David Benjamin is a bit of an oddity – a newcomer to porn at 40 years old, but with a physique and vitality that would look right at home on a much younger man. Entering the adult entertainment world with his eyes wide open, Benjamin brings a maturity and a business savvy to the industry that will likely ensure we will be seeing him around for years to come. We had a chance to talk to David Benjamin recently about making his way into the entertainment he loves, keeping in the shape we love to watch him in, and his open admiration for his colleagues.
GC: You are pretty new to the industry – could you tell us a little about the thought process that led you into wanting to get involved?
DB: About a year and a half ago I went through a breakup of a significant relationship, which really kind of dissatisfied me with the trajectory of my life. Nothing was wrong, per se, but I just didn’t feel that sort of contentment and ownership that I thought I would at that point in my life... What I came to realize was that, for most of my 20s, I was pursuing a career and trying to make good on my parents and my education, and for most of my 30s I spent a lot of time trying to be the ideal husband or the ideal boyfriend. Be a good boy, pay your bills, show up to work, get a mortgage – all of those things. I just realized that all of those values that I thought I had in my 20s and 30s were not my values anymore.
Porn was one of those things in the back of my mind – since my late teens, early 20s. I started out as a porn fan. I used to watch and continue to watch a lot of porn. I was fascinated by the men, and the productions, and the locations, and the acts. It was something that I never thought was for people like me. I thought only people in LA, or only people in Miami, or only these beautiful club men from New York did these sorts of things. And I didn’t see me there.
GC: It must have been a pretty strong desire, to keep you revisiting the idea, anyway.
DB: [It] persisted, over time. It would be like, I really want to do that, but I would shutter it off. I began coming back full circle to a year ago, so I said, why not? So I went up to my local strip club and I entered an amateur contest, thinking that I would do something crazy, and they offered me a job. After some consideration, I said... Why not embrace something? I enjoyed performing, I enjoyed being up there and dancing, and once that floodgate had opened, I thought, why don’t I follow up on this interest in porn?
GC: Sounds like you’re taking a pretty measured, well-considered approach to getting involved with porn – kind of eyes-wide-open.
DB: My big fear is that this sort of eyes-wide-open concept is really just a massive rationalization for bad behaviour. [laughs]... I do find that maturity – a little bit of life experience – does help. I’m not a young man who is overwhelmed by the sudden attention of others. I am not without some business experience to understand what makes business sense... I may be able to avoid some of the problems that other people have had.
GC: It is pretty common for men working in porn to have complicated relationships with their bodies. Tell us a bit about your experience moving toward your current physique.
DB: There was a long period where my time in the gym was actually very unhealthy, in that I was trying to perfect my outsides because I didn’t feel good about my insides. And that changed probably about ten years ago. I realized that the closer I got to ‘perfection’ the more the imperfections seemed to be glaring. The more I lost ten pounds, the more I would realize my abs aren’t great. The more I built up my arms I realized, oh my god, my legs look skinny. So I actually had a come-to-Jesus moment if you will, where I was at the gym one day, kind of beating my head up against the brick wall, and I realized I wasn’t having fun, and if I wanted to continue doing this, it had to be about having fun and being healthy. And as long as I’m pursuing those two things my gym routine is wonderful.
GC: What has been your favourite scene to shoot so far?
DB: I have been very fortunate to get along with nearly all of my directors and nearly all of my fellow performers – I wouldn’t pick one or the other. I will say that as my first movie, I will forever remember the experiences of Trunks 8. Getting on set – and it was an outdoor set – in Southern California, and it was late in the afternoon, and the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains. And if you know anything about production, you know that it’s all about light, and if the light changes, you can’t piece everything together, so it was a race against time... We complete the scene, it comes time for climax, and literally the production staff is going we’ve got five minutes! We’ve got four minutes!
Mitch Vaughn, my colleague, being the pro that he is: one, two, three, bam! – he completes his scene. So then it’s me. My first time; I’m nervous as hell, I have got to do this otherwise the entire shoot is not going to come together, and the sun is going down by the moment. Two minutes, one minute. I began to have a little bit of a panic attack! And thank god for Mitch – he whispered in my ear, let them worry about the light. Just do what you gotta do. Two minutes later, bam. And literally about two seconds after I climaxed and completed the scene, the sun dipped behind the mountains.
GC: In other interviews, you have mentioned that you have had fun bottoming, but you have been aching to top on film. Have any of your shoots given you the chance to try it out?
DB: My newest scene, which just came out this week for Falcon, is called Crave. Nick [Fox] cast me with... Brian Bonds for a versatile scene, so it’s a flip. If I had to keep listing great experiences, working with Brian and Nick was wonderful. Brian and I have real chemistry together. We are friends, we are colleagues, but there is also a sexual attraction there that really translated well. Even in my short experience there are people that I have worked with that I have more in common with and more attraction to, and people I have had less with. Brian ranks among the ones that I have had the most chemistry with.
