Cherie DeVille: 'I Like to Be Challenged'

A version of this article ran in the January 2020 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Cherie DeVille is at the AVN Expo this week, signing with XEmpire at Booth 2300 in the Joint today noon-5 p.m. and Friday 3-8 p.m, and with Evil Angel at Booth 1311 in Muse Hall on Thursday 1-4 p.m. Physical beauty is almost a job requirement in adult entertainment. But when it comes to Cherie DeVille, she is pleasing to more than just the eye. In both body and mind, the 2019 AVN MILF Performer of the Year exudes physical and emotional health. Part of that healthy aura stems from her background as a physical therapist—a vocation that she has kept up since beginning her adult career in 2012. But the other part is her optimistic, open-minded outlook on life. DeVille started off slow, doing girl/girl for a couple of years before she moved to Los Angeles full time. “I didn’t know what porn was gonna be like, and I knew I was comfortable with women in general so I felt like that would be the safe, comfortable, natural place to start.” She shot for all the big names in all-girl productions, including Girlfriends Films and Filly Films. Her first boy/girl scene was with Keiran Lee, as part of a five-scene mini-contract for Brazzers. “It was a great scene and I wouldn’t change anything about it,” DeVille says. After that, she went full force into a career that she truly enjoys—and not just for the financial stability it has brought her. It’s also about the challenges the work provides. One challenge in 2019 was her role in Unfolding, a movie about a couple opening up their relationship, which was directed by Kay Brandt for Adam & Eve Pictures. The movie was a huge hit on streaming sites, spending much of the year in the top five on Adult Empire. “Any time I get offered a feature role—especially those that don’t lean on me being a MILF, is just a huge honor,” Deville says, adding, “I’m so happy to be a MILF—I love that role.” But like any actor, “mainstream or otherwise,” she appreciates moving beyond the expected roles. Brandt’s characters “are not easily placed in little boxes,” she says. “Each character was flawed and beautiful and unique and interesting—not just little tropes to be stuck in a pornography movie.” “My favorite kind of scenes are anything that is interesting. And that to me at this point is something different, challenging,” DeVille says. She’s looking to be pushed as an artist or as an athlete. “Something that makes me struggle—I know that sounds odd, but I like that. I like to be challenged. I think that when I feel challenged I focus harder, and when I focus harder it’s a better product because I’m really involved, really mentally present, really invested, not at all phoning it in. … You do your best job on set, but sometimes you’re given those extra opportunities that just make you push yourself maybe even further than you thought, and that’s where I feel it’s special.” Asked about which directors have pushed her the most, DeVille exclaims, “A lot of the female directors!” Laughing, she adds, “I’m on the record saying it. I feel a lot of the female directors … they seem very willing to redirect me, which I like. If I go in a certain direction that’s not their vision, they will steer me back to their vision. … I can make my own content and stretch myself as an artist in a gonzo film that doesn’t have any dialogue but if you’ve taken the care to write a script I would love to take the care to bring that character to life how you want it.” She adds, “I wish we would all have the luxury of pushing ourselves to be even better actors. …  I know everybody makes fun of porn for such bad, campy acting, and I think part of that is time. What mainstream takes months to build, we take hours to build.” She hastens to clarify that there’s such a thing as good campy acting. “I think that’s the joy of the Brazzers brand. They have embraced the stereotypes and made them meme-worthy,” DeVille points out. “Everyone’s in on the joke at Brazzers. … It’s just joyfully campy. Everyone knows what they’re trying to build: that super-fun place to enjoy your porn.” Nowadays, for many fans that “super-fun place” is anywhere their favorite stars are shooting their own footage to share directly with fans. “It’s a whole new world of on-the-run content,” DeVille says. And the approach she takes is “a lot more stupid and a lot more silly … I always think to myself, what would make my colleagues laugh? If I can giggle and laugh, it’s a win.” She says she’s successful enough in selling her own content that she could just do that, but she prefers to keep a mix by working with studios. As for any specific studios or directors she’s still hoping to work for, DeVille says, “Brad Armstrong, Axel Braun, Woodrocket—that’s just what’s coming to me off the top of my head.” DeVille says, “I feel like I got into porn at just the right time. I got in when it was all about the companies and the directors and the producers, and they are 100 percent why Cherie DeVille exists. They promoted me, they marketed me and made it that I had a name, a legitimate name, in the adult industry. And then all of a sudden, we could monetize our names on our social media. … I feel like it was just kismet for me.” She says it’s even more striking how newcomers have been able to find success without that kind of a push. “I am impressed with the people who began shooting their own content who had no name and started from the ground and built their own name.” DeVille is “completely grateful to every company that booked me when I didn’t have social media. ... And that they’re still booking me, awesome. And who knows what the landscape of porn will like in five years and I pray that I’m still on it. So I’m trying to keep a little finger in each pie. Please still love me, everybody.” And she is more than happy to return that love—along with gratitude. “I loved being a physical therapist but this brings me so much more joy and fulfillment. I can’t even put my finger on why. I don’t know if it’s because I’m bringing joy to other people, and that’s satisfying, or if it’s because I can stretch myself as an artist—I’m not sure.” Part of DeVille’s healthy attitude toward her career may comes from having entered the business in her mid-30s. Mature performers have a more relaxed attitude, she believes. “We’re not gonna start drama. We’re all genuinely there to have a good time. I’m not the same at 41 as I was at 18. I certainly would have been more prone to drama if my 18-year-old self was doing this.” And though in some ways she regrets not starting younger—“I could have been doing this longer?”