“Maybe you have to loosen up a little. Y’know… Get down.” — Joey Stefano, Idol Eyes
A biopic about gay adult film actor Joey Stefano is officially in pre-production, and RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage and “All Stars” season 2 winner Alaska Thunderfvck are set to star.
The film will span Stefano’s discovery by drag superstar/director Chi Chi LaRue, his prolific adult film output, his cameo in Madonna‘s Sex, and the drug overdose that killed him at age 26.
Visage has been cast as Anita, a fictitious OTT television host that’s weaved throughout the film to tie everything together.
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Related: Joey Stefano — The Late, Legendary Adult Film Star Is Making A Comeback
Alaska will be cast as Gender, a make-up artist who performed in a band called Johnny Depp Clones with Chi Chi Larue and Chris Green.
In the ’90s, he was one of the adult world’s most famous stars, alongside Ryan Idol, Jon King, and Jeff Stryker.
Stefano’s life was a troubled one. Born Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr., he began drinking heavily at the age of 15 to cope with his father’s death. He left rehab, arrived in LA, and quickly made a name for himself in adult films like Hole in One and Sex in Wet Places.
According to Michael Musto:
Joey did illustrious work in films like Tijuana Toilet Tramps and onstage he was known to gracefully put beer bottles up his butt by way of entertainment. (“Heinie-kins,” I wittily dubbed them).
He had no filter — or self-consciousness — and made his antics seem so not dirty that he became irresistible to men of all social stations.
So it wasn’t completely shocking when — during a Florent dinner I happened to be at in 1990 — Joey said on camera to cable guy Rick X that gay mogul David Geffen was a client.
On top of the 58 adult films he starred in, he also made an appearance in Madonna’s “Deeper and Deeper” video.
In November 1994, Stefano was found dead in a motel room from an overdose of cocaine, morphine, heroin, and ketamine.
In 1996, author Charles Isherwood wrote Stefano’s biography, Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stefano.
Related: Adult Film Stars Who’ve Retired: Did They Have Happy Endings?
In order to make the film, director Chad Darnell spoke to over 50 sources over three years to better understand the actor’s life.
The film is expected to be released next year.
h/t: Dazed Digital
crowebobby
So who’s playing Joey? I’ve read this three times and still don’t know.
Grayson Voyeur
i know. someone seems to have a weak definition of what “stars” means here.
jkaufman101
I agree. Queerty has a history of poorly written articles. Absolutely no depth, missing facts, typos, etc. At the end of them, I am left wondering “Where’s the rest of the story?”
ChadDarnell
Hi – you’re not actually missing anything. We are still casting “Joey,” “Mickey Skee,” and “Brian Patrick Maley.”
We hope to have the cast locked soon. We just started back up with pre-production in March, so it’s back out to offers on actors.
tardis
OMG, I thought I was the only one. I was like, “So, who’s playing him?”
Caligari
No kidding! Who’s playing Joey is really the ONLY thing I wanted to know! Without that info, this story is just clickbait.
And as to the poor writing at Queerty, the fourth paragraph should say, “… a fictitious OTT television host WHO’S WOVEN throughout the film…” not “that’s weaved.” Ugh. Doesn’t anybody ever edit? These mistakes are like fingernails scraping on a chalkboard.
Sluggo2007
I’m starting to think that Queerty articles are written by middle school students.
MacAdvisor
A “star,” by definition, is any performer whose name appears above or before the title of a play or movie. A lead is someone with a major part. Thus, when the movie credits start with “Babara Streisand in Yentl,” Ms. Streisand is the star. However, in “Funny Girl with Barbara Streisand,” Ms. Streisand is the lead.
Apparently, Michelle Visage is set to play a lead part, not as the title character, but as a sort of narrator/chorus who witnesses the events so we can see them through her eyes.
OzJosh
It’s pure clickbait. Does Queerty not get that this is the kind of stuff that drives readers away?
stevetalbert
It will be that twink from glee. Not darrin criss, the other one with hair dyed black.he has that stoner face down.
MarionPaige
Queerty wrote about this director’s ongoing attempts at a Joey Stefano Biopic back in 2013 (if not earlier). Back then the pic was described as being about gay porn’s rat pack. Seems like there has been talk of a Stefano movie since the day Stefano died. Really, as I said before,
The interesting angle is Stefano’s Story IN CONTEXT against the backdrop of people dropping dead in the porn industry. Famous Director William Higgins sold his company and moved to europe during this time because he said the industry had just become too depressing. But then,
Some of the people who stayed in the industry while the bodies piled up are some how famous today as safe-sex advocates.
MarionPaige
https://www.queerty.com/joey-stefano-the-late-legendary-adult-film-star-is-making-a-comeback-20130706
Joey Stefano — The Late, Legendary Adult Film Star Is Making A Comeback
Daniel M
Charles Isherwood wrote the biography. Not Christopher Isherwood.
Daniel M
Just a little side note: when the biography on Stefano came out CHRISTOPHER Isherwood had been dead for 10 years.
Derek de Koff
Fixed.
ChrisK
If you were gay and around in 1994 you definitely knew who Joey Stefano was. Back then these guys kind of were celebrities to us. Seems crazy looking back at it now.
