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Colby Keller Discusses His Smoking Hot TV Debut, Hooking Up Across America and Weed Culture: INTERVIEW
As a reader of this website, it’s likely you’re already familiar with the work of Colby Keller. The tall, ruggedly-handsome porn actor has been appearing in dozens of films since his debut in 2004.
But that’s hardly the extent of Keller’s talents. He’s a visual artist, a respected blogger and even recently modeled for Vivienne Westwood. He’s also about to be introduced to mainstream audiences in a big way.
Keller appears in the premiere episode of HBO’s new series High Maintenance, premiering Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern. The thirty-minute dramedy began as a brilliant web series, featuring appearances from the likes of Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens, Orange Is the New Black’s Yael Stone and comedian Hannibal Buress. Each episode tells a compelling tale about a unique character buying marijuana from The Guy, a nameless weed dealer delivering via bicycle in Brooklyn.
The expanded episodes maintain the ethos of the beloved web series, and Keller’s appearance in the premiere is part of an ensemble that also includes RuPaul’s Drag Race season eight winner Bob the Drag Queen and The State’s Kevin Allison.
We spoke with Keller about his TV debut, America’s changing attitudes about marijuana and his project Colby Does America, where he’s been filming independent, artistic porn films in every state (and parts of Canada).
See what he had to say in our interview below.
How familiar were you with High Maintenance as a web series before getting involved?
I was a huge fan before, so when they asked me to do it I was pretty excited. I was just like ‘Of course! Yes, please!’
What were some unique challenges working in television for the first time?
The whole thing was pretty challenging for me. There’s a big production crew, there are a lot of people on set. I’m with a whole crew of really talented performers, and the type of performance I do is not the type of performance that they do. I don’t think of myself as being an actor, so having the confidence just to be there in the same room with those people was difficult. To come from a humble position and say this is an opportunity to learn from people, it’s difficult to put yourself in that position. I also have a little bit of social anxiety, so it’s difficult just to be there, honestly. But it’s also an incredible opportunity, and I really appreciate them offering the role.
How did you connect with your character in the episode?
It’s interesting. There is a lot of overlap with the character and who I am as a person, and a lot, of course, is very different from who I am. The character is very sexual, so I think that was something I could definitely access. I think at the end of the day we’re all human beings, and we all kind of cope with the same emotions and just finding a way to be real, as real as possible. That was my strategy; whether it worked or not, I don’t know. That was my way forward, just to be like ‘OK, this is my line, how would I say this if I were in this context?’ And just kind of run with that.
A lot of characters throughout the web series have been recurring. Would you be interested in reprising your role?
I would totally be open to that! We’ll see what happens. I love the show, so of course. They could give me a different character. I’d be OK with anything, pretty much.
This show is sort of at the forefront of this growing, widespread acceptance of weed culture. You’re a very politically-minded person, do you have any thoughts on how the country is shifting its perception about marijuana?
I think it’s a really good thing. I’m hopeful that marijuana legalization measures will pass in several other states. It’s a little worrying there are some states where I think it might run into some trouble. I’ve been living part of the year now in Arizona, and they have medical, but it’s much more expensive to get a card than in California. They have a recreational legalization bill that’s up for ballot this November. It’s getting a lot of money on the anti side …
It’s a tricky political issue. I think that it will gradually become legal across the country, and I’m encouraged by that. But, you know, there will be some roadblocks along the way. We’ll see what happens in November and where we’ll be able to go from there. It looks like we’re going in the right direction.
HBO has been at the forefront of introducing more explicit sexuality and nudity on television, but it’s still rare to see full-frontal male nudity in mainstream entertainment. Why do you think folks have such a hang-up about that?
I think, in a way, maybe showing the penis makes men vulnerable. It’s maybe the most vulnerable part about a man. I mean, we also live in a culture where you can also show as much violence as you want. I could rip somebody’s head off and eat your eyeballs, and you could watch that. But watching people have sex and seeing genitals is still I think very taboo in our culture.
I think there is a political aspect to that. Sex is a way people usually positively engage each other and give each other pleasure with their bodies. Given our religious and historical context that we come from in this country — and also one where I think people in power don’t want to see other people find pleasure in other human bodies — it’s threatening in a lot of ways.
