Twenty Questions with Trans Porno Star Drew DeVeaux

Beautiful Drew DeVeaux is one gorgeous trans performer who stars in "Trans Lesbians"--Trouble Films' latest production directed by BBW Performer of the Year nominee Courtney Trouble.  Activist DeVeaux has been away from the camera for a while but she is back in this production and is as lovely as ever in her scenes with Andre Shakti and with Trouble.  She is one of our Crush Objects from back in 2011 and she still most definitely is worthy of all of that lust and love.  Here are her answers to twenty questions.

1) What were you like back in high school? Who did you hang out with/date?

Wow, you’re asking a trans girl about their high school experience?! What a way to start it off! Well, I started transitioning in high school. My school was in a rough neighbourhood, lots of gangs, and generally folks didn’t understand me, hell, I didn’t even really understand myself. As depressing and scary as it was (and it really was) I learned how to be cultivate an inner strength that served me well in my life and in being on the cutting edge of trans inclusion, both in porn and in the rest of my life. Who did I date? Well, I had a girlfriend which I think confused the hell out of people. For the most I was a long-haired emo gurney punk “boy” who wore more make-up then his girlfriend. I thought My So Called Life was the best show ever. While I know I liked girls, I had a really hard time reconciling this with my gender, which I felt was quite feminine, at least for boy (though I think I’m pretty masculine in my gender expression, for a girl - funny that). In high school, all the girls I dated were either bi or gay which was sorta funny as I was, at the time, living and being seen as a boy. Still, I started up a ‘lesbian’ zine (yes, a paper zine) called ‘Muff Divers’ with my first girlfriend. The fact that I was a trans lesbian should have been painfully obvious, but it still took me over 5 years to come to accept this. Since it was the late 90’s, the only images of trans women I knew of were of hyper-feminine women, who’d had lots of surgery and who fucked dudes. I liked wearing my Docs instead of dresses. I liked girls. I thought that there wasn’t anyway that I could be “this”, looking at the representations of trans women in popular culture, thinking “how can I be a woman and yet attracted to women, that makes no fucking sense”. The idea of a “trans lesbian” in 1997 just didn’t make any sense, it was unfathomable. I never thought I could be both a trans woman AND into (other) women. What’s kinda sad is that most cis people today still have a tough time separating out gender (who we identify as, whether its a girl or a guy or something in between) from sexual orientation (who we like to fuck). I spent several the last part of my high school years wearing body glitter and on the dance floor of gay nightclubs, dating and fucking men but all of it going nowhere because in my heart I knew I just couldn’t love men; I was into women. So I guess I had a simultaneous “coming out” at in 2000 both as a trans woman AND a lesbian. I only wish I had been able to figure it all out sooner, but in retrospect, the world just wasn’t really ready for ‘girls like us’.
Over the past 15 years I’ve met (and had fun with) countless really fierce and gorgeous queer/lesbian trans women. There were almost no places where you could see us fuck and have our bodies celebrated. Porn reflects the desires and dreams of our social and sexual world. And it’s important to recognize when certain people aren’t there or when others may be only represented in a way that fetishes them. I started making porn so that the rest of the world could see that these babes existed.
My first time on camera in porn, for “Doing it Ourselves” was one of the very first times in porn trans women were shown with other women. Since then, I’ve been in dozens of work including having shot in mainstream lesbian productions (e.g. by Sweetheart Video and Girlfriends Films) as well as queer porn. I’d like to think I wedged open the door for other queer and lesbian trans women to follow me into the wide wild world of porn and to express themselves and their sexuality for the world to see. "Trans Lesbians" is possibly the pinnacle of this work, celebrating just how smoking hot queer trans women can be. Most importantly I want this work to be seen by other trans women or those questioning and figuring stuff out. I wish films like this were around when I was a kid figuring stuff out. If showing that we actually exist was the work of the last decade then showing that we can also be *really hot* is what is needed now and this film, I think, does this pretty well. It’s a proud and playful affront to stigma. We’re here to stay, we’re here to play.

