When it comes to male performers of Asian descent in mainstream American heterosexual porn, there aren’t many. One of the very few who’s made it through in a visible way is Jeremy Long, who hopes to break the porn industry norm permanently.

Long, who is also a third-year UC Berkeley School of Law student, is a rising star in the adult industry with millions of views on his videos online. His chosen stage name pays homage to professional basketball player Jeremy Lin, whose star turn with the New York Knicks years ago brought mainstream attention to the lack of Asian players in the NBA, the equivalent of which Long is doing in porn.

“I’ve always had a lot of Asian pride,” Long told NextShark in a 2014 interview. “I have it tattooed on my forearm. So when this porn gig came along, I just responded how I always have whenever there’s a chance to put it down for us Asians.”

Unlike in the Hollywood movie industry, where Asian actors struggle to find roles, Long says the porn industry simply lacks willing Asian men.

“There’s no evil guy behind a desk being like, ‘Oh I hate Asians, fuck them,’” he told The Daily Californian. “It just happens based on what’s around, and there aren’t many Asian guys in those circles.

NextShark caught up with Long through email to talk about his upbringing, the types of women he dates, and what it’s like being an Asian male in porn.

Tell us a little bit about what it was like growing up for you.

“I was a badass little kid growing up — typical California Asian thug. I was in and out of juvenile hall until I got sent to CYA when I was 15. At some point I changed my life and started to go to community college, then transferred to Cal. Because of my background I knew how fortunate I was to be at Cal and I really tried my best and gave it 100 percent, so I did pretty well and that’s how I was able to go even further academically. But otherwise I have very little in common with the thousands of other Asians who populate our ‘elite’ universities.”

What type of women have you tended to date?

“I’ve been surrounded by other Asians my whole life. I’ve mostly dated not only Asian but a very specific type of Asian. Not sure exactly how to categorize, but the word ‘ghetto’ comes to mind. You know: the tatted-up, thugged-out, baby-daddy-in-prison-type of chick. That was my whole world for a very long time. Only after coming to Berkeley did I really realize there was a different and much larger community and class of Asians.

“I used to be really picky with girls. I’d say my ideal type would be a Viet girl who looks Korean. But I got locked up for a long time as a teenager (California Youth Authority) so after that I just kinda went wild and made up for all the time I lost and threw any preferences, racial or otherwise, out the window.”

“I wouldn’t really consider myself a playboy because, at least to me, that implies a sort of wealth and charm/fakeness that’s used to get girls. I’m very straightforward, open and honest.”

What are some of the things you hear when you’re working with female performers who’ve never had sex with an Asian guy before?

“A lot of girls I’ve worked with are from the South or Midwest or some other area where there are almost no Asians, so probably a majority of girls I’ve worked with had not been with an Asian guy before. At least 50 percent of the girls I’ve shot with have said, ‘Hell yeah, I get to fuck an Asian guy today!’ (or some variation of that). It’s pretty awesome, I’ve actually never seen such enthusiasm anywhere else before. Porn is a super-chill community and all the girls just see it as a cool, novel thing for them.”

Have you had any bad experiences working with a female performer?

“Probably the only ‘bad’ experience I’ve had was just due to my inexperience. I did one scene which was a five-guy gangbang, with Kink and Simone Sonay, a friend of mine. The scene was pretty brutal so it was kind of difficult for me because I felt very reluctant to do certain things to her. Not that it would be easy to perform that way with any girl, but it was even harder because of who it was. I’d almost be interrupting the footage because I wanted to say ‘sorry’ after slapping her with my dick. She’s very experienced and loves what she does (the brutality and all of it), and that’s Kink’s thing — it’s their style and genre, and they are very good at it and totally professional, but it was very new to me.”

There’s a belief that non-Asian women are simply not attracted to Asian men because they’re presented a certain way in mainstream media. Do you find this true?

“I think it’s definitely true that the media portrays us in a horrible way. I’ve actually heard more Asian girls say they are not attracted to Asian guys than non-Asian girls, but maybe it’s just them feeling more comfortable with being vocal about it. In any case I think my fellow Asian men should just adopt the perspective I had after being incarcerated and just go after everything in sight.”

How many girls do you think you’ve bedded at this point?

“I know this is going to be hard to believe because there was a time when I never thought it would be possible, but I lost count a long time ago.”

Do your parents know what you do?

“No they don’t. I’ve done all kinds of crazy stuff before; porn can’t get me locked up or killed so they wouldn’t really care too much. “

What’s your best advice for Asian men in the dating sphere?

“Distinguish between girls you are trying to sleep with and girls you are trying to have a relationship with/marry. For the former, recognize that there’s an inverse relationship between quality and quantity. Every guy can be successful with girls if they aren’t picky. And going through a phase where you’re banging lots of chicks is just good practice if anything.’

You’ve been recruiting Asian men for porn. How did you find them and did they require any sort of training?

“Well, it’s tough getting new guys. Lots of them back out last minute, which is understandable. Porn is just pretty damn crazy. One of our new guys, Dat Hung Cok, actually applied because his ex-girlfriend was a fan of mine and would always watch my porn and he got jealous so it was kind of a way to get back at her.

“In porn there’s not really any training you can do. You really just need to learn through experience. It’s nothing like anything you could do off-screen, so no way to simulate the conditions that make it difficult.”

What do you think of the stereotype that Asian males have small penises?

“I used to say 1 out of 1 Asian penises I’ve encountered are not small. Now after doing porn and working with directors/recruiters I’ve actually encountered or at least seen an insane number of Asian penises and the percentage hasn’t changed much. But as far as the stereotype and how it’s perpetuated I think it’s kind of the same thing with our general image in the media. We get shit on a lot and American media and popular culture has no love for us.”

How big are you?

If I’m fully hard about 8 inches. Used to get girls who would be surprised but nowadays most girls who I hook up with have already seen me naked.

What are some current projects you are working on?

One of my favorite shows was ‘Avatar the Last Airbender.’ It was the first American cartoon I’d seen where everyone was Asian, and I loved it because of that. I was furious and disgusted when they made a live-action film and made everyone white.

“They also did something similar in porn with a parody of Glenn and Maggie from ‘The Walking Dead’ with a white guy in yellowface playing Glenn. I was similarly disgusted and it was even worse because with Glenn/Steve Yeun they basically took one of the few Asian male sex symbols and castrated it by parodying him with a white guy. So I was really excited to be able to shoot a ‘Walking Dead’ parody scene and actually be the Asian guy playing Glenn.

“Also we shot a cuckold scene where I play an Asian guy who cucks this white couple. That was pretty fun too.”