Jasun Mark: A Gay Porn Auteur

Jasun Mark: A Gay Porn Auteur

There are so many great performers in the adult industry. There are several great filmmakers who work behind the camera in the industry. Then, there are a precious few who are the absolute auteurs of the industry: the writers/directors/producers/performers who can do absolutely everything it takes to create great porn. One of these precious few is writer, director, producer, editor, composer, and now performer Jasun Mark. With over two decades in the business, Jasun has taken on every role behind and, most recently, in front of the camera. He joined Cybersocket for his first interview to reflect on his many careers and discuss his most recent venture into performing in front of the camera.

Photo courtesy Jasun Mark

How is 2025 going for Jasun Mark? What is the latest?

I mean… the political nonstop horror cabaret we’re all experiencing here in America is spilling over into so many aspects of my life. Former stars calling me worried they’ll be arrested for porn work 10 years ago, and my family and friends in Canada are terrified of what comes next. Even my husband and I… we just bought a house…so I don’t care if they can carry my dead body out of there, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve never run from a fight before, and I’m not running now. Canada will always have a huge place in my heart, but my home is that vintage 1950 trailer that I live in. I’m not going anywhere.

OH.. but the latest in porn? My new movie, Double Wide, which I co-directed with Ryan Brian, is a co-production between Naked Sword, Trailer Trash Boys, and Say Uncle’s Missionary Boys. The Mormon Missionaries visit the Trailer Trash Boys at Lot 45. I feel like it’s the movie I was born to make [laughs, mimes drinking an air martini]!

 

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Tell us about how you became a filmmaker.

Wow. Uh… my parents were always a bit over-protective of me and any media I consumed, so I didn’t really get to see much in the way of action or Sci-Fi until 1977 when they took me to see Star Wars. That kinda… broke my head open. I knew that somehow I was going to be a filmmaker. I had a weird side track being in an electronica band in the 90s, but I studied film at college and honestly, even as a teenager, I knew I was going to be making porn of some kind. I’ve done a lot of mainstream film work, but I much prefer the porn industry. Feels like home.

How did this lead to the world of adult entertainment?

They came hand in hand, really.  Even when I was a teenager and writing scripts, they all had a very sexual undertone, they all had sex scenes, they all had a power exchange of some kind. I mostly wrote from a sort of dark perspective, but there was always a sort of glimmer of hope in them. I wish I still had some of them. Oh I also remember writing a song about guys checking each other’s dicks out of the shower after gym class. I was always a bit of shit disturber, I guess. There was one script I wrote which was a sort of much darker version of Flashdance mixed with Altered States (I don’t think I made that connection at the time) which was about a farm boy running away from his oppressive family and life and community and going to “a big city” which was likely Montreal. He gets by having sex for money and then becomes a Go-Go dancer, and then it becomes sort of like Heidi, where he has all these weird hallucinations with wild dance sequences and… it got kind of weird after that. But as I recall, it had a sort of happy ending where he ends up helping another farm boy who’s escaped from his own hometown.

Could you take us through some of your different roles at the different studios? How do some compare with others? 

I got my toe in the door as an HTML designer promoting a Canadian mega site (which is long gone, now). But one night I was riding my motorcycle home and it started to snow and I had this wave of “I can’t do another fucking winter” and I started looking for work in Los Angeles. I got it in about 2 days… my skills as an editor and designer were a lot more marketable than I guess I had realized.  After that, I was working in affiliate marketing and production assistance, and editing, and before long, Jake Cruise offered me a job directing for his new site “Jake's Men,” which is what became Cocksure Men. I got to learn how to direct on the job. That was a dream come true. Loved working for Jake. But my dream was always to work for Titanmen. I started taking some freelance jobs for a bunch of studios, and that led me to working for Dominic Ford in Key West. While I was there, I got a call from Brian Mills asking if I’d like to come to Palm Springs and work on a secret project. Turned out to be that he was looking for someone to replace himself and… I mean, that’s like being called to the majors.  Within two years, I was the director of Production for Titanmen. One of the best experiences of my life.

