Emily Willis, 2021 XBIZ "Female Performer of the Year," is a rare gem in today’s highly-competitive adult entertainment landscape. Yes, she is that perfect blend of girl-next-door and smoking hot. Yes, she performs with that wild abandon that sets screens on fire.
But what really sets her apart, is that she consistently rises to the occasion with highly-engaging creativity and poise. She shows up on time. She doesn’t disappoint the directors who oversee her effortlessly sparkling performances. She gets along with her colleagues, on camera and behind-the-scenes.
And her precision, honed in part from years of ballet dancing and a win-the-long-game work ethic, requires little backroom editing to finesse into ready-for-primetime quality. The final product that she puts out, from her insanely popular OnlyFans content to the Jules Jordan showcase “The Insatiable Emily Willis” — which won the 2021 XBIZ "Gonzo Movie of the Year" — gleams with that diamond ray of weapon-sharp talent.
She is more the sculptor, than the sculpted. She is more the energy-giver, than the energy-taker. Ask her to strike a pose, and she cuts the air with sexy charisma. She is low-maintenance and low-burn, yet eminently high-end. You won’t see her flame out in a supernova.
And that is why she thrives.
Even her personal life is a closely-guarded circle, mostly cultivated outside of the industry, absent of gossip and rumors and drama and fast-friends becoming fast-enemies.
It cannot be overstated what a remarkable achievement her fame and fortune is, especially in a social media landscape that increasingly gravitates towards endless outrage, political propaganda and finger-wagging cultural elitism.
It cannot be underestimated how unique it is for a superstar to embody class, unabashed passion and an earnest desire to impress the great and small. She could light up a smile in a trucker from the American heartland as easily as a coastal elite, hop on a motorcycle like a leather-clad badass then sit back with a book at the beach. She appeals broadly to every shade and hue and spectrum of this great country … heck, the world.
And like her beloved agency, Motley Models, she is laser-focused on what’s sexy, what’s lucrative, what’s up-and-coming and what’s ahead of the curve. She is a telescope, zeroing in on distant horizons, in full-color glory. She soars above the microscope of black-and-white sensibilities, of old-timey nostalgia and dust-ridden history. She makes history. She is a woman of action.
And should you have the pleasure to speak with her, you’ll note that beneath her ready smile and charm, she is paying very close attention. She will pause, almost imperceptibly, assessing each and every word being said. She will listen more often than speak, and when she speaks, she will not carry on endlessly. She is not a contrarian or a fussy diva. She has that inner silence that is rich with spirit, yet when she speaks, it is pleasantly clear, diplomatically direct and honest.
And, she really, really loves anal.
For all these reasons and more, she has amassed more than 400 scenes in a few years for all the top brands, with quite a lot demonstrating her acting chops — like Pure Taboo’s “Nymphomania: An Emily Willis Story.” And her fans are legion, numbering over a million on her social media accounts alone. Not to mention, directing greats spanning Adult Time’s Bree Mills and Deeper.com’s Kayden Kross sing her praises most effusively.
So come then, and let her enlightening stardom shine incandescently upon you, in this exclusive interview. And long may she reign.
XBIZ: Tell us about life before adult entertainment. Where did you grow up and what interests did you pursue?
Willis: Growing up in Utah, I was Mormon for most of my life and was a dancer, ever since I was five years old. I’ve done ballet, contemporary, jazz and hip-hop, dancing competitively at a private dance studio and also throughout high school. I then went to school to be a nurse’s assistant and worked at a hospital, before realizing it wasn’t my thing. I also did a lot of retail sales jobs, like door-to-door for DirectTV, so I traveled a little bit for that. While I had been doing sales in the summertime in L.A. — they call it “seasons” and send you to different states to sell locally — I had met an amateur producer on Tinder who I shot for a couple times. Then, when I moved back home to Utah, I realized I really loved doing that; I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to do porn seriously, since once it’s out there, it’s there forever.
While I was working a normal job, my video got leaked in my hometown, so I said, “Fuck it, I’m going to do it!” After exploring adult agencies, I was contacted by Ryan Kona of Motley Models, and I told him about my goals for the industry. I had only been in for two months, but I’d gotten a feel for what I wanted to do. He told me Motley was based in L.A., so I got a flight and moved out there. This was in 2018, around May.
XBIZ: And what were those first few months in the biz like?
Willis: As soon as I moved out to L.A., I started performing a lot. Since I had already done my first anal through Tushy with a previous agent and my contract was up when I came to L.A., I shot a bunch of anal and I was booked non-stop. That’s when I think that I started to realize I really did love shooting porn. I started working for Evil Angel a lot and Jules Jordan during my first year of porn.
