Thomas Zupko Interview 2005
Zupko’s & Movies
www.ElegantAngel.com
I have got Tom Zupko on the phone with some big news. I’m looking at a press release here that says you’re shooting for Mayhem. This is quite a change.
What has happened is that I will be shooting for different companies. I won’t be exclusive to any one company.
Who will you be shooting for?
The one that is official
is Mayhem. I’ve been talking with a few others and things are very encouraging. We should be announcing a few other companies soon.
Do you think you will still be shooting for Elegant Angel?
The thing is that Patrick and I got very close. Maybe too close in some ways. What we need is some space between us, but I left on good terms and there is a good chance I will still shoot the “Big Wet Asses” stuff for Elegant Angel.
Mayhem shoots movies that are similar in style to what you’ve been shooting for Elegant. Are you going to continue in that genre?
The thing that helped me most at Elegant Angel was trying a different style. I am very proud of “Big Wet Asses.” It was pure gonzo, though it still has my edge to it. One of the many things that Patrick taught me was how to shoot pure gonzo, that I didn’t need to have a clown’s head popping up in the middle of a scene. My first project for Mayhem will be my masterpiece. It is a hybrid gonzo-feature showcasing Nikki Hunter in a scene shot in a Victorian tub covered in red rose petals. If I can bring out what I have in my head, it will be stunning. It will all be hot and nasty as well. I’ve got Nikki lined up for the movie, along with Haley Paige, Flower Tucci and Barbara Summers.
Do you think that any of the companies you are looking at will have you shoot the kind of features are best known for?
I think that some of the companies want me to do features. What I want to do is a shoot a movie a week. To do that I need to vary what I do. The movies I do have to be slightly different, they can’t be redundant. Maybe one week I’ll shoot a feature and then the next week will be a gonzo.
What is that first one called?
My first one for Mayhem is “Anal Ass-ylum.” I have to say that both Scott Justice and Devan Cypher are great people. Devan wrote a press release that was very flattering.
That seems like a ramped up production schedule for you.
With Extreme I was shooting a movie a month. At Elegant it was pretty much the same except for the time I spent in the Czech Republic.
So you’re quadrupling your output. Are you at all worried about that?
I’m not worried about that at all. Things have changed for me and I’m more focused now. Three people have been instrumental in this change. First is my therapist Dr. Sharon Mitchell, who I meet with every week. She is a saint and pretty much saved my life along with Kelly Nichols and Brian Surewood. They have made me look at life differently. For most of my life I have believed in giving my heart and soul to the people I work for. I was working seven days a week and not looking at anything else. But having that sort of tunnel vision strips away layers of your humanity. You don’t get to become the person that you think you are by doing this. You give and you give, but sometimes you have to sit back and smell the roses. You have to enjoy life. There are so many other beautiful elements of this world that I have overlooked for too long.
It sounds like you’ve gone through some big changes.
I’ve lost forty pounds. I’m down to 183. I hike every day. I take Brian’s dog for a walk every morning. These things make you more creative, but, more importantly, they make you a better human being. I realize that sometimes in life it’s not just about work. I really believe even though my shooting schedule will be much heavier than ever, the quality of my work will improve. I will be shooting three days a week every week and then taking a few days off.
A little rest and relaxation in between projects?
Yes. There is a place that has really helped relieve the pressures of my life. Sycamore Hot Springs was recommended to me by Sharon Mitchell and I went up there for three days. I thought about what I wanted out of my life. I will never forget it. There is this mountain and I climbed up to the top, it was three miles and with all the rain we’ve had the roads were washed out. But I made it to the top of the mountain and at the top were these beautiful lilacs and this pristine green grass, overlooking the ocean. You could see for miles. It was almost a spiritual experience. It was beautiful and it literally changed my life. So many people in this business and in life get caught up in the competition and the jealousy. We should all help each other. There are so many forces against us, that we should be doing everything we can to lift each other up. Certain people, and I won’t mention any names, are very successful but threatened by every little thing. Life is too short for this. There is a line by Freud that says “men do not always take their great thinkers seriously.” We always aspire to certain values and we don’t really follow them. My goal is to help people out and to lift them up. I want to give the companies I work for a kick ass product that sells and then be able to help people. Thomas Zupko is nothing really. I’ve done a lot of things in the past that I regret terribly and I have had to pay my penance for them. Right now it’s about doing the right thing every moment of my life. Making sure that the talent is taken care of, that my crew is taken care of and that when I put my head on the pillow at night I can know that I did the right thing no matter what I get in return for it. So many people like to say, but so few do it. My goal is to be like Johnny Appleseed and help people. I swear that may sound Pollyannaish, but I mean it one-hundred percent.
