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Where Are They Now? Donnie Russo
Our popular "Where Are They Now?" interviews have caught up with so many of the adult industry's biggest names. Some have left the industry never to return. Some have expressed fond and not-so-fond memories. Some have expressed interest in returning. Some have talked about maintaining their presence in the industry for ten or even twenty years. That record is being broken yet again with our catch-up with Donnie Russo. Donnie has been a presence in the industry since the 1980s. For him, porn isn't just his career. In his own words, it is his life! He joined us for his first Fleshbot interview to reflect on his decades in the business, the changes he's seen in the business and himself, and how he loves what he does for a living more than anything else in the world.
What is the latest with the legendary Donnie Russo?
Well, it’s a loaded question. Just a lot of things going on in life. I had some unexpected issues that I am dealing with right now. And I’m just dealing with that. But besides that, gym, sex videotaping, and just doing what I do best, FUCK!
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Tell us about your start in the industry.
I started in print work. I have always been photographed because I have a distinctive look. I think it’s just how I can handle myself, and I have always been in demand. Still going strong and not stopping. In my day, photographers would stop me on the street and inquire if I had ever been photographed, and then they would ask if they could take my pictures and see how their work would be different than the others. Basically, everything else just unfolded, and I was doing print/video work from the 80s till now.
You have been in the industry for decades now. What are some of the changes you've seen in the business over the years, both good and not-so-good?
I have been working in the industry for four decades, two centuries! Now that's impressive! I have seen a lot of people who have come and gone. Be it from their passing on, to just leaving, and no longer interested in doing it anymore. Sadly, the world in which myself and others were a part has changed with the times of innovation. In my time, calling yourself a porn star was not what it means today. We had no cell phones, no iPhones, no computers until the late 90s. Everything was done by travel appearances, generating movies, and getting a following domestically and around the world. Today, everybody is a fucking porn star and that has become so generic to me. It makes me kind of sick just to hear the word. It has no meaning, not that I’m trying to be nasty or anything like that. It’s just the fact that I and everybody else do it on the phone. You can just do a live video and do exchanges and all that. Before, you had to go out and actually buy a movie. The whole genre was totally different. You were traveling and doing the circuit over the weekend: One venue was in this place, and one venue was in another place. People knew your name. They followed your work and held you in high regard. You were influential upon their lives, at least I was, and I should only speak for myself. I know that in my 40 years in the business, I changed many lives, and I’m still doing it today. It was an era that will never be again, and thank goodness I was able to be a part of that and am still here today doin' my thing.
How have you changed?
I have aged with dignity and always remember that without my fans, I wouldn’t be here answering your questions. I have basically always been a level-headed individual, and I have always done what I wanted to do. I am my own man, and even in the countless things I have done, I have always stayed true to myself. I’m not an act. The way I am on camera having sex is the same way I am off camera. I’m just very headstrong and have a big libido, which dominates my life. Amen to that!
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What has been the secret to your longevity? How have you managed to keep your porn work fresh and exciting?
I always keep them guessing. I’m like a chameleon, always changing, you never know what look you’re going to get. So when you think you know me I fuck you over and change everything about me. That’s the secret to my longevity.
The 90s and 2000s is now regarded a Golden Age for the Gay Porn industry. Do you agree? What do you think made that period so special?
No. It’s so funny that I’ve heard that statement of the golden age of porn. It was a very hard and a very difficult time in gay history. We were dictated to what we could and couldn’t do. We tried to make a bad situation better for the men out there to be able to enjoy sex. Condoms were the mandate of the times. You could not swallow cum, take it up your ass without a rubber on. We had to navigate a very delicate situation to show that, before the advent of HIV prevention meds, you could have hot and heavy safe sex and enjoy it between your partners, known or unknown. Today, with PrEP and all HIV prevention, what a totally different world in which we live. These guys today and this generation have no idea, no clue what it meant to live in hell. Do you go around with no regard for the past or respect to those who trailblazed the way that you were able to have and enjoy your sex today? So, as far as a golden age, I guess, but to tell you the truth, I classify the 80s and 90s as an educational era.
How do you compare the industry of today to then?
Oversaturated as ever, everyone is doing it. You look at the eastern Europeans, the guys get steroids, you can walk into the store and order anything. Here in the United States everything is controlled by the fucking FDA and again we are a Puritan society in many respects. So in my day, steroids were something that you were fortunate to be able to make a connection to be able to get continuously and use if you wanted to a big and built like a Mack truck. So, in this world we live in, everything that was once taboo is now socially acceptable on the platforms. People forget about the decency laws until the mid-90s. Extreme kinks could get you arrested. There’s an open volume of whatever that goes on Twitter and all these other apps. I believe fully in this because who the fuck are you to tell me what I can and cannot do. Go fuck yourself. At the same time, people ask me if I know this guy or that guy, and I’m clueless because they are so abundant and from different places.
Because all fans ask, what is your favorite scene and why?
That is a hard question for me to answer. A lot of great scenes with a lot of great men. Again, the guys that I worked with will tell you that I am two different people in one. I have the tough no nonsense hard-core sex driven Donnie Russo and there’s the other side that I’m a fucking jokester and doing shit to fuck people up in a good way. Always making jokes and cracks about sex and getting people to laugh. Laughter is the best medicine.
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Who were some of your best friends and favorite fellow performers from that time?
Oh, another one that’s tough for me. All the guys were, for the most part, great men to work with: Daryl Brock, Robbie Cryston, Danny Sommers, Hank Hightower, Max Grand, Dallas Taylor. I could be here listing hundreds of others.
Who are some of the performers you wish you had filmed with, but didn't? Why?
Brett Mycles would have been one guy I wish I had a chance to work with. But sadly, he died. And a few others, but you never know, as I still might manage to work with them yet.
How were you able to survive where some of your contemporaries, like Steve Fox and Erik Rhodes, met unfortunate fates?
I don’t know. Everyone has their day and time. Sadly, so many have gone before their time, and sadly, it leaves us to ponder what if they were still here with us. I am just glad that, for now, I am above ground.
How is everything going outside of your film career? What about just Donnie? Hobbies? Interests? Beliefs?
I believe that every day is a new day of opportunities. We never know what is going to happen. If you were to say to me, “Donnie, what will you be doing 40 years from today?” I would have said who the fuck knows. Here I am answering your questions, and I am thinking about so many things that have gone on in my life. I never thought it would be such a roller coaster ride. I do know that I am so grateful that I got to ride this one for as long as I have, and am still riding it. I love working out, and that’s been going on for 45-plus years now. It’s just in my DNA, being that big hot hung horny muscle stud I am. Hobbies are fun sex, working out, going out and having a fucking good ol time!
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Who is the real Donnie Russo?
When I find that one out, I will let you know! Until then, just keep watching me on the apps, social media, and at the sex clubs and bars. You just never know, I might be sitting next to you. Surprise!
What is your favorite thing about sex?
HAVING IT! Honestly, it’s EVERYTHING! I was BORN FOR PORN! It’s about SEX, SEX, SEX, and MORE SEX. I am INSATIABLE.
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