Hustler White (1996): Fashion, Fetish, and the Radical Potential of Pornography

Portrait of Rick Castro by Nadine Dinter, used with permission of the photographer

Rick Castro talks to Tony Conn about his film Hustler White, his varied career, and his fears about today’s anti-LGBTQ+ climate.

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Rick Castro has long been fascinated by the different facets of sexual expression, especially BDSM and fetish subcultures. This theme has run through most of his work, from his beginnings in the fashion industry to his romantic, monochrome photography. In 1996, he gave full expression to these ideas in his first and only feature film, Hustler White, made alongside queer cinema doyen Bruce LaBruce.

Hustler White follows sex worker Montgomery Ward (Tony Ward) and writer Jurgen Anger (Bruce LaBruce) as they negotiate the back streets of Los Angeles on a journey of self-discovery. As the characters’ names suggest, the film draws on decades of cinematic references. It is also based in no small part on Castro’s own experiences. He informed me that, where possible, events are re-created where they happened.

Tony Ward in Hustler White

The film opens audaciously. After a pastiche of Sunset Boulevard (1950), with Ward floating face down in a swimming pool, we go back in time and see him having sex with a man in a dingy apartment. The climax is accompanied by fireworks and the sound of a cork popping. In the following scene, the older trick cleans himself up in the bathroom, spouting hippie clichés about Easy Rider (1969), “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970), and “American Pie” (1971). Our hustler takes the man’s money, his car keys, and runs. It’s a clear statement about one generation taking over from the other.

Making his escape, Ward accidentally runs over a man’s leg with the now stolen car. He flees the scene, later stopping to mop up the blood with his shirt. As he walks along with the bloody shirt, Anger passes by in his car and locks eyes with him in a case of love at first sight. Ward eludes him, but he leaves the shirt behind. Anger retrieves it and tries to track him down. Ward is convinced that Anger is onto him for the hit-and-run, but they are eventually reunited as Anger reads an astrology book called Gay Love Signs (it must be fate).

All through the film, we see the seedy underbelly of LA’s hustler scene. Ward works as a fluffer on “an actual Hollywood porno shoot.” We witness various fetish subcultures, including S&M, bondage, autoasphyxiation, and acrotomophilia (a man is penetrated by an amputee’s leg stump to soft musical accompaniment). In one of its least PC moments, a blond twink turns up for an interview (reminiscent of Mike’s Murder, 1984), only to be railed by a group of burly black men: “That was merely an exercise in Black Power.”

Bruce LaBruce and Tony Ward in Hustler White

Castro’s love of Hollywood goes back a long way:

I’m third-generation Los Angeleno. My maternal grandparents came here from Silver City, New Mexico, in the early 1920s. My paternal grandmother moved here from Colton, California. My mother is from Boyle Heights and my father is from Colton. After serving in World War II, my dad bought a house with FDR’s GI Bill in 1948, in Monterey Park. This is where I grew up, a mundane suburb of Los Angeles County. During the summer of 1976, I fled to Hollywood the second I turned 18 and never looked back.

Although only 15 minutes away (without traffic), Hollywood was a whole new world with a different culture and freedom. I worked as a salesperson while taking night classes in fashion illustration and pattern-making. I made friends with a girl in class who worked at the California Apparel News. At the time, the centers of fashion were Paris and NYC. There simply was no fashion scene in LA. The California Apparel News, that was it.

I did pasteup/layout for a spell, and even did fashion illustration for the newspaper. A new designer, Marlene Stewart, came into the office with her line of paper jumpsuits. She liked what I was wearing and asked if I would style her photo shoot for the newspaper.

I didn’t know what a stylist was, so she said to me, “Style the models the way you’re dressed.”

“Oh, I can do that!”

Tony Ward as Biker Babe, 1995

From there I was hired to create costume for a dance review at the Playboy Club. A choreographer by the name of Toni Basil hired me on the spot to design costumes for her stage show. Toni was choreographer for Bette Midler, who called me directly, hiring me to design her world tour. I was 19 years old. Marlene Stewart went on to design costumes for most of Oliver Stone’s films and the “Material Girl” video for Madonna. I also interviewed for the video but didn’t get the job.