DarkZephyr
I was 17 back then but I started watching gay porn around then. Gay porn was what we gay men had back then. It wasn’t just what titillated us, it was our romance stories, college and high school teen flicks etc. We had little else.
DarkZephyr
Incidentally, Joey Stefano was in the very first gay porn video I ever saw in my entire life. It was called “Buddy System 2: Camouflage”. I re-watched it over and over and over and over. First time I saw two dudes interact sexually or pseudo romantically.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
I don’t have a problem with people doing porn but is his life really interesting enough to be a movie? I’ve read the book and there just wasn’t that much there.
Bob LaBlah
Why was gay porn actor Tony Davis not credited as the one who discovered him? It was Stefano who approached Davis when Davis was performing as an exotic dancer. I guess Tony would rather not bring it up.
lykeitiz
Hopefully that will be addressed in the movie.
Bob LaBlah
By the way, for those of you who might remember him former bubble butt, pre Brent Corrigan gay porn star twink Adrian Cortez, a.k.a. Stonie/Brittany Coxx died this past December. The cause of death was not listed but he did say in a few of his posts that he needed a liver transplant due to hepatitis a few years back. It seems a bit odd that Queerty didn’t get word from someone in the porn industry about his death. Sad. And to think ChI Chi Larue attended the funeral. Sad indeed. R.I.P Joey and Stonie.
ChrisK
I remember him. Liver transplants cost allot and if you don’t have great insurance it’s a death sentence. Only in this country of coarse. I’ve had hepatitis B myself. Got it many years ago and never had another problem with it. Another Queerty member here goes by Joey has it too but has to use anti viral medicine to keep it at bay. Weird how it effects people differently. That and fate. I too could just as easily be dead.
I met him one time. Thought what a waste for someone so good looking as a guy to go trans. Of coarse it was his life.
ChrisK
Oh and I met him at David Forests house. I used to live next to him in Valley Village and sometimes visit. He’d always have porn stars over so of coarse you’d find me there too. Ha
BigWill
The bio was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever read, from beginning to end.
And, yeah, the “Guess Who’s Set to Star” hed is irritating when the story is about what looks like two minor characters played by people I’ve never heard of.
DarkZephyr
Sometimes people like you just come on here and say things.
lykeitiz
VERY glad this is being made! After years of talk and no movie, when the Brent Corrigan film came out, I thought that might be the end of any chances for the Joey movie. Joey Stefano was legendary. Not only the first bottom gay porn superstar, but he bottomed in the face of AIDS. He was a sex-positive voice when one was needed most. I hope the film captures that. It might sound dramatic to call a porn star a beacon of light, but when society and an unknown disease was shaming you into misery, there was Joey winking at you with a d**k in his a**. Can’t wait for this movie!
Tobi
I’ve caught a few of his scenes over the years and it’s obvious he was so high he didn’t even know where he was, let alone what he was doing in some of his movies. I wonder if the proposed biopic will whitewash over what was obviously his heavy drug use on the set of some of his movies, and applaud directors who went ahead and filmed him when he was obviously off his head?
Billy Budd
He was cute and had a beautiful bubble butt, but also had serious issues and inner demons. I like to watch him in Idol Eyes.
woodroad34
“Joey did illustrious work in films like Tijuana Toilet Tramps”….Oh, come on now! I just blurted out a snort and people in the office turned to look at me.
DCguy
I believe that movie is the next subject to be discussed on “Inside the Actors Studio”
Texasholdem
Colton Haynes as Joey
Truth Addict
Let me guess — James Franco is going to play Joey. 🙂
He BGB
Back when you had to actually go to a store and buy porn.
IanHunter
Those were the good ol’ days.
Bob LaBlah
Not only that but every thing was on VHS and if you brought the rental tape back broken you bought it. Lord do I miss ol’ Tower Records in West Hollywood up on the Sunset Strip.
ChrisK
Yeah, and just make sure you get the lube off the porn before taking it back. Did that with a friend one time. The rental guy wasn’t too pleased and made it known. Lol
baggins435
LOL…so true. I’m packing my house to move and I found a box of ’90s gay porn VHS tapes I don’t know what to do with. I don’t even have a VHS player anymore. You can’t buy porn in Utah and companies aren’t even supposed to ship it here.
IanHunter
James Franco will probably play him.
Terrycloth
James Franco..please .anything with his name attached to it aside from 127 hrs is guaranteed to suck. Same goes for Seth Rogen too either of them or both together is waste of film…
I hope they think hard about the lead choice…after all is is about him.
JaBourg
Yawn. He did porn, he did drugs, and overdosed at 26. So what? Sounds like a really boring biopic to me.
Uppity
If you want maximum impact for your film, you announce it once you’ve secured your biggest star. But announcing a couple of nobodies from RuPaul’s Drag Race does not inspire confidence at all.
Scotty2Naughty
What channel will this be on? HBO, Cinemax? I don’t see how they’re gonna pull it off without making it one of those “not rates yet” ratings or X-rating.
ATLSWIMMAN8
He made my cooter snap… Hell YEAH!!!