Jeremy Long is a law student at UC Berkeley, the highest rated public university in California and one of the top colleges in the world.

He’s always been studious, having received Berkeley’s prestigious full-ride Regents’ and Chancellors’ Scholarship for his undergraduate studies. He graduated with high honors and then went on to receive his master’s in business from the the similarly renowned University of Cambridge. Long then went back to UC Berkeley to pursue a law degree with aspirations to be a public defender.

Long is also a pornstar — an Asian-American one. The number of known Asian-American actors in the American porn industry could probably be counted on one hand. Long’s work currently boast hundreds of thousands of views per video, and he’s a name on the rise in the industry.

Recently, NextShark talked with Jeremy Long (his stage name derived from Taiwanese-American basketball player Jeremy Lin) about how he got into the porn, the business side of being an adult performer, and how his work has impacted his life.

You aspire to be a public defender someday, so why do porn? Is it mainly to represent Asian males in the industry?

“I can see how going to an ‘elite’ school seems pretty incompatible with doing porn, if you have the perspective prevalent at those places where any deviation from the norm is bad. And like we saw with Belle Knox getting hated on, there’s strong social pressure forming a barrier around the porn industry, especially for women.

But there is absolutely no logical nexus between doing porn and one’s ability to work in any other industry or perform well academically. And relative to our new generation’s culture, there is no basis to vilify us. Instead of just taking for granted that porn equals wrong for some reason, I’d ask you to try isolate exactly what it is that earns porn derision? Is it unprotected sex with strangers? Happens all the time in real life and at elite college campuses, and in porn we do it in the safest, most controlled manner possible.

The only difference I can see is that our sex is recorded for other people. That is, the most prominent distinction between regular sex and porn — and the only basis to allege immorality — is that porn is made commercially for viewers. And you have to think, with porn being a billion-dollar industry driving an enormous amount of internet traffic, are those who are so critical of porn not likely viewers themselves? He/she who’s never watched porn can go ahead and cast the first stone.

I arrived at my ‘elite’ school with a very different mentality and want to be a public defender for different reasons from most of my peers. I want to become a public defender to get revenge. I’ve been in that defendant’s chair myself and know how ruthless the system is and how powerless you feel, and I swore to myself if I ever got the chance I’d come back and fight for people going through the same thing I went through. I’ve been extremely fortunate and now have the privilege of being able to do that.

I’ve noticed that a requirement of achieving success — as defined in typical elite circles — is having to succumb to living life in a servile capacity. The fact that a particular career governs what you do on your own time, in your personal life, in your bedroom (or a set’s bedroom), should make you question the true costs of pursuing that path. It’s my dream to have a job where I get paid to fight against my worst enemy every day. So for me personally, being a public defender is about as much of a no-brainer as getting paid to have sex on camera.

As far as me doing porn, I’ve always had a lot of Asian pride. I mean 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.”

Why do you think Asian-American men are so rare in porn?

“I think the main reason there aren’t many of us in porn is simply because the industry operates so fast and studios just work with whatever talent they have, for the most part. There aren’t many Asian males who work in any capacity in the porn industry so there’s not much access to potential talent.”

So how did you get started?

“Part of why I was so enthusiastic about doing porn was how it started. I know people from all walks of life and was closely following some friends of mine who were starting up this project of shooting porn with Asian males. In the beginning they had a few guys lined up, and they all backed out last minute. I think to every guy initially the thought of doing porn sounds awesome but when it really materializes and comes around, it becomes really intimidating and you think of a million reasons why you shouldn’t actually go through with it. But I find intimidation challenging, so this was even more of a reason for me. People talk a lot about what qualities one needs to do porn, and they’re usually physical, but what porn really requires is balls.

I kind of had a notorious reputation for being a really sexual and promiscuous guy.”

How did you plan your first shoot?

“I was a bit overconfident so I just rolled up without really preparing in any way. I was just thinking, hey, it’s nothing different from what you’ve done tons of times so no big deal. But when it actually started, it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I was nervous and exhilarated, and it definitely was nothing like regular sex.”

How did you find your first female talent?

“I remember hearing that my producer specifically chose a very experienced female performer who was also a producer herself because of the support she could provide me on set as a newcomer. Most other talent are hired through talent agencies.”

Walk me through your experience of going to your first shoot.

“Well like I said, I didn’t expect it to be any different from a regular sexual encounter, and I had shot plenty of homemade stuff with girlfriends, but right from the beginning the formalities and the setup really throw you off. Signing documents and going over paperwork really doesn’t feel like something that precipitates sex. We all went around shaking hands as colleagues, which felt kind of odd because two of us were just about to have sex. I’m usually really confident sexually, which has always been intuitive, and this was the first time I found myself pretty skittish. During filming, everything felt so crazy because I’d never before had a third party telling me what to do and how to angle and all of that.”

