Last weekend we watched Michael Lucas, the classy New York porn mogul, set a record at the GayVN awards by winning 14 awards (in every category nominated) with his company's film La Dolce Vita (co-directed by Lucas and writer Tony DiMarco). Among other awards, the film won Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Music, Best Videography, and of course, Best Picture. Right after the show, we met Mr. Lucas, arms overflowing with the bulky awards, and he was extremely gracious to sit and chat with us (missing his ride to the hotel). Thanks, Michael!

We asked him what he thought of this year's success in light of last year's minor disappointments.





ML: This movie is better, so it's a natural progression. I wasn't happy last year because I had the tie with another production company and with another movie and I didn't think that the tie was fair -- my movie was different it was groundbreaking -- that's not my words; it's what every reviewer wrote. But then judges split and decided to give us a split -- and I don't like splits. It was an unfair split. It's not like two parallels; it's very different movies. Mine was hot sex and a great story, very beautifully acted, very beautifully lit, very beautiful cinematography, everything was top notch from editing to sex, and it's not fair to compare it to just another good or great sex film.

What do you think it means that you swept so many awards this year?

ML: I think they chose right judges and I'm very happy that those judges did their job -- they were honest. It was only last year that I was not happy with the outcome of the award show. I never was saying, let's say 5 years ago, that my movie's the best movie. But last year I knew for sure and I was very objective.

This is the first time a woman has won [Savanna Samson shared the award with Paul Barresi of Falcon Studios' The Velvet Mafia] the Best Non-Sex Performance award at the GayVN awards. Is La Dolce Vita the first time a woman has had a significant role in gay porn?

ML: I'm sure there were other women in gay porn… but they were not taken care of the way we took care of her. We made her really beautiful. We made her more beautiful than Vivid can make her. We gave her amazing style and we gave her a, you know, great role and she's a natural actress.

Where do you think your films are taking porn -- are you bringing innovation to the business?

ML: Well I just do what I like to do what I think is interesting to me. I'm not trying to do anything or innovate anything. I care about my company and about my movies and it's great if it will inspire other directors to produce more tasteful and interesting films, even if they are sex films.

What makes your films interesting?

ML: I think that because of 40 years of pornography (thousands of new titles every year), I think that the general public is tired of the same "stick it in, take it out" action. It's boring. They want to see actually the reason why these guys are engaged in sex. -- Not out of the blue but because they saw thousands of different movies for years and years and years where there is nothing else but butt fucking. So they want to see why these guys are having sex. I can't imagine other reasons why this movie is celebrated.

It was not done in a cheesy way. I think it was tastefully done and that's a challenge because we don't have those huge budgets -- even main stream movies are cheesy. So when you're producing an adult movie, you have to be careful.

We've reviewed some of your Auditions. They're a lot of fun.

ML: Auditions has won many awards over the years for best - they call it Pro-amateur -- a word which I hate; it's a terrible word. It just has a more real feel to it. Not that what I do is amateur. It's all with great weight. My cameras are all new, my camera men are all old drudges, not from kindergarten, but from film school.

Tell us about your Encounters line:

They are great. Full scenes, each scene has a storyline, a good little story around it.
If someone doesn't like talking, it's really easy to fast forward to the sex.

So now do you feel like king of the porn world?

ML: No, I don't feel like king of the porn world. I can't say that. You should say that. You should say it if you think so.

We say it!

If you could change the porn world what would change?

ML: I wouldn't change anything because I'm fine. I live in New York, on the East Coast. Nobody bothers me. I'm not here to change anything. I'm here to do what I like to do, that's all.

I don't think that porn will ever cross over to mainstream. It's not real to expect it to cross over.

A lot of people like Savanna Samson might cross over -- our society it's just set up this way. People like to mainstream things and like to blow things up, any kind of great celebrity, so people like Savanna Samson might cross over. I don't think porn as a genre will cross over.

So La Dolce Vita was mentioned on Conan O'Brien?

Best Threesome

ML: The story is that the guy is going into a porn store and he sees our two movies next to each other [Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita] and he's choosing the wrong movie apparently. And he's putting in the DVD and he sees La Dolce Vita of Federico Fellini and he's very upset; that's what lots of this is trying to say that there's a confusion in the market. That people want to buy Federico Fellini and they end up with this surprise, which of course is bullshit… Of course, every adult in his own mind understands the confusion cannot happen because those movies are not sold in the same stores. They're priced differently. So no confusion is possible. And I'm protected by First Amendment that gives me a right to do parody.

Are you a Fellini fan?"

ML: I like him very much. I think he was a genius. I was very much inspired.

Fellini is hardly the expected inspiration for the porn biz.

ML: I must tell you that a lot of people in show business in general are very narrow minded, a majority are not very deep really. Porn stars don't have advisors… Britney Spears: I don't think that she's more intelligent than some porn star who is getting fucked up the ass -- I don't think so -- I think that all these Hollywood people are pretty dumb. It's just that porn people are much more poor; it's more in your face; they don't know how to behave; no one coaches them, and so they go on stage and say stupid things and get drunk at the wrong time don't know people don't coach them.

Definitely my movie helps the Fellini movie. People tell me that after watching your movie and I went and bought

Americans don't really like foreign movies made 40 years ago in black and white with subtitles. And so they are making this big to-do about it… Americans can't pronounce La Dolce Vita.

As we've seen here at the awards... Why not do 8 1/2?

It's been done many times in different sizes. I believe it was "Eight and a Half and That's not Big Enough."

After you got the award why did Kathy Griffin make that comment to the audience about "don't start throwing ice"?

Best Director Toni DiMarco and ML

ML: Because they told her that, last year, I went up for 5 awards and when I went up for "Best Picture" award people started to throw ice at me -- some companies which lost and I have a movie of it.

Why the animosity?

Because I speak out my mind and I don't play the dumb, sweet porn star as they're all used to, they don't like it.

For example, some director would email me and say, "Well Michael, I'm so sorry that you are being sued. They will clean you out completely. You will lose your company. It's so terrible." And he cc'd it to other people. And I said --I mailed him a letter -- 'I think Mr. Ward you shouldn't worry about me because I'm not sued by Disney or Paramount because, and for many other reasons, I think you should look into your own pocket.

And another emailed to another director (and cc'd it to everyone) and said, "Well finally your movie's going to win because Michael's probably going to drop out of the competition because of the lawsuit."

To you sir, I would say that you shouldn't humiliate another director because maybe he believes he's actually good enough to win without me being dropped out of the competition. -- And they don't like me for those things.

It gives me an enormous pleasure to say what I want to say.

When you got the award for Best Threesome, you said something about actually enjoying the sex?

ML: I said, "For a change I enjoyed this." It's an industry joke I think, though they didn't get it, because in the industry we all know that it's difficult when there are cameras and you have to have sex not for your own pleasure but for the cameras.

When you're having sex for the camera, do you actually find yourself thinking about director stuff?

ML: Of course… If you're having sex for the camera, you have to exploit the camera. You think about the viewer and how to show it to him so he will feel like he's part of the action. Otherwise you should go home and have sex there.

When you're doing the "Auditions," is it really the first time they've ever had sex with you?

ML: It's true. That's real. That's why I like this line because it's very real. But it's very easy for me, you know, because I know exactly what to do and I can kind of direct the guy. Especially if I'm in the scene…it flows. Auditions is very different from other productions because basically we don't do much editing; we usually film it in one take. 'What you see is what you get.'