I’m now working freelance, but mostly for Falcon and Naked Sword, and I’m part of the Ducati team. That’s been an incredible experience. This job is great, but when you’re working with friends who will always have your back, it’s better than anything.

Could you share with us some of your background? Where are you from? What were some of your previous careers?

My parents are classical musicians. They were university professors at a university in Atlantic Canada, so I grew up in that artistic academic world, but I was just never going to fit in there. I always wanted to make movies and honestly I always wanted to make porn. I tried in a sort of half-assed parent-pleasing way to become a jazz singer (I studied at Humber College in Toronto), but I was just never going to be that. I got offered a job on a cruise line, and it felt like… a prison sentence. I gave that up immediately. I was in a pretty popular indie electronic band called PlasticPalacePeople in Toronto in the 90s. We had sold-out shows and the major labels were all asking us to open for their bands, but that world still never really felt “right.” So I found a job as an import buyer for a record chain and taught myself to edit video and learn about film (I studied at York University in Toronto) and… that’s how I kinda had the skills to jump into porn face first, so to speak.

Do you have a filmmaking process? Could you take us through one of your shoots?

Depends on what I’m doing and who I’m working for. If it’s a Trailer Trash Boys scene, we try to keep it as hand-held, raw, and home-made looking while still keeping the professional touches like good lighting and editing and action. I don’t want that to feel too polished. When I was working for Titanmen, polished was what we wanted. I did some amazing feature films for them, learned a lot of CGI tricks and editing skills. Joe Gage taught me how to build tension and draw the viewers in. But on set, we try to keep things as casual and fraternal as possible. I want the whole vibe to be “ a bunch of dudes hanging out and having fun.” I want the team to have that dynamic you get when it’s a room of just gay men. You can really see the results on the video… the guys are into it and totally relaxed and letting themselves go. If there’s any tension or discord on set, it bleeds into the finished product. You don’t want that.

But we laugh a lot, we keep things light… we don’t talk politics or anything, it’s all about fun stuff. We can tell dirty jokes and all that. Oh, but the stars have to trust the crew 1000%. Crew have to keep it professional at all times, even after the cameras stop rolling.

How do you create the best sex on film?

Like that. You get people to let their guard down and let loose and go for it.

You have such a multifaceted career in which you use many different skills and talents. Is it challenging to wear so many hats, or is it an advantage? How so?

There are times I feel like a hamster on a wheel that’s going JUST a bit faster than I can go. Like I’m always trying to keep up. There are times when I feel totally on top of my game… those are less common, but working with the Ducati Team, where we all have our areas of strength,h has been wonderful. So really, in a perfect symbiotic working relationship with a team like that… they only give me the hats that fit… I think I’m carrying that metaphor too far, but you know what I mean.

You have recently added "performer" to your resume. What inspired you to start your own OnlyFans? Why at this point in your career? What took you so long?

Haha..oh, man! My first time on camera with my wang out was a sort of joke video where Jake Cruise “caught” me jerking off in my office. Seriously, we never thought anyone would find it that hot; we figured people would think it was funny. The whole thing was shot in one take, and it’s about 3 minutes long. We posted it on the JakeCruise blog and X-Tube, and it got like 5 million views and became one of the defining moments in my career. That was 15 years ago, and people still ask me about it. I wasn’t planning on getting in front of the camera until Jake talked me into performing in those massage scenes. I liked that… I should have kept doing those. But then Anthony Duran told me he wanted to shoot a scene with me for Nasty Daddy. I said he was crazy, but I did it to better understand how stars feel on set. I think it made me a better performer.

I stopped performing after that for years. But maybe two years ago, I was shooting a Fan Collab for a friend and the scene partner asked if I wanted to join in, and the vibe and feel was right and I just dropped my pants at went balls deep and… the rest is history. I don’t perform much, but I do enjoy it.

