Cam Christou Discusses Barebacking, Returning to the Military, and Basically Announces His Retirement From Porn After Six Months

Since filming his first scene with Deviant Otter earlier this year, Cam Christou has become the hot new kid in town, quickly moving on to Tim Tales, NakedSword, and Lucas Entertainment. Raging Stallion, a studio he thought he’d have to slowly work his way up to over the course of years, perhaps, called within three months. A gifted bottom, Christou’s taken the enormous cocks of Boomer Banks and Adam Ramzi, among others, and was gang-banged on stage at New York’s Black Party as part of Naked Sword’s The Pack. I called the up-and-cummer as he sped through the streets of South Beach on the way to brunch with friends. We talked about his tumultuous upbringing, his time in Afghanistan, and his take on barebacking for Michael Lucas.

Adam: So, did you grow up in Miami?

No. I was born in Greece and grew up in Bosnia, then we moved to America in 1998. I’ve been all over in the States. My mom moved down here about six years ago. So I’m down here once a month and I usually stay with her.

That’s a pretty unusual upbringing. What was that like for you growing up over there, and how did you end up coming here?

It was pretty crazy. My two families are huge. I was raised Greek Orthodox and Muslim, so my childhood, from what I remember was pretty nuts. Then when the conflict started in former Yugoslavia, we left in 1993 and moved to Germany where we lived for a couple of years and then we moved here. The majority of my childhood was spent on the road, moving from place to place.

How did your being gay play into all the chaos and big life-or-death concerns that your family was dealing with?

I think I was too young to realize what was going on. I was five when we left Bosnia. As far as my sexuality, I remember being four years old and like being infatuated with my male cousin. I think I even knew at that point. I was much more drawn to him. And I was more drawn to my mom than my dad, but when it came to looking at other boys, I used to pee next to my neighbor out in the woods when we lived in Germany. I was eight or nine and my neighbor and I started taking our pants off in front of each other in the closet and touching each other. I definitely knew from way early that I was in touch with my sexuality and that I liked boys.

Was there shame that came with it or were you pretty okay with that?

I don’t think it was a result of anything. My father was very strict. There were instances where he would take me to the museum, and I would point out the naked statues, female and male, and I would get punished for it. But I think that there was an aspect of my sexuality that was repressed by my dad, which caused me to rebel in my younger years. I lost my virginity when I was 15 and I finished high school, my parents divorced, and started college all in the same year. It was definitely like a big in-your-face moment for me. At that point I came out to my mom. I knew I was gay and I went off merrily to college. Growing up, just the fact that sex was not talked about, it brought out my sexual side more and more.

The first time was with a guy, then? No playing with girls or testing it out?

No. It was this guy I went to high school with. We didn’t like each other or anything. His parents were good friends with my parents. He was a tennis player and I ran track. We were in my room and I don’t know. Somehow the conversation turned to making out. And he was like, “Have you ever made out with anyone?” And I said “No.” And he said he wanted to teach me. So we started making out and pretty soon he was inside me. He was a pretty big guy too, so losing your virginity to someone like that was pretty crazy. It just unlocked Pandora’s box.

Pandora’s hole, rather.

Yeah. I couldn’t get enough after that.

If your first dick was really huge it makes sense that you’re the go-to-guy to take Boomer Banks and Adam Ramzi and Leo Forte who have big cocks.

Well they’re all variations on big cocks. Boomer and I have joked about this and I’m quoting him, his is more like “a TV remote.” It’s flat but big. But actually no, the first dick didn’t set the tone for me. Both of my exes are night and day compared to one another. One was not well endowed and he knew how to use it. The other was way too big but he didn’t know how to use it. I definitely think a six-inch cock can be much better than an eight-inch cock. There’s nothing wrong with that, trust me.

 

How did you graduate high school so early?

I placed further than my peers so I was taking a lot of AP courses in high school. Then I just accelerated my degree.

Where did you go to college?

I did undergrad at University of Florida. After I graduated I went into the military for four and a half years, and then I left the military in 2008 and did my master’s at UCLA and finished that in 2010 and then moved to Washington D.C.

What made you want to get into the military? I feel like if I escaped a treacherous civil war and had a lot of turmoil in my life, I might be naturally scared to get back into the line of fire.