—she believes it was for the best. “Maybe I needed all those other experiences to be as confident and joyful in this experience as I have been,” she says. Also, she says, “being older and self-assured and very knowing of myself” helped her avoid some pitfalls that younger performers face. In fact, DeVille is in a position to impart sound advice to her colleagues. For one thing, she’s been in a stable relationship for six years to “a very good sport” who is comfortable with her adult career. “Part of it is I love him so fucking much and I let him know it and make sure he feels confident in my unwavering loyalty and love,” she says. “For our relationship, that emotional monogamy is invaluable. Not everyone needs emotional monogamy. But for our particular dynamic, that’s what makes it work.” She also thinks it’s important to get into the business for the right reasons. “I don’t feel like money for most people feeds the soul. So I think that anyone who gets into any job with money as their motivating factor is going to feel hollow, potentially.” And that can be especially true for performers whose friends and family disapprove of the career they’ve chosen. “I’m lucky to be getting positive messages in my life, and not everyone who is brave enough to embrace this career is lucky enough to be getting those positive messages.” Despite the social disapproval that comes with choosing to enter the adult industry, DeVille says, there is still a big upside. “This is one of the very few jobs that will plant you firmly in the middle or upper-middle class without a high school education,” she says. “Sex work is one of the last bastions of that dream.” But that means the adult community faces unique challenges.“Our barrier to entry is willingness and beauty. So we have amazing variety, more than in any other job I’ve ever had. … Adult entertainment exemplifies the beauty of America. Anyone from any background—rich, poor, destitute, millionaire—has no more or less chance of making it in our field. And that’s what’s so beautiful, but it’s also what brings the variety in people and potential mental health issues.” In other professions, candidates jump through many hoops to start their careers: educational requirements, internships, licensing, background checks. “We’ve weeded out no one in porn,” she says. “And I think that’s fantastic. But it also creates a diverse job environment with needs in every avenue that are unanticipated. So if we can band together and help our coworkers meet those needs so they can stay in this career and continue to be fantastic entertainers, that is great. Because I don’t think mental health problems should weed you out of any job, especially this beautiful, creative wonderful world that we’ve found ourselves in.” She also has valuable advice about staying safe. Adult performers attain celebrity, but without the kind of wealth that mainstream celebrities amass to protect themselves. “Millions of people watch us, which is celebrity, but while we make very tidy incomes … we don’t make millions on millions on millions of dollars where we can hire private security,” she says. And she worries about when they face problems that require getting involved with the justice system, problems can arise. “When a sex worker goes to the police, it’s like, you asked for it. What did you expect? … It’s not across the board in law enforcement, but I’ve heard enough stories to believe it is a problem in our industry still today.” And some fans don’t understand that adult performers are doing a job. “It is common to feel that because we play a slut on camera or are willing to have sexual intercourse with perhaps more partners than the average person, that means we are a free-for-all. … To be rejected by a sex worker somehow feels more offensive to people because we’re supposed to be sluts. I don’t think people really understand the art that we do. It would be like a musician being called upon to perform regardless of the scenario. It’s completely inappropriate. Until the public understands that we’re just actors and actresses doing a fun and beautiful job—but that it is a job, and we are acting—there’s going to be confusion that can lead to an increase in sexual violence against us.” This industry veteran also offers insight on issues of consent and the unique issues created by a sexualized work environment. “Say you are directing me and I am about to perform a sex scene and I want to feel sexy. In fact, if I don’t feel sexy, my sex scene is going to be subpar. So if you are bank-teller-status professional with me, it’s not going to get me in the right vibe. But if you’re creepy with me, it’s a problem. … That line is such a beautiful and delicate dance that directors, male and female directors, have to walk. Some of them do it very beautifully. They are able to somehow be completely uncreepy, completely unhitting on you, whilst at the same time getting you in the proper sexy headspace to do your job. That’s a talent. It’s a talent that a lot of our current successful directors, male and female, have. “For those directors that can walk that line, I applaud them. I’m not entirely sure how I would do it,” she says. And as a performer who frequently works with much younger performers, she has to consider her own behavior on set, especially in scenes where she is acting out an aggressive or predatory role. “What can I do now to make them feel I respect them?” she asks wryly. “Ten minutes from now, things are going to get weird! … But I respect you.” On top of all she does as an adult star, DeVille continues to work as a physical therapist. She has noticed that sex workers are drawn to work in the health professions. “The personality it takes to do those two jobs are very congruent. You have to be very comfortable with the human body—be unable to be grossed out—and be very social and be very physical and like helping people and I think those two jobs have that same list. … We love people. Nothing grosses us out. And we like to help.” And the work helps keep her priorities straight. “Having so much attention on social media sometimes makes you too big for your britches,” she says. “Being a therapist and helping people with real problems brings you right the fuck down to earth. Having a normal job where you’re the least important person—you’re there to serve and help. To be of service is grounding.”