other studios have gone to all sex videos, which is not a bad thing, but I really like being in more plot driven movies.   

GIO     Will we see more of you being versatile in your films and taking the top role as well? 

Steve Yes, and Raging Stallion now knows that I can be a top as well.  I do my first topping scene in GRUNTS.  I was pretty aggressive as a top in that scene, and I think people were surprised.  However, my comfort level is mostly to be a bottom on film. 

GIO     For the person out there thinking about purchasing GRUNTS, tell me why they would want to spend over $100.00 to buy all three movies in the package deal being offered by Raging Stallion? 

Steve Well they are going to get really slamming hot sex by a very diverse cast of performers.  You are also going to get realism in the overall story line. The basic training alone is very real and we got down and dirty shooting it. Also about 1/3 of the cast are actual prior military men who are fucking beautiful! 

GIO     Speaking of realism, there was a rumor flying around while you were shooting the film that the Department of Homeland Security actually visited the set because they suspected some type of militia or terrorist group was training. Did you hear about this? 

Steve Well I know we were visited, but I am not clear on the details of it because the studio could not discuss it with us.  I was sleeping the night it happened and I woke up the next day to many phone calls from people I know who had heard we were visited and they were worried about us. From what I understand, they saw us from the air and because our set was so realistic by having real military vehicles, military tents and the obstacle courses that they came to investigate the set because we looked to be some kind of militia group. 

GIO     Well it certainly gave the movie some great pre-publicity! (Both Laugh)  Let’s step away from porn for a moment and have some fun!  Boxers or Briefs? 

Steve Jock Straps! 

GIO     I should have guessed that! (Laughing)  Dogs or cats? 

Steve Cats, I like their independence. 

GIO     If you could be any animal what would you be and why? 

Steve That is a tough one, hmmmm…I would be an Eagle because they soar above everything and have ultimate freedom. 

GIO     What is in your I-Pod right now? 

Steve I am playing the Lords of Dogtown motion picture soundtrack right now. The soundtrack is a bunch of rock music from the early and late 70’s.  People can always see what I am listening to by going to my Blog because I post that information there every week. 

GIO     Where do you see yourself going in the next few years? 

Steve I am trying to figure that out right now and I would be lying if I told you that I did not want to get some type of recognition in this industry because I am   been working so hard in my performances.  It would be very nice to get some accolades for my work.  Do I see myself as always being a porn star?  Probably not because my background is so creative and I learning more about camera work and video editing and it would be nice to learn more behind the scenes stuff in the industry.  I would also like to do more  graphic arts work in this business and I would really like the opportunity to direct someday. 

GIO     With your creative side I am sure you will find areas of opportunity within the adult industry.  Is there anything else you want to share with your   fans? 

Steve Yeah!  I am very approachable so do not be shy around me and feel free to come up and say hello.  All I ask is that you be respectful.  Also, go to my blog and please respond to my postings as I really like to hear from the fans.  If they send me something to wear or other requests within reason, I will take pictures doing that and post them on the Blog as long as it is legal and ethical.  I really like to please the fans and entertain them. 

GIO     Last question, what advice do you have for anyone wanting to get into the gay porn industry. 

Steve My best advice is that if you really want to do this work, do not do anything that you are uncomfortable with!  Do not do anything that you think is going to get you further because you should never compromise yourself.  If you do compromise yourself in this business you will be very unhappy and have a difficult time.  To the young guys out there who are getting into this industry; do not allow anyone to pressure you into doing bareback porn.  You need to value your own life above all else because you are more important than that movie you are making.  We only get one gift of life and you are the one in charge of it. 

GIO     Excellent advice!  Thank you very much for doing this interview and I wish you continued success in all your future endeavors!