James Deen discovered porn by the first grade. James Deen discovered porn by the first grade.

Sometime in kindergarten or first grade, he stumbled upon a pile of porn magazines behind his school. Naturally curious, he picked one up and looked at it.

“And I said, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to do porn,’” Deen said.

While many boys might choose grand career aspirations and not achieve them, Deen has. The 26-year-old, born in Pasadena, Calif., began his porn career seven years ago, and by 2009 he was the youngest man to be named “Male Performer of the Year” by Adult Video News. Much of his work appears on BurningAngel.com and Kink.com.

Deen, who has starred in more than 4,000 films, is not your stereotypical porn star. In his films, he gazes into the eyes of his partners, holding their hands. He doesn’t look like Ron Jeremy. He’s 5-foot-8 and slim at 150 pounds. He has wavy brown hair, bright blue eyes and stubble. If a woman brought him home to show off to her family, her father would likely approve at first glance.

He tweets about burritos and wanting super powers. He said that he would prefer to spend a Friday or Saturday night relaxing at his San Fernando Valley home with friends rather than partying at a club.

And this is how he’s generated such a massive following of adoring fans.

When I called him last month, Deen was in the middle of shooting a porn. But after he arrived back home, he pulled away from his friends to talk about how he loves his job, how sex is awesome and how communication — not making love like a porn star — is key to great sex.

The Pitt News: In a YouTube video of an interview from when you were 19 [Deen: “Oh, God, I hate that video. I just want to go back and punch myself in the face.”], you said you were in the industry for the money, but you wouldn’t mind it if you became famous. At 26, you’ve gained significant attention and popularity. How do you feel about how far you’ve advanced?

James Deen: Let me rephrase that, because I still have the same philosophy, but I’m less arrogant. This is something that I truly love and stand behind. Becoming famous was not a priority, it was something that I wanted to turn into a career and have a good time and be good and successful at it.

I would only want more fame if it meant creating more demand and more job opportunities. But I’m in porn because it’s my career, my job. I love it. If I wanted to go into taxidermy, and people said, “Well, do you want to be the most famous taxidermist?” I’d say, “No, I just really love taxidermy.”

TPN: You’re carved a niche for yourself in the porn industry by being the guy who doesn’t look like the stereotypical male actor. How do you respond to people crediting your success to your appearance?

JD: It doesn’t bother me, but it’s not something that I particularly want to be known for. People know me for being good at my job — or for my looks, [and] then [see] that I’m good at my job.

I think now there tends to be more everyday-looking guys entering the industry. I don’t really think I paved the way, but more of a timing thing. When I first got into porn, a lot of the guys were big and buff and machismo, and when I came in, people were like, “Well, we’ll give him a shot.”

TPN: A recent Nielsen rating says one out of every three women is watching Internet porn, more than half of men watch porn, and a University of Montreal study couldn’t find a single man in his 20s who hadn’t watched porn. What’s your response to these statistics?

JD: I think it’s great. I think as time goes on, people will feel less sexually repressed and more comfortable with different things. I think the idea that women can be in porn, watch porn, be into porn is great, and men not being embarrassed will be a more natural thing. There’s this primal thing where sex is just for procreation. No, it’s not. Sex is awesome. It’s awesome and feels good. It’s fun.

TPN: Is it fair to say you don’t give a lot of oral sex in your films? That doesn’t seem to be something prominent in porn. Do you think that’s an accurate representation of sex or is that something you would like to see change?

JD: I’ve done it before, and there are guys who do it. It depends on the scene and the cameras. As far as when I do it, I’m all about it.

Statistically, the people higher up and the directors say the viewers aren’t as into it. But there are some directors who say, “OK, you two go down on one another, then have sex.” A director may say you can do whatever you want, and there’s a lot of scenes of vagina-licking and it’s awesome.

The scene is about the girl, and some directors just don’t know how to shoot it because it’s all so technical. And I do think it gives an unrealistic depiction of what sex should be in real life. Oral sex is great for both guys and girls. It’s f*ckin’ awesome.

TPN: College is a time of learning. Do you think porn can help a sexual relationship or hinder it? Some say it gives men unrealistic expectations of women, not to mention that they wear themselves out after wanking for so long.

JD: I would say that’s stupid. If a guy is jerking off because he’s horny then can’t have sex later, it’s not because he’s tired, it’s because he’s not able to fulfill a certain fantasy brought by his partner.

I had a friend call me with that problem, and I asked how long they’d been together, and she said six years. And I said that chances are he wants a threesome or he wants to bang it in the butt. Some people are into weird things, too. He’s probably faithful to her while jerking off because they’ve been together six years, but maybe he’s just a little bored.

Two, about unrealistic expectations of women. The world gives unrealistic expectations of women. I’ve been in porn for a long time, and there are some gorgeous girls in porn. But there are girls just as beautiful as the girls who are the actresses in porn.

I don’t think people can argue that porn gives unrealistic expectation when the media does in magazines. If anything, porn helps with creating realistic expectations by presenting what certain things girls can be into. It can show how to communicate between partners about what they’re into.

TPN: How has being in the porn industry affected your ability to develop relationships? Has it helped or ruined your sex life?

JD: It hasn’t hurt it at all. If anything, it’s made it better, because before, I’d always been a gigantic slut, but now I say, “I’m not just going to have sex with you. I’m going to have sex with other people.” It’s just very honest and clear. As long as everything is honest and open, you can still have your romantic love-making, if you will. I’ve never had the experience where I have sex and say, “Oh my God, this is so boring, it’s just like work.”

TPN: So you direct films, too. Are you hoping to expand on that in the future into something bigger?

JD: It’s more of a side project now. But when I’m done doing porn or I just get tired, I would like to go into directing more. The reason I haven’t done more with it now is because performing is way more fun, and I want to continue to have fun at what I’m doing.

TPN: Do you have any tips for guys wanting to improve their skills?

JD: My biggest tip for everybody is communication, for both guys and girls. Statistically, as far as I understand, most women don’t want to have 45 minutes of sex. Five or six minutes is enough. They don’t need hours and hours of guys pounding away on them, where they might not even c*m from that. So communicate. She might even want something else.