It was January 2019. I was enjoying myself at the Winter Wonderland party at one of my favorite industry events in Los Angeles, the annual XBIZ show. I left early, because I had to work the next day. As I left the Andaz Hotel on Sunset Strip I thought about how it had been raining for weeks and how weird that was for L.A.
I got in my car, I drove on the 405 and this car passing me started to hydroplane and hit my car … and then I started to hydroplane, I hit the bank and my car flipped twice.
Many counted me out, but I’m still here standing and ready for the next chapter.
Shit.
Next thing I knew, I was in a CAT scan machine at the hospital, with a broken back in two places, dislocated leg, twelve stitches behind my ear and a broken hand.
You know what? I walked out of the hospital that morning. Seriously, I did. Totally in shock still, I got home and had to crawl through the window because I forgot my key … true story.
But that really affected everything. I had to cancel all my bookings for five months, I couldn’t really move for a long time and was unsure of how I would heal if ever, and that unfortunately meant that the all-new guys smelled blood and took all my gigs and I lost all my work. Half of the directors, no lie, thought I was in a wheelchair.
And then, all my enemies also smelled blood and came after me, with every lie and slander they have. Shit like that makes you realize who your real friends are.
Fast forward to now, about 15 months later, and I just signed a one-year non-exclusive contract deal with a kickass company who noticed my Evil Angel work and style … and they liked what they saw! I’m now going to be producing two movies a month, minimum, for them and I have a great crew behind me that I put together to create quality content.
This just goes to show that when you set your mind to something and don’t listen to what people say, focusing on your goal, you can succeed.
I also just signed a deal speaking at universities all over Canada. I’m going to be telling the youth of the Great White North about how watching all that porn that I star in can affect life at home; I think it’s important to not only have sex for a living, but to use your experience to educate people!
“Regular people don’t watch basketball and expect to play like Lebron, so don’t watch porn and expect to fuck your girlfriend for 50 minutes,” is the gist of what I’m going to tell those smart kids at the University of Toronto, University of Montreal and University of Moncton in New Brunswick.
Oh, and the first season of my Canadian reality show, “Porn to Be Wild,” was a big success on TV and Netflix all over Canada and France, with eight episodes of 20 minutes apiece. Shooting a mainstream project made me realize that there’s much more I can do in the non-porn world and blessed me with many different opportunities.
“Porn to Be Wild” was so popular, that my friend from Vancouver has invited me to shoot for a Vice show where I’m going to judge aspiring male talent. Can’t wait for this honestly, haha.
Also, I’m launching a podcast with my good friend Nikki Benz really soon. Very happy about this! Details are to be finalized because we want to look at everything that’s out there at the moment and make ours perfect. If you know us (and let’s be real, who doesn’t? Check out Nikki’s social media numbers and weep) we are not going to be politically correct.
Our dynamic is gold, and you’re going to get it unfiltered. A lot of tea will be spilled and blunt talks will be happening. We’re going to have celebrity guests and also industry people. We have a great, experienced team of people helping us who have worked on many successful podcasts in L.A. and it’s something we’re both equally excited about.
The podcast is going to be filmed for YouTube, so you’re going to get essentially a TV talk show, but completely unchained. We will have porn stars doing the “hot wing challenge,” but also mainstream celebrity guests talking about current events and non-porn stuff, with segments where we’re going to go places and film skits. It’s going to be not just a podcast — it’s going to be bigger and better, with production value!
People are going to love us or they will hate us, but they will watch. I’ve known Nikki since 2012, we’re both Canadian and we have the exact same banter, so it will be interesting.
The bottom line: I’m in a great place right now mentally and career-wise. I’m performing and working constantly with top companies. The new director deal allows me to direct and perform with anyone I want and use my creativity to create great content, while having fun and pushing myself and my team.
I love being the underdog. I love to watch documentaries and I get inspiration from stories of people like Eminem, Steve Jobs and Sir Isaac Newton … how they came up, from nothing, and paved their own way when nobody gave them a chance. That’s like me, because I’m always a black sheep. I don’t play by the rules and I hate kissing ass.
I’m basically Larry David. I say things others would regret and don’t really care what you think about it. I’d rather be a real asshole than a fake liar, you feel me? I’m super-blunt and sometimes it kicks me in the ass and I definitely burned some bridges in this industry because of that. And now that I’ve been in porn for 10 years, I learned how to step back a bit and listen to my critics.
You do what you do and if you’re good enough, you get the respect you deserve. If you’re good at something, get paid for that shit, and even if they don’t like you, they’ll respect and recognize your talent.
I learned a lot about myself in the last year, with the pile of “merde” — that’s French for shit — that was dumped on me following the accident. I learned about myself and I learned who my real friends were and even though I almost quit many times, I wasn’t going to let “them” win. Many counted me out, but I’m still here standing and ready for the next chapter. I’ve put all the bullshit behind me and I’ve learned from my mistakes. And now, I’m wiser and smarter.
As the saying goes, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. And maybe in five years, people will go, “You know? That dude was ahead of his time.”
But for now, I still love what I do, I have great respect for this business and all the amazing people in this industry and I take it one day at a time. Life is short and I’m exactly where I want to be. I can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store. Hopefully, it’s more positivity and growth.
And before I go, if you’re in porn, you get constantly asked (usually by a random dude in your DMs), “How do I get into porn?” So, allow me to present:
Uncle Jessy's Lessons for Aspiring Male Talent
- Don’t shit where you eat. I would advise against dating in the industry because it will affect your career one way or another. Trust me on that.
- Stay humble. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by talking too much game and then not be able to deliver. Consistency is key.
- There’s no better time than now to be in porn. Most companies are about quantity and not quality, so a lot of new people are emerging every single month, where before, it was a tight clique and it was hard to penetrate the business.
- Work on your self-made content. OnlyFans and all those platforms are King — that’s major right now and if your agent tells you otherwise because they ain’t getting a percentage, fuck ‘em. It’s changed the game and the ball is in our court now, because people are making a lot more money, and by people, I mean the smart ones.
- Sets used to be fun, but now it’s much more like work. Companies like Vixen and others raised the bar, and the female talent got used to that. Once you taste filet mignon, you don’t want Doritos for dinner. Be the filet mignon. Don’t be the Dorito. Translation? Come to set and be professional. Don’t waste people’s time.
- Learn how to get behind the camera. I started directing in January 2018. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be in porn and I always wanted to be a porn director, so I went to UCLA and got a film degree. I also got a degree in business from the University of Hawaii. Protip: If you grow up in Canada and you get the opportunity, go to school somewhere there’s palm trees and hot girls.
- Use your set experiences to learn new skills, all the time. Love to come in early and leave late, always respect your co-worker and the crew and learn everything you can. I love what I do and I gained invaluable experience from working at Evil Angel, loved working for them and had respect with the company. They were my graduate school and I appreciate everything I learned, good or bad.
- Always try to elevate your product — always!
- Avoid working on projects your heart is not in. I would never shoot a script I wouldn’t jerk off to or copy exactly what’s on the paper.
