Oran Julius is an adult performer who identifies as disabled, Black, and neurodivergent.
They boldly founded ColorBlock Films, an avant-garde adult studio, pushing the boundaries of queer and kinky content. Their talents also shine in indie films produced by CrashPadSeries and AORTA Films.
Some choice performances can be seen in “Babygurl’s Big Birthday Bang,” “CrashPad End of Year Special,” and “Orgy #004: Fuck your Friends,” all of which were screened at the San Fransico PornFilmFestival
The trans performer, who previously began in porn under the name Azalea Trix, has openly shared their transition as a non-binary person over the years.
In the interview below, Oran Julius spoke candidly about their experiences with sex and disability. Notably, they expressed how they feel less stress and anxiety about their disability while making content in the adult industry compared to other work environments.
On being a disabled porn performer
“As a disabled person, it has actually allowed me to connect with things that my body can do that are skills in this industry that aren’t in a normal capitalist society, necessarily. Certain things that were challenging for me when I used to work in different jobs are not an issue in this one as much.
“It’s not that there aren’t ever issues where my disability comes up, of course. But there’s just more space for disabled people in this industry to make a living and make what they want to out of it.
“As someone who has a quote-unquote invisible disability, there is still privilege that comes with that in terms of, I don’t get fetishized as a disabled worker in the same way that an amputee would or someone who is blind or deaf.
“Doing this work has expanded a lot more of my understanding of the ways in which disability can show up because I’ve met a lot more people with disabilities in this work than anywhere else.”
On setting boundaries
“I have an autoimmune disease, it’s degenerative, and it really varies day to day in what I’m showing up as.
“The biggest thing that is pretty consistent related to film work is that I can’t be in certain positions for a very long period of time and there are certain positions I cannot hold because it’s a spinal thing.
“That just means basically, I need you to not push that and you do not force that. I need you to let me move when I need to. I’m not going to be in long-term bondage.
“It also means that I’m not going to be kneeling on hard ground; it’s not happening. I just will not do it.
“There are certain constraints like that, and then the other things really vary. One of the other things that’s work-related that sometimes comes up is the lighting. I’m very sensitive to light. They usually have these huge bright lights on you when you’re performing. That mostly means that it needs to be a limited time. I need to be able to get away from the light in between takes and I need some darkness to escape to.
“I feel like if I go down the list, it’s kind of long. But it’s things like that, little adjustments. Certain things I need are to have a place to sit and not be on my feet the whole time. I need to have water. I need to not have really really loud sounds. Part of that is autism; part of that is physical disability.”
On their favorite starring role
“I was hired for AORTA Films, which is another queer indie porn studio that does amazing work. I was in an orgy back in November called “Orgy #004: Fuck Your Friends.”
“It’s an all Black, four-person orgy. Everyone is trans-identified. There are other people who are disabled in this scene—not that that is the focus of the scene—but knowing that myself was amazing.
“The reason I loved it wasn’t because of anything disability-related. Yes, they were great about me changing positions and being on the couch versus the floor or whatever. But really, it was actually about the Black representation, because it’s still really rare to have not fetishized Black porn.”
On entering the adult industry
“I started during the quarantine because I needed some extra income and I was starting in graduate school. But it had been something that I had been wanting to do for some time. I had considered starting working on adult content since I was 18 and just hadn’t been ready yet.
“I had gone through some personal changes and had been in a much more secure place with myself, and so I was ready and confident enough to jump in.
“I started with doing fully solo content because this was also pre-vaccines. I’m immunocompromised, so I could not be interacting with anyone besides my spouse I lived with. So I started out doing that and was mostly doing a lot of POV fetish-fantasy things. And then as things started to open up again, as vaccines became accessible, I started to perform partner shoots.”
Related Read: Disabled Porn Performers and Disability-friendly Directors
On producing disability justice-themed ‘Reclamation’
“I have this film called ‘Reclamation,’ and it actually got into the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. It’s a threesome between three disabled folks: Nahuel Miel, Soignee Lake, and Sakina Sins.
“They’re all people of color, and they’re all trans, they’re all disabled, and they came up with this concept. I told them that I really wanted to do a disability justice-themed and inspired scene. They came up with this really cool concept of something that was witchy. The idea was these three friends together on the solstice doing this healing ritual.
“They talk a lot about like settling the aches and pains in their bodies. There’s a massage gun involved. They do stuff with hot wax, they do some light massaging, and it’s just really sexy and beautiful and, body healing-centric.
“The story is beautiful and so I love it a lot. I definitely want to do more of that.”
What’s most surprising about the industry?
“Most of the people that I’ve actually interacted with in real life, whether we’ve performed together or met at events, have been the kindest, warmest people. When you see someone’s online representation, it can be really intimidating, especially when they’re obviously all gorgeous people. Then you just see, ‘Oh, they’re just people who do this art form that is very visible, which shouldn’t be surprising, but it was.”
On working on indie vs mainstream projects
“The majority of the work that I do and a lot of people do nowadays is self-produced because there are so few paid jobs out there now.
“To that extent, having to worry about how someone else portrays me is less of a thing that I have to worry about. But the times that I have been hired by other production companies, most of them have been very queer, very diverse, very diversity-minded companies. So I’ve been very upfront about how my disability shows up, saying ‘This is what I need, this is what I don’t need,’ and haven’t really had to worry about it.
“The shoots that I have done that have been a little more mainstream have been different. It honestly never factored in, because I kind of assumed the worst and it was the worst.
“I went into that shoot because I needed to get paid. I didn’t go into that shoot being like, ‘This is a place where I’m going to be represented in a way that I want to be seen. It’s just sometimes you have to make a choice.
“I do have a disability but I do have one that is relatively well managed under certain medications and aids. So the needs that I have maybe made it possible for me to do that shoot where they weren’t mindful about that, whereas maybe someone else wouldn’t have been able to.”
On sex-positive representation
“For people with disabilities, we are growing in terms of our representation. There are more of us who are making our own stuff. There are more of us who are in charge of production. There are more of us who are making it happen.
“More visibility, and specifically more non-fetishistic visibility is the direction we’re going. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but I do think that’s where we’re headed and I think in small spaces, it’s happening.”
On fetishization of Black bodies and people of color
“I think the racial piece is actually the one that will be harder to disrupt for much longer because it is based in something centuries old. Obviously, racism is and has continued to be a big part of our world for basically forever. The way in which people fetishize Black bodies and Asian bodies and large bodies and all these different ones are not going to just change by non-fetishistic representation.”
“I’m a little skeptical that there will ever be a future where we don’t have things labeled BBC (Big Black Cock) and pawg (phat ass white girl), but I am hopeful that they will be less mainstream eventually.”
“But for as long as they’re paid gigs, other people are going to do them because they need to get paid. That’s totally valid and I respect that and it’s going to stick around”
On breaking free of typecasting
“There’s a lot of this idea of that if you make a certain type of stuff, you can’t do anything different. Recognizing that even though it is a performance for money and it is work, a lot of creators are also like sexual beings themselves, who have wide interests and are complicated individuals.
“If you ever get a chance to like talk to a content creator, and you’re not a content creator, please remember that they’re real people. Because, yes, we perform something that’s titillating and sexy and in this specific adult world, and that’s also not 100% of what we are at all times.”
*This interview and been edited and condensed for clarity
