During sex, gay porn actors often have to mime ecstasy (or pain), transform lisps into hoarse growls, and exchange campy foreplay dialogue without cracking up. Tops must perform like a bulldozer, while bottoms must convey that elusive blend of virility and submission. And yet, these men are never really considered actors. After all, does anyone watch a porn flick from beginning to end without fast-forwarding and rewinding—and over again?

François Sagat might just change all that. The French icon of gay porn is the lead in Christophe Honoré’s Man at Bath (Homme au Bain), opposite Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of the great Marcello and Catherine Deneuve. Sagat plays a gay man in suburban Paris (some scenes were shot in New York) who starts sleeping around to get over a breakup. Needless to say, his famous cucumber of a penis and tight, watermelon-like derriere are on display throughout. But, says Honoré about his star, “I didn’t hire him because he is a porn actor, but because he defines the idea of body as construction.”

A nice guy, by all accounts, with a pumped-up, Michelin Man figure and a legendary head tattoo (which inspired the hair of a recent Givenchy men’s show), Sagat has been smoothly migrating between the worlds of fashion, indie films, and adult movies for a while now, but we’re particularly intrigued by this collaboration with the very French and sentimental Honoré, which opens September 22 in France.