Anybody who has seen anybody fuck on film over the past quarter of a century has almost certainly been privy to some of Chi Chi LaRue’s work. She has worked with gay models, straight models, and everything in between, in addition to an illustrious career in drag. Simply put, she is an institution and, in a recent interview, she did not beat around the bush about the state of the institution – adult film – that launched her to prominence.

GC: I have always been a little curious – where did Chi Chi, the stage persona, come from?

CCL: I have a performer inside of me – I have always wanted to be famous and be a performer of some sort, and drag seemed to be an easy way to entertain people, being a 360-pound man, I got more attention in drag than I did out of.

GC: And drag is still a big part of your repertoire?

CCL: That’s all I’m doing right now! I’m shooting movies every once in a while. My company is doing good, I have a new sex toy line [called] Rascal that is doing really well. Porn DVDs and things like that are no longer very lucrative. The porn industry is in the toilet, basically, because of piracy and people stealing and, just like music, downloading things for free and not paying for it. So I am solidly booked in drag past the New Year – every single weekend and even some weekdays.

GC: What are some of the events you are looking forward to?

CCL: Evolution [Wonder]lounge’s one-year anniversary is very exciting, because I was there when they opened and they asked me back for the one-year anniversary, which is really a compliment. I’m excited about that. I am going to be DJ-ing in Austin, Texas at Oilcan Harry’s, for Stripper Circus, which is a collective started here in Los Angeles, and it’s now in San Diego and in Las Vegas, and now we’re starting it in Austin. I was one of the original DJs for it in Los Angeles, and they decided to bring me to Austin for the Oilcan Harry’s opening. The RuPaul’s Drag Race Cruise – this will be my second year doing that – with all the RPDR contestants.

GC: You mentioned some of the major hurdles that the porn industry has had to clear a moment ago, and they are far from the first – there have been a lot of changes to cope with. How do you deal with that? How do your fans?

CCL: As a kid I remember having 8-track tapes, and when 8-tracks became obsolete, then it was records. I never wanted to get rid of my record collection. When tapes came out, it was like, Oh god, not tapes! Then tapes went away, and CDs came out, and I swore I would never switch to CDs. Well, it’s kind of the same thing. There are customers that still call our customer service line and ask if we have anything on VHS. Technology is hard for some people... I know that certain people of a certain age who don’t want to watch porn on a little tiny computer on their desk. They want to watch it on their TV. And now, even I have accepted it. I watch movies on my iPad. I download movies from iTunes. It’s a far cry from putting a giant plastic brick into a player.

GC: You have mentioned that people also tend to have a shortened attention span when it comes to media consumption, and I imagine that hits porn, too. Have you had to change the way you shoot to keep up with what people expect in terms of immediacy?

CCL: Yyyyyes. We have had to change everything because of the economy and because of the lack of interest in adult film DVDs. When I first started making movies they were five scenes, minimum. Now they are three. As the budgets go down, so does the quantity of what people get. It’s sad, but you have to go with the flow, otherwise you’ll sink. If you spend too much money, you will never make your money back.

GC: You have long been an advocate of condoms in your films. Some people have been talking about filming with condoms, but then removing them digitally –

CCL: Oh, I don’t think that that’s real. That would be far too expensive to do and for no reason. There is another trick afloat. I don’t know what that is, I’m not privy to it. Not necessarily bare-backing, but they’re doing something else. I mean, it’s very easy to hide a condom. You just cut the rim off and make it shorter on the dick, and that’s how you do it. I’m not a fool – I work in this business. I know the tricks you can do to make things work.

Why are we trying to make it appear that we are not, when in fact, I feel better about showing condoms in my movies because hopefully people are not out there flying around, willy-nilly, having unsafe sex. Why are we trying to portray unsafe sex? ... I just shot a scene with my new exclusive Jason Phoenix and Armond Rizzo that is so out-of-this-world hot that if you’re worried about the condom that’s on Jason’s dick, there is something else going on. You get the right condom, you put lube on it, it basically disappears anyway. Who cares! A good sex scene with a condom is better than a bad sex scene without one.

I’m a big condom advocate, but I have stopped preaching about it, because it kind of falls on deaf ears, and people are going to do what they’re going to do. I just need to take care of myself right now, and the people that work for me... Before, I used to stick my neck out in everyone’s business, and that doesn’t happen anymore. I’ve got way too many things going on in my life to worry about everyone else’s life.

GC: So film budgets have gone down, and demand for paid porn has gone down. Do you still have to deal with people coming to you expecting to become millionaires doing porn?

CCL: Let’s look at it this way – if a guy is doing a sex scene and he gets six [hundred] to a thousand dollars, that is a lot of money for two to eight hours’ work. And if you’re doing it consistently, and you are a good performer and you’re reliable ... that is a good job. It’s a job! Just like showing up to McDonald’s and knowing how to use the French fryer.

Nowadays things are... not so clinical. It is a little more spontaneous. You don’t have to see every ass hair as the dick’s going in, lit up to the Nth degree. It’s a little more free-flowing. That is where I’d like to bring things in my company. There are other companies that do it great, like CockyBoys. They do it amazing.

GC: As a producer, do you feel like you have a responsibility to push back against perfectionist body image in porn? Show more normal guys getting it on?

CCL: I think that that there is a market for that, absolutely. The most perfect guy in the world can still produce the most boring sex. Sometimes you get somebody that’s a little less perfect, a little rough around the edges, that will give you knockout, flying circus sex. I have shot a couple of them recently and it has been really amazing.

It is the people that are buying the movies – you have to kind of watch what is popular and what is selling. I’m not making the movies for me; I’m making the movies for the consumer who will hopefully pick up the phone and buy the movies.