RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage and All Stars 2 winner Alaska Thunderfuck are set to star in a biopic about gay porn actor Joey Stefano. Directed by Chad Darnell, it will tell the story of Stefano’s discovery by drag superstar and porn director Chi Chi LaRue, his rise to fame as a model in Madonna’s Sex book, and the drug overdose that caused his death.
Visage will play Anita, an amalgam of OTT television hosts that will provide a through-line for the film. Alaska will play the part of Gender, a make-up artist who played in the band Johnny Depp Clones with Chi Chi LaRue and Chris Green. At the time, they were some of the biggest names in the biz, alongside actors like Jeff Stryker, Jon King, and Ryan Idol.
His success was bookended by suffering. Stefano – real name Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr. – was on a booze-filled path of destruction after his father’s death when he was 15. He left rehab before arriving in LA, where he landed with a boom-step thud on the porn scene. On a casting couch full of straight-acting tops, Stefano made his name as a hungry power bottom. In between the 58 films he ended up appearing in, such as Hole in One and Sex in Wet Places, Stefano dated some high profile names in the industry, such as music magnate David Geffen. Madonna noticed this young stud on the rise, and cast him in her controversial Sex book. He also appeared in her video for “Deeper & Deeper”.
It all came to a tragic end when Stefano overdosed in November 1994 from a lethal mixture of cocaine, morphine, heroin, and ketamine. He was found dead in a motel room at 26 years old.
His life was put to paper in 1996 in a biography titled Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stefano by Charles Isherwood. For the film, the director spoke to 50-plus sources over a three-year period to get insight into the actor’s life. While it’s still in the early stages, the film will likely see a release next year.
