LOS ANGELES — Last month, Cadence Lux and Ashley Lane gathered at fellow performer Phoenix Askani’s home for a “girls’ night in” — with snacks — to watch the second season of one of their favorite shows: HBO’s acclaimed high-school dramedy, “Euphoria.”
“And then the character Faye shows up,” Askani said, “and we all cheered. It was Chloe Cherry. It was one of us. On HBO!”
Their reaction was not uncommon among adult performers and sex workers. Cherry’s Instagram and Twitter posts announcing her “Euphoria” debut as the full-fledged character of Faye, an instant fan favorite, are festooned with accolades from colleagues such as Tommy Pistol, Chad Alva, Brooklyn Gray, Hyley Winters and Ivy Lebelle, who exclaimed, “I was obsessed with Faye! Hope we see more of her.”
According to Askani, when Faye reappeared in the show's second episode and her connection to one of the show’s protagonists made it clear that she would be a recurring character, Cherry's gathered fans were even more thrilled.
“We were excited we were gonna see more of her,” shared Askani. “We had a moment of acknowledgement and celebration for our peer.”
Even at a time when it seems that more adult performers are being considered for mainstream roles — traditionally called “crossover” in the industry, although the term lends itself to ambiguity — two things make Cherry’s “Euphoria” appearance special.
First, Cherry told XBIZ she deliberately chose to keep her performer name in the credits, eschewing going by her legal name or a different mainstream artistic moniker. This is important because it makes it clear that she puts her work in projects involving explicit sex on equal footing with those that don’t. She’s an actor and these are all performances. It is a destigmatizing move, and very brave coming from someone just starting in what looks to be a promising mainstream career.
The second thing that makes Cherry’s “Euphoria” role special is that Faye is a defined character, with a name and backstory, who is part of the show’s universe — and she’s not a porn star.
For decades, adult performers have mainly been drafted by movies or television to play strippers, sex workers or other — often naked — background roles. “Euphoria” itself does this, with Aiden Ashley, Emily Willis, Diana Grace, Kenzie Anne and Ashley Lane having shot background work for the show’s second season.
But Faye is different, and Cherry is aware of the unusual opportunity.
Becoming Faye
“The moment I got this audition, I knew I could do it,” Cherry told XBIZ. “I love becoming a character that is totally different from me. I knew she had to be tough but also make you smile. I came up with so much backstory in my mind to become her. She has seen so much and just keeps experiencing more darkness and insanity.
“You can tell she wants more, though,” Cherry continued. “You can see in her clothing and her sense of humor she has something bright in her. The entire cast and crew was extremely talented and amazing to work with. I got to improv some lines which was very fun.”
“I hope you all love Faye and find her funny and exciting!” she added — and the fans did.
The show’s protagonist, Rue — played by multi-hyphenate star and executive producer Zendaya — meets Faye on New Year’s Eve. The pair spend some time together while the show’s low-key charming high-school drug dealer, Fez (Angus Cloud) takes care of some business. During the second episode of the new season, Fez offers Faye a place to stay, making Faye a potential rival to love interest Lexi (Maude Apatow).
A week after the “Euphoria” second season premiere, the British edition of Cosmopolitan magazine singled out Faye as one of the breakout new characters that had galvanized the audience’s attention.
Instant Audience Favorite
Fans, Cosmopolitan noted, were “completely divided over Faye’s character, with some calling her out for getting in the way of a potentially sweet romance, while others are just loving the pandemonium that surrounds her.”
Whatever their take on chaotic Faye, it was clear that, with only a few minutes of screen time, Cherry had managed to capture the audience’s imagination.
Reactions on Twitter were swift and overwhelmingly positive, including “Faye is the funniest character in Euphoria,” ”I love Faye so much already” and “Faye is the cutest thing ever.”
By the second episode, Faye's fanbase had coalesced. “I wanted more Faye and we got more Faye!” a Twitter user celebrated.
Cherry’s performance made such an impression that the show’s creative team chose to highlight her comedic delivery, during an Uber ride scene with Zendaya, as the punchline of the season’s trailer.
Cherry’s inclusion in one of the most lauded and talked-about cable TV offerings — along with her gutsy choice to keep her adult performer name in the credits — marks yet another step in the erosion of the discriminatory barriers that have been known to prevent sex workers from auditioning for mainstream roles.
