On the Set: Riley Reid Returns to Features in Dorcel's ‘Strip’

This feature appears in the March 2025 issue of AVN magazine. LOS ANGELES—It’s chilly Sunday night and the location is the Blue Zebra, a gentlemen’s club in North Hollywood, in an industrial area that is typically deserted on the weekends. Booked for the production shoot on what would have probably been a slow night anyway, the club feels uninhabited, as if staff and dancers have just vanished into the misty darkness—except for one guy who looks like a regular, alone in the club’s empty, blue-lit foyer. He was pacing and muttering, bald with stringy hair in a greasy comb-over, and wore a cheap-looking butterscotch-colored leather jacket, with old-school gold dental work to match several chains around his neck and rings on his fingers. He looked a little rough. Suddenly, he stormed from the foyer into the club’s main room. Several voices, including a female, were heard in heated dialogue and suddenly, loud, “FUCK you!” followed by maniacal laughter. More angry conversation went on for a moment, back and forth—then a familiar accent with a French-Canadian lilt called out, “Okay, cut!” Relieved laughter prompted a peek around the corner onto the set, where ginger-haired director Ricky Greenwood stood next to a camera on a trolley, focused on a corner booth where several cast members were assembled for the dialogue scene. Greenwood conferred for a moment with the camera operator about the next take while about a dozen crew was seated in the dark, behind the cameras. In the neon glow of the club’s interior, A-list performers Isiah Maxwell, Seth Gamble, and Charles Dera were all dressed in suits for their roles as the club tough guys. They took advantage of the break in action to relax, chatting and checking their phones, while lead actor Tommy Pistol went to have his bald cap touched up. After several takes, Pistol’s persona—the balding dude in the lobby—was starting to peel slightly at the edges. Riley Reid, a 2025 AVN Hall of Fame inductee, plays the female lead in Strip, Greenwood’s upcoming feature for the Paris, France-based studio Dorcel. Slated to be one of the company’s major releases this year, the movie marks Reid’s return to features after an extended break from studio work since 2022. The Miami Beach native debuted in adult in 2011 and soon became an “It” girl in high demand. She has been nominated for AVN Female Performer of the Year seven times, consecutively from 2014 to 2020, taking home the coveted trophy in 2016. Since then, she’s amassed a significant social media presence, with 2.5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), 3.7 million “likes” on OnlyFans, 475,000 followers on Instagram (where’s she’s had her account deleted countless times), and 330,000 subscribers on YouTube. She’s collaborated with major social media stars including David Dobrik and Logan Paul. Also known by her Instagram handle @HotDogLady, Reid is also a married wife and mother. “I was really interested before I even saw the script,” Reid told AVN of her newest movie role. “Then, when Ricky presented me with the script, it was really exciting. “It’s my first feature in a really long time. It wasn’t necessarily the role that drove me, but it was Dorcel. I’ve never shot with Dorcel, so... I’ve worked so much in my career here in L.A. that I didn’t have the opportunity to do the European circuit. So, when I found out that Dorcel does some stuff here and they wanted to shoot me, I was pretty excited because I’d never had the chance to shoot with the company,” she explained. “I really like that they did pick me up for a feature because I wouldn’t come back for just the regular gonzo [scene]. I still shoot for my OnlyFans, so, I’m successful enough to be able to make a career on my own. But given the opportunity to shoot with Dorcel, I was pretty excited.” Earlier that day, Reid had shot an all-girl threesome with Jayden Cole and Gizelle Blanco. The setting for the scene had been a small spotlighted pole-dancing stage in another corner of the main room, which she said was a little tricky at first. “I feel like you really need women who love women, to have sex with three girls on that stage,” Reid laughed. “In the beginning, we were like, ‘How are we going to do this?’ But once we started, it flowed so natural. All three of us were just really into it.” “I was a little worried because I didn’t know that with Dorcel, you can’t talk [during a sex scene],” she confessed. “It has to do with the dubbing and different languages. So, that part was a little challenging with no words—it’s all with our eyes and our energy.” Playing opposite Pistol, Reid described the dynamic between their characters. “He looks like the quintessential bad guy, and maybe a gangster,” she said. “My character is the protagonist, but she’s kind of a little seedy herself because she’s kind of sneakily taking this club out from under Tommy, behind his back. I was his wingman but I see how he’s abusing the girls, he’s abusing the club, and he doesn’t take good care of it and he just takes advantage of everybody, so, I kind of sneak in.” Pistol, a veteran performer and, arguably, the most prominent adult character actor of the early Alt Porn era, said he felt a special bond with his character, also named Tommy. “Tommy is somebody that has not had a good life. He’s not a guy who makes great decisions, but he is an entrepreneur and he does have a slight gambling problem. He likes the horses, he likes to place the bets,” Pistol explained as he sat in the makeup chair, a borough-bred undertone coming out in his accent.