On June 9th, as part of Edmonton’s Pride celebration, adult film star Samuel Colt will be hosting the massive Pure Pride dance event; appearing alongside his partner and fellow performer Chris Porter.

He’s of a rare but growing breed of adult actors who got into the business at a later age. In the past he has participated in various bodybuilding competitions and won several titles. He is also a bit of a nerd, having worked behind the scenes of the adult industry as webmaster for Hot House Entertainment. His debut as an adult actor occurred in 2009, and has since performed in several films. At 38 years old, he and I are from the same generation, which make for an interesting interview.

One nice change I have noticed in pornography in the past ten years – actors like Samuel (older than 30 and furry) are getting a lot more work. In the past if there was a hairy model or an older actor it was the domain of a leather movie, with the older hairier model working over the young hairless twink. "I think the market has gotten big enough it’s been able to diversify and specialize. There certainly is a market for hairy guys, it’s just never been the traditional porn image," he told me.

"A lot of it started with Titan casting older models; they had no problems casting someone who’s 40 years old if they have a nice body, a nice face and a nice dick." You wouldn’t have seen that five or ten years ago. This shift in demand for models might also speak to the evolving tastes of consumers as they age.

This is not the only change in the adult film industry over the last twenty years. Businesses which create and distribute pornography have long been early adopters of technological advances, something that is still continuing now. Traditionally, the business focus has been on making movies that are published to DVDs. As a result, there are higher production values and more work required on a scene by scene basis. "You can spend six hours shooting a scene that’s maybe going to be edited down to twenty minutes...there’s some web-only companies like Cocksure Men that from start to finish is 45 minutes to an hour." You’ll get paid a little less, Samuel told me, but if you work it on an hourly basis, "...you’re shooting for a Falcon movie that’s going to be on a DVD that’s six hours (to shoot), you’re making $2500 for that scene versus something that’s going to take an hour and you’re making $1400 for that scene...well, I’m going to take the $1400."

Overall, for these web-based adult film sites their method is much more economical – they can shoot three scenes in one day as opposed to six hours to shoot a scene that’s edited down to the same amount of time. "Does the quality go down? Maybe yeah. Do people care about that as much? I don’t know. I can tell you one thing, those shorter scenes have a lot more passion in them because you’re going . It’s real sex. Whereas some of the DVD scenes, all you can think about is eating and maybe having a nap."

Other casualties of the newer crop of adult films are the various storylines used to explain why all these hunky men are in a cabin in the woods. A lot more films just go into the sex without the story. Given the dubious acting skills of some performers, that’s probably a good thing. Samuel agrees, but, "...to some degree I like it because for me sex is a very mental thing. I like the set up, the fetish and the fantasy."

Unfortunately, when the actor has to talk, it can sometimes ruin that fantasy. It’s worse when you’re in the business. "Some of these really hot guys...oh my god they’re really hot, I’d love to do a scene with them, then you meet them in person and you’re like ewww..."

But this dick-shrivelling moment can now happen to fans and fellow perfomers. "As our lives have become more digital all the time, with Facebook and Twitter and blogs...the more press coverage the porn industry receives, you learn more of the backstory of the porn performers as individuals, which can ruin the fantasy." Samuel and I both remember a time before the internet where you’d hear rumours a porn star was at a gay nightclub, and you’d rush out to the club just to get a glimpse of them in person.

Today, with digital media all the mystery to these adult entertainers is laid bare, which can be a good or a bad thing. "It can work both ways for some people...the porn industry can attract maybe a lot of broken people, and it makes more excuses for those types of people...and you give them a pulpit, a soapbox to say anything they want? Well there goes all that magic."

He understands how people can enjoy receiving all that attention, but, "personally, I need to be able to turn it off and get away from it and live my normal life once in a while. I tweet a lot, but I don’t even tweet personal pictures very often."

Open and proud promotion is another interesting evolution from fifteen to twenty years ago. Adult actors back then would go by aliases and there was very much an underground element still attached to it. Today, performers are featured at circuit parties, they’ll DJ parties, and they’ll do modelling work – among other things. The reasons why are too complex to start listing here, but in Samuel’s opinion, while he doesn’t think that porn is more accepted in society, it is more known that it happens. What is probably more important is the rise of the cult of celebrity. "I’m not saying porn stars are celebrities, but in a way they are kind of gay celebrities."

Samuel is boggled by all the attention given to celebrities; especially in the case of Kim Kardashian who has a tonne of twitter followers and really, does nothing. The reason her face appears on so many celebrity tabloids is that she’s simply famous (and in my opinion, fucking annoying).

This cult of celebrity happens in the adult industry, albeit at a much smaller degree, and Samuel has no idea why. Using himself as an example, he has 23,000 Twitter followers, and,  "I have no idea why people are interested in what I have to say. The weird thing is that it’s not even a porn thing. I get comments from people all the time who say Oh wow I didn’t even know you did porn...it’s very bizarre...I don’t know why people need celebrities so much." Unfortunately it’s a fact of our life today.

I suspect why people like what Samuel has to say is that, besides his very nice body, he has proven he also has a lot of smarts, which will make him a great host for the Pure Pride party. He’ll be walking around, talking to fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures. As well, they’ve got a whole bunch of events Samuel and his partner Chris will be appearing at, besides the Pure Pride party – they’ll probably be in the Pride parade, for example. "I’m definitely excited to be in Edmonton. I’ve heard this is a really fun party, and I’ve been looking forward to it the last year." As many fans have also been anticipating – let’s hope Edmonton shows them a good time and a Happy Pride!