2) Were you a porn fan before you got into the industry? Who were your favorite porn stars/favorite porn movies?

Not particularly actually. Partly why I got into making porn was cause I wanted to see more work that showed the bodies and types of people and types of sex that resonated with and reflected what I like and how & who I fuck. I saw all these other trans babes and wondered “why on earth are people not making films with YOU in them”. Thankfully Courtney and other directors have, and today there’s a lot more (but not enough) work these days showing queer (both cis and trans) women of all sizes & backgrounds. I think I’m not alone in saying that *this* is the porn that I want to see.

3) What do you think shaped you into the performer that we see in your porno?

During my teens and early twenties I was a dancer. No, not exotic dance - but modern dance and ballet actually. So I think that the way I hold my body sometimes and how I move on camera is an extension of the training and muscle memory that I developed as a modern dancer. I've also been an avid photographer. I often have a vision for how I want a scene to look whether it’s what I look like or the way a scene is framed. I sometimes am in the middle of fucking my co-star and I think to myself “seriously, the world needs to see how gorgeous it looks from down here”. I then sometimes cheat to the side or contort my body in a particular way that allows the camera to get that shot. I guess you could call that back seat directing or something that like. It’s not all the time but I know my own artistic eye and aesthetic vision intertwine with how I fuck when I’m making porn.

4) What/who do you want to do on-camera that you haven’t done yet?

I’ve never done a real group scene. Like a real pile-it-on orgy. At the most I’ve had 2 (maybe 3) co-stars. So that would be fun! I also want to shoot some more abstract, perhaps even experimental, porn work. I have a lot of very creative (possibly cooky) ideas and I’ve connected with some people up in my hometown of Toronto who are on board with these. I really want to make porn that simultaneously makes you wanna jerk off while also being a creative feast for the eyes.

5) Who is your favorite male/female/transperformer to work with and why?

Not fair! I’d find it really hard to single out one person as my favourite. After every scene I do, it’s that person who’s my favourite! So with that in mind, I’m gonna say Andre Shakti who I shot with a couple of times over the summer. Andre, like me, has a strong athletic build and so can match my physical strength if things get rough and tumble (which I love). Andre also loves fisting which might just be my favourite thing (like even better than ice cream, though if someone could combine fisting and ice cream that would be pretty awesome).  I also love working with first time performers. I know when I first shot, I had absolutely no idea how it would go. And while porn never gets old as every scene brings its own excitement, nothing will ever compare to the rush I got shooting for the first time. I love to unwrap and unpack first timers, discovering what they bring as they discover for themselves what fucking on camera is like.

6) You respond to your fans a lot on Twitter. Tell me how reaching your fans through the internet has changed things for you.

Yup, I respond to fans because I care what they think! The ones who I often talk with are really smart and sassy and at the same time respectful of the nature of such a relationship (between porn star and fan). I think talking, no, communicating about sex is something that we need to do more of. We’re good at consuming sex but not so good at communicating about it. That’s what I think porn has the opportunity to do, at its best - it can teach communication, challenge stigma, and help open our fans up to themselves and their desires. Being a porn star is a bit like being a teacher, a role model showing one way of more fully realizing the potential of sex.

7) What’s your favorite position to get fucked in and why does it get you off?

Cowgirl. I have a tighter vag which can make me very particular about the strength and depth of penetration. Fucking cocks (silicone or flesh) is something I love but also something that is emotionally intense, for a bunch of reasons. Being ‘on top’ lets me experience this in a way that I feel I’m not surrendering control.On the other hand, getting fucked by fingers or toys well I love (I think it’s called the g-whiz or leg spread, who knows) legs spread wide, on my back allowing really efficient g spot penetration.

8) What did you love most about making “Trans Lesbians”?

