Dustin Zito :: Vegas, The Real World and (oh, yeah) that 'pay for play' thing

Once upon a time, a revealed past in pornography was a mark of shame and disgrace that sent public relations teams into a flurry of activity to quickly salvage a career. However, in this day of trashy reality shows dominating our televisions, we as a culture have gotten so used to seeing pretty much anything imaginable that a porn past doesn't generate much of a second glance anymore and somehow has become more of a mark of merit than shame. In fact, reality television is now sometimes a place where one can choose to release information about their past once and for all.

Case in point? The "Real World Las Vegas'" Dustin Zito, who entered the MTV hit series (where, as always, a group of young, sexy, horny strangers are picked to live in a house together while cameras record their lives 24/7) figuring it would be a good place for him to reveal his past doing gay-for-pay porn on the web series, Frat Pad. (The producers of the series knew up front of Dustin's plan) Matters complicated quickly when Dustin, who contends that he is 100% straight, fell for housemate Heather; and before you could say 'Google it,' she learned of his past before he had the chance to tell his housemates. Drama ensued, both on the show and on the Internet where Zito soon found himself one of the most sought after searches - many of which aimed at finding those videos from his Frat Pad days.

EDGE's Jim Halterman chatted with Dustin recently about the experience on the show and his line of thinking in joining a reality show to reveal his deeply guarded secret and move on from it once and for all.

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Living in Vegas

EDGE: Las Vegas is the kind of place that's good to visit for a weekend but how was it living there for such a long amount of time?

Dustin Zito: Three months! I think I need a new kidney! It was great. I know I'll never have that opportunity again. Life will never be the same again. It's not all rainbows and butterflies, you know what I'm talking about? There are rules and sometimes they work your nerves and you want to scream at somebody and maybe I did sometime but it's OK.

EDGE: Even though we've all seen "The Real World" over the years and you have an idea how it's going to be, how is it to really having cameras on you 24/7?

Dustin Zito: I didn't even try to prepare. Me and my friends would have some talks about 'What do you think it's going to be like?' It's different and you can't prepare for it. It's so crazy as far as reactions from other people... also, it happens in conversation. It's not just the camera there, there's actually a person so it's a little offsetting. You make this secret bond and you can't talk to these people but they've seen the whole nine yards of your life.

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Watch Dustin Zito's impromptu music video:

Hot-headed kid

EDGE: How old were you when you did the photos and videos?

Dustin Zito: I was 19 or 20. I was a little hotheaded kid running around thinking I was a bad ass.

EDGE: Was the motivation to do this just to pay the rent? For the paycheck?

Dustin Zito: To be honest, yeah. There's no ulterior desire to hook up with guys, but it doesn't freak me out. Let's just say whenever I close my eyes to think about a lot of things, I think about girls. It's just what I do. It happens every time! If I'm looking at porn, I'm looking at girls. It's just my natural way and it doesn't mean I have to be freaked out by other guys. What's the big deal?

EDGE: You're 100% straight, right?

Dustin Zito: 100%. Honestly.

EDGE: So the other guys in the photos and video with you, were any of them gay or, as the saying goes, gay-for-pay?

Dustin Zito: All of us were straight. We were all doing it for the same thing. It was a mutual understanding that we're going to do this and then we're going to go get a steak... build some shit and tear it down... like it never happened, you know what I'm saying?

EDGE: Is it safe to say, Dustin, that one of the reasons you wanted to do "The Real World" is to get this out in the open so you wouldn't have to keep telling people the rest of your life?

Dustin Zito: 100%. As I got older, I grew a conscience and I felt more responsible for the actions and my priorities changed. When I was 19, I thought 'I'm just going to hide this for the rest of my life.' As you get older, you start feeling obligated to tell people in different situations like your family, which is scary because I live in the South and people are close-minded and judgmental... it's everyone else's problem. It's not mine.

EDGE: Take me back to before you were going through casting for the show and knowing a lot of the stuff about your past was going to come out.