I joined because my original plans were to go to medical school and they were going to pay for it. Granted when I graduated college I was 18 and had my head up my ass and it was either continue with that or do something and go to jail or go to the military and I chose the military. I didn’t think that I was going to go. I didn’t think that I would be on a plane to Afghanistan three months after joining. That wasn’t in cards for me. I was regimented. I knew what every day was going to be like. I was a combat medic so I was tasked to a marine battalion and we flew around and collected injured and dead marines in the battlefield. I grew to love it, and it put my life on hold for four years but I miss it a lot. I was kicked out for being gay. I was outed by a co-worker, who was a girl.

Wow.

After I left that, it took a couple of years to put things back together. It’s surprising there are a lot of veterans that I’ve met in the porn community. Leo Forte is one. He was in the air force, so we definitely connected hugely on that. I know mr. Pam has shown a great interest in veterans. Element Eclipse is a veteran as well. We were actually all stationed at the same station at the same time but didn’t know each other. That’s really surreal.

You and Leo Forte and Element Eclipse were all in the same place in Afghanistan?

We were all in the same place, and on the Adam Ramzi shoot, I can get confirmation for you on this, I believe all of us were stationed at the same station in the same year and we didn’t know each other or know we were going to go into porn. It was an awesome thing to find that out.

So was it dangerous for you in Afghanistan?

Yeah. I mean I was on the front lines. I was a paramedic on a helicopter in a war zone.

You’re still firing at people and trying to keep safe and out of the line of fire.

Basically.

What was the culture like for you there? Were you sleeping with other guys?

I mean, you’re gone for nine months at a time and there’s surprisingly an astounding amount of gay people in the military. But that all happened toward the later end of my deployment because when you start everything your body is so shell-shocked that sex is the last thing on your mind, honestly. I remember the first time I came was like 61 days after being on base and it was crazy. I guess I was still afraid of being outed, and I bottled it up and that aspect just wasn’t there. I certainly didn’t look at my co-workers in a sexual way.

You were in touch with your sexuality from a young age. What motivated you to go back into the military knowing you’d be in the closet?

I don’t know. It was definitely a safe haven. You know it’s not allowed. I don’t know. I was always comfortable with my sexuality so I wasn’t going in to hide it like a lot of marines do. I went in because I wanted money. They promised me medical school and that’s what I wanted. I had a goal in mind and that’s the only thing I focused on. There was nothing else. Plus, let’s not forget, I was in a relationship when I joined the military that went on for five years while I was in the military. So while there was fucking around and everything, I knew why I was in the relationship, why I was in the military, and that there was a mission to be done. I didn’t let anyone get in the way.

How did this girl out you?

She was basically in love with me and I told her that I was gay and there was a two-month period of her basically not speaking me and then she filed a complaint with my commander and he knew I was gay and so did my battalion. But because she went on record and filed a formal complaint there wasn’t anything they could do. They couldn’t brush it under the rug because those were the rules.

When you got that news what did it feel like?

It was like someone pulled the carpet out from under me. I got kicked out and bottled it up and it took years of therapy to kind of smooth it out.

Are you pursuing legal restitution?

Yeah I’m part of a national lawsuit to get my benefits back. I hope I win. It would be very nice.

Do you still want to go to medical school?

I do. I am actually in talks to maybe go back into the military. I just met with a recruiter. There are definitely some plans right now.

So you’re back from the army and you’re dealing with it in therapy, and you’re trying to make sense of things. Which comes first: escorting or porn?

Porn had always interested me. I moved to Los Angeles after I got out and I remember I was dating this guy and I was telling him I had this huge interest in doing porn and he was like, “No you can’t do it.” It was always there. Porn came first. Escorting is something I started doing very recently. I actually love it now but it’s funny, mr. Pam asked me if I was going to escort, so did Boomer and Seven Dixon and I always objected to it because I thought I would not be a good escort and that I would let people down who were paying for my time. But porn came first. It took about four years to decide if I wanted to do porn or not. I spent the last part of last year getting my friends together and discussing it with them and I had really good support and so I went into it.

That’s sort of different from most of the porn stars I talk to.

The funny thing is, I don’t know if you watched the Golden Globes a couple of years ago, but Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were saying something about plans for porn and Amy said, “You know no one plans to go into porn.” It was a funny joke, but I don’t think most plan to go into it, most end up doing it because they fall into it or have nothing else. Others go into it because they’ve always had an attraction to it. I’ve always thought it was fascinating to put yourself out there like that.

I feel like the latter are the people who last the longest into it. The people who get into because they just want fame are the ones who don’t last long.

