One year ago today the now-iconic sketch The Actress made its big debut on Saturday Night Live. The sketch centers around an actress named Grace, played by Emma Stone, looking for a challenging role to tackle. Tired of playing “one-dimensional women with vacant lives,” Grace decides to take the role of a generic woman who gets cheated on in a gay porn and turn her into a character with depth.
The SNL sketch starts with Grace arriving to set and meeting her on-screen fiancé and godson, played by real-life gay porn star Ty Mitchell. She names her character Deirdre and sets out to access her story. Grace struggles at first but is eventually able to discover her character and make a connection with her fiancé and battery-loving godson.
Since airing last year, the sketch has accumulated over five million views on YouTube and become hugely popular with queer audiences. Ty Mitchell gained praise from fans and industry professionals for his cameo in the sketch. Ty has since starred in the Naked Sword Originals film A Murdered Heart and the Men.com movie A Tale of Two Cock Destroyers. He’s also appeared in steamy scenes for studios like Masqulin and CockyBoys.
I had a phone call with Ty late last week to chat about his role in the sketch and what it was like working with Emma Stone. We also talked about his opinions on Lady Gaga’s upcoming Chromatica album, Dua Lipa’s new music, and why he doesn’t “voluntarily” watch RuPaul’s Drag Race anymore.
Cameron: I wanted to get into some hot topics from gay Twitter. Since today was supposed to be Chromatica day, what are your feelings about Stupid Love and everything we’ve seen from Chromatica so far?
Ty: It’s possibly one of my favorite covers so far. The Stupid Love song is amazing. The video is whatever. It’s fun. I’ll take it. I don’t think it’s very good. I think there’s a lot of potential for this to be a really, really exciting era. One of my predictions is that it will be a commercial flop, but a critical success.
How are you feeling about the rumored Ariana Grande collab?
Ummm…
Are you an Ariana stan?
I am an Ariana stan. I don’t know how much I like Ariana being on other people’s tracks. It’s usually not nearly as successful as her own music. And I’m also just dubious given how Hey Girl turned out. Which is a song that I like, but I also feel like it squandered a really great opportunity. If it’s a continuation of Telephone, then I’m in.
Okay. Okay. I feel that.
That’s the bar for collabs with Lady Gaga… Not to put too much pressure on her, because I know she reads The Sword every day. (Laughs) I know she’s sensitive to that kind of pressure, but that’s just how I feel.
What are your thoughts on Dua Lipa and her album?
Love it! It’s my favorite pop album since Dangerous Woman.
How are you liking this season of Drag Race so far?
I have been forced to watch it because I’m quarantining with roommates who watch it. I would not be watching if it weren’t for that.
Do you have a reason why you don’t watch it?
I made the decision last season to stop watching Drag Race voluntarily. I love drag and I think anyone who knows anything about me knows that I love drag. I am a fixture of my local drag community. I have done drag for years. I love drag and I love drag queens. And I think that RuPaul’s Drag Race is a late-season reality show that has lost a lot of its entertainment value for me. I generally watch it and just complain about it the whole time, so I kind of avoid watching it. In short – I don’t think it’s a good show! I love drag, but I don’t think Drag Race is a good show anymore.
With the contestants on the show, I know you’re a Gigi Goode stan. Do you have anyone else that you’re watching against your will that you’re enjoying?
I think we’re all watching Sherry Pie against our will! (Laughs) I really like Jaida… Off the top of my head, Jaida and Gigi just stand out as being in a tier above all the other contestants. And that’s part of what’s frustrating about the show for me! I watch it and it’s a lot like when you watch the audition episodes of American Idol. You just cringe a lot. You just spend an hour cringing and I don’t want to just spend an hour cringing. It’s like the 80th season of Drag Race. People should be better at drag by now. Is that fucked up?
I was listening to a podcast with Varla Jean Merman on it and she was talking about how they just cast characters and people looking for fame instead of focusing on casting talented people. Which I agree with.