From then on, I worked as a wardrobe stylist, and costume and clothing designer, for approximately 16 years. In the summer of 1986, I decided I had helped enough photographers and directors in creating their visions. It was time to create my own with photography.

Castro’s fashion experience would inform Hustler White’s iconic style,1 but it is his photography that he is primarily known for today. With a keen eye for detail, he creates striking compositions, catching the heroic side of his subjects. He has photographed some of the world’s most famous people, as well as some of its least-appreciated misfits.2 He currently has three books that collect his work, the most recent being 2023’s S/M BLVD.3

My most prolific era was the ’90s, which I spent documenting the male street hustlers of Santa Monica Boulevard. I’ve extensively photographed BDSM scenarios as a fixation continuum. During the early 2000s, I combined fetish with fashion for numerous editorials and threw in a few classic portraits, like Kenneth Anger and the 14th Dalai Lama. I also shot animals’ portraits. I’m very good at this. I believe I’m able to capture their spirit.

Rick’s mother Bee at 18, c.1940 (unknown photographer)

Rick recreated the portrait of Bee at 80, c. 1990

Rick’s father Al Castro, aged 93, for Rick Owens, 2014

Rick Castro and Bruce LaBruce met during this phase of Castro’s career, brought together by zine culture. The first film they collaborated on was the satirical sex comedy Super 8½ (1994).

Back in 1990, I was obsessed with a hustler on Santa Monica Boulevard. His name was Zack. I spent the day photographing him in many kinky ways. That evening we went on a “date” to see the film Kuffs (1992), only because there was a bondage scene with Christian Slater. The next morning, we broke up.

Around this time, I was invited, along with BLAB [Bruce LaBruce], Vaginal Davis, and Lily Burana, to be part of what was to be the first zine convention in Los Angeles – SPEW2, at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions [LACE]. BLAB asked me to shoot a scene for the film he was working on, Super 8½. This involved BLAB being sodomized with a black rubber strap-on worn by Vaginal Davis dressed as a prison matron. I did the wardrobe, provided the strap-on, and photographed the scene as an editorial for Maximum Rock & Roll.

The Invisible Man Smokes, 1997

I asked Castro about his cinematic influences going into his film career. He cites Kubrick, Polanski, Hitchcock, and James Whale, but two films stand out:

In 1976, I was the only person at the Vista Theater, now owned by Quentin Tarantino, to sit through the entirety of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). To date, I still think Salò is the best film ever made, along with The Red Shoes (1948), by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. To me, they are the same film. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Powell in 1977 at Zoetrope Studios, the short-lived studio owned by Francis Ford Coppola.

Hustler White wears many of these influences on its sleeve, but it is also based on the realities of street life as reflected in Castro’s photography. He and LaBruce worked on the script for ten days at the then-unknown 29 Palms Inn at Joshua Tree.

I had been documenting the male street hustlers on Santa Monica Boulevard since the late ’80s. I showed BLAB VHS footage and photos of the guys. I told him I was creating a VHS documentary called Hustler White. The title comes from the noticeable preference of white jeans by the guys. I was told this was because white made their baskets look bigger when illuminated by car headlights.

Bruce was in the film, so I directed those segments and had complete input with all the scenes. As a lifelong Los Angeleno, I know my city, every nook and cranny, and knew Santa Monica Boulevard like the back of my hand. All the street locations are the spots where said events happened. The script is based on my experiences while shooting hustlers. Tony is playing me, except we turned him into a hustler instead of photographer. It just read better.

Hustler White is a celebration of love, sex, and obsession. I asked him how important it is for him to express these things in his work:

I’m glad the message is clear. These three emotions are the joys in life. When I look back at all my years on this forsaken earth, memories of love, sex and obsession are the best.

Since I can remember, I’ve responded to BDSM. As a child, I would take note of subtle kink scenarios in television shows. Later, as an adult, it became my passion and art. At the time, I saw fetish as ubiquitous to human nature yet completely misunderstood. I guess, in a way, I wanted to set the record straight, so I spent over 30 years documenting this endless subject matter. Quite frankly, these days I’m bored of the subject as it’s become mainstream and dumbed down, as has everything else.

