If gay porn historians existed, they would marvel at the amazing anomaly that is Adam Killian. While no one is officially keeping track of the record books, one look at his remarkable career leaves little doubt that he has the Midas touch. In 2003, he appeared in a non-sexual role as the masturbation fantasy for Tag Eriksson in director Wash West’s “The Hole.” The scene won multiple awards for Best Solo, and the smash hit film followed with a treasure trove of wins across the board.
Fast forward to 2008, when Killian was presented with an offer he couldn’t refuse. After years of honing his craft as a production assistant and videographer behind the scenes, he was thrust into the spotlight with a golden opportunity: to bottom for super stud Zeb Atlas in Falcon’s “Best Men 2,” a pairing that went on to win Best Sex Scene. Not too bad for his first time fucking on camera.
I’m a natural performer, so that’s always going to be in my blood. But I also feel there’s an artistry with cinematography and with filming things — you can be creative with it, so I love that as well.
“That was the one scene where it was sort of make it or break it. I thought, ‘I’ve been behind the camera for so long and kind of talked a big talk, and now it’s put up or shut up. Either it’s going to get great reviews and people are going to love it, or I’m just going to get shredded and ripped apart.’ Luckily it was good, and when it won Best Duo I felt like, ‘Okay, I did it. I accomplished exactly what I wanted to.’ And I felt really good about it.”
With his career suddenly in high gear, the next award season saw him pick up plaques for Best Threesome (in Falcon’s “The Trainer”), Best Solo (for Rascal’s “Taken: To the Lowest Level”) and Performer of the Year at the Grabbys. And in 2012, the gold rush continued as Killian nabbed Gay Performer of the Year at the XBIZ Awards, a no-brainer after a year that saw him perform in Lucas Entertainment’s “Assassin” (the Best Picture Winner), “The Other Side of Aspen VI” (which won Raging Stallion’s Chris Ward the Director of the Year trophy) along with “Overheated” and “Impulse,” two films that helped Titan take Studio of the Year honors. Seriously…is this guy for real?!
“I try to be intelligent about who I do movies for and who I’m paired up with, and I think that definitely plays into it,” Killian says. “I think I’m given a little more leeway than most models in choosing; that just makes such a huge difference — I don’t really have to fake much, because I’ll choose the performer I want to work with. I’m already attracted to them and half the time I know them, so I know the chemistry is there. It really does have a big effect on the outcome of a scene, if you’re into it or not. And if I don’t think I’m going to be, I’ll generally say ‘no’ to the scene.”
It’s a luxury most models don’t enjoy, but Killian’s long and successful career behind the scenes — which he started long before ever taking off his clothes in front of the camera — helped build up a trust and respect with the industry’s big players.
“The easiest way to put it is that Adam just gets it,” says Marc MacNamara, the Lucas Entertainment publicity director who also wrote and co-directed “Assassin.” “He has an ability to connect with his projects and he approaches his work with full creativity each time. Adam is an artist. He doesn’t simply show up and have sex in front of the cameras. As if it’s a painting, he wants to know what canvas is being used, what paint he has available, what brushes will relay his vision and where the picture is being showcased. He takes every element into consideration and provides an incredible work of art … he doesn’t paint the same picture twice.”
Anything else you wanted to add, Marc? “And he has a delicious ass and cock…that helps.”
The Cali Boy Comes of Age
“Adam Killian is, I think, one of the greatest porn stars of all time,” Ward says. “I remember watching his photography shoot and saw that he was a pro like no other. He is also a great guy — something not always the case with major superstars. I would rank Adam right up there with the top three or four guys I have shot over the years.”
Killian was well prepared for the industry. Growing up in Monterey, Calif., he went to UC Santa Cruz and trained in theater arts with a focus on dance — picking up bits of knowledge about everything along the way, from lighting and costume - making to performance and dancing. He spent a year abroad in Germany as part of a performance troupe that hit clubs in cities all over Europe: “I got to travel around with a really cool group of young people who got to dress up in crazy stuff and dance in different cities every weekend.”
