April 30, 2021 |
Emily Willis: The Female Performer of the Year Interview |
This is the cover story of the May issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. Emily Willis likes to slide into bed early the night before a scene and then wake up well before her call time. âI give myself a few hours in the morning to get my mindset right, eat some breakfast if I canâif itâs not analâand listen to my bad bitch music,â Willis explains. âI have to be in my element and think about how I want the scene to go.â She drinks water. She stretches. And she visualizes. âI like to meditate in the mornings if I can just to clear myself out and be ready to fuck,â Willis continues. âI do believe we are athletes and taking care of your body is very importantâand your mind is also very important.â Her pre-scene routine appears to be working. The 22-year-old superstar not only is an elite sexual athlete, sheâs the reigning league MVP. In what will be remembered as the most unusual awards season in porn history, Willis authored a remarkable body of work en route to the 2021 AVN Female Performer of the Year award at the first all-digital AVN Awards Show on January 23. The former door-to-door sales phenom for DirecTVâwho racked up more than 100 credits during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaignâadded eight more trophies that evening, including Best Star Showcase and Best Double-Penetration Sex Scene as she lit up the 38th annual ceremony. Willis called it âthe best night of my life.â âI wish I could relive that night over and over again,â she tells AVN. âIt feels so fucking good to be recognized. I knew that I wanted this for so long and I got itâand I want it again. ⦠But I'm so happy.â Willis has emerged as one of adultâs most electric performers since signing with Motley Models in May 2018, earning numerous accolades and winning over a legion of worldwide fans along the way. Her growing resume features titles such as Fleshlight Girl, Vixen Angel, Penthouse Pet, Playboy Plus All Star, Girlsway Girl of the Month, Twistys Treat, Cherry of the Month, Bang! Girl of the Month, Nubiles Fantasy and 2020 Adult Empire Porn Star of the Year. In only three years, Willis went from selling DirecTV to being must-see TV. Her coronation as the industryâs new porn queen on January 23rd only reinforced what most industry observers already knew. âI was crying,â Willis recalls. âI was so happy because you just never know. ⦠Youâre thinking like, âMaybe I got this,â but you really never know. Oh man, I was so nervous.â Willisâ breadth of awards underscored her range. She also received honors for Best Girl/Girl Sex Scene for her tryst with Elsa Jean in Influence Elsa Jean (Tushy); Best All-Girl Group Scene with Riley Reid and Kristen Scott for Paranormal (GirlGirl.com); Best Blowbang Scene for her 10-man tussle for Hard Xâs Facialized 7; and Best POV Sex Scene for inhaling Austrian pipe-layer Mick Blue for EvilAngel.com. Her most high-profile movie of the year was the glittering showcase, The Insatiable Emily Willis, a two-disc set produced and directed by Jules Jordan and starring Willis in all five scenes. That colossal effort entailed Willis delivering her first-ever D.P.âwith Blue and Steve Holmesâthat turned into AVN gold. In addition she went toe-to-toe with Rob Piper and Prince Yahshua in the 2021 AVN Best Three-Way Sex Scene â B/B/G. The Hall of Fame director Jules Jordan told AVN after the show that âEmily has what it takes to be a legendary performer.â No argument here. When Willis realized how many awards she received, she was speechless. âIt felt so unreal. I was like, âAre you kidding meânine awards?â So it was shock and excitement and just like all of the emotions at once,â says Willis, who was born in San Rafael, Argentina, and raised in St. George, Utah, from the age of 5. âIt was like an overwhelming sensation of I don't know what to do with myself. I want to scream. I want to dance, anything, like Iâm so, so stoked.â The 25-year industry veteran Jordan says the Insatiable showcase, which wrapped production not long before the country went into lockdown, turned into his best-selling release of 2020. âThe sales numbers Emily does are phenomenal,â Jordan says. âShe really resonates with the younger crowd, who are usually not aware of specific starlets⦠She really stands out. âIâm so glad she won Performer of the Year. She was definitely the most deserving I believe, and the timing of our movie couldnât have been better. We all were on our âA' game.â Itâs become evident that Willis brings that killer instinct to every set she graces. It wasnât a coincidence that she starred in four of the Top 10 Porn Movies of 2020 on retail giant AdultEmpire.com, which received its 14th AVN Award for Best Web Retail Store in January. Leveraged by their library of 93,000-plus DVD and Blu-ray titles and more than 82,000 videos-on-demand, the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based firm tracks the market value of top performers at any given time based on metrics such as sales, rentals, downloads and searches. Based on that data Adult Empire in December named Willis its third annual Pornstar of the Year. âWe award Pornstar of the Year to performers who push both themselves and the medium forward,â Colin Allerton, vice president of Adult Empire, tells AVN. âPut another way, itâs reserved for stars who help to define and shape pornography in a given year. 2020 was obviously a highly unusual year in many ways, but Willis still managed to fire on all cylinders. âI think thatâs what most impressed us about her year. In a circumstance when most professionals would be content simply to hold their own, she was producing blockbusters that fans will still be watching five or 10 years from now. When they write the history of porn, Emily Willis will be one of the first names mentioned in connection with 2020.