Ambrose Sapperstein, post razor-slashing, in Hustler White

Much of the sex in Hustler White is unsimulated. For Bruce LaBruce, the pornographic aspect of his work is an expression of his radical politics, with the hustler taking the place of the proletariat. Castro is more ambivalent about this interpretation:

I don’t like mixing sex and politics. Maybe I’m being naive, and they’re impossible to separate in the twenty-first century since homosex has been co-opted, given letters as brand identity, and everything is over-the-top politically correct. For me, vanilla sex is mundane. Fetish exploration is where the meat of the matter really is.

I guess sex workers could be considered working-class heroes. For me, the idea of the hustler is romantic, totally based on my fantasy that never existed. I don’t see anything radical about pornography. On the contrary, I see it as a banal commodity with no personality, like Walmart – buy in bulk.

Street hustlers are the unsung romantic heroes. The last icons of the American Dream. Discarded people coming to a larger city to make it with all they have to give – their own bodies. This culture no longer exists, so they are only a faded glory.

Hustler White revels in all kinds of excess, biting its thumb at respectability. It can be seen as criticising the more reactionary elements within the gay community, as well as mocking the generations that have come before.

We are making fun of everything – GLBTQ community, Hollywood, sex, films, filmmaking, stereotypes, porn, social hierarchy. If it’s part of humanity, we’re taking the piss out of it.

Mephistopheles and a captured soul, 2010

The film also contains endless cinematic references. Some are overt, like recreating the opening of Sunset Boulevard, while others are more subtle, like its use of jump cuts.

Growing up in Hollywood all my life, many times my thought process is based on film as opposed to literature. Since we were taking the piss out of everything, I thought it would be amusing to have some lines read verbatim from classic films, also including homocentric classic quotes and scenes from more obscure art films. There’s reference to Sunset Boulevard, Easy Rider, Trash (1970), 3 Women (1977), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Killing of Sister George (1968), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Death in Venice (1971).

During the porno shoot scene, Montgomery Ward is blatantly reading John Rechy’s City of Night. Jurgen Anger makes ill attempts at Wildean quotes. Character names like Montgomery Ward, Jurgen Anger, Ambrose Saperstein, Eigil Vesti, Seymore Kasabian, and Rodger V. Deem.’

We see many Los Angeles landmarks on screen, all of which have symbolic resonance in the story.

Because of the enduring power of film, Los Angeles is the most familiar city in the world. Once again, as a lifelong Los Angeleno, I know my city like the back of my hand. The story is the underbelly of my city. All the locations are what makes Los Angeles unique, where events depicted in Hustler White actually took place. FYI, the driving scene is the exact location used by Robert Aldrich in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Tony Ward with Rick’s 1967 Mercury Cougar in Hustler White

Hustler White ends on a surprisingly tender note (if we disregard the piss-soaked end credits scene). Castro feels it is important to show this side of things, despite all the no-strings sex in the film:

Throughout film history, homosexual relationships have always been portrayed as doomed. We would be murdered, beaten up, wind up in jail, hang ourselves, die of AIDS, or in the case of The Fox (1967), a tree falls, crushing us to death.

Right before production began in the summer of ’95, I was personally having a bad year. I’d lost the love of my life, Joey Napierkowski, and also a best friend, George Byron, to AIDS. The film is dedicated to “Mommie.” This was our nickname for him. He was well-liked by the cast and crew. I told BLAB, “I’m tired of all this negative energy directed at the gay community. Just once, I want to see a happy ending, even if it’s fake.” We decided to give the film the most sappy, Douglas Sirk ending possible.

Gay and straight filmmakers often differ in the way they depict sex on screen. Unsimulated sex has appeared in narrative film since the 1960s, with Andy Warhol (Blue Movie, 1969) being one of its early pioneers. Other gay filmmakers like George Kuchar (Thundercrack!, 1975, written by Kuchar), Pedro Almodóvar (Matador, 1986), and John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus, 2004) tend to portray sex as passionate, liberating, and joyful. Contrast that with the slew of films that started coming out in the late 1990s.

As depicted by Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone, 1998), Lars von Trier (The Idiots, 1998), Catherine Breillat (Romance, 1999), Michael Winterbottom (Nine Songs, 2004), and others, sex was either dysfunctional or traumatic, as if this were the only way it could be valid artistically. Perhaps the difference comes from homosexuality already being seen as transgressive by society. It need only exist to be controversial, so why not have fun with it?