“This one really stood out to me, and the script alone is just like perfect,” Pistol continued. “I feel like I’ve seen this guy in New York. I grew up in Astoria-Queens. I’ve gone to strip clubs and everything, and I’ve sat next to this fucking guy. The jewels—he looks like trash, but to him—he’s beautiful. He has that confidence that he can get whatever he wants, even though he looks like that. It’s a certain character that’s gonna fight for what he wants, he’s gonna be a scumbag, he’s gonna betray, he’s gonna backstab, in order to get what he wants, he’s going to do it. I’ve known people like that. It’s kind of fun to step into his shoes for a little bit. It’s crazy because he’s an asshole. He’s a piece of shit. It’s nice to play someone like that.” Adam Sandler’s portrayal of a NYC jeweler that gets in a little too deep in 2019’s Uncut Gems was an inspiration, he noted. Of course, Sandler never had to do a sex scene with two co-stars, wearing a bald cap (that we know of), so Pistol was on his own there. “I have one sex scene. I did not move. I had to be very careful because the prosthetic, once I start sweating too much, it can mess up the glue,” he said, as veteran makeup artist Alexxx Moon fussed with the front of the cap, fixing it with a layer of foundation. Moon was also the creator of the makeup for the Krampus character in Greenwood’s stand-out short, “The Bargain” (2021, Greenwood Productions/Adult Time), for which Pistol took home the 2023 AVN Award for Best Actor in a Featurette as well as Most Outrageous Sex Scene with Ashley Lane. “So, [the sex scene] was a challenge on its own,” Pistol said of the performance in Strip, a threesome with Ameena Green and Scarlett Alexis. “I almost passed out because when we were done all that heat from the energy was in the cap. But it’s all worth it. It’s one of the best roles I’ve ever played. I’m real excited for everyone to see this one, yeah.” Greenwood said that Pistol was “daring” to take on such an unattractive role. “We’re selling a body, we’re selling an image, we’re selling like beauty and sexuality,” the director began, “and that character doesn’t scream beauty and sexuality. So, for him, it doesn’t put him in bright light, as a good-looking guy. But his acting, his performance and everything, that’s what the reward is, to sacrifice for it, because he’s just insanely good in it. Tommy will sacrifice to give you the best version of the character that you have in mind. And that’s what I appreciate and really love about Tommy—and that’s what makes him different.” Acquiring Reid for the movie was another coup for Greenwood, who tossed around the idea with colleagues at Dorcel in autumn of 2023. “We had just finished Alive. I go to Paris [once a year to plan] what’s happening next year. And they gave me the idea of the movie, Strip. They wanted to do a movie about striptease and a strip club, so, I said, ‘Okay.’ “At the [2024] AVN Expo, we met again... just a friendly meeting,” when Reid’s name came up in conversation, the director said. His colleagues at Dorcel expressed disappointment at never shooting the star prior to her semi-retirement.  “So, I said, ‘Well, it’s a little bit too late. She’s not shooting anymore,’” Greenwood recalled. “Then, I mentioned it to Mark Spiegler, her agent, and he said, ‘Well, it’s not totally impossible...’” Dorcel contract girl Clara Mia also is in the cast for Strip, which is slated for release in late summer. The indie director agreed with Pistol that, for a Dorcel movie, Strip has a dark, edgy feel. “The movie is dark,” Greenwood said. “The movie is like intense and, the way I was planning to do, I don’t know if it works. The original plan—I was planning to build the movie, in a sense, like in a sex scene—in that the movie starts slow and gets more and more intense until you, until the movie explodes and, basically, you come. “So, it’s kind of like the movie is built with the tension always there, and it’s getting more and more intense. Like when you’re having sex, it just starts slow and it’s more and more intense until you finish. So, that’s kind of like the way we’re trying to build the movie. “But, from what I’ve seen so far, the acting of Tommy and Riley are just top-notch, and everybody involved—it’s just crazy. It’s very good.”