Charly Summer: The Best New Starlet Interview

This is the cover story of the April issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES—Charly Summer remembers when the nerves took over. She tried to remain calm sitting in the fifth row at the 40th annual AVN Awards Show in Las Vegas, but there was no denying what was at stake about 11 p.m. on Saturday, January 7th. The time had come to crown the 2023 Best New Starlet—one of the night’s most anticipated categories. “And they started rattling off all the names and I was like, oh my god, it’s really happening—there’s no more running from this moment,” Summer recalls. She managed to control her emotions during the four days at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo leading up to the ceremony, meeting fans and chatting with peers—many of whom offered words of encouragement. “I had a lot of people during the time I was at the expo at Jules Jordan’s booth come up to me—and some fellow performers who were in my category—and tell me that they thought I was gonna win,” Summer admits. “And then my nerves went even higher. “And then the people that I look up to that I think are like the coolest are telling me this and I’m like, ‘No way you guys, no way.’ I’m like, ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen. “So I felt like the pressure was on. It was crazy the way it all went down, all that building and then to walk away with a win was really exceptional.” Summer carved out her own piece of AVN Awards history by becoming the first Best New Starlet crowned at an in-person show in Vegas following the global pandemic; she also was the first to take the stage at the all-new theatre venue after more than a decade of the event being held at The Joint inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The entire experience turned into a blur of excitement for Summer, who eased into adult work after becoming a viral sensation on Reddit under the username “kittytinyfeets.” “It definitely took me a while to process. It was a crazy moment. I’ve never really had a moment in my life like that before. My heart was literally pounding out of my body,” Charly says. “I was not expecting to have that reaction either. I was like, oh, play it cool, play it cool, you know, whatever. “It was honestly just like a highlight of my life. And getting to receive that award from Blake [Blossom] meant a lot to me because she was the first girl I ever met in the industry. “The first shoot I ever did was down in Miami and she was there at the time at the shoot I was doing, so that was just kind of a full circle moment. And that she won before me. It was just really fucking cool.” Summer continues, “It’s just one of those moments that you’ll just like treasure forever in your head and you just try to rerun it in your head as much as possible. I don’t want that memory to fade because it was just so superior.” The Motley Model not only won the most prestigious award for a new female performer in adult entertainment, she also took home the Best Star Showcase trophy for her fearless performance in Ultimate Fuck Toy: Charly Summer for Jules Jordan Video; and Best Virtual Reality Sex Scene for her ball-draining outing in “Dream Team” for SexLikeReal Originals with John Strong and 14 other girls. As nerve-wracking as it all was, Charly says it also was thrilling to be in contention for major honors. “I love competition. I feel like in my heart I’m extremely competitive,” she says. “My mom kind of raised me to be a competitor. I was always in competitive equestrian sports and gymnastics. I was always kind of a performer at heart. So I think I kind of live for the competition. “And not even competing against anyone in particular. I think it’s really just myself at the end of the day that I want to come through for. All those scenes that I did for Jules in the past year I just put so much heart into.” Indeed, Summer reached for the stars in Ultimate Fuck Toy, the latest entry in the Hall of Fame director Jordan’s glittering showcase series. While that title wasn’t the only catalyst for Summer’s porno championship season, it without question played an integral role in it. The former Catholic schoolgirl—represented by Motley since October 2020—delivered several career firsts in Fuck Toy. In addition to her first anal scene with the vaunted deal-closer Dredd, the showcase also featured an anal scene with Rob Piper and her first DP with Piper and Jax Slayher that included a double-vaginal penetration sequence—another first. “Charly went all out last year and did what very few have been willing to do,” Jules Jordan, who has directed more than 400 gonzo movies in his 25-year career, tells AVN. “She really sacrificed all her holes for her fans and for this reason she was the only choice to win the big award! “I’m hoping to do more projects with her this year.” Motley Models founder Dave Rock agrees, telling AVN, “We couldn’t be more proud of how Charly conducts her business.” “She’s