The porn star and the poet: Jake Bass and Max Wallis talk about sex, love and meaning of Pride

Words: Steve Brown

Porn star Jake Bass and poet Max Wallis talk about sex, love and the relevance of Pride in our brand-new Summer Pride issue – out now.

This year marks the 50th anniversary since the Stonewall riots, an event which kickstarted the modern gay movement and LGBTQ people and allies are set to hit the streets to march in one of the many Pride parades around the world.

But Pride does not mean the same for everyone with many interpreting Pride in their own way. Whether it’s celebrating with friends or out in the streets marching with other LGBTQ people.

And in Attitude’s Summer Pride issue – out now to download and buy – former porn star Jake Bass graces one of our 25 covers alongside poet Max Wallis and they explain what Pride means to them.

Jake, who now sells his own range of fleshjack toys, confesses that Pride was ‘kind of forced’ down his throat.

“Pride was kind of forced down my throat when I was in porn,” he tells Attitude. “Even when I didn’t entirely realise the concept or what it meant for other people.

 

Jake Bass and Max Wallis shot by Francisco Gomez de Villaboa exclusively for Attitude’s Summer Pride issue

“I’m not gonna lie, when I started going out and doing things, the last thing on my mind was that it was a time to be proud.

“It was an excuse to party and get fucked-up. Unfortunately, that’s still true for a lot of people, as opposed to being when they take a stand for their individuality. I guess we all have our own way to get there.”

Max – who has an ongoing fashion collaboration with House of Holland, opens up about what Pride means to him and says it means being in a safe space to love whoever you want.

He says: “It’s about identity, about acceptance, but also, ultimately, about love.

“Being comfortable, and in a safe space where you can love whoever the hell you want, and actually acknowledge that with a form of acceptance you might not normally in every-day life.

“It’s also a form of history and acknowledgement of the fact that this is not something which is solved, especially as the world shifts more right wing.”

Max – who is also the author of two books as well as being an internationally renowned poet – also reveals he has been in two throuples – much to the surprise of Jake who claims he has never had a threesome.

When speaking about his throupling experience, Max tells Attitude: “When you’re three, you give up a third of yourself to each other, in a couple you give up half.

“So as a three, you give up less, but you take on more. You take on two thirds of two people. And you have to balance more because you rely on one another more.

“But it means that each facet of your personality is offset by the other people.”

Jake and Max shot exclusively by Francisco Gomez De Villaboa. Grooming: Kris Smith. Style: Nick Byam

But Jake, who used to work as an adult film star for the likes of Bel Ami, opens up about struggling to maintain relationships with someone after having sex.

“I try to do the opposite,” he tells Attitude after Max says he is still friends with people he has had sex with.

“I’m trying to keep everyone who is my friend away from my fucking bed because that’s how I fuck up relationships.

“That’s how ultimately, I’m hanging out with my best friend who is now into this guy who used to fuck and it’s just like a web of, ‘Who hasn’t fucked each other now’.”

This reason, Jake continues to say, is because after he quit porn he searched for intimacy which he never had in porn.

He says: “When I quit porn, I thought, ‘OK, I can’t keep giving a part of myself to all these people for absolutely no reason then have them walk out of my life’.

“I’m not willing to let someone in if it doesn’t mean anything, if we’re not going to both grow with this experience.

“I don’t need to get off, I don’t need to let someone in for that. I can just jerk off and go to bed.”

Attitude’s Summer Pride issue, supported by the GREAT Britain campaign, is out now, featuring 25 special edition covers which can be ordered individually with free postage and packaging by emailing attitude@attitude.co.uk.

Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: three issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.