The hook-up app culture has played a big part of your Colby Does America project, and it makes an appearance in this episode as well. How do you feel app culture has changed sexuality in the gay community?
In a lot of ways it’s changed our culture for the better. I appreciate it as someone who has a lot of social anxiety problems.
It’s very difficult for me to meet people. I probably would never have sex if it wasn’t for Grindr and Scruff, honestly. I can’t meet someone in a bar. It’s been really helpful that way to meet people and engage people in a way that I find oftentimes fulfilling. But I know it can also make it difficult for other types of people who can’t just necessarily easily hookup with people and maybe want something more.
I think people can also blame those apps for creating a culture where they can’t engage people. That’s probably the biggest complaint I hear, people have a harder time dating. But, you know, I’m married and have a partner, and we met on an app. I don’t think it’s impossible either to meet people and really develop significant long-term relationships starting online. I think it remains to be seen though how it’s changed us, because we’re still in the process. It remains to be seen what that change looks like.
You mentioned in an interview that you didn’t want to work with a studio on Colby Does America because you wanted it to be art and not porn. How would you define the differences between art and porn?
I don’t know if there is a good delineation. That’s part of what the project tries to find, a place where those two different categories blend together — and maybe they never do — but to simply investigate that. Particularly because gay men, a lot of our culture, a lot of what we consume visually is sex and porn.
As an artist, at a certain point I had to come to terms with the way that I generate an income and the type of labor that I perform and really the visual language that I inform and am engaged in on a pretty regular basis. I did have the opportunity, a particular studio wanted to buy the project, and, while it would’ve been a great opportunity in many respects, I also would’ve not had as much creative freedom to explore the ideas that I was interested in.
Really the project for me was more about collaborating than it was about sex. And that means opening myself up to the possibility of engaging strangers who might, for instance, edit a video, and I don’t have any control over what that video looks like, what it says, what it’s content is. The only part I have in the relationship is filming the video. That was the dynamic I was really interested in getting to. That is really less about sex, but sex is a way to get to that point. That for me is an art project, not a porn-making process, necessarily.
What were some of the most surprising takeaways working on Colby Does America?
There were a lot. The thing that really impacted me the most was the trip itself, which became strangely enough a very spiritual experience for me. I was really worried in the beginning that there were so many difficulties in doing what I was trying to accomplish that it just wouldn’t happen, that it would just be failure after failure after failure. I had a very limited budget. I really assumed going into it the best case scenario I would get 20 states, and most of those would just be like jack-off videos because I wouldn’t be able to find anyone willing to be on camera.
It surprised me how many people I was able to engage. There are a lot of things I would have done differently if I had more money or if situations were different, but it was a really transformative process, and I was hoping for that, but I didn’t quite know what that transformation would look like. It’s still one that I am very much in …
… Some places were great to film videos in and some weren’t. It was surprising to find which was which. It was usually the places I thought would be easy and I’d be able to film a video in, I wasn’t able to. Places that I thought would be impossible were the easiest.
A great example would be one of the hardest states I went to, Texas. Almost impossible. I went to every major city in the state. I grew up in Texas. It has a pretty big gay population, two of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. It was almost impossible. It was demoralizing when I was there, especially because it’s my home state.
I went to Oklahoma after that, and I thought for sure Oklahoma, which is politically one of the most conservative states in the country, would be impossible, and I filmed three videos! One after the next after the next. I could have done more. It was really surprising to me.
Another one was Tennessee and Kentucky. You would think both states would be very similar culturally. In Kentucky I was able to film several videos really easy, guys were very sexual and open. Tennessee, almost impossible. Particularly in Nashville, which is where I thought I’d have an easier time. I realized on the trip that a lot of that has to do with class more than anything else. Working class guys were much more willing to be on camera than most of the gay guys in Nashville who have these aspirations. Whether it’s happened for them or not, they have a certain projected image of themselves into the future where doing this porn project would hurt them. It made it really difficult to find people. It’s more conservative, honestly. Oftentimes the cities were the most conservative places I went to in terms of finding models. It’s surprising.
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