always been very careful about the content she posts on her social media, making sure it’s classy, beautiful and on brand,” Rock says. “She picks her projects wisely and gives 110 percent with each opportunity.” Rock continues, “Some of the things that make Charly such a dynamite performer are that she studies her craft. She does research on the brands and talent she’s shooting with to familiarize herself on what’s going to be expected of her in order to make the best scenes possible. “She’s also very passionate about her exercise regimen to ensure she looks phenomenal from every angle and has the stamina to bring fire scenes to her fans.” Summer racked up more than 75 credits during the eligibility period, throwing down for heavyweight studios such as Brazzers, Reality Kings, Evil Angel, New Sensations, Digital Sin, Pure Taboo, Bang!, Wicked Pictures, Mofos, Team Skeet and Girlsway, among others. She treated adult like a business from the beginning, bringing professionalism to each opportunity, including an audition for the hit HBO show Euphoria—Summer made it to the final round. While she didn’t land a part on that project, Charly was invited back to appear on director Sam Levinson’s next original series, The Idol, which will debut on HBO this summer. She shot for The Idol over parts of six months last year. “I think I always wanted to be an actress, but I never really thought it was possible,” Charly says. “My parents didn’t take me to any auditions growing up. It was like, how am I going to do this? It seems like one of those careers that’s kind of hard to get into.” In The Idol, Lily-Rose Depp plays a pop star and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye is a cult leader. “And I’m a part of the cult,” Summer says of her role. “It was just a great time. It was such a great experience being able to be there and see all these artistic people in their element.” Not long after her Euphoria audition, Summer got an acting coach and has been taking regular classes to improve her dramatic skills. “It’s really fun,” Charly says. “I love going through scripts. I love working with her. I think it’s really challenges that I love. And acting is definitely one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced, but it’s also one of the greatest because it’s so complex and I feel like it just makes me grow as a person.” She tells AVN the past two years tested her in ways she could not have imagined. “It’s been all about believing in myself—one hundred percent,” Charly says. “I don’t really know where it comes from. I guess just my determination. “I’m really just pretty determined, honestly. Like I know what I want. There’s been a lot of adversity going through the industry in the past two years and I think that combined with a lot of other factors just made me rise to the occasion. “And I don’t know if I always completely believed in myself, to be honest. I think I wanted to see. I think I was like, I want to bet on myself and see what happens. “And it happened to work out.” She continues, “A lot of the times when I would wake up at 4 a.m. to go do some crazy scene for Jules I’d be sitting there in my bathroom at 4 a.m. like, ‘What the fuck am I doing? Like I’m actually crazy.’” But Summer would be the first to say that her strong support system instilled her with all the confidence to go big when it mattered. She pointed to her life partner Sid Vision as someone who encouraged her to chase her dreams from Day 1. “I think he was really the one who was able to help me break down all those barriers and those doubts,” Charly says. “I think having support in the industry is one of the main gifts and blessings that I’ve had. “I think if more people could have support through this industry they would be a lot better off. And I have a lot of empathy for people that don’t have support in the industry because I think it’s really hard.” Her agency, she says, has been “huge.” “Dave’s always been there for me. Dave’s like family to me,” she says. “... I really can’t say enough good things about Dave. He’s also one of the people that made me realize if I wanted to achieve the things in the business that I wanted to achieve I was going to have to level up.” In her brief but heartfelt Best New Starlet acceptance speech, Charly thanked her agency, her fans and her close friend Chef from Disciples of Desire, who “taught me everything I know.” Awed by the level of daring cinematic hardcore that Chef’s Disciples of Desire studio was shooting, Charly connected with the seasoned filmmaker at the beginning of her career, calling that initial meeting “a pivotal moment in my life.” They shot scenes together before Summer became a proven home-run hitter—and she credits Chef with inspiring her to become a “porn star” and not just another girl shooting porn scenes. “I feel like he was definitely the person that made me realize you have to like put it all out there if you want to get taken seriously,” Charly