Dustin Zito: It was one of the things that I certainly did welcome and I looked forward to but it's all about when. When is the right time? I'm an over-analytic person. I over-analyze everything so I'm sitting there every day 'Oh my God, who do I tell first? How do I tell the story?' It's one of those things when you have a plan and my plan was to go in there and have people get to know me first. I didn't want to go in there and say 'I'm Dustin, I'm an actor in gay porn.' I didn't want to do that so I waited awhile. Then Heather and I started to get into a relationship and that made it even more difficult. I had to tell her but I didn't know when. It was one of those things where you have to ask yourself 'When do you tell someone your biggest secret?'

A surprising reaction?

EDGE: Did the reaction of your roommates and some of your close buddies who were visiting surprise you? Was there anything we didn't see on camera?

Dustin Zito: What you didn't see on camera is that when they found out I had to leave [the house]. I ran away and evaded the cameras and I had to take some time for myself because the way that they found out just caused so much negativity. Nobody in the house was going to feel my vibe. I was counting on that one person in the house who would be like 'Who cares, Bro? It's no big deal. It was a long time ago.' But nobody was like that. They were all upset, they were all judgmental. I didn't have a problem with what I did but their reaction scared the crap out of me! So my back was against the wall and they have all these tough questions for me, but I'm like... I'm not ashamed of it. Not at all. But it did scare me when they have those reactions, everyone you live with.

EDGE: How about your buddies, who we also see on the show? [In an episode of the series, Dustin is seen showing his buddies some of the photos on camera]

Dustin Zito: My buddies back home? They saw the pictures and we laughed about it. Who cares? What's the big deal? Come on! I was naked in some pictures and we're waving our penises around? Whatever! I've always been an open guy and I've always been confident in my sexuality. Being with a naked dude doesn't freak me out so I don't know why it would freak anybody out. I don't understand.

EDGE: I thought it was so ironic that the episode where everything came out was also the same episode where Heather ended up making out with another girl!

Dustin Zito: Not only kissing! You can say that she went further than that. It's exactly what I did and the only big difference is that she didn't get paid. It's the only difference.

EDGE: Do you think she did that as a reaction to what had come out about you?

Dustin Zito: She was extremely ashamed of what she did and I'm the one that coaxed her into accepting it. I was cracking jokes with her. Watch the episode. As soon as she tells me and as soon as I figure it out, I'm like 'Ha ha' and it's kinda funny - well, it's not funny first of all because everyone just got on my ass about the same thing - and now you're doing it with one of my [female] roommates with the camera in the room. What's the deal here? I mean, it was hot, okay? People think what I did was hot. For me, it's the same thing, ya know?

EDGE: Now that all this has come out, what kind of reaction are you getting from people in your life and what are you hearing on the Internet?

Dustin Zito: I am getting the most positive support from people. From Twitter, my friends and people around town. Of course, there's going to be haters here and there but whatever, dude!

EDGE: What would you say you're going to take from the experience on "The Real World?"

Dustin Zito: Are you kidding? The first thing I'm going to take is the girls. Those are my girls! Nany and Naomi are like my little sisters. They call me all the time....

EDGE: How about the guys in the house? Still buddies?

Dustin Zito: Leroy and I are cool. With Michael, I guess I could be the guy's friend but he has this thing against me and I don't know what it is. I tried to fix it and I tried to stick my hand out to him over and over and it seems that he bites my hand every time. He just doesn't like me. I don't understand. I'll admit that to you right now. I'm one of those people that wants people to like me. It freaks me out and it just seemed like me and Michael would get along for a few days and then all of a sudden he'd tell me how ignorant I am.

EDGE: What's next? Career goals?

Dustin Zito: I'm riding the wave. I'm sitting out there in the water on my surfboard waiting for the next wave to come. That's what I'm doing. Any opportunity that comes up and I think it's a good idea, I'm going to take it. I don't want to make any assumptions...I might pursue things like modeling agencies and talent agencies and that was I was doing before I went to the Frat Pack. I want to be able to do this and say "I gave this my damndest" and be 50 years old and say 'At least I don't have any regrets."

EDGE: Safe to say no more porn.

Dustin Zito: Definitely no.

The reunion special from this season's "Real World Las Vegas" cast airs June 8th at 10pm et/pt.4

Warning - Adult Content. Watch this fight between Mike and Dustin on "The Real World:"