Back in Los Angeles, he became a success on the circuit scene and traveled across the country, later followed by a year modeling and dancing in Japan. “So I was very familiar with all of the stuff that I’m still doing now, and I was doing it not as a porn star but just as a performer. So it was a very easy transition into porn…it hasn’t changed what I am doing, it’s just sort of evolved slightly.”
Legendary director Chi Chi LaRue asked Killian to be in a movie in the early 2000s, but the model hesitated: It just wasn’t the right time. “I was interested but I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to be just another model who they pair with whoever they want and tell you what to do. So I said I am interested and I would love to learn more, so if you hire me on set, I want to be on set and just see how these things get made… so from 2003 when I started as a production assistant, I just slowly worked my way up the food chain to videographer. I learned how to light a set, how to direct the guys, basically how to get everything done after starting from the bottom rung. It’s worked out well.”
The Biggest Compliment
As the years ticked by, Killian finally had an epiphany: “I was like, you know what, if I’m going to do porn, then now’s the time to do it. I saw the evolution of it, I saw that it was changing. One thing that really pushed me over the edge was I saw that all of these performers were making so much money traveling to different cites and dancing, and the only reason they were being paid so much was because they had a big name through the industry. I was like, ‘Man, why am I not doing this?’ Because I don’t think you can really make a living for a long time just as a porn star in front of the camera — that has a certain shelf life to it. But if you kind of branch that out and use that as a platform to work and dance in different places, then you can really kind of spread it out and make more of a living out of it.”
Killian spent most of his time under LaRue’s tutelage at Rascal and Falcon, and an alpha male conflict between Atlas and Matthew Rush suddenly left an opening in the cast of “Best Men 2.” “At that point I was just procrastinating. I guess I was just waiting for the right opportunity … and then the Falcon movie was put in my lap, and I thought this is probably as big as it can be. Zeb Atlas was a huge scene partner, and I said, ‘Alright, if I don’t take this then I’m not gonna do it.’ So I took it.”
But he had one stipulation: “I said I would do it as long as Zeb and I could meet and see if there was a natural energy between us. And amazingly enough, there was. He didn’t try to dominate me in the scene, he didn’t try to run the whole show, he allowed me to kind of sexually be in charge of what was going on, and he was a great kisser. So I definitely proved myself on the first scene, and I think being behind the camera had gained me a pretty nice size respect from the crew. They knew what I could do even though they hadn’t seen me having sex in front of the camera before; they knew that I was trained as a performer and I knew exactly what they needed, so after that I just got to have pretty much say in what people I wanted to work with — or the studios would suggest guys that they thought I would work well with. That made it a lot easier.”
That also enabled Killian to be a success without ever being an exclusive with any one studio: “The fact that I didn’t have to be exclusive to get exclusive privileges is why I choose ultimately not to be exclusive; I think if you’re brand new in the industry, it is actually very wise to become exclusive… I just didn’t feel it was necessary for me. I already had strong relationships with multiple companies at that point.”
His experience behind the scenes and with Atlas also opened Killian’s eyes to how he was perceived by other men in the industry. “One thing that I always noticed when filming a lot of movies as cameraman is that a lot of the straighter guys — I think there’s a gray area in between, where a lot of guys live straight lives but have a curiosity for guys — would have a little crush on me. And I never understood why all these hot straight guys were into me when they would be a little more standoffish with everybody else. Someone pointed it out that I’m not threatening to them, and I’m very ‘normal’ acting — like, I’m very masculine without being a tough guy and I’m somebody they can identify with in a way. I’m not trying to dominate them or out-do them, so I think they respond very well to that.”
Perhaps that’s why Atlas was comfortable enough with Killian to make him his first on-camera male fuck partner, a scene the bodybuilder’s fans had been clamoring for. And Spencer Reed, a hunk of masculinity who was last year’s Performer of the Year, chose Killian to top him in just his second on-camera bottoming ever (you’ll have to look a long way back to find the seldom-seen first one) in a recent shoot for Colt. Those choices alone say more about Killian than words ever can.