â Allerton says her presence in several of the top movies of the past year illustrates the impact she had on the market. âShe was everywhere, giving the sort of performances that make people take notice,â Allerton continues. âShe can carry an entire movie, such as The Insatiable Emily Willis, but she is also capable of contributing superb supporting performances, such as in Influence. âNot every performer can transition with such ease between divergent movies like that. She has the kind of star power that is increasingly hard for performers to harness in an era when porn audiences are so fragmented.â Mick Blue, the three-time AVN Male Performer of the Year, knows Willisâ performing prowess as well as anyone in adult, sharing the screen with her in numerous ball-draining outings. Blue and Willis have performed together no less than seven times since 2018 just for Vixen Media Groupâs family of websites that include Vixen, Tushy, Deeper and TushyRaw, among others. âI think Emily is such a sweet, incredible human being to start with and Iâm super happy for her that she won Female Performer of the Year because she totally deserves it,â Blue tells AVN. âItâs kind of like sheâs naturally really good at having sex because she in my opinion truly enjoys what she does. But at the same time, sheâs also very focused and smart in kind of like maximizing her performance and her efforts in whatever she does. And it just shows the fruits of her hard work now in the past few years.â Blue adds, âEven now after her winning AVN Performer of the Year sheâs even better than before and any time you have the opportunity to be on a project with her itâs just a great day. âWhat weâve seen from her is not the last yet. I think there is still a lot more great stuff from her to come, especially because of her dedication to the industry to being the best she can be. Sheâs truly one of a kind.â About six weeks after the show, Willis erected a shelf inside her three-bedroom apartment to display her AVN hardware. âI was like fuck it, Iâm feeling a little bit crafty. I was going to have someone come do it, but I just set it up,â Willis reveals. Not unlike the persistence she showed as a teenagerâwhen she got her first job at a burger shop at 14 after initially getting a ânoâ from the manager, to keeping her grades up so she could stay in her competitive dance companyâWillis realizes there is no substitute for hard work and determination. âI would describe myself as a very intense, wild, passionate, energetic, bubbly performer,â Willis says. âAnd I try to elevate each and every scene and make them different.â Motley Models president Dave Rock agrees. âI love the person that she is,â Rock tells AVN. âSheâs so delightful to be around. Sheâs just a sweet, nice, genuine person. She can sit down with a great director or with a well-known photographer or a brand new Motley girl and she makes everyone feel like theyâre on the same level. âShe doesnât have this elitist attitude like sheâs too good. Thatâs the thing I like about her the most. Despite all the success sheâs had, sheâs down to earth and very sweet.â Indeed, Willis leaves an impression wherever she goes. And according to industry insiders, winning an armful of trophies in January hasnât changed her a bit. AVN Hall of Fame director Chris Streams, a 25-year industry veteran from Annapolis, Md., captured Willis in a scene with 2004 AVN Male Performer of the Year Michael Stefano in March for the soon-to-be-released Anal Stars 2 for Evil Angel. For her efforts, Willis landed the box cover. âIâve shot her a ton,â Streams tells AVN. âAnd Iâll tell you what I put on her Twitter feed when they announced she won AVN Performer of the Year⦠My quote was, âYou literally worked your ass off for it.â âThatâs how I feel. She did it. She stepped up⦠Sheâs amazing and sheâs always a pleasure to be aroundâsmiling and happy and always wants to do more. Like, âWhat else can we do?â âShe always makes the day greatâlike all the great girls do. Thereâs a reason why we shoot the good ones over and over again.â Streams says Willis possesses certain traits that canât be taught. "You either have it or you donât,â he continues. âThereâs not an agentâas good as all of them may beâyou canât make a superstar. You can guide them or try to help them in the right direction and help them make the right decisions, but itâs her performance first and foremost and then itâs their look and then how they interact with the people they work with. Not just the performer in the scene but also the crew and the director, too.â Fellow Hall of Fame shot-caller Axel Braun saw it for himself in late February. The Head of Production for Wicked Pictures, who is more than 30 years into his career behind the camera, shot Willis for the first time in Axel Braunâs Down 2 Fuck. Willis squared off with Spanish heartthrob Ramon Nomar in front of Braun, marking a reunion of sorts as the same pair won the 2020 AVN Award for Best Anal Sex Scene for their butt sex in the LeWood/Evil Angel showcase Emily Willis: The Anal Awakening. âAnd to say that I was completely blown away would be a gross understatement,â Braun tells AVN. âShe literally exudes sensuality and her performance was just incredible. âAlso she is extremely professional while also very personable, which makes her a pleasure to be around on set. But what I think makes Emily so unique is her ability to truly connect with her partner and with the camera at a level that Iâve rarely seen, and to convey to the viewer her pure sexual enjoyment. âShe is basically the female equivalent of Manuel Ferrara. As I told her after the scene, her AVN Female Performer of the Year award was very well deserved⦠and I doubt it will be the last one.