Performer Trenton Ducati was in the middle of a particularly busy day, shuttling between several film sets and the gym, as he spoke to XBIZ about his burgeoning career as a content producer and anti-drug activist. Midway through the interview, he received word that a deal, long in the works, had finally closed on his first condo. He happily credited adult entertainment for providing the opportunities that enabled him to turn his life around when he really needed a boost. “This industry saved my life,” he says.
The strapping, muscular matinee idol emerged onto the scene seven years ago and quickly became equally known for a relentlessly prolific work ethic as well as for lending passion and intensity to an impressively wide variety of sexual scenarios (“I just wanted to work!” he recalls. “I wanted to keep getting hired, so I did whatever they wanted me to do.”) A restless creative urge led to the formation of Ducati Studios three-and-a-half years ago — in partnership with veteran shutterbug, cameraman and director Anthony Duran — which produces content for his own fetish sites NastyDaddy.com and GentlemensCloset.com as well as the newly launched megasite TrentonDucati.com (the latter in collaboration with AEBN and Naked-Sword). The pair dipped their toes into production initially for CockSureMen and today, in addition to their own sites, fans can catch their brand on Men.com and DylanLucas.com. (He and Duran share a playful professional chemistry. During the interview, when Duran did not promptly reply to a text asking for clarification about a piece of information, Ducati wrote again and insisted that he would ask XBIZ to bill Duran as “Poodlepants.”)
This industry saved my life.
The newly launched mega-site is more than a branded collection of his work.
“We have a lot of really fresh, modern scenes on there that are exclusive to the site,” he explains. “But it’s also fueled by AEBN with over 5,000 searchable titles. So it’s all of my scenes that I’m in from Hot House, Falcon, Raging Stallion, and all of that, but it’s also got Corbin Fisher, BelAmi, pretty much anything you’re looking for. The idea behind the site is (to create) a destination site for members to find what they’re looking for. The (thought) was, ‘Once they’re there, how do we keep them there?’ Tim (Valenti) at NakedSword brought it all together. We handpick the scenes that are featured, and the exclusive content that you can’t find anywhere else, all of that. It’s been a really cool collaboration. It’s working. The percentages are good for everybody all around. Tim is texting me right now, actually. He’s talking about how the reports for the new featured) scenes are all really good.”
Ducati explains that he saw three separate lines or sites when he first envisioned moving into production. Why three sites? “Because I’m crazy,” he laughs. “I like creating businesses. I love creating content and photography has become my passion. So you do what you love to do. And make money, hopefully.”
He notes, “In our world, everybody wants to produce, but we can’t all produce the same thing.” Softer fetish site GentlemensCloset is “completely in its own lane,” Ducati explains, with its own dedicated fan base. “Those members don’t necessarily want the stuff that’s on NastyDaddy, which is older, dirtier, more raunchy.”
The new site’s focus is “more current,” he says, with younger models and “a completely different feel. We can’t change sex, but we can change how we film it.”
He cites the use of iPhone footage as an example of how he seeks to change up the visual language of all-male adult. “I’ve been thinking that it might be more attractive to the viewer by offering them something (visually) different.”
He points out a recently released condomless matchup between Michael Del Rey and Jack Hunter (the latter a recent XBIZ Awards nominee for Gay Performer of the Year) as “the best example of what the new site should be. Younger guys, but mature. Fun to film, fun to watch, with different types of camera footage.” He says it’s up to the models to film with or without a condom.
“However they feel like they can do their best,” he says. He notes another recent pairing between Arad Winwin and Seth Santoro. “That’s with a condom and it’s equally as hot.”
Ducati currently chooses to work as a performer for generally just one company outside his own portfolio — a standing gig with Kink.com — and repeatedly returns to the crucial role his team of collaborators play in helping him manage all of his websites and their various production schedules, among them Duran, who largely oversees NastyDaddy, and the AEBN team that keeps the new megasite humming, which he envisions as an opportunity to offer steady employment to performers (as a new model, he loathed waiting to find out whether a studio would employ him from month to month) as well as “photographers and videographers who came along long before me. That’s one of the things that I take great pride in. It’s not just making porn over here; it’s a family.”
Directrix Chi Chi LaRue is among his collaborators, and he cites as an inspiration her “undying love for the industry and the models. She never runs out of creativity. You don’t realize how much you value that (quality) until you need it. One of the keys to running a business is realizing what (talents) people have, their art.”
He employs a booking manager to handle the mechanics of casting while another friend and colleague manages his agency, Ducati Models. The latter is an important component of Ducati’s vision for his ongoing role in all-male adult. They only take on performers who approach them specifically for help in managing their careers and it allows Ducati to pass along trustworthy industry contacts and serve as a mentor to newer guys who are still learning the ropes as well as a trustworthy source of support to veteran performers who may need a helping hand.
“We’re human,” he says. “We need to have somebody to be able to talk to and relate if we’re having problems.”
A through line for all of Ducati’s work, particularly as a content producer and mentor, is his activism. He is nearly 10 years sober and five years ago, he formed charitable organization KillMeth.com that offers financial assistance to those who battle addiction. It was launched in memory of a close friend who lost the struggle. Ducati runs the foundation with his mother (who is “totally cool” with her son’s adult industry notoriety and “supports me 100-percent. She runs the KillMeth website, deals with all the legal stuff. She is the engine behind it”).
Among the charity’s fundraising efforts is KillMeth merchandise as well as a branded Fleshjack adult toy that funnels 20 percent of Ducati’s take to the charity.
“We’re looking to partner with organizations that are a little bit larger,” he says. “It’s outgrown me and our team at this point. It takes so much time! People don’t understand that just to give people money takes so much work. You have to do things by the book. But it’s the most important thing I have, that charity.”
Ducati is dedicated to spreading his KillMeth story as widely as he can.
“So many good things are happening now with me, the companies, now this condo,” he says. “I try to tell my story so that people who might be struggling now can see (how) they can correct their course. I’m lucky. I met the right people. I am forever thankful for this industry. Porn gave me a place to work, and a career, and great friends, and a frickin’ condo. And not one drug have I done in this industry. If people have this drug-fueled image of our industry, they need to reevaluate it. I’m forever thankful for this industry and the people in it.”
For more Ducati, visit TrentonDucati.com and for more information about his charitable organization, visit KillMeth.com.
