[UPDATED] Former NakedSword/Falcon Employees Race Cooper And Chris Porter Call The Studio’s Statement On Black Lives Matter “Lies”
This story has been updated below.
Following the police murder of George Floyd on Memorial Day and the resulting nationwide protests over the last week, gay porn conglomerate NakedSword/Falcon (which also operates Hot House and Raging Stallion) issued a statement yesterday saying that they “stood in solidarity with the Black Community,” and you can read it in full below:
The message was met with some thanks but also some criticism, including this reply from Pheonix Fellington (his new Twitter handle, “PlayFella,” is the name of his upcoming studio), who called out the studio for not having a diverse roster of models:
And this morning, Race Cooper (a former performer and production employee at the studio) tweeted the below image with the word “LIES” written over NakedSword/Falcon’s message:
Cooper posted the below thread about his time working at the studio, and he accuses people at the studio of “gaslighting you” by posting about Black Lives Matter.
Following Cooper’s tweets, Chris Porter—another former performer and production employee at NakedSword/Raging Stallion—tweeted in agreement, writing that “Chris Ward, then president of [Raging Stallion], treated black models as props and filler for movies, and so did other employees like [Steve] Cruz and [Tony] DiMarco”:
Disclosure: I worked at the NakedSword office writing their news blog, The Sword, from 2010 to 2013 (this was around the time NakedSword, Raging Stallion, and Falcon were merging into one). While I never witnessed racist behavior or racist statements from anyone there, I’m a white male, so I obviously have the privilege of never having to experience racism the way POC do, and my perception will never be as valid as Race Cooper’s and other POC. Also, I didn’t work on Chris Ward’s productions like Porter and Cooper did, which is where it sounds like they experienced most of the racism.
Chris Porter went on to share a quote he says Ward (who retired in 2015) once made—”we need to get some black guys so we don’t get called racist”—and says he was constantly sexually harassed by an unnamed studio supervisor while working as a production assistant:
Finally, Porter acknowledged that while it’s “nice to see racists in the porn industry finally called out,” he hopes fetishized segregation of models comes to end, and that there are “no more ‘Noir’ sites” (likely referring to NoirMale, the gay porn studio owned by a straight white man in Canada and operated by white director Chi Chi LaRue):
Str8Up has reached out to NakedSword/Falcon for a response to Cooper and Porter’s comments and will update this story if they reply.
UPDATE:
Falcon/NakedSword President & CEO Tim Valenti has issued the below statement, and in it, he acknowledges the company’s history by saying he “can’t excuse the choices of Chuck Holmes.” Valenti also addresses several of Race Cooper’s points and has vowed to take action. Here’s Valenti’s full statement:
Let me start by saying I respect Race Cooper for sharing his experience working at Raging Stallion. I believe voices like his should be heard. I only want to listen and work to do better. It’s true that in Falcon’s 50 year history, the studio has cast mostly white performers. I can’t excuse the choices of Chuck Holmes or any of the industry veterans who ran this company before me, but I can assure you that as President and CEO today, I do not want that to be the legacy of the Falcon brand.
We want to be a part of improving racial inequality in our industry, and that starts here. As long as I am President and CEO of Falcon/NakedSword, I can promise you that we do not, and never will, have a written or unwritten policy regarding the race of our performers. Our model applications do not, and never will, include questions about racial preferences, and we will never knowingly cast anyone who refuses to work with another performer solely based on the color of their skin.
I have taken steps to diversify the model pool at Falcon. While we have made strides in the right direction, we obviously have a lot more work to do. I am committed to continually evolving the Falcon brand to include more men of color, specifically black men, in all of our productions.
While we can’t change the past, we acknowledge it, and commit to a better future. My team and I are here, listening and we vow to take action and keep marching toward equality in our industry and in the world.