I’ve been surprised by the porn world. There’s a lot of love but there’s a lot of backstabbing and hustling. I’m open to the possibility of doing stuff behind the scenes, working for one of the companies. Helping with casting. I think my time in front of the camera is coming to an end. I’ve done it for a little over a year now and I really wanted to work with Tim and I did Tim Tales because I thought he was fucking hot, and my first scene I shot with him was fucking hot. It was magical. I wanted to work with mr. Pam and she called one day and I was ecstatic. Raging Stallion was at the top of my list in terms of goals. I figured I would work my way up to Raging Stallion. Three months after I started they called and said they were interested in me so that all happened at once.

What do your parents think about your career? Your father was repressive and your mom was accepting? When you decided to get into porn, what happened?

We don’t really discuss that. It’s just something that we don’t discuss.

Do they know?

They know I had a kind of coming out with mom that I discussed with mr. Pam and Boomer because they were pushing me to come out, tell my parents. I didn’t feel like it was pressure or anything I just told them I was going to do it on my terms and I did. I just recently discussed it with her and told her. Mom knows and we don’t talk about it. My mom is pretty chill, though.

It wasn’t a positive conversation then, I’m assuming.

No it was not. But it was very straightforward. I told her and that was it. My dad, I don’t know if he knows. I don’t care. We don’t have a good relationship. My mom, I can tell her anything. She’d stand behind me no matter what.

What was it like working with Deviant Otter?

He’s awesome. He knew it was my first time filming and he talked me through it. Obviously his shoot was very amateurish, just me, him and a camera. Lasted about an hour. And you know, I was super comfortable with him. He was really nice. Totally complimentary. I walked away wanting to work with him again. I was a little nervous at first. But he just guided me through it. I was happy to help his site launch. And we got a shitload of Vine hits from him putting it on the internet. SO I guess people liked it. The thing about that Vine though, is it looks like it’s bareback but he made it a point to show him putting the condom on at the beginning of the video. I didn’t film my first bareback until Lucas. I also find it funny in the gay porn community you have to defend and say “Oh no I didn’t do bareback. But that’s a whole other issue.

Well but the bareback thing with Lucas is controversial for many because he’s a major studio, but also because he used to go after anyone who filmed bareback porn.

Of course I mean, let’s look at porn as a political thing. People’s opinions sway in favor of things and against things. I think it’s all about being informed and how do I word this without sounding politically incorrect. I think that Lucas has been around long enough to know the market and bareback porn is what people want right now. They don’t want to see a condom. He has a business to run and he wants to give his fans what they want. I think that he is beyond educated on the health and safety of bareback and when you should do it and when you shouldn’t do it. And breaking that HIV stigma. I myself am negative, on PrEP. I’ve been on it for a while now, because my ex was positive and I wanted to take that precaution. I stayed on it because I knew that I was doing porn and doing porn with people who were HIV positive and healthy, and people who were HIV positive and not physically healthy. It should be an ongoing conversation. It shouldn’t just be an acceptance of, oh he does bareback porn and that’s okay. It should be something that’s discussed all the time. People need to be educated and if it’s going to take Michael Lucas to educate people on what HIV is and what undetectable means and when you should use a condom and when you shouldn’t have a condom and when you should talk to your partner about HIV, then I feel like it’s acceptable for that. That’s my personal opinion on it.

Rafael Alencar told me that the way Lucas does it is that he sero-sorts in addition to the PrEP? The people who are HIV negative are together and the people who are positive are together.

Yes, he groups his performers based on status. So that there’s no pushback from anyone. When they were casting me I was sat down and basically told what days I would shoot and who I would shoot with and what days I couldn’t shoot because that performer was positive. They were very professional and cautious in that sense. They were very communicative on that.

Was there any trepidation on your part about what it would mean for your career? Like you said, it puts you in a controversial place.

Controversy to me is an opportunity to discuss and educate someone. As an adult I come forth and open the book and you give your point of view of it and your opinion and then you take into consideration someone else’s. I wasn’t worried that there was going to be controversy because A) I’m not going to make a career out of porn; there’s very few people that are able to do that. I have mad respect for them. B) I view bareback porn, sex, and HIV a lot differently than someone else. It’s down to my opinion and my decision to decide to do that. I wasn’t worried. I look at it as more of an opportunity to discuss with people and with other studios as opposed to being shunned and have the finger pointed at me.

 

Watch a teaser of Cam in the big finale scene from The Pack below.