“It’s a big compliment, and I think it’s the biggest compliment. It does make me feel special, you know? Which is something I try not to let get to my head, because I don’t want to let it change who I am — because I think who I am is why they do it, why so many people are so comfortable with me. I think it’s because I’m a very grounded guy, I’m very down to earth, I’m very mellow and easy going, and I want everyone to enjoy as much as they can. I want everyone to do their best. So I have high expectations, and I have a good work ethic.”
Not a douche
“People may not know that Adam is just as brilliant behind the camera as he is in front of it,” MacNamara says. “He is a talented videographer and a detailed storyteller. Above all of his professional attributes, Adam is actually not a douche. He is a down-to-earth, fun, smart and witty guy who is living life without restraint.”
Just ask Michael Lucas, who recalls how professional and patient Killian is on set — and how incredibly passionate he is as a performer. The owner of Lucas Entertainment notes the two basically filmed the intense final scene for “Assassin” in real time without cuts.
“Adam is very special,” Lucas says. “It’s very rare that I come across someone who is both so sexual and sexually appealing. It is the way he acts, the way he speaks, his body, his voice. Everything about him is just so hot. He’s also a great professional as far as lighting and camera work. I am now hiring him a lot as a director and videographer. There is nothing that this man cannot do.”
Lucas continued, “There are a lot of things that people don’t know about him. There are things that even I don’t know about him, but everything I do know is good. I’ve been told that my reputation precedes me, so I don’t think I can be accused of holding back. Adam is an amazing boyfriend to an incredibly cool guy. They are both very cultured and have great senses of humor.”
Yes, confirms Killian … he is in a committed, serious relationship: “We’ve been together a couple years. I try not to talk about my relationship too much because we like to keep it private…I’m very happy.”
Au Naturale
Killian is also very busy, crossing the country and the globe to appear on both sides of the camera (filming for Lucas and LaRue while performing for all the top studios), perform in live events, host award shows and continue planning his own concept for a movie with fellow writer Chris Crisco, a production manager for Lucas Entertainment. “The whole concept of the movie is a live performance, and I really want it to be an actual main show to a club or an event or something like that…we go city to city and put on a live production where people can come watch a sex show live on stage. It would be filmed, and then the show itself would be a part of the DVD or movie.”
Killian notes that over the years, he’s come to appreciate the whole experience more than ever: “You can’t control everything, and that’s probably what kept me from doing movies for so long — I’m a little bit of a control freak,” he laughs. “I wanted to be able to control a lot of what I did, and I knew to some degree that that was impossible. Everyone is a self critic… that used to bother me for a little bit. But I realized, just let it go. Enjoy the ride and just be appreciative of everything. That’s been the best lesson for me.”
And he loves filming for Lucas Entertainment, a passion that helps him convey what he defines as amazing sex. “He’s really given me the creative freedom to shoot it the way I like to shoot it, and that happens to be the way they like to shoot it: very natural and very organic with the performers. We try to come up with concepts before we start the scene and go through different positions to make sure they’re lit properly, so that way the guys can just kind of flow through it. It’s very streamlined; the old style was a lot of start and stop, and I think it’s a lot easier to have it be as natural as possible.”
Often asked what he enjoys more — performing or being behind the camera — Killian says it’s hard to answer. “I’m a natural performer, so that’s always going to be in my blood. But I also feel there’s an artistry with cinematography and with filming things — you can be creative with it, so I love that as well. There’s probably a longer future behind the camera because you’re allowed to grow old a lot easier when you’re behind the camera,” he says with a laugh. “So I assume that I will have a longer career there than in front of the camera. But as long as I enjoy what I’m doing and fans enjoy what I’m doing — and the companies want me to be a part of their movies — then I don’t see any reason to stop performing. So I’ll perform as long as it’s a happy outcome for everybody.”
(That sound you hear is the collective exhale of gay porn fans across the planet…)