Courtney. Trouble. My co-star and the producer. Enough said. But truly though, I love Courtney as a producer/director for the really nonchalant way they go about making explosively hot and revolutionary work. They’ve won Best Trans Film at the Feminist Porn Awards for years running now and they’re brilliant keynote at the past year’s Award Conference was something everyone who’s interested in making porn really must read. The way they incorporate trans men and women into their work goes way beyond tokenistic inclusion and this film is just another example. What’s also awesome is I know that the final product is gonna be something I love; their use of light, music, the way they edit and how they promote the work is always spot on. And best, people are going to see it! Courtney’s work has the reach and notoriety to be able to reach so many people. I want people to see this film and love this film. I make porn cause I think creating such cultural images and representations is important work. In particular I made this film cause I think trans lesbians are fucking babes (but I’m perhaps bias). So I want everyone to see it and there’s not a lot of directors who are hotter than Courtney right now.

9) What do you love most about working with Courtney Trouble?

See above.

10) What are the best things about being a porn star? How has it made your life more fulfilling?

There’s a lot of bests! Most important is that I feel really proud of my body and my sexuality. I’m not gonna lie and say that I was always a sexually extroverted and empowered person. I don’t think anyone fully is but as porn stars that’s perhaps what’s projected (or expected). Trans women can carry shame about our bodies, even if we know intellectually that our bodies are just as perfect and just “female” as a cis woman’s. I’ve come to see my body as how it is rather that by what it isn’t. I’ve come to love my small breasts and tight cunt, I’ve also discovered that I really love topping and fucking with a strap-on. None of these things threatens my gender or sexuality like they may have before I started making porn. That brings me to the second thing I love about being a porn star. That’s other people watching me. And I mean that both as an exhibitionist as well as a sexual role model or sorts for other trans women. I’ve had dozens of trans women who’ve written and thanked me for showing them that they can be beautiful and strong, that they see themselves in my skin and in the way I fuck in it.  Last thing is the amazing people and friends I’ve met. I’ve met the most amazingly talented and smart people through making porn. Fuck any stereotypes about porn stars and directors. Don’t fool yourselves, these are some of the smartest and fiercest people you will meet anywhere. And I’m proud to call many of them among my best of friends. I’ve formed relationships and friendships with people in the industry. Their nuanced understanding of boundaries, relationships, consent, and their fantastic skills in bed makes having porn friends pretty darn fantastic.

11) What do you think are some “must-own” DVDs for a fan of yours?
These are some scenes in films that I think fans should definitely see:
Doing it Ourselves with - my first film!
Roulette Toronto with Jiz Lee and River Turner (dir. Courtney Trouble) - a ballet meets hardcore porn scene in a dance studio with genderqueer porn star Jiz Lee
Artcore with April Flores (dir. Carlos Batts) - all of Carlos work is fantastic and working with him and April was a delight. A feast for the eyes and the crotch.
Lesbian Sorority with Sinn Sage (dir. Nica Noelle) - a sweaty dynamic scene with an awesome co-star in this mainstream release
Seven Minutes in Heaven 3 and Seven Minutes in Heaven 4 (dir. Courtney Trouble) - i’m in multiple scenes in both of these, one of my first films and one of my most recent (in fact 7MIH 4 is coming out soon). Fisting, squirting, threesomes, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, you name it, it’s there.
…and my favourite online video is on Queer Porn TV with Mickey Mod (dir. Courtney Trouble and Tina Horn) - a powerfully cathartic scene, exploring the middle ground between humiliation and tenderness.

12) What do you most want to accomplish as a porn star?

I’ve accomplished more than everything I set out to. I just wanted to do what I could to put out images of queer trans women, particularly ‘butchy’ and non-transitionally feminine trans women. The fact that I won the Feminist Porn Award for Hearthrob (i.e. Performer) of the Year in 2011 - that just blew my mind. I sorta stepped back from making things for over a year (almost all of 2013) because I wanted directors (in queer porn as well as the mainstream) to hire other trans women. I didn’t want to be the token exception. And the fact that during my hiatus Courtney Trouble made Trans Grrrrls and with the success of Chelsea Poe and other trans women, I thought it was okay and the right time to come back. Today, I really only shoot work that satisfies me creatively, where I can onboard with a concept or co-star. Also during my hiatus I shot a couple of non-porn films including one by Cassandra Cronenberg (where I play the title role of Candy) which premiered in 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

13) What do you like to do for fun?