What reaction have you seen from people in the industry and casual viewers toward you as an Asian male in porn?

“Within the industry, people have been awesome. Everyone I’ve worked with loved the fact they were working with an Asian guy. Of course there’s maybe some self-selection going on with the people I end up around but there is nothing about the porn industry in general that reflects any sort of ingrained bias against Asian males. There’s a lack of familiarity, but definitely no hostility whatsoever.

From casual viewers, aside from those who I meet in real life, I don’t have much exposure. There is some strange phenomenon about our videos getting downvoted like crazy on those tube sites. That’s probably due in part to our videos being tagged as ‘Asian’ so people expect to see an Asian girl but get disappointed when they see an Asian cock instead. Either that or maybe there’s just one very capable hacker out there doing all of it.”

Do you make good money in porn?

“I can’t give out figures, but on the one hand, porn doesn’t pay nearly as much as you’d probably think (and how I thought before), but on the other I’ve been treated very generously relative to industry standards for straight male porn.”

One of the biggest skills a male talent needs is to be able to perform on command. Did you personally do any training to improve yourself, or have you always had the skills of a pornstar?

“Performance in that context is definitely something that needs to be developed. That’s both the ability to get hard in a room full of people, on camera — which is very much unrelated to any typical ED issues — and being able to ejaculate for the scene. The latter issue I had to dedicate some time ‘training’ at home. Luckily I had some very supportive female friends who were a lot of help in the beginning.”

When you were growing up, did you have any idea that you would be doing this for a living?

“No, I never thought I’d end up doing this. I’ve lived a pretty crazy life from the beginning and at this point it’s just surreal.”

Has having sex for a living decreased your desire to pursue sex in your personal life in any way?

“No way. I’m very sexually active and can’t think of anything that could keep that down.”

When’s the last time you actually hit on a regular girl?

“I hit on girls all the time, everywhere I go pretty much.

What’s your relationship like with the girls you work with? Is it purely just business or do you guys also hang out as friends and such?

“It’s rare for girls in the industry in general to be purely about business. A lot of what attracts girls and keeps them working in the industry is how much they enjoy the work and the people. I’m pretty wild and I like to party, so I get along really well with female talent, and we always have a good time after the shoot.”

Do you have any specific type of girl that you like working with? Have you had any bad experiences?

“In the beginning I was brand new, so my co-stars would be much more experienced. I can’t say there is a specific type of girl. I’ve worked with all types of girls from all kinds of different backgrounds (ethnic, geographic, pre-porn work, etc.), but every single one of them has been super cool. I think there is also some self-selection going on, with me ending up with girls who are enthusiastic about working with me, and also some novelty factor that I’m providing, as lots of these girls had never been with an Asian guy before. I definitely haven’t had any bad experiences, just the typical difficulties in being a newcomer in the beginning.”

Having worked with so many women, do you think Asian men are seen as less desirable?

“That definitely hasn’t been the case for me. For most of the girls I’ve worked with I was the first Asian guy they’ve had sex with and they all thought it was awesome to get the chance to bang an Asian guy. This also applies to my personal life as well — I’ve infected tons of chicks with that yellow fever.”

What do your parents think about all this?

“Well my parents don’t even know how to turn on a computer and aren’t plugged into the media in any way, so there isn’t really any risk of them finding out. If they did somehow, it wouldn’t be so bad. I’ve been doing crazy stuff my whole life, so porn would actually be pretty mild.”

What are some common misconceptions about porn that us regular folks need to be aware of?

“Well like I mentioned earlier, probably the biggest one is the risk of disease transmission. Every one of us is very familiar with STDs, which sexual activities are risky, which diseases are easy to transmit, and the consequences of contracting a particular disease. What we learned in middle school is very far off from reality, and I think the general public’s perception hasn’t changed much from what they learned back then. That, and how often do two regular people hook up for the first time, both freshly tested? Our perspective within the industry is sex with non-industry people is risky because it’s you guys who are reckless.”

Are you ever afraid of porn having a negative impact on your future career goals?

“I do think that many career paths are now closed off to me, but not the specific one I chose. Public defenders are some of the least judgmental people you’ll ever meet, especially within the ‘professional’ realm. Because of the nature of their work they’re also able to see people as human beings beyond any label. In the end, public defenders want to hire the person who can best represent their clients in court. Having done porn part time is simply not relevant to one’s ability to be a defense attorney. And even if I can’t get a job at a public defender’s office, that won’t save the DA — I’d still be a criminal defense attorney.”

How long do you see yourself doing this? Do you plan on continuing even after you become a public defender?

“As a student, porn work is actually pretty ideal. It fits right in my schedule, and I’ve been having a great time. It’s also not something that requires any long-term commitment so I can quit/come back pretty easily and I’ll see when I get there.”

Follow Jeremy Long on Instagram and Twitter.