In a podcast interview last week, the versatile performer also talked about his first kiss, the celebrity he would love to film with, breaking into the industry, loving hard, and what he did with Johnny Hill during quarantine!
Dillon Diaz (who you can see in his new Raging Stallion scene with Chris Damned!) joined the On the Rocks podcast with on-air personality Alexander Rodriguez and co-host Wesley Woods last week, where he was there to promote the Falcon/NakedSword #Mask4Mask campaign (which you can see for free on Naked Sword!). Here are some of the highlights from his appearance (which you can still watch in its entirety):
On his childhood:
“I was a wallflower. I was shy. I was an introvert. I kept to myself. I played with dolls. I just did my own thing; I was in my own little world.”
On discovering his sexuality:
“Pretty early on I realized I was a little bit different, but I didn’t really know what it was until maybe high school, when I started looking at boys and I was like, ‘Oh, I guess I’m gay!’”
On his first “boy kiss”:
“He was a guy I went to school with—his name was Kevin. It was so sweet…I really thought I was in love, it was really, really sweet. It was in high school; we kind of snuck around and we’d do it in the teacher’s elevator.”
On the history of having different ethnic categories for award shows:
“It is a really complicated topic and I’m trying to figure this out as well…I just wanted to be recognized with everyone else. I don’t know why we need to separate, but I understand if we don’t have the separate category, we may not be recognized at all. So, I get why, buy I feel like in a perfect world, it would all be mixed together, and everyone would get the same recognition. It would all be on the same scale.
All of the bi stuff and the trans stuff is kind of lumped in with the straight stuff; in the gay awards, it’s just gay, that’s it. But if you do trans work or bi work, it’s another awards show. And it’s almost like we’re a cousin or something. We’re sitting in the back. We’re there because they have to let us in, but we’re not really being recognized.”
On the inclusion of bi and trans performers with bigger studios:
“It depends on the fan base, who’s watching. Like you said, a lot of fans (get) upset; they didn’t want to see a woman. But it’s so strange. I kind of feel like in 2020, why are we using labels and separating things so much? Sexuality is sexuality, people are people. Why is everything so separate, you know?
I’ll be honest, I’ll tell you a quick story: My first time being with a woman was on camera. It was a bi scene, and I didn’t want to disappoint the other male performer who brought me into this. I was like ‘Okay, you just gotta do a good job—don’t embarrass him. And I actually loved it. I felt like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been missing out for all these years!’
And then I started questioning my own sexuality. I was like, ‘Am I straight? Nah!’ I’m not straight, but I’m bi! Now, I’m just kind of not using labels, and I feel like I wish that’s the direction we were moving in, where we could just have one big happy show where we were all there—the straight folks, the gay, the bi, the trans, all in one show, and just having a great time and all of our work was being recognized together.”
On what irritates him with co-stars:
“I just dislike it when people come to set ill-prepared for their job, whether they’re not clean or they don’t know their lines, or they don’t have the right wardrobe, or parts of their body are not working right. That kind of stuff annoys the crap out of me because I always come prepared. If I’m doing it, why can’t you be prepared? So that’s my main thing.”
On his ritual after coming home after filming a scene:
“It’s usually a long drive for me. And I will listen to podcasts so I don’t fall asleep. For some reason, podcasts keep me more awake than listening to music does. I’ll stop at McDonald’s, and then when I finally get home, I drop my bags on the floor and watch TV or take a nap or catch up on my social media and see what’s going on in the world.”
On being authentic on screen:
“I didn’t plan this. I wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to be a porn star when I grow up!’ I just fell into it. And I don’t know how to fake it. I just do what feels right. I realize sometimes you have to play it up a little bit, but I can’t really fake the entire thing. I think for me to like it or be able to relate to it, it has to be kind of real. It has to look like I’m enjoying myself and we’re totally into each other, and this is exactly what we would do alone together.”
On breaking into the industry:
“I’m a career-changer. When I get bored with one thing, I’m very happy to move on to the next thing. I have no fear about that, I just do it. So I was in between careers in New York City, and I started go-go dancing. And when you’re go-go dancing, you’re interacting with porn stars all the time—they’re like parallel worlds. And I met a lot of these guys, like Wesley, and I was like, ‘Wow, these guys are normal, and they’re cool and they’re sweet and they’re fun, and they’re just making a living and having a good time and creating some art, hopefully. And they’re something hot to look at, something that’s going to stimulate someone in some way, and I feel like I can do this.’ And so I tried it and liked it, and decided to keep going with it. It’s been quite a journey…I’ve learned a lot.