I’m just wondering… Has the craft as a whole plateaued? I know better drag queens than most of that cast and I’m not bragging. I’m not trying to say I know good drag queens. Drag queens continue to get better and yet the selection on that show continues to be pretty much the same since like… I don’t know… since Aquaria? …I want an overhaul. I want them to just completely frack RuPaul’s Drag Race and turn it around.
(Laughing) Not fracking!
I think they just need to drill into it and completely destroy the national environment of RuPaul’s Drag Race and just change it into something else. I’ve said this for years and I’ve heard other people say it too – we need a Drag Race: Road Rules! Everybody’s been begging for it. We need to follow the girls on tour.
Well, they just dropped the Celebrity Drag Race trailer today. It looks… interesting.
What is that? Is it like Drag U with celebrities?
Kind of? It’s called RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race. It’s similar to Drag U because they bring three girls back, but they makeover celebrities.
Oh, that’s slightly less misogynist than Drag U.
A year ago you had your debut as Godson in the now-iconic Actress sketch on SNL. Can you tell us how you got involved with that sketch and how you were cast in it?
I’ve lived in New York City for about ten years now and I’ve been a part of a bunch of different scenes and communities of people. I participate a lot in the queer community; whatever that might look like. Whether it’s going to the gay beach or going to Drag Race viewing parties and stuff like that. After a time you meet people who you find out much later are staff writers at SNL and you’re the only gay porn star that they know by phone number. They text you late one night and say, “Hey, we wrote this sketch about a gay porn set. Do you want to be in it?” And I was like “absolutely”; having no idea that Emma Stone was in it! I didn’t know Emma Stone was in it until 10 minutes before I went to set and I was looking at the script like, “Who’s playing this girl Emma?”
And it was Emma Stone!
And it was Emma. Fucking. Stone! Academy Award winner Emma Stone who I have been a fan of since Easy A. I was pretty shook.
What was it like actually meeting and working in a scene with her?
Well, she had the most work to do. She had the most costume changes and lines and stuff like that. Whenever we weren’t filming, she was back changing or preparing. There wasn’t really any like ‘sitting on the couch with Emma chatting’ time. But she was lovely to work with and a blast. All giggles and fun and you know… Held my face in her hands and looked deep into my eyes, which is all you could ever ask for! She was super cool and she was highly professional and bubbly and was having a blast.
I remember Twitter kind of blew up when that sketch aired. My entire Twitter feed was talking about the sketch. What was it like seeing everyone’s reaction to you on SNL?
I had no idea what to expect, you know? Not all SNL sketches are good. (Laughs) Even watching it, I was like, “That was funny. That was a good sketch.” But like, I was in it. I didn’t really expect or even realize as it was happening that it was gay culture. Even for several months after that I had no sense of… Like… A lot of porn people in the industry congratulated me and they were clearly very happy for me and it was very, very nice. It felt very good, but I didn’t raise my rate. I didn’t experience an uptick in bookings or anything like that. I had no sense of how it could impact my porn career until a lot later. I think finally I was like, “Oh, wait. This is part of my worth that I should assert in the industry.” It’s taken until maybe only a few months ago to really recognize that that was very impressive to people in the industry.
Have you ever considered making a Godson porn with a Deirdre character for your JustFor.Fans?
Oh my god. I’ve never thought of doing that. I don’t know if I have the budget.
I don’t know if you can hire Emma Stone, but you definitely hire someone to play Deirdre.
I could probably pitch an entire Adventures of Godson series to Men.com or something. I’m sure they would be down for that.
Seriously I wish people would get off on being so enamored with Hollywood stars. They’re just people you see in movies and whatsoever. I am more impressed with people who go out of their way and makes other people’s lives better. That is what real life is all about.
I feel that his excitement has less to do with meeting a Hollywood personality, and more to do with meeting someone who has famously “made it” in a sibling career to his own. I would even venture to predict that Ty Mitchell himself cringes at the Hollywood (or similar) scene of who-met-who and who-gets-paid-just-to-show-up-where.
But I have no idea, really.