Bruce Beckham: “I Can’t Stand It When Fans Say, ‘No One’s Here to Hear You Talk'”

In a revealing interview last week, the performer talked about the pandemic, privacy, dating, coming out and more—including naming a former porn star he wishes he could film a scene with.

Bruce Beckham joined the On the Rocks podcast with on-air personality Alexander Rodriguez and co-host Wesley Woods last week, where he was there to promote the Falcon/NakedSword #Mask4Mask campaign (which you can see for free on Naked Sword!). Here are some of the highlights from his appearance (which you can still watch in its entirety):

On how the industry has changed during his career (which began in 2004):

“I get asked this question a lot, and there’s two major things: One is the advent of social media, so now I’m able to interact directly with fans I might never have come in contact with. Porn used to be exactly that: studio porn, so they were in charge of PR…now, you’re talking with people halfway around the world who are fans of yours that you would never have had an opportunity to do so before, so that’s really cool. And it sort of puts the burden of PR on oneself as well. I can promote myself through these social media platforms in a way that I never could before.”

On how social media has led to less privacy:

“That’s the tradeoff. You have to know what comes with that. You have to know if you’re putting yourself out there into the world, that people are going to have access to you. So you just get good at setting boundaries. And you get good at realizing what a total stranger says on the internet doesn’t mean anything, it’s just blips on a screen. It’s someone typing in their room somewhere…it has nothing to do with me.”

On the blowback some performers have received for airing certain opinions on social media:

“That’s America…free speech. But it also means you have to pay the consequences for whatever that opinion is, and if your particular opinion is, ‘I think other people should be treated less, and other people don’t deserve the same rights as me, and I’m just going to be a selfish motherfucker,’ people are going to take you to task about it. And you should be aware of your opinion about it, and be able to defend yourself or take the hits that come with it.

I can’t stand it when fans say, ‘Oh, no one’s here to hear you talk.’ That whole idea of, ‘You should just keep your mouth shut and do the thing we know you for’—whether it be you’re a singer, an actor or whatever—it’s always so one-sided, because you can then immediately point to people who share the same political beliefs as the critic, but it’s okay for them to say it. But anyone with the opposing view, ‘Just stick to what you do.’”

On shooting his first scene:

“I did a movie for Blue Blake. The co-star was Robert Van Damme, who was a straight Czechoslovakian hockey star that had immigrated to the U.S. Turns out, he had actually fled his native country because he was allegedly wanted in some robberies and thefts. So here he is the U.S. shooting porn.

They drive us out to a ranch that was used for porn shoots, somewhere outside the valley in L.A., and I remember sitting on this sofa. They were setting up cameras, I was looking at this really hot guy—Robert Van Damme—going, ‘Oh my God, I’m getting paid to suck this guy’s dick!”

On the outbreak of COVID-19 in New York (a cause that Beckham generously donated to, as we reported earlier this year):

“We’re always fucking Ground Zero for everything, and it’s because it’s the best city in the world. So many people live here, and it’s a melting pot of cultures and so many wonderful things. But (with) an international airport, we were some of the first to get the cases in. I’ve got to be honest: March and April were really rough. Every couple hours, you could hear an ambulance screaming by. If you lived anywhere near a hospital, you could see those ambulance lined up.

During those first few months, I would drop off food to ER workers who were working 16-hour shifts and didn’t have a chance to go out and get something to eat. Food trucks parked outside the hospitals and gave free food away to those workers. So, the impression was made on us that something serious was going on, and that wasn’t case for some of the flyover states in the middle. They weren’t seeing the cases that we were seeing on the coasts, so to them it was this invisible monster that allegedly a problem

But for better or worse, living in New York, we saw it firsthand all the time, and it really motivated me to take it seriously and try and do something about it—and not just me, everyone around me. New Yorkers are great for chipping in when there is a crisis, and really lifting each other up and coming together. So everywhere I looked was somebody giving a hand to somebody else who needed it. It was really beautiful to see. Because that’s what we’re supposed to when there’s a time of crisis, right?

The difference between L.A. and New York in a nutshell is a Los Angeleno will look at you not wearing a mask and say something bitchy under their breath and walk away.  A New Yorker will look at you and say, ‘Hey, you fucking schmuck! Put you mask on!’ But what they’re really trying to do is help you live longer!”

On love and dating as a porn star:

“I said for the longest time that I wasn’t going to date while I was in this industry, because my definition of a relationship for the majority of time meant that I was only going to be with someone else, and I didn’t think it was fair for them to have to share me with the world.

That definition has evolved to a degree. But I made a deliberate decision not to date, or if I dated, it would only be someone in the industry because they would really get it, they would know what the gig is. I have run into my fair share of people who only wanted to date me because they were actually fans, and they didn’t want to get to know the real me. But dating is a bitch for everyone. I don’t want to sound like a victim here. Dating is hard no matter what you do, right?

I’ve had some hits and misses, and I’m fortunate enough now…I’m seeing someone who really gets what I do for work, understands that it’s a career like anything else. And one of the reasons we’re dating is, I asked him as a joke, but also a test—I won’t say what he does for work, but it’s a pretty important, respectable job—but I said, ‘What will people say if someone like you marries a porn star?’ And he said, ‘Well, I hope they would think it was an interesting combination.’ Which I thought was really cool.”

On coming out:

“I came out in Christian high school in 1990, my senior year, and it was not received well. Neither with my family nor with my friends at the time. But I had grown up in such an oppressive religious environment, there was a point where I knew I either have to stick up for myself or I’m going to break in half. So that’s what I did. I came out to my best friend who stopped talking to me the next day, I came out to some other close friends, I came out to parents. Nobody was giving me a round of applause, but at that point, I had met one or two people who had helped impress upon me that that moment wasn’t going to be forever, so I found allies. I found people that had my back, and I learned to find safe spaces and grew from there.

My heart breaks for kids that are living in countries where they can’t come out safely. I always encourage people to come out if they can; it’s the single best thing you can do for gay rights, but it’s also the single best message you can do for yourself, because you’re literally saying, ‘Who I am has respect and deserves dignity, and I don’t need to apologize for who I am.’ But that’s hard when you live in countries where you can literally be killed for identifying yourself as gay.”

On coming out as a porn star:

“As far as coming out as a porn star…here’s the thing. I’ve never made a pronouncement to my family about it…I have some family members that don’t care what I’m up to as long as I’m healthy and happy; I have some family members that sort of already know that I’m living the non-traditional path, so they don’t poke around as much.”

Film parody porn that he would love to be in?

“Terms of Enrearment.”

Former adult film star that he wishes he could film a new scene with?

“Matthew Rush.”

Least favorite exercise at the gym?

“Squats. I fucking hate squats because they’re murder on my knees, but you just gotta do them.”

What would be his drag name?

“Helluva Bottom Carter.”

Fun category he would add to adult industry award shows?

“Compulsive eating porn.”

What would he say to a Karen saying next to him without a mask on?

“Bitch, put your fucking mask on!”

See more of Bruce in the #Mask4Mask campaign (free on NakedSword!), and in his award-winning turn in NakedSword’s The Slutty Professor!