I remember the beginning, or ending, scene of Irréversible (2002) as being problematic for me. According to Gasper Noé, the protagonist’s fiancé’s rape somehow triggers homophobic panic at a BDSM club insultingly called The Rectum, so the two men beat a guy to death. Why would a heterosexual rapist even be at a gay sex club and why did they go there? The blatant ignorance of homosexuals, BDSM, and heterosexual predators is astounding. This “blame the gay” scenario has been prevalent in film for longer than I care to remember.

Tattoo Love God & Slave, 1994

Surprisingly, Hustler White received negative response from the established queer community like GLAAD [Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation]. They were embarrassed our film would be representative of the community as a whole. During that era, we were not allowed to create films that treated homosex and fetish as a matter of fact. Despite all this, Hustler White is a queer cult classic, deemed a work of art by former French minister of culture Jack Lang, listed on the top 100 underground art films of all time by New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, and a personal favorite of John Waters. He told me this. Kenneth Anger hated it because I called BLAB’s character Jurgen Anger, a combo of our absent producer Jürgen Brüning and Kenneth’s self-created last name.

Castro has a long-standing professional relationship with Hustler White’s star, Tony Ward. Ward has modeled for Calvin Klein and Chanel, starred in numerous music videos, and appeared in Madonna’s SEX book while the two of them were dating. Castro has called Ward his muse and obsession. I asked him about the work they have done together and about Ward’s enduring appeal.

Back in 1985, I picked up a copy of a blue magazine called In Touch. The cover and centerfold featured model Anthony Borden Ward. Although tacky in a porno way, he exuded this appeal that was special. There was a lust quality to him that was unique, even in a forum like homoerotic porn.

After jacking off to his centerfold for a few months, I was asked to cast a model for a shoot I was styling for photographer Albert Sanchez. We were recreating Paul Cadmus tableaux, so I thought Anthony Borden Ward would be perfect as the lustful sailor in The Fleet’s In! During this shoot, I took Tony aside and shot him in a leather harness with horsey tail a friend had designed. This was the first photo I ever took.

Rick’s first photograph of Tony Ward, 1986

In 1986, I took a Polaroid of Tony to Herb Ritts. I was his wardrobe stylist at the time and sometimes brought him models. Herb said to me, “I don’t know Rick, he’s like . . . I don’t know what. I don’t like his nose.”

“What do you mean?” I responded, “His nose is beautifully Romanesque. It’s like a second dick.”

Herb made a grimace face: “He’s just not my type.”

“What!” I exploded, “Tony Ward is the world’s type.”

In 1987, I hired Tony as my fit model for my first menswear line for a company owned by Michele Lamy. My line was called Lamy Men. I also photographed him wearing the collection, modeled for ads, and sent him down the catwalk during New York Fashion Week. NYC fashion rags ripped us to shreds, calling my clothing “Male Frederick’s of Hollywood,” and Tony as “Tooo California.”

When it came time to cast the lead of Montgomery Ward for Hustler White, I brought Tony in for the part. I continued to shoot and work with him throughout the years. He even lived with me for a while. The last time I shot him was with his daughter, Ruby Sato Ward, in 2019 for Another Man UK. This was a re-creation of a shoot I did with father and daughter back in 2005, when Ruby was 3 years old.

Tony and Ruby Sato Ward (aged 3), 2005

Tony and Ruby Sato Ward (aged 15), 2019

Hustler White is the only feature film that Castro has directed, but in 2001 he made a short film that seems prescient in retrospect. Plushies & Furries is a documentary exploring the then-obscure subculture of furries, with an emphasis on the sexual aspect from which many in the community now want to distance themselves.

I originally was invited to attend a furry event, ConFURence, in 1998 by an artist named Mr. Drake who lived in the South of France with two huskies (as in dogs). The event took place at a generic hotel in Buena Park, California. I was the only person there without tail and ears, let alone a fursuit. The fursuit dance and fashion show were the highlights of the evening. There were packs of wolves and dogs, herds of sheep, a clowder of cats, and a few broody rabbits. Most ended up in rooms together and fursuit-spooging was de rigueur.