Mainstream Embraces Adult Performers
Cherry was 18 when she left Pennsylvania to enter the biz in 2015. Now, at 24, she is already a veteran of the adult industry, and it shows in how confidently and matter-of-factly she made her high-profile “Euphoria” debut. By skipping across the absurd line separating performers who have or have had sex on camera from those who don’t, she follows in the very recent footsteps of such crossover stars as 2022 XBIZ Performer of the Year Maitland Ward, who has a sitcom in the works premiering this year; retired performer Zelda Morrison, nominated under her legal name for a prestigious Independent Spirit acting award for her supporting role in Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure”; and erstwhile solo model Simon Rex, heralded internationally for his role as a porn star in Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket.”
The casting department of “Euphoria” has been known to work with agents to fill background or nude roles, and several of such roles have been filled by Motley Models.
“We had a great experience working with them,” Motley founder and agent Dave Rock told XBIZ. “We had worked with them for season one and when they were casting season two they wanted more girls to send video auditions. We also placed four of our models in the upcoming Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee biopic, including Aiden Ashley, who has a speaking role alongside Seth Rogen.”
Another Motley model, Freya Parker, has recently shot a top-secret nude scene for an Academy-Award-winning director’s big-budget production, alongside top movie stars.
These nude background gigs “have been around for years,” added ATMLA head honcho and agent Mark Schechter. “They’ll send out a casting request and we’ll submit models that fit whatever they’re looking for … They’re very specific with what they want. But yeah, it’s picking up — we’ve done several in the last six months with Netflix and Showtime.”
Schechter says that one of these waves of mainstream interest involved the biker drama “Sons of Anarchy,” where the casting agents “started picking through adult talent for a lot of their extra roles.”
Asked if the models get very excited by these opportunities to flex their acting chops and take a break from adult sets, Schechter laughed and immediately retorted, “Fuck yeah, are you kidding me?!”
Veteran industry director Craven Moorehead — who has done double duty with technical roles in music videos and other mainstream projects since the beginning of his career — has collaborated with music icon Glenn Danzig in his forays into filmmaking, bringing along adult talent to flesh out the punk pioneer’s horror scenarios.
“A few years ago, Glenn wanted to make one of his comics — ‘Verotika’ — into a movie,” Moorehead explained. “He asked me to suggest adult talent and ended up casting Ashley Wisdome, Emma Hix and Katrina Jade.”
Danzig was set on Kayden Kross for the movie’s central role and key poster art image: a “Crypt Keeper”-like character that serves as the thread between all the stories. Like Cherry in “Euphoria,” Kross used her performer name and ended up having a well-defined, non-background role in the 2019 cult horror anthology film.
Danzig later also cast Tasha Reign in “Death Rider in the House of Vampires,” a bigger-budget production co-starring Devon Sawa, Danny Trejo, Julian Sands and actor-director Eli Roth.
“Danzig took the chance,” Moorehead added. “Glenn has always done it his way and has respect for the talent of adult stars even when others stigmatize them. He sees talent and gives people a chance when no one else would.”
A Cult 'It Girl' for Our Time
It remains to be seen whether the stigma against casting adult performers for non-adult roles is waning, but Cherry’s “Euphoria” appearance and her immediate connection with non-porn fans is encouraging.
Originally known as Chloe Couture, Cherry quickly became a go-to performer in the “teen” niche, where she embraced her success without ever leaving behind her delightfully quirky personality.
Cherry’s Instagram stories are full of that same zaniness, with no contrivance or affect. She is an ideal avatar of Gen Z, with a certain “young Goldie Hawn” quality that screams stardom. Keen eyes can see that her natural gift for slapstick and bold choices reveals yet-untapped comedic potential. And though Cherry’s persona — a feral kid past her bedtime — may be a perfect fit for “Euphoria,” there’s so much more beneath the surface.
She’s also a real fashion maven — or “stylish AF” in the parlance of the day. “Does anybody know where I can find Faye’s top?” asked a fan on Reddit minutes after her first episode aired. The show’s costume designers could very well have taken their inspiration from Cherry’s social media posts, which are always a few steps ahead of established trends, which she doesn’t follow so much as set herself.
On January 19, barely a week after her debut appearance on the show, prestigious London-based mainstream modeling agency Anti-Agency announced that it was representing Cherry. Established in 2014, Anti-Agency’s stated mission is “to break traditional beauty standards within the modeling and fashion industries” and “to celebrate diversity, authenticity and character.”
On its Instagram account, Anti-Agency made the announcement with the now-iconic “Euphoria” still of Cherry holding the turquoise handbag, with her arms crossed and a car’s headlights literally shining the spotlight on her charmed opportunity.
This article was originally published in the February print edition of XBIZ World.
Main Image: Chloe Cherry as Faye in HBO's "Euphoria" (Photo: Eddy Chen. Courtesy of HBO)