says. “... He’s kind of like a coach, a mentor for me.” A member of the Directors Guild of America who traveled the world shooting mainstream movies for 18 years, Chef brought his filmmaking skills to adult 10 years ago—the last five of which have been on a commercial basis. “The most important thing is that Charly literally did the work,” Chef, a native of L.A., tells AVN. “She applied herself and focused on what she was doing. She made a way and you don’t see that all the time. So when you do see it, you’re like really, really amazed by it—by the focus and the effort and the energy. “Her success isn’t by accident, it’s because she did the work to get it. It’s the same story of how I came up. I did the work and doors opened for me. I’m really happy for her.” Charly tells AVN that Chef helped her improve the technical aspects of her performances; they sometimes sat for hours analyzing scenes. “We would literally go through it like it was football or something,” Summer continues. “Or he would show me some incredible scene that Angela [White] did or Adriana Chechik or some scenes he really thought were dope. “He would be like, ‘This is why these scenes are dope; this is why these girls are superstars. Look at what they’re doing.’ “It was way beyond a girl getting banged out. It’s like a real performance. I think just talking with him and being around him, he comes from such a cinematic point of view. “He wants everything to be gorgeous, lit perfectly. He really inspired me and just showed me the ropes, showed me what it was going to take and how to get male talent to take me seriously and how to get them on my side. He just made me realize how you have to treat people. He just showed me how to win.” Chef recalls first shooting Charly in slow motion hanging out of a Tesla on the LA’s iconic 4th Street Bridge. “You see the cars and everything else in the background so you know it’s happening in real time and you start to really see how people react under those circumstances,” he says. “It’s not your standard white couch in Calabasas-type of porn stuff. We’re out in the elements and everybody has to be very focused on what’s happening to make sure that we all make it home safely at the end of the shoot.” He filmed Summer in solo sex scenes at first before he paired her with Jax Slayher and then Anton Harden in the streets of LA. After the scene with Jax, Chef and Charly broke down the footage like it was game tape. “We talked about what she needs to know in order to be better,” Chef recalls. “This is probably one of the most difficult things in porn is to go through a scene and explain what was right and what was wrong. And for her to be able to take that constructive criticism and evolve from it and use the ideas for her next scene to improve on something… Most of the time people take it personally. They think you’re assaulting their character. "She took it as pure evaluation. Like OK, let’s try again. She was willing to take the time to get better and I was wiling to take the time to keep shooting her and that’s the difference.” Chef says seeing Charly win Best New Starlet “was one of those moments where you could kind of tear up because you saw her do the work and you watched her grow.” “She took care of the details and did everything she was supposed to do," he adds. "It kind of gives you faith in the process to see that hard work does pay off." Summer left nothing to chance—she actually was wearing next to nothing—with her bold look on AVN Awards night. She brought some razzle-dazzle to the industry’s biggest stage in an outfit that was custom made by renowned artist Nusi. “I’m so stubborn,” Charly admits. “When I get stuck on something, I’m like, this is it. So I wanted Nusi to do this outfit for so long.” Known for his high-profile collaborations with pop stars and actresses, Nusi creates one-of-a-kind, wearable art. “I saw these crystal outfits he does and I was like oh my god, this has to be my AVN look,” Charly tells me. “We had a hard time linking up and then we found the time and he fitted me and made it happen and I just couldn’t let it go.” Summer’s outfit had to be placed on her by Nusi minutes before the red carpet walk. “I was like I might not even win but I’m wearing this outfit and Nusi’s here and it was really painful actually—the outfit—but it was totally worth it,” she continues. “Obviously, beauty is pain you know. Literally with like the crystals I was sitting so awkwardly. “And then he made these custom shoes and they were these crazy high pleasers. I was like oh my god, is there any way I can walk in these? I just imagined myself like wiping out on stage.” She had not even tried on the whole ensemble until the night of the show. “Once he sticks it to you it can’t come off,” Charly adds. “It was like a one-time thing.” So was Summer’s win for Best New Starlet—a once-in-a-career achievement that along with her outfit will go down in AVN Awards lore. Photography by Siren Obscura & Jeff Koga