Todd gained notoriety with his feature film Frisk (1995), a faux snuff film whose characters tend to kill each other after fucking. The controversial film adaptation of a book led the fucktard editor of The worthless Advocate to suggest that Todd “should be shot.” But Todd is still alive, and he’s directed over a dozen films since then.

I spoke with the filmmaker about his best-received movie to date, Anonymous (2004), in which Todd portrays a pain-seeking sub bottom whose anonymous sexual exploits destroy his relationship along with his career. I also spoke with Todd about his new gig directing German stud fuck flicks. His first porn outing, Wurstfilm‘s Fucking Art, will be distributed in the U.S. by Dark Alley Media. You can pre-order it here.

The Sword: How did it feel to be told to die by The Advocate all those years ago?

Todd Verow: At the time I was mad because it was just supposed to be a review. So fine, write a bad review. But don’t write a crazy rant about how I should be killed. There was a lot of backlash after that movie came out. I had things thrown at me on the street.

TS: Um, what?

TV: Yeah. Someone threw a stick at me. Someone threw tomatoes at me from a car. It was a drive-by. I guess they had just gone to the grocery store. That movie just seemed to touch a nerve. But since Anonymous came out I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback. Maybe it’s because it was a personal film and not an adaptation of a book.

TS: Months ago, a Queerty article urged gay people to make an effort to “win over the hearts and minds of straight people.” That pissed me off.

TV: Yes. Fuck the larger culture. When you try to please everyone you lose yourself.

TS: There’s lots of anonymous sex in Anonymous. How can anonymity enhance sex?

TV: When sex is anonymous it’s purely physical with no personality involved. So it’s a more exciting release. You get off on inventing a story for that person. And there’s also the danger and the uncertainty, and that’s why anonymous sex is exciting for me, and that’s why there are sexual expeiences that you can’t have with someone you’re in a relationship with. That’s something people should accept.

TS: So should anon-loving sluts even try to be in relationships?

TV: Well I’m not saying it’s easy. The idea of monogamy is ludicrous — you either have to be in an honest open relationship or a relationship where you don’t talk about other exploits.

TS: What do you say to happy sweater-gay couples who say they love their monogamous relationships?

TV: I think they’re full of shit. And that goes for straight people too. But it’s more acceptable for gay people to have lots of sex.

TS: Thank God for that. Though I must say that there’s one gay memo that I never received — the character in your movie removes toilet paper rolls in bathroom stalls with a screwdriver to create impromptu gloryholes. How did I now know about this neat little trick?

TV: Well, yeah, that happens all the time! You know we always have to come up with new and creative ways of dealing with that stuff. It’s like an on-going war.

TS: In general, some dudes can suck dick without knowing who it belongs to. Other dudes need to know what the dick’s owner looks like. What’s the difference in the mentality between these two camps?

TV: It’s about quantity versus quality. There are guys who get off on doing as much with as many people as possible, and the fact that the guy might be ugly adds to the sexuality. These guys get off on letting whoever do whatever to them, and as much of it as possible. But other guys are into quality. The person has to be hot. I think maybe that the person who doesn’t care who’s behind the hole is more narcissistic, because he just wants to be desired. But the person who wants to see who’s behind the hole is maybe less narcissistic because he wants to be attracted to the other person, and so the desire moves in two directions rather than in one direction.

TS: How about you? Do you suck anonymous cock?

TV: Yeah, that’s hot to me because then my imagination takes over. And I’m not even necessarily imagining that they’re hot.

TS: Your character in the movie says that everyting changes once you meet an online buddy in person. What exactly changes?

TV: You’re playing a game when you’re meeting someone online. You’re trying to figure out what they want from you and trying to deliver it to them, and they’re doing that to you too. But when you meet in person, those personas disappear. That person is now in front of you. So you can’t help but be disappointed. So I don’t think meeting someone online is the best way to get involved with them on any level other than sex. Of course there might be instances where you’re completely blown away by someone in person, but I think that for the most part you’re setting yourself up for disappointment because you’ve projected so much onto the person before you’ve had sex.

TS: How did you cast the guys who you have real sex with in the movie?

TV: Well the guy who my character meets online in the beginning was actually someone I had met online. And that was the first time we met, was during the filming of our sex scene. Other guys were friends of mine.

TS: Now that you’re making porn, were there any issues that you didn’t anticipate?

TV: Well porn should come across as a straight-forward documentary, and the hardest part was taking breaks and then getting back into it, or waiting for someone to cum. That wasn’t very documentary-like, and the challenge was to make it look like it’s seamless and real when really it isn’t. But what surprised me was just how comfortable we all were with each other. I thought everybody was just going to leave afterwards but instead we all had dinner together and it was like we became a little family. I wasn’t expecting that and it was really kind of nice. But the perofrmers did all make fun of me because I’m a vegetarian and they’re all big German meat-eaters. So I made sure there were lots of sausages lying around for them.

RELATED:

A Reluctant Whore’s Gloryhole Woes
Did The Former Queerty Blogger Suck Perez Hilton’s Dick?
The Sword’s Interview With Award-Winning Videographer Ben Leon
Straight People Lead Inferior Lives, And Here’s Why