Exclusive: Colby Chambers Reveals The Surprising Backstory Behind His Studio’s Radical 1980’s Epic, “Interview Hotshots”
While ColbyKnox didn’t have a horror-themed Halloween scene this year (ICYMI: their 2020 Scream was among the best gay porn parodies of all time), they did release a new movie full of costumes, music, custom-built sets, and some of the best, most accurate props in any adult production ever.
Interview Hotshots is the title, and this story set in 1985 stars Colby Chambers as the owner of a media company, with relative unknown model Caleb Davis as an aspiring actor auditioning for a job with that company. Mickey Knox is also here as the driver/friend of Caleb who brings him to the audition, and who eventually joins in on that “audition.”
Where did this story come from, how in the world did they find all these authentic props (from the computers to the clothes to the rolodex to the cassette tapes to the receptionist’s eye make-up to the car Mickey is driving to the Taco Bell bag—they didn’t miss one single detail), and how did they pull it all together? Studio owner, director, and performer Colby Chambers was able to give Str8Up all the details on this project, and before you watch the meticulously crafted depiction of a 1980’s office-themed fuckfest, here was our chat with the star and co-producer of Interview Hotshots.
Str8UpGayPorn: Hello Colby! So what’s the backstory behind the movie, and how did it all come to fruition?
Colby Chambers: Hi! It was actually written by a performer named Leon Spiniker. Him and his husband mostly webcammed when they were active in the industry years ago, but aren’t involved anymore these days. Leon had been planning it for quite a while before we got involved. He poured crazy amounts of time and money into the sets and props to be as accurate as possible to the 80’s—it actually cost him his relationship, from what we were told. This project was an obsession of his.
It clearly shows. Everything was so perfect, even quick glimpses of things that people might not even notice were spot-on.
Yeah, Leon is an 80s fanatic! Most of it was part of his personal collection. Some of it he sourced, like the Taco Bell wrappers he bought off Ebay from some collector. Because this was a sort of personal obsession for Leon, there was no concern for cost or profit.
When was it filmed, and what was the casting process and production like?
We went down to Florida to film a little over two years ago at Leon’s house, and we spent the week there. The actors he actually had lined up canceled, and he had two weeks to get it done before the sets had to be taken down. We agreed to star in it, help direct, and provide equipment in exchange for equal rights for release.
And those sets were built in his house? They were so real.
The office set, this is kinda funny. He built the hallway leading to the office in the middle of his living room. So there was just this big plywood tunnel in the middle of his entry way/living room that you had to crawl over to get into his kitchen. So yeah, the hallway and my office were his house.
You said this was filmed two years ago, so what happened over the last two years?
Leon had original music composed for it, as well as voice actors for the trailer and radio bits. He was supposed to take what we filmed, add the extra bells and whistles, and give us the finished product within four months of wrapping. We waited two years for him to do this as we didn’t want to compromise his vision. Eventually, we stopped hearing back from him, and I was actually led to believe he had passed away from health complications. But, we found out a couple weeks ago that he’s definitely alive and doing well. We weren’t able to get a lot of his post-production extras since we had no contact, so we just filled it in as best we could.
The blond guy you’re fucking, Caleb Davis (named as “Caleb Kent” in the trailer)—who is he? I’ve never seen him before.
Caleb Davis is a friend of Leon’s who owed him a favor. I know he used to webcam, but we haven’t talked to him since the production, so I’m not sure what he’s up to these days.
This felt inspired partly by real 80’s porn, but also kind of by some of the scenes in Boogie Nights. Did Leon mention any of that as influencing his vision?
We talked to Leon a lot about his inspiration for the movie, and it was definitely a nod to 80’s in general, from the title “Hotshots” to the parody plaques in the office, and all of the references. “Don’t sweat the small stuff” is dropped in one of the lines.
You mentioned you had no contact with Leon recently, so I take it you don’t know if he’s seen this final version just released?
No, we haven’t actually heard directly from him in six months. We had most the assets already, but just had to fill in some gaps of what he was supposed to provide when he did his edit. The deal was, if he didn’t get it edited within 180 days, we would do the editing on our own. We waited two years for him to finish, but then we stopped hearing back. No idea if he’s seen it, but I’m kind of expecting him to pop up eventually once he does, and I hope he knows we hold no grudges for him ghosting us.
I think he’d be proud, and happy to finally have his creation seeing the light of day. I still can’t get over every little detail. The secretary enjoying her Taco Bell with the walk-man was my favorite part—other than the fucking, of course. It’s rare to see so much time and care going into something—with equal attention paid to story and sex.
Thank you so much, and I feel the same! These are my favorite types of projects, for sure.
More from Interview Hotshots on ColbyKnox:
Trailer (watch full scene here):
