You're aware of that, right?' We do want people to be aware when they do this that there's no privacy.' Real World executive producer Jim Johnston told me he said, ''You realize, Dustin, that you're talking about this on camera. 'I would never have to tell anybody again.'ĭuring the casting process, producers warned him. Dustin said he asked himself, 'Why am I so scared? I didn't hurt anybody, I didn't do anything wrong.' When a family friend's connection to the casting department at Bunim-Murray, the company that produces The Real World, gave him the opportunity to have his life taped for several months, Dustin thought the show 'would be a tool I could use to get it out,' he said. When the truth came out, 'Nobody in the house, not one person, was like, 'Who cares?' I wanted that,' Dustin said.īut no one in his life knew what he'd done. It doesn't define me or who I am,' he told The Daily Beast, sounding more thoughtful and intelligent than he sometimes comes across on TV. Dustin, who's 24 and identifies as straight ('When I close my eyes to masturbate, I think of a girl'), is actually unembarrassed by the gay-for-pay work he did when he was 19.