Photo credit Jasun Mark

As a writer/director/composer/post-production supervisor and now performer, how do you see yourself? What would you call yourself overall?

A filmmaker. That’s how I see myself.

How do you look back on your work? What scenes and movies stand out and why?

Wow. Hard to turn a career this long into a shot list. I was very proud of my first movie for Titanmen called Nightfall, which was kind of my tribute to the dystopian movies I loved growing up like Blade Runner and Metropolis, and The Matrix. I think Like Father Like Son was where I finally felt it all click into place. Like I knew what I was doing, and instead of trying to grasp things to just get it done, I was in control of it. Cauke For President and OUT! were two big favorites.

Trenton and I did a movie called Hot House Flippers that I wrote and we directed together. It was a sort of parody of those home improvement reality shows, and I still look back on it as a great experience, but also the end result was SO good. Trenton and I went on to win Best Director together for Capitol Affairs.

And while the Trailer Trash Boys scenes will always be close to my heart because I write and direct the majority of them… and I get to show off my comedy skills, that’s rare in porn,.. the most recent Co-Production with Naked Sword, Trailer Trash Boys and Say Uncle which is called “Double Wide” I think is one of the hottest movies I’ve done. We’re all really proud of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp6EWjXqf7Q

You have been at this for a long time. What has been the secret to your longevity?

Honestly? I try to stay away from the drama and gossip, I try to treat everyone with the respect they deserve, and I never forget that I’m just part of a team that works well together. I’m not special, regardless of my role… I’m just part of a team trying to make good porn.

How do you think business has changed in all that time, in both good ways and not-so-good ways?

There is no industry that hasn’t changed radically over the last 30 years. The internet changed everything, and just when we got used to that, AI and the gig economy, and things like fan sites changed it all again. I’m going to say that it’s good. Stars have more agency and control, studios have a great resource with performers who understand the business better because of their fan sites. They show up ready to roll. No more just strolling in late and half-assing it. They get it.

Oh… and bareback. In 2005, those 50-load cumdump movies were.. shocking and the bareback was the fetish itself. It was subversive and… almost scary. Titanmen famously wouldn’t work with guys who’d done it. But slowly, as things changed in the medical world… so did our attitude towards it. Everyone is one PReP or should be if they’re doing this kind of work. Or they’re undetectable.. guys all get it. There’s no stigma about it on set.

What was once shocking and subversive is now so wholesome that Sean Cody does it. EVERYONE does it now. It’s no longer a category on its own.

How have you changed?

Huh… wow… that’s… I dunno. I mean, I’m older… maybe a bit thicker. But that’s not what you mean. I think MAYBE I’m less of a shit disturber and more of a businessman than I was when I first started. I used to do things to be subversive and shocking and funny and didn’t think about the bottom line because I didn’t have to… now I do, so I’m a bit more calculated in how things are done. But personally, I think I’m still the rowdy college boy I always was.

Photo credit Jasun Mark

Any thoughts about the ongoing competition between the studios and the creator platforms?

I think I mentioned it just a few minutes ago. If a studio is willing to understand and work in the new arena… we can all work together and make a better product and make it work for us all. If studios get too worked up about their stars having a fan site… they may as well just shut down now. That’s not going away.

Tell us about you outside of your filmmaking career? Who is the real Jasun? Hobbies? Interests? Beliefs?

I’m … ok, so I’m a metal head. My favorite bands are Soilwork, Arch Enemy, Katatonia, Frost*, Darken, Mnemic, and Oceans Of Slumber. I’m a biker… although I don’t have a bike at the moment, I’m itching to ride again. I’m a vinyl collector. I love tiki culture… drinks and music, and that whole style. I LOVE craft cocktails and my husband and I have a fully stocked bar in our living room.

Oh… I’m married trailer trash. My husband and I have been together for 33 years. We live in a vintage 1955 trailer in the south end of Palm Springs. Oh, and I’m one of those weirdo Disney Adults. We go at least every other month and often more. Like… the bartenders know our names.