Inside Making the Gay Porn Murder Film King Cobra

Director and screenwriter Justin Kelly and actor Christian Slater spent some time with the press talking about the true gay porn murder tale, King Cobra.

Director Justin Kelly had his hands full in retelling the tale of how Sean Lockhart became twink porn sensation Brent Corrigan (deftly played here by Garrett Clayton). He had an even tougher time navigating the dangerous waters of the murder of Bryan Kocis, the director who first trademarked the Corrigan name, then refused to let the young actor ply his trade under any other banner than the Cobra label Kocis founded. When a rival studio wanted to “borrow” the Corrigan name (and Lockhart) to boost its own video sales and Kocis refused, one of those rivals stabbed him 28 times, then slashed his throat and set Kocis’ house ablaze to cover their crime.

Today Kelly and actor Christian Slater (who plays the ill-fated Cobra founder) are meeting with the gay press. And it’s clear that, after the debacle that was the Stonewall film last summer, the pair wanted to tamp down any notions that their movie was being anything less than truthful, with enough details changed that the movie is now considered a “docudrama,” rather than a documentary.

“For me,” says Kelly, “it’s about telling really interesting stories with fascinating characters we don’t see as often. It’s not about representing gay characters in a bad way. It’s about the story and the characters and who they sleep with is secondary, which is how I think it should be. So it’s not a desire to go out there and find these non-uplifting LGBT stories at all. I believe it’s more progressive to approach queer stories in this way, where you’re not only focusing on coming out stories.”

Trying to find the heart of the story and really trying to understand each character as opposed to just focusing on the sex scandal and murder … even though that’s the selling point.
It was digging through to find the heart of the story. For me it was about a lonely guy living in the suburbs who wanted something more as opposed to a seedy porn producer and a kind of lost kid trying to make it on his own into a wanna-be porn star, so thinking of the characters that way and trying to enhance those elements.

For Slater, who has a wife, part of the challenge – and allure – was playing someone unlike any parts he’s taken in his career. And, since the plot revolves around an older man using a younger one (Lockhart actually faked his age; he was 17 when they made his first porn film) to make money and to try to seduce, finding Kocis’ humanity was crucial:

“I did have some compassion for this guy,” Slater reflects. “I definitely feel like it was in the script, and you could take this story and set it against any sort of backdrop. It’s a story of obsession and about human beings trying to find their way and maybe not choosing the most “ethical” path you could take. Their lives go in all kinds of different directions. everyone wants to find their path and what it is that motivates them and excites them. This guy was presenting an image certainly to his family. His sister (played by Molly Ringwald) is asking him to meet a girl, so he’s obviously a closeted guy and hasn’t revealed himself to anybody and is doing all these things under the radar. I thought that was fascinating, and I could identify with the frustration of that. I was thinking about it last night. There are just a couple of lines in the scene with Garrett where I say, ‘I just want to feel wanted.’ That feeling is something that is universal and something that a lot of people can identify with.”

Kocis isn’t around to weigh in on Slater’s portrayal, but Lockhart decided he wanted to stay as far away from the film as possible – especially since he has a book coming out soon that’s likely to address the relationship and the murder. “I did send him the script and we met up in person and talked about it,” Kelly says, “so he gave us permission to make the film. “But he didn’t want to be involved. If anything we created a bit of a different character in terms of not sticking so closely to the real Brent, which I think is fine for any film that’s based on a true story that’s not a famously known character, it’s not like a Milk or a JFK or Malcolm X or something. There’s an essence of who they are, but the hairstyles and clothes they wear become less important.”