“Were this movie not 3D, it would still be an excellent interactive couples' title”
Tommy Gunn Talks ‘Entourage,’ Further Crossover Aspirations
Originally published on AVN.com by Peter Warren
CHATSWORTH, Calif.—For the producers of HBO’s Entourage to lend a little verisimilitude to Sasha Grey’s portrayal of herself on the show, it was only natural that they would eventually enlist other adult talent to appear. (Albeit any concern over accuracy apparently took a swan dive out the window when it came to the pivotal plot point of Sasha’s commanding $200,000 for a gangbang movie.)
In September 12th’s season-closing episode, 2007 AVN Male Performer of the Year Tommy Gunn fills that slot, so to speak … though unlike Sasha, he plays an altogether fictional character. The name of the character—an ex-boyfriend of Sasha’s working with her in the lavishly budgeted gangbang movie—happens, coincidentally enough, to be Vince; that, of course, being the name of the show’s main character, played by Adrian Grenier, with whom Sasha took up in episode five of this season.
“What’s funny was, I got a call from somebody who said, ‘They’re looking for a Tommy Gunn-type porn star,’” Gunn told AVN. “A guy who’s rough around the edges and somebody who can intimidate Vince.”
Marking his first outing on a mainstream production, Gunn compared the operation to those in Porn Valley as being “tremendously organized, and a lot more people. But everybody was tremendously kind, and even expressed, ‘Yo, I’m a fan!’ The experience was great. I just hope it’s the beginning of some other stuff, because I’m just yearning for more of a challenge.”
Gunn was quick to note that in no way does he harbor any intentions of turning his back on the XXX business.
“The adult industry is wonderful, but I just don’t feel like there’s enough things that are challenging,” he explained. “I’ll always come from adult, I’ll always know where I came from. I’m just going to really gear up to try to keep this momentum going and try to get well received in the mainstream. The lines are getting more and more blurred, and we’re seeing it happen. I just hope mainstream does their homework, in the respect that when they do call upon somebody from the adult industry it’s not some guy who just started, or a female for that matter.
“Some of the people in the industry could care less—’Yeah, I’m in porn ’cause I want to be in porn.’ And that’s great, and me too, but for myself, this many years later, I just see it as a natural progression for me to try and move to the next level,” Gunn asserted.
Some might hastily laugh off such ambitions as so much pie-in-the-sky folly, but let’s be perfectly frank here: if The Rock can do it—or Ice Cube, or, well, Sasha Grey—why in the world can’t Tommy Gunn?
“People ain’t even ready for what I’m capable of,” he proclaimed, “in terms of, not even the acting, [but] the physicality of certain things. I want to be an action guy. I want to do the action stuff, the Jason Statham, Crank-style stuff, and I can do that. I’ve been real quiet about a lot of things because of a number of reasons, but I’m hooked up with top Hollywood stunt guys and a Toronto-based guy, the guy who just did Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. These are the relationships that I’m cultivating and they have told me, ‘We see a mainstream appeal to you.’ And the way the times are happening, it’s pop culture for porn stars to be crossing over.”
Again, Gunn stressed that, “I’m trying to be a spokesperson for our industry, not say, ‘Oh, I hate it and want to get out.’ That’s certainly not how I feel. It’s just, from an actor’s or an artist’s point of view, there’s a thing called ‘unfulfilled.’ It’s like, the day I won Male Performer, I was already like, ‘What’s the next thing?’ Everybody else is like, ‘Revel in this, enjoy this moment,’ and I am, and I have, but I just hope that I continually get the opportunity. And as a guy, it’s tough, because we’re always fighting for recognition and some sort of acknowledgement in our industry, ’cause more often than not, we go by the wayside. But I’m still here. I’m still relevant.”
