YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Exclusive! Michael Lucas: "I Am Retiring as a Porn Star"

Also: Rami Malek addresses Freddie Mercury’s sexual closet.

It’s the end of an era! Michael Lucas won’t be whipping out his privates anymore—at least not in films. The longtime gay porn presence exclusively tells us that he will still direct and produce movies, but as of 2020, he won’t appear in them anymore. Maybe we should re-elect Trump at that time so we can still have a very visible dick to ogle? Kidding. I talked to the Russian-born Lucas about his decision and what’s behind it—as it were.

Hello, Michael. So you’re zipping up in ’20. Why?

I will never be able to make a comeback if I will not stop soon. I need to make a comeback. And I can’t starve myself any longer. I’ve been starving for 23 years. I want to eat—pastries, sugar, pasta. [Pause] There is no specific reason. I was doing it for very, very long—longer than anyone. Since ’96, that’s when I did my first scene. You have to stop somewhere, unless you’re Madonna.

Why not stop right now instead of wait 'till 2020?

It’s a nice year. It’s round. It’s a good year to stop. I think I will do more this year and then I will stop. I currently do lots of amateur videos for two platforms: JustForFans/michaellucasnyc and OnlyFans/michaellucas. I started doing it as a joke, just posting a couple of homemade videos, and I was surprised that it actually took off and now brings good money without much of an effort. So I decided to do it for another year. It’s easy money and I can use it. But I am getting tired of filming myself having sex and looking all the time for partners who don’t mind being filmed. I love sex, but it is much more fun to do it without the cameras and I want to recover this pleasure before I become an automaton.

But you will still direct and produce?

Yes. My main achievement was not that I was a performer, but that I became a studio head. I opened a company that is very, very successful and I’ve managed to actually keep it since 1998.

Your stepping down has nothing to do with aging, right? You look great.

Men look fantastic in their 50s and 60s. Tomas Brand and Rocco Steele are mature men. I’m 46. Who’s counting these days? What’s most important to me is my family and friends. I don’t have the ambitions that I had. Back then, the most important thing was to be famous and succeed and be in the media. And then it changed and I read that for people on [their] deathbeds, the only thing they regret is they didn’t spend enough time with their loved ones. I’m very happy I realized that. That’s what I’m trying to do.

Your fans will probably want you to finally bottom before you quit, no?

I think one should do what he does really well. I don’t really do that in my personal life, and when you’re in the movies, it’s already lots of pressure. It’s not like you’re doing it in the privacy of your home. You have a crew around. So you have to do what you do best. I admire bottoms in movies, who can relax and feel comfortable when there is a crew.

Is it true that you only do barebacking films?

Yes. I started a year after PrEP came out.

But what if your actors already have HIV?

I would never discriminate.

I mean, how would you know if their onscreen partners are on PrEP?

I make sure they are. I will never work with a model who is negative and not on PrEP.

Is it true that you want to write a memoir?

I want to. There is a book that someone wrote about me and people think it’s a biography. It’s not. It was terribly written, called Naked. People say, “It’s a great book that you wrote” and it gets on my nerves. I gave a series of interviews, about 20, to a writer. I would like something better to be out there. He was writing about how great I am, and that’s incredibly boring, and who cares about my childhood?

Will your memoir include your 2014 divorce from Richard Winger?

Of course, it’s a huge part of my life. It was 13 years long. I had four major relationships. I was absolutely devastated when he left me for a young guy, 22 years old, which was incredibly painful. I couldn’t forgive him for three years. Now we’re friends. He wanted to come back to me because it didn’t work out, but I couldn’t forgive him. My most difficult times of my life were the death of my mother, which took me years to recover [from], and my ex-husband leaving me.

Are you single now?

I don’t want to talk about my private life any longer—I don’t mean to you, I mean to anybody. The last person I was public with was Tyler Helms, an amazing guy, but we were all over Facebook and Instagram. It was difficult for him. They were terrorizing him. They were sending him articles and videos.

Looking back, what’s been the most enjoyable thing about being a porn star?

I really believed this was something important for people that are growing up in countries like Russia, where I came from, where gay people are shown as clowns. In general, porn is important and a good thing. When I saw my first porn film, it changed my perspective of what gay people are about, that they can be relatable people that have sex without shame. Homosexuality was criminal back then and taboo and something to be ashamed of. [Seeing porn] was something that changed my perspective. I felt much more confidence.

Speaking of oppression in Russia, do you feel Trump is in cahoots with Putin?

Yes, absolutely. I have no doubt in my mind. This person never says one good word about any world leader, at least not consistently. He is consistent only about one person, Putin. Very peculiar. What a coincidence.

Despite that, are you a Trump supporter?

How can I be a Trump supporter? I personally don’t know anyone who’s a Trump supporter. How can I if I left Russia and now my President is in the pocket of Putin? This is a country I’m so proud of. And I think you know how I feel about Russia—torturing me.

But aside from Trump, are you Republican?

I never considered myself a Democrat or a Republican. It’s about issues for me. I voted for Hillary.

Somehow, people perceive you as a gay Republican, and I think that’s one of the reasons some people dislike you.

I saw that on the industry blogs. Of course I was pretty outspoken in the past about my support for Israel and opposition to radical Islam, both issues I used to associate more with the Republican party. But now both issues have become pretty mainstream while the Republican party has become a group of extremists with which I have nothing in common and want nothing to do with.

What do you consider your best performance in one of your films?

Assassins (2011), which is my favorite. I was the main character. My scene with Adam Killian was the main scene.

What was so great about it?

Our connection. We’re supposed to be in love in the movie, and for a moment it felt like we were in love. It was very pleasant physically and it was something on an emotional level—at the moment, of course. It’s the only thing I rewatched a couple of times. But in general, I don’t care very much about being in the movies. I love running my company and traveling.

---

Mama, Just Quizzed a Man

Fox

The late Freddie Mercury’s legend isn’t retiring any time soon. Bohemian Rhapsody is the highest grossing queer film of all time, which is interesting since Mercury was fairly closet-y and ambiguous, despite dressing like a Christopher Street clone and singing high-pitched songs in a group called Queen. [By the way, Freddie attempted a relationship with a woman, but in the film, she ends up alerting him that he’s gay and they stayed friends for life.]

At a Russian Tea Room luncheon for the film, I asked Rami Malek—who’s brilliant in the role—if Freddie stayed closet-y because he didn’t want to be labeled or because he feared career repercussions.

“I think he quite honestly didn’t want to be labeled,” the actor replied. “Through all his actions, he didn’t want to be categorized by one single thing. He never wanted to be marginalized or segregated into just one thing. He was about authenticity.”

“But,” I bristled, “to me, authenticity means me saying, ‘I’m gay.' If he was authentic, he would have done the same.”

“I don’t know if that’s the truth,” Malek shot back. “Authenticity for you is saying you’re gay. For him, he didn’t want to tell, and that was his authenticity.”

I calmly went back to my lunch plate and Malek returned to me to add, “Having said all that, I can never speak for him. My interpretation is as good as your interpretation.”

So true—and I must say my borscht was very authentic!

Latest News