Christopher Daniels’ bright blond hair and chiseled body are attention-grabbers, without a doubt, but the escort and model has a lot more to offer the world than the purely visual. I had a chance to speak with him ahead of his visit to Edmonton’s Evolution Wonder Lounge this month, and he pulled no punches when chatting about work, "work," life, and how even our own side can get its messages muddled sometimes.

GC: One of the first things I noticed when researching your work is what an active online presence you have. Do you try to keep things at arm’s length, or dive right in?

CD: I don’t really think there’s too much of a difference between my professional porn life and my personal one. I use Twitter and other social media under my porn name, and I think I can get away with saying a lot more being in the porn industry, because people sort of expect outrageous behaviour. It allows me that freedom.

GC: So doing porn was liberating in a sense?

CD: Once I’d done a few scenes, and decided that this was something that I wanted to focus on... It’s freeing and it’s liberating, but it was kind of scary to cross over, because you realize that once it’s out there you can’t really go back.

GC: You sort of buy that freedom at a cost of exposing yourself in a lot of ways.

CD: And you pretty much have to accept the fact that you will never do things like be a President, or be a schoolteacher. I’m fine with that, but you have to realize that it could harm you in the future.

GC: I got the impression that you prefer working on camera to escorting. Is that fair to say?

CD: I go through phases, I think. I’ve been very fortunate to do first escorting and then porn, and then these appearances started happening more frequently, [because] I feel that it’s easy to get burned out on any one of those three things, especially if I’m only doing one at a time. I find that if I balance the three and switch it up, it’s much better for me physically and emotionally, and for my sanity.

GC: Doing both the porn work and the escorting, some people probably feel like they’re entitled to your body or your space to some extent when they see you in person. Do things ever get, you know, weird?

CD: I always try to be friendly and appreciative, but I think some people have a hard time understanding that there are still some boundaries. Just because I’m fucking on camera doesn’t mean that you can come up to me in the club and stick your finger in my asshole! ... But for the most part it’s positive, and people are appreciative, and I have fun with them, and it’s a good experience.

GC: You’ve mentioned in other interviews that it’s really critical for someone in your line of work to have strong support networks and good outlets, emotionally. What are the most important ones for you?

CD: I’ve been dating a guy for almost a year now, and he’s very balanced, and not in the industry. So having him helps balance me out. Having a lot of non-industry-related friends who knew me before I started at this, that helps ground me. And also, having a group of friends that are ... doing the same thing I’m doing, they understand the stress and the drama the industry will bring up.

GC: Has your work ever become a source of friction between you and your man?

CD: It’s not something a lot of people can handle, but he’s a bit older than me, and it’s just not really an issue for some reason. He’s a confident guy, and there are a lot of things that only he and I share. He knows that what I’m doing is work, but that it’s not just work – there’s some enjoyment in it. If anything, he sometimes acts like a stage mom. There’s no jealousy, and if there is jealousy, we joke around about it. We do have our issues sometimes, but that’s not one of them.

GC: DOMA is a landmark decision for the entire community south of the border. But from what I’ve read elsewhere, it seems like it’s giving you access to something that you don’t have a lot of personal interest in. What is it about marriage that you figure doesn’t really work?

CD: I believe that we should all have the same rights, and I know a lot of couples out there that want the right to marry. They can have whatever kind of relationship they want, and I think we need that. What I don’t support is this pressure on the gay community to make us more like straight people. I feel like a lot of people push this agenda of monogamy and having kids, and if that’s what you want to do, that’s fine! But I worry that it’s just going to make the gay community more like straight people, and I think that would be the most boring thing in the entire world. I think one of the best things about being gay is that we’re not like straight people. We have different kinds of relationships, we are colourful. ...  I know so many straight, married people who are miserable. If that’s what we’re trying to aim for, then I don’t really want a part of that.

GC: Or to settle down with the one spouse, the two-point-five kids, the dog, the white picket fence...

CD: Oh, I would shoot myself in the head. Hey, maybe in five years that will be my life, and I think that’s great, and I should have that choice, but I don’t think anyone should be pushing that on anyone else.

GC: Any other projects on the go lately?

CD: Mainly I’ve just been working on my book (Money’s on the Dresser). ... It’s a collection of short stories I started writing about two years after [starting] escorting. ... I had so much time on my hands travelling and shooting porn that I was spending a majority of my time in airports and hotel rooms, and the stories just started coming to me. ... I finished it about a year and a half ago, and I spent that time doing the real work which has been editing, and editing, and editing. ... The cover is designed, and hopefully it will be on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and everything by the end of the year. I really want to focus on that and see what happens with it. That’s the next step for me.