Jawbreaker Pt 1: The All-Star Cast

By Josh Eliot

[Originally published 01/03/25]

My first blog of 2025 is celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the second biggest movie I ever directed. The movie was called Jawbreaker (1995) and the title was directly related to the giant cock of the lead actor, Chris Champion. The Grabby Awards of 1996 gave Jawbreaker the Best Supporting Actor award to Jeff Mitchell, who tied with Tim Lowe from Michael Zen’s movie Bulls Eye (1995), and the Best Cumshot award to Chip Daniels. Additionally, the 1995 GayVN Awards honored Jawbreaker with the Best Editing award (Josh Eliot) and the Best Group Scene award for actors Daryl Brock, Ty Russell, Chip Daniels, Rod Majors, and Scott Russell. If it sounds like I am name dropping some really big players in the industry at the time, I sure as fuck am.

First and foremost, when we sat down to plan out the making of Jawbreaker, one of the main things I wanted was to fill the cast with the top box office boys of the day - headliners who were in demand and could sell a movie on their name alone. It really had an open budget, because we came across a talent so big and exciting that our GM told me to pretty much remove all budget restrictions I had in my head and devise a plan to make this new discovery a star. The new discovery was Chris Champion, a guy who certainly had the goods, with nearly twelve hard and thick inches. When I first met Chris, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, we’ve got our own John F. Kennedy Jr. porn star.” With his widely spaced eyes, yuppy-preppy persona and the hair to match, I immediately got JFK Jr. vibes. He was really down-to-earth, with no typical L.A. attitude - just a cool guy who would go with the flow. I saw the Polaroids first so I knew what to expect, but when he flopped it out in front of the GM and myself, I was like, “Okay, now… we need to star him in Powertool 3, but make it Powertool 3D and really put on a show.” The GM wasn’t really feeling that idea, maybe because when Powertool 2 was in production it turned into a real shit show.

Chris Champion had only worked in one other movie called All American (1994), directed by Matt Sterling. Matt Sterling had the opportunity to offer Chris an exclusive deal, but declined. Catalina’s GM immediately jumped at the opportunity and signed him to an exclusive multi -picture contract. Chet Thomas shot Chris Champion first for his movie Too Damn Big! (1994) to kind of break him in. I did videography on that one, so I got to get familiar with Champion before developing his character for the lead role in Jawbreaker. Alongside Chris was a real who’s who of talent who were mostly all gracing the box covers of hits releasing weekly. Vince Rockland (brother to Hal and Shane - the famous Rockland Brothers) worked as a sheriff’s deputy alongside Hunter Scott when they come across escaped convict Tony Idol. Vince Rockland worked for mostly Falcon and Mustang studios in about nineteen movies, sometimes alongside his brother(s). Tony Idol’s debut in Idol Dreams was the first of many movies as an exclusive star for Catalina Video. His uncanny looks mirrored that of mega-star Ryan Idol, making the “younger brother” marketing ploy for Tony Idol’s career an obvious choice. Tony Idol excelled from that bubble and became a very popular Catalina star, with leading roles in twelve movies before leaving the industry. Hunter Scott, to some, was the bridesmaid and never the bride - but what a bridesmaid. Even though he didn’t grace the cover of a lot of movies, he was a solid performer with a large fan base, working in nearly thirty movies.

The actors from the award-winning group scene mentioned above were all A-list performers. Making an immediate impression when he stepped onto the scene in 1993, Ty Russell became an instant sensation for mostly Falcon Studios. With star vehicle hits like Abduction 2 & 3, Billy’s Tale, Tony’s Big Brother and Oasis, Ty’s unique image of the clean-cut Midwest boy added to his popularity. Scott Russell, by contrast, was a corn-fed Colorado rancher type, a bit older, with blond hair and very masculine. He plays the head rancher in Jawbreaker, ordering all the young bucks around, perfect casting. Rod Majors' career started in 1992 for director Kristen Bjorn in Call of the Wild, and he worked non-stop in movies through 1998. With over fifty movies to his name, Rod was a tried and true performer and someone I personally would cast over and over again, always giving a stellar performance. Some of his movies include Lunch Hour 2, Montreal Men, Idol Country and Come and Get It. Daryl Brock, a hot Canadian model and Best Performer winner in 1995 for Grease Guns, is best known for the Secret Sex series, Every Inch a Man, Other Side of Aspen 3 & 4 and Link 2 Link. That’s just a few of the over fifty productions Brock has worked in. He had a fat cock that would never quit, I’ll tell you that! Then we come to Chip Daniels. With over forty titles to his name, he was also an award winner in the movie Grease Guns, earning Best Supporting Actor. Young, manic and always up and ready for action, his great spirit is what I remember most when shooting this five-way scene. His big hits include Big as They Come, Fast Idle, Man Country and Scorcher, a Matt Sterling movie.

Now mind you, Jawbreaker had a cast of nineteen hot hung studs, so I can’t get to them all. I could say a ton about our personal crew favorite, Anthony Gallo, who is fantastic in Jawbreaker as one of the FBI agents on the case, but I’ve got more guys to cover. Two real work horses in the industry who took part in the jailhouse scene with Chris Champion and award winner Jeff Mitchell were Alex Stone and Bo Summers. With well over one hundred and eight credits to his name, Bo Summers' California boy good looks took him a very long way in the industry. Bo, who I’ve worked with many times over the years, is a true bisexual, but always gave just as much energy to the boy/boy scenes as he did the bisexual ones. He’s been on my sets since 1992, when he was cast in my movie Body Masters. From 1992 – 2001, we continued working together on Single White Male, Cat Men Do!, Idol Universe and Down Bi Law. I first worked with Alex Stone in 1992 in the original Lunch Hour, where he really used his experience to help Matt Powers excel in the threeway scene they had together. He worked from 1988 to 2003 for nearly every studio in the business, with Rites of Winter becoming one of his standouts among his fifty or so movies. Jake Andrews worked with Chris Champion in the final scene of Jawbreaker as a rugged and masculine escaped convict who comes upon his old friend, the sheriff’s deputy. With over sixty movies to his credit, Jake Andrews should have and deserved to be on more box covers than he was, which surprises me. He was a great partner for Chris Champion; their bodies really complemented each other’s when we shot them on that desolate mountain in Malibu.

After wrapping Jawbreaker, we actually decided to make Powertool 3 with Chris Champion (not in 3D though, unfortunately). Needless to say, that movie never happened, because Chris Champion’s manager talked him into working in a film for a European company while under contract with us, telling him no one would find out. When it did come to our attention, Catalina’s GM freaked out and canceled Chris Champion’s contract, forbidding us from ever using that agent again. It was a real overreaction, for sure, and a bad business decision. This model had the goods, and I was certain we could showcase him and turn him into a big star. My words fell on deaf ears and Chris Champion was no longer a bookable Catalina model. I think he made a movie for Falcon’s Jocks line in 1996 and then faded away. What a waste. Shooting him for Jawbreaker, however, was an exciting time, to say the least. I will write more in Part 2 of this blog about all the effort from the cast and crew that went into making this movie.

Bio of Josh Eliot:

At the age of 25 in 1987, Josh Eliot was hired by Catalina Video by John Travis (Brentwood Video) and Scott Masters (Nova Video). Travis trained Eliot on his style of videography and mentored him on the art of directing. Josh directed his first movie, Runaways, in 1987. By 2009 when Josh parted ways with Catalina Video, he'd produced and directed hundreds of features and won numerous awards for Best Screenplay, Videography, Editing, and Directing. He was entered into the GayVN Hall of fame in 2002.