That’s quite an outlook on life.
I swear man, that moment at CES when you waited for me and we sat at breakfast and ran through the rain that was very special. That is what is most important to me. It’s not about being Thomas Zupko, greatest director on the planet. Those real moments mean more than all that other bullshit. In the end what matters is what you share with the people who are in the same boat as you.
You’re so positive. What happened to the Tom Zupko that had Jesus on the cross directing sodomy of a nun?
You know I was raised a Roman Catholic and I had a lot of angst to work out. Working for Extreme I got swept up in a certain way of thinking. In a way it was good because it brought out all of the negative energy and the conflict with my upbringing. Now I have made peace with all of it. Now I fully understand the road that I’ve been on for the past several years. I realize now that nothing in this world is black and white. It’s all shades of gray. The worst people still have redeeming qualities and the best people have still done terrible things. We have to accept people, support each other. I love pornography and don’t think there is anything wrong with pornography. I certainly don’t think that there is anything sinful about pornography. It is an expression of our humanity. We don’t all kill, but every one of us fucks. That is something we should all embrace. If Christ ever came back down to earth he would be embracing us, the pornographers. There is a lot of truth in what we do. I am just going to try to do the right thing, be a good honest man and if people want to do unjust things to me for whatever reason, I feel sorry for them because they are the ones who have to live with it. I am going to do my best to stay on the right path.
What a wonderful outlook.
You can put this in Rog. Now that I’m working for Mayhem I want to work with Aurora Snow. You wrote this script years ago with her as the star and I loved it.
Remember? I know she’s kind of nervous about working with me because of my history at Extreme. I want to do the movie now for Sin City with her. So when she reads this, perhaps she’ll give me the opportunity.
You will have to prove to her that you’ve changed.
(He laughs) Hopefully, she’ll realize I’m not the Anti-Christ. I want to put her in the movie though because we talked about it so long ago.
Since I spoke with you last, the Extreme case has been dropped. Your movies weren’t involved in the final case right?
Ass Clowns 3, which is the one that you were talking about earlier, was one of the movies they seized in the original raids. It was never part of the charges though. The stuff I do know is all about stroking your cock, but my more controversial work was all about artistic expression. I was trying to say something in my own way. Maybe that is the reason that it wasn’t part of the case. Perhaps they felt that there really was artistic value there, like the Piss Christ.
Whether you agree with it or not, is not the point. My intent going in wasn’t to shock, but to express what I had inside me. I don’t have that inside of me any more. I really have moved on and can appreciate the things that are really important. This is going to sound crazy and some people won’t believe it, but if we all just took in the moments and tried our best to help each other, we would all be in a much better place. We can only drive so many Mercedes, we can only live in so many houses. I know people in this business who are really good people who have been burned and hurt to the point where they just want to give up. We shouldn’t let that happen. As crazy as this sounds, it shouldn’t be about me, it should be about we. I still put my heart and soul into what I do, but in the end you have to be able to look in the mirror and not want to turn your head away.
I am impressed, honestly. You sound like you’re in a great place or in love.
I’m not in love with any person, but I am in love with life.
We shouldn’t expect to see you dropping the sexual intensity we have seen in your recent work though right?
No. Sex is sex. I don’t do slapping, spitting and choking any more. I haven’t really done that since I went to Elegant. The sex is going to get even better.
This first Mayhem movie is going to be amazing. The intensity of the sex is going to go up. You don’t need slapping, spitting and choking to make sex intense.
That is the common misconception that people have. You don’t need that stuff to make scenes hot. My sex is better than it ever was. The actual sex in my movies, the stuff that makes you want to pull out your cock and stroke it will be at an all-time high. It is going to blow away any sex I have shot in the past.
Anything else you want to say before we wrap this up?
I just want to say that I love you man. Thank you for your friendship and for walking with me in the rain up to the show.
Thank you and congratulations on everything Tom.
Let me leave you with a quote from Montaigne “If falsehood, like truth, had only one face, we would be in better shape. For we would take as certain the opposite of what the liar said. But the reverse of truth has a hundred shapes and a limitless field.”
