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THE MAKING OF THE IDOL  The Idol – “arguably the best piece of gay erotica every filmed,” according to Manshots magazine. This classic coming out story also features a stellar performance by Kevin Redding, who never appeared in another film. Kind of like the guy who wrote Confederacy of Dunces. His only novel, a masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole wrote it and committed suicide. The book was published several years later. Not the same scenario as Kevin's, but according to an interview with Tom DeSimone in Manshots, after the making of The Idol, Kevin vanished. Tom later ran into him in a disco, and found out he became waiter. What prompted Kevin to give a sensitive, heartfelt performance in this film as the college track star who seems to have it made except for the fact that he's frustrated by a girlfriend who won't put out and is confused by his blossoming interest in his fellow college athletes?   According to Tom, the initial audition went well; while undressing, Kevin got an erection. And his scenes with the totally hot Nick Rogers (he exemplifies gay macho) went well for Kevin, as “Nick was his boyfriend.” But ... apparently, “Nick had a problem staying hard” in the scene. I guess it wasn't a problem with Kevin (though Kevin himself in a later interview also with Manshots claims Nick was NOT his boyfriend, just a hookup, but he also claims he was very disappointed that Nick could not perform in the scene), as this problem often occurred with Nick. Whatever the case, Kevin was very turned on and hard throughout the scene. Finally, after the wrap, Tom rented a massage table. Tom got under it and Nick jacked off under the table.    Now, the scene with Kevin and Jerry Foxe, poolside, even though it ended up being one of the hottest in the movie (foreplay, always hot), apparently fizzled somewhat during the filming. According to Tom, “... they were very turned on to each other. There was a lot of kidding and ass grabbing. Then we did all the dialog and broke for lunch, and by midafternoon, when we were ready to do the sex scene, they were kind of burned out on each other. So I had to somehow get them restimulated.” Sex scenes in any movie are hard to do, but in a porn film, sexual performance is ultimately all, even if, as in the case of The Idol, story and characterization are so organically connected to it, perhaps even making the sex even more important, as so much hinges on it rather than a disconnected money shot.  Then, according to Tom, Kevin lost interest. Kevin was not that turned on by Mark Bitler, the boy on the bicycle who idolizes Gary, “the idol,” even though Mark was totally ready to go. Yes, also according to Tom, Kevin finished, but it was definitely just grinding out the footage rather than really acting it.   Now, Kevin claims in another interview with Manshots, Kevin concurs that he wasn't turned on by Mark, but he also claims that he did not lose interest in the project at all. He was just tired. In fact, Kevin waxes poetic when he discusses his scene with Jerry: “Never met him, and boy, let me tell you something, when I first laid eyes on him, I just thought he was so cute. And that was, and still is .. I don't think there's ever been a sex scene in a pornographic movie like that.... You know when you walk into a room, and your eyes ... Christ, I thought we would have gotten it on right then and there, had there been nobody around.” So, overall, according to Kevin, the dynamic was some enchanted evening (well, the movie does begin with a night time masturbation scene in the car).  Now, a further contradiction occurs about when Kevin first saw the movie and its first public audience. According to Kevin, he suffered some kind of breakdown after he finished the movie, “At the time, I felt like a prostitute, and I'm not that way. I couldn't go to the john for a week – I finally had to have a catheter put in me.... It was all just psychological.” He recovered by the time of the screening, but he claims he was embarrassed, and even traumatized. Tom, however claims, Kevin invited his family when it played at Vista Theater. Yes, his mother, aunts, uncles ... Who was right? Who was spreading “fake news?” Perhaps this overt contradiction reflects the tension between Kevin and Tom, Tom emphasizing more the process of making an aesthetically coherent film of sex and Kevin emphasizing his physical and emotional responses to actually making sex, but also the innate tension apparent between seeing oneself perform on film as opposed to the process of actually creating the performance. And Kevin tells us what happened to him, and it makes sad reading. Apparently he got involved with drugs, got evicted from his apartment, but he managed to get treatment, though he suffered another relapse. At the time of his 1989 interview, he had started a landscaping design business. He may not have liked seeing himself objectified on screen as a “piece of meat,” but he is interested in creating an atmosphere of natural beauty, a beauty which occurs in the pristine waters and green fields where a young man discovers himself by sexually connecting with others, the story of The Idol. You can find The Idol on DVD at bijouworld.com or stream it insantly on our video on demand site, bijougayporn.com!  |
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The Idol
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