On dating:
“I am seeing someone right now but it’s very, very new…I never hide (my porn career). It’s always on the table right from the start. I don’t want them to get attached to me and then figure it out, and then suddenly change their minds. They know right from the beginning. And if they’re cool with it, they’re cool with it; if they’re not, they weren’t the one.”
On love:
“I just like attention. If you spend time with me and you talk to me and you respond to me, and we have good conversations—like interesting conversations that are varied about lots of different topics. When I find someone who’s kind of cold or turned off or unavailable, that’s kind of like a red flag for me. I love hard. When I find someone I really like, I love hard. And so I’ve decided not to love hard if I’m not going to get some of it back.”
On male performers being ostracized for doing gay, bi and trans work:
“I feel like that is still the case, but doors are slowly opening for a little bit of bisexuality. The straight scenes that I’ve done, they were threesomes where it was a guy, guy and a girl. And we’re both focused on the girl, but if our hands touch, then it’s okay. They’ll play with it; they’ll push it a little bit. I think there have been a couple times on the straight set where we winded up kissing, or giving each other blowjobs or something like that, and they were kind of testing it out to see how the audience would feel about it. Which is cool.”
On fan backlash:
“I have not (experienced that), since I’ve only been doing this for about three years—and so when I started, I wasn’t exclusively gay, ever. Very early on, I ventured into bi and trans, so my fans didn’t get used to me doing just one thing. They knew I was doing it all, and so if they don’t like it, they don’t watch it. There’s plenty of other stuff for them to watch. Like if they like me doing the gay stuff, they watch the gay stuff. If they like me in the bi scenes, then they can just watch that.”
On the celebrity he would you most like film a scene with:
“Like, a mainstream celebrity that I would love to film a scene with? I love Meryl Streep. I don’t think we’ll ever be in the same room. We won’t go to the same party, we don’t even shop at the same supermarket. But she’s amazing. If I could like be an extra in one of the movies, that would make me happy.”
No, Dillon…a celebrity who would be in one of YOUR movies!
(laughs) Oh! Who’s the boy band guy that just got int porn, that everybody’s all like…Aaron Carter? Yeah, that one! I don’t want to work with him though. (laughs)
What would the story about his life be called?
“I’m not sure if it fits for this one, but I’m going to use it anyway because it made me laugh: I’m Not Your Bitch, Bitch!”
On his quarantine binge:
“People love this show, but I wasn’t in it until quarantine: The Walking Dead. It took me three seasons to get into it. I was quarantined with Johnny Hill, he’s another performer. He loves the show, and he wanted to watch the show, and I watched it with him. It took me like three seasons to get into the characters, and then finally I was like, ‘Alright, I’m in, I need to know what’s going to happen.’ But then I don’t know what happens, because I dropped out—it was too long…I got tired.”
On what he fakes most in scenes:
“I try to be a little bit more vocal. I am vocal in real life in bed—the grunting and the moaning and the cursing and the heavy breathing—but I try and exaggerate it a little bit on film, because we don’t know what part they’re going to use, and we want to make sure that whatever part they use, they have enough sound.”
On why he participated in the Falcon/NakedSword #Mask4Mask campaign:
“It just feels like the right thing to do, and an important thing to do. We all want to get back to normal, or the new normal, and we’ve found that one of the ways to do it is to protect ourselves by wearing masks, so why can’t we do that? It’s easy. Get over it. I would rather wear this while I’m outside then have to wear a ventilator in a hospital room. It’s not that hard to do. Just do it.”
See more of Dillon in the #Mask4Mask campaign (free on NakedSword!), and in his new seedy motel scene with Chris Damned for Raging Stallion!
Very interesting as usual. Thse Q&A work as a first impression when we met someone.
Pray tell, how is this different from any type of business meeting or activity for which ones involved?
On what irritates him with co-stars- He has every right to be upset. When you are putting out a product, as a professional, you are suppose to be prepared. The consumer expects a lot from a company and its people. If not you will get a product that turns out junk and get a reputation for low quality.