â Now already more than 450 credits into her career, Willis enters the summer with the demand for her services at an all-time high. Just ask her agent at Motley Models, Ryan Kona, who tells AVN even though Willis has accomplished a lot in her young career, she isnât satisfied. âThatâs what I love about her,â Kona tells AVN. âSheâs not content. She wants more and she wants bigger projects and that drive really impresses me. âThis coming year she has some big things in the works that are even going to surpass last year. I know that sounds crazy but sheâs the queen right now and she deserves every single thing thatâs coming to her.â Willisâ expanding fanbase at press time included 638.9K followers on Twitter and more than 1.5 million on Instagram. If any more evidence was needed that word has gotten around about Willis, her rapid rise on Pornhub appears to be another leading indicator. She went from being ranked 92nd in the world on the site in March 2019 to 14th at press time with more than 464 million video views and 453K subscribersâup from 75K subscribers and 92 million views just two years ago. She completed six scenes for Brazzers during her Female Performer of the Year eligibility period and has racked up 13 overall since her debut on the heavyweight site in March 2019. âEmily has been a fan favorite on ZZ since her very first release in 2019,â Ryan Hogan, product director for pay-sites services who oversees content acquisition for Brazzers, tells AVN. âShe is a special talent who has turned out every type of performance for us, always going the extra mile and surprising our viewers. âThe best part is she is just getting started, and we hope to continue working with her for many years to come.â So does Holly Ruprecht, the director of marketing subscriptions for Playboy, who selected Willis to kick off the Playboy Plus All Star of the Month feature in February. In images shot by Agent X, Willis appeared in two photosetsâone with a ballet theme and the other with a sports themeâon PlayboyPlus. âWe wanted to work with Emily because she represents everything a Playboy All Star is,â Ruprecht tells AVN. âShe is a smart businesswoman who has also become a big brand. She seems to really enjoy what she does and fully embraces her sexuality.â Willis says she learned how to strive for a goal during her formative years. She started taking ballet classes at 5, training twice a week. âAnd then in high school in dance company it was three, four times a week and our coach was really strict on us,â she explains. âIt was always about getting good grades, being on top of yourself, taking care of yourself. âSo I think that really carried along with me in the future for any other job that I had. But I loved it. Dancing and being on a stage in the mornings from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m.âI think that really helped me get an athletic body maybe, and then like always working out. That is really important, too. âAnd being more flexible has helped me with my scenes. Like Iâll do the splits on a dick or bending over. Itâs definitely helped me to my advantage.â When she danced, Willis wanted to âbe the best or in the front.â When the manager of the local burger joint told her she had to be 16 to work there, she went back five more times to ask him until he gave her a chance. âIâve definitely always been a big believer in working until you get something,â Willis continues. âOr if I want it, Iâm going to get it. And if you work hard enough you can do those things.â A proud Capricorn who is in tune with astrology, Willis says she's intrigued by âhow weâre affected by the Moon sometimesâ and the planetary system. âIâm very into reading my horoscope and I like to learn about other peopleâs signs because it helps me get a better feel for kind of who they areâwhich is probably terrible to doâbut itâs cool to understand people and myself,â Willis adds. âAnd I read a lot about my sign and it all checks out.â What also holds true is that Willis' profile is only growing. In the April edition of Hustler magazine, she was named the Hustler Honey, appearing in an exquisite photo set lensed by Holly Randall. Whatever the situation, Willis adapts and thrives. Her ability to keep her "eye on the prizeâ throughout the ups and downs of 2020 led her to a better understanding of the woman she has become on and off the set. âI found that doing this job in general has taught me to really empower myself, my sexuality and who I am,â Willis says. âItâs taught me to not be afraid to go out there and to get as crazy as I can on camera and to love myself. It has taught me so much. âItâs the most empowering thing to get out there and have sex in front of everyone and winning Female Performer of the Year definitely is the best feeling in the world. âThat itself is so empowering and motivating because itâs feeling like I am Female Performer of the Fucking Year and Iâm going to go out there and be one.â  Photography by Keith Ryan
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