I’m a total gym nerd these days. Running, weightlifting, swimming, yoga. I also have a total hard on for sci-fi. I think I’ve watched Battlestar Galactica at least 3 times. Starbuck’s totally my dream babe.

14) What else is coming up for you?

I’ve got a few things coming out early this year, including 7 Minutes in Heaven 4. What I’m focusing most on is developing some work that actually shoots up here in Toronto. We have the Feminist Porn Awards but I think more work gets shot in the week leading up to the awards here than gets shot in all the other months of the year. This needs to change and myself and a few others are gonna make it happen, I’m confident.

15) What is the best mainstream movie you have seen recently?

Oooh. Well, I loved Ascension, which was actually a SyFy network mini-series that is basically a cross of Mad Men meets Battlestar Galactica. Very smart, very stylish, with some awesome whiplash inducing plot twists. I’ve been disappointed with a lot of feature films made these days although the last instalment of the The Hobbit was pretty great. I recommend everyone see Peter Jackson’s earlier work. Heavenly Creatures (with teenage Kate Winslet) may be my favourite film ever.

16) How about the best porno movie? Is there someone whose movies you like to watch who is working now?

I love watching other queer trans women start to make names for themselves. It’s nice to see that the industry’s changed and I like to think I’ve helped wear a bit of a path down. At the same time, there are some amazing performers who just blow my mind. Chelsea Poe’s Fucking Mystic (dir: Courtney Trouble) is a feature film that everyone should definitely see.

17) Are you into toys to get yourself off alone or are you more low-tech?

Oh, when I really want to get into it, I use glass or stainless steel for g spot stimulation. I really like harder materials, for one they require a lot less manipulation and power to get the same effect. The g spot for me, as a post-op trans woman, is actually in the same spot for cis women. The prostate is located which lets me come (and even ejaculate - but not squirt) really easy from only vaginal penetration. Other times, a “simple” 2 hands, one on the clit, one in the bank, does the trick and the clean up is quicker.

18) If you could fuck any celebrity, who would it be? Give us your male and female choices.

River Phoenix (if he were alive) and Rihanna.

19) What would you most like to change about trans porn overall?

I’d like to see the majority of trans men and trans women in porn be part of films that aren’t necessarily about them being trans. It would also be great to have them integrated with cis (i.e. non-trans) casts. I feel that a film with a trans woman (or man) in it needn’t come with some sort of warning label. I know I had a lot of haters who were upset and felt “duped” because they bought a film that had a trans woman (i.e. me) in it. Even being post-op (and it shouldn’t fucking matter) some folks felt that this was cruel and deceptive. What’s hilarious is I’ve had a lot of fans, followers, and even other professionals in the industry who were really into me *until* they learned I was trans.

I’d like to see more post-op trans women. I’d like to see more trans women who have their original plumbing but who don’t necessarily ejaculate. For most trans women, this is impossible if they’re taking estrogen which is something they both want and need to safely transition. I want to see more scenes with trans guys and trans girls (I’ve done my share but I want to see more with other performers). I want the term ‘shemale' to make its final exit and, more importantly, I think we’ve moved past stereotypical and fetishized representations of trans women.

I want to see trans women take on more of a creative role. Mostly, I want to make more work and see where I and other trans folks take it. The future is exciting.

20) Is there anything you want to say to your fans here at Fleshbot?

I want to thank Fleshbot for being awesome and featuring me here again. Oh, and I thought it was super awesome that you included me as one of the Top 10 Crush Objects a few years back. That was super bold making a genderqueer post-op trans woman and putting them front and centre. And I want to say hey to my fans, and say kudos to you for being discriminating and smart in your taste of porn and in your porn news sites. ;-)

All the images here appear courtesy of Trouble Films.  Go watch "Trans Lesbians" by clicking here!