I was not participant but observer. Therefore, I recorded what I saw from 1998 to 2000. My program was eventually produced by World of Wonder, the producers of Rupaul’s Drag Race, and we sold a program to MTV (2001), HBO (2002), and Channel 5 UK (2002). I personally received a lot of flak for presenting this. My response – don’t blame the messenger if you disagree with the message. I am a sex-positive person. There is nothing wrong with what anyone was doing, but all closets create shame.

If it were today, I wouldn’t tell the story because it’s already been done. Furry, like everything else in the twenty-first century, is mainstream. I’m all about beginnings of culture, not the standard.

Ken and Stacey in Furries & Plushies (2001)

Much has changed for the LGBTQ+ community during Castro’s lifetime. He says he remembers a time before he had civil rights. I asked him about recent developments and whether he thinks LGBTQ+ liberation is needed even more today.

Suffice to say, a lot has changed in 46 years! Some for the good, some not.

Everything is a mess. Not just for LGBT, but civil rights in general. I’m stunned to be living in a time where women and doctors can go to prison for abortion, where drag queens are illegal, and books are being banned in some states. [In response to the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict] Republican Senator Tom Woods said, “We are going to fight to keep that filth out of Oklahoma, because we are a Christian state.”4

And don’t even get me started about my yearslong battle with Meta and online censorship, which is more insidious than the McCarthy era, which disproportionally targets GLBTQ imagery.

This is Weimar shit! It’s all out in the open. If totalitarian government happens again, there’s plenty of warnings. It took the Third Reich about 8 years to establish absolute power. We are at the 8-year mark now with MAGA.

What would his advice be to young people today, both LGBT and allies?

Put down your cellphones before your neck stays cocked down in a permanent position. Meet real people in real time. Avatars are bad sex. AI is not your friend. Technology has allowed you more freedoms than we have ever known. Use it, fight for it, before you lose it. Know your history.

I asked Castro which artists we should look out for today. He admires Julia Ducournau (Raw, 2016; Titane, 2021) and Daniel Minahan (Fellow Travelers, 2023), visual artists Isabelle Albuquerque and Joey Terrill, fashion designers Willy Chavarria and Hubane, artist/influencer Salvia,5 and novelist Rumaan Alam (Leave the World Behind).

Anyway, I’m more into the old guard. I like all the dead guys.

Salvia, 2020

One day, Castro would like to return to filmmaking, but for the time being he is far too busy with other creative pursuits.

His work was recently exhibited at the Tom of Finland Art & Culture Fair in Berlin, at the infamous sex club Halle am Berghain. The show will move to London in October 2024, and on December 14 will be part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles.

This June, Castro’s Vitam Picturarum can be seen at West Hollywood’s Queer Biennial, curated by Rubén Esparza. 6 The Thirteen Lives of Rick Castro, my first solo exhibition in Mexico, runs August 7-11, 2024, at Galeria HGZ, Querétaro, Mexico.

Castro is also working on his own permanent exhibition:

I presented Rick Castro Forever at the historic Columbarium of Hollywood Forever Cemetery last October through November. This was the first photographic exposition in this famous location, and the first with blatant queer sensibility. I am happy to report I have now turned it into a permanent museum that will include a shrine to Oscar Wilde and my own personal niche with my death mask, even though I’m still amongst the living. This will be a self-guided tour during regular cemetery hours, 9am-4pm daily, with private walk-throughs and tea salons. The new title is Columbarium Continuum by Rick Castro.7

Having featured at “the world’s most famous sex club” (Halle am Beghain) and having a permanent museum at a cemetery (Hollywood Forever), Castro now seeks to have his work displayed in a church: “This will complete my trinity.”

Castro’s photography and writings were also featured in Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists That Create Zines, an historic exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, New York. The exhibition, consisting of 1,400 items, is now on display at Vancouver Art Gallery until September 10, 20248 and will appear again in November, at a location yet to be confirmed:

I’m proud to have representation in a medium that finally receives recognition for impacting art and culture pre-internet. In the past, if you wanted to reach like-minded people, you did it yourself – DIY.

In February 2024, I presented a slideshow and lecture at Los Angeles Central Library’s Photographer’s Eye program. This is a significant milestone for me, to be presented in such a mainstream forum as the city library. I have residual trauma from defending my work since the beginning. I’m not yet used to this newfound acceptance of what has always been my goal – to present a homoerotic/queer/fetish point of view to the general public for exactly what it is: art.9