Why Actor Jacen Zhu Is Quitting Porn Studio Noir Male

Adult film actor Jacen Zhu announced on Monday that he would no longer be working with Noir Male, the studio founded by award-winning adult film director and drag queen Chi Chi LaRue. According to its own site, Noir Male "breaks free from stereotypes" about interracial gay porn and "showcases black men as sensual, sexual, and unapologetically fine."

"I stop working for Noir Male when I woke up," Zhu tweeted. "When I saw that everything was a lie and I would like to apologize for having the wolves in suits to sell this lie. Wake up y'all and see it's not about us."

He added, "I'm not angry, I just sat back and watched as the aspiration didn't meet the reality. We are being used to sell a product that doesn't cater to our community."

Zhu is not an exclusive performer with Noir Male, meaning that he does scenes with multiple studios outside that company. In a phone conversation with Out, Zhu said he "had so much more hope for the site" but said that by the the time he was named Noir Man of the Month in February, he had "completely checked out."

Zhu described his disillusionment with Noir Male as a gradual process, rather than one single event.

"It's not standing up to what they initially started out with," Zhu said. "I'm not going to do any more work with them because to me, it's getting worse." Zhu said that he did not alert Chi Chi LaRue prior to sending the tweets.

Zhu added that at one time, he was asked to do a scene where he was cast as a parolee who would end up having sex with a parole officer who checked in on him.

"I said, 'Hey, that's not cool, that's going to be problematic,' and Chi Chi said, 'Well, when I write these things, I don't think about that,'" he said. "Putting the pieces together, I realized that they don't care and I need to separate myself from this."

Zhu also said that he worked with Noir Male behind the scenes to try to get them to become more invested in the Black gay community by doing Black gay pride events. He also said he tried to push Noir Male diversify the ways Black men were depicted on camera by having more Black men take the bottom role in scenes, as well as including more scenes with two Black men.

When contacted about Zhu's departure and the alleged parole scene, Chi Chi LaRue told Out, "I loved working with Jacen Zhu. He's one of the best performers I've ever worked with," but did not comment further.

Noir Male faced criticism when it first launched in August 2018 due to the fact that its opening roster of models was less than 50% Black, even though its site was dedicated to showcasing Black men. Six months later, according to Str8UpGayPorn, the percentages have not improved much. When the site launched, it featured 29 models, with 16 white models and 13 Black or mixed race models. Now, the number of models is up to 67, with 30 white and 37 Black or mixed race models.

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