XBIZ: How was your second year of porn in 2019? Any highlights?
Willis: My second year of porn, I shot a lot more. I feel like a solid 70% of my scenes are anal; I would say that my thing is definitely anal!
I did a lot of work for Gamma at the time, like “Nymphomania: An Emily Willis Story” for Pure Taboo, where I got to write my own screenplay for Bree Mills. I love shooting for her and getting to act, so that was a really cool experience writing the script and collaborating with them. I got to do a straitjacket scene that I had wanted to do for a long time. I kind of wanted to play a girl in a mental institution and I love psychology, so I loved getting to dive into that darker script. And I know Pure Taboo is good at really getting into your head, so it was fun coming out as an actress.
Then I did the Evil Angel showcase, “Emily Willis: The Anal Awakening,” which was an all-anal movie. So I think that really set me off with the anal. After that, I started working on my showcase with Jules Jordan — “The Insatiable Emily Willis” — who I had really been wanting to do a showcase for, for a while.
XBIZ: And of course, your Jules Jordan showcase went on to win the 2021 XBIZ Award for Gonzo Movie of the Year, arguably the most competitive porn category, given how many gonzo releases there are each year. What was it like filming with him?
Willis: It was so cool to collaborate with Jules and get my first DP for my showcase with him. I picked Steve Holmes and Mick Blue personally, and they’re some of my favorite performers. We went to Jules’ office and shot the DP scene there. I had actually never gotten double penetrated before in my life at all. Since I had been doing anal threeways with two guys, I was like, I think I’m ready for a DP, and my fans had been asking for it for so long. And I was like, I want it so badly!
It was amazing. I think DPs are my new favorite, because I love anal so much and I love threeways with two guys so fucking much, and DPs are just so fun; they’re just the best. I love having two men take control of me and do whatever they want to me, no-holes-barred sex. And it was a secretary scene, and I love roleplaying, so it was very fitting.
I also did anal with Dredd, which was a huge, huge challenge for me. I had done vadge with Dredd and his cock is huge, so I was like, I’m ready to take it in my ass. I wanted to gape bigger. it was quite the challenge and it felt really good. And also the scene with Chris Diamond was awesome; he has a huge cock and I think our chemistry really connected well on camera. And then I had a Mick scene; I shoot a lot with Mick and he’s definitely one of the best.
As far as the shoot itself, it started in 2019; I think I shot my first DP around November for it, then there was a production shutdown.
XBIZ: How was shooting post-lockdown different than usual?
Willis: Well, we had shot most of the scenes before, so nothing much changed other than how much more sanitary everything was on set. I like that we have to get tested more often; it makes me feel safer knowing that people have to get 24-hour tested before. All in all, it’s just more testing than usual and being more safe in my personal life. I’m obviously not going to be hanging out with people the night before going to a shoot.
XBIZ: Given how much you love DPs now, do any other notable DP scenes come to mind as standouts?
Willis: I shot my second DP on camera for Tushy, which was with Mick Blue and Michael Stefano in September. It was for a new Deeper scene, where I shot it in Spanish. I was actually speaking Spanish and so did Seth Gamble; I was his secretary/assistant and we had a mistress type of relationship. He had a wife and I thought all along he was not going to end up staying with his wife, that what we had was more than it actually was. So I ended up trying to sue him in the movie, we were getting questioned about things.
XBIZ: When did you learn Spanish? Share your background with us.
Willis: I was born in San Rafael, Argentina, I went to kindergarten there and then my mom married my dad, which led us to move to the States while I was in first grade. My whole first year, I was with a tutor the entire time, trying to learn English.
And since I’ve never had sex in Spanish, during my scene with Seth, I did some research on Spanish dirty talk by watching other scenes in Spanish. The night before, Seth and I ran our scripts; I think he’d taken Spanish classes, so reading through a whole script in Spanish was tough. Also in the scene, my character didn’t know English and Seth was my translator.
XBIZ: What other exciting scenes have you shot for Deeper?
Willis: The very first Deeper shoot I did was a birthday sex scene with Markus Dupree. I got this candle and poured it all over my body and I hadn’t done that before ever. I’m interested in oils and massages, so that was fun to play. Another one I did was an orgy scene with Angela White, Kira Noir and many others, which was part of the feature “Drive.”
XBIZ: Who has been keeping you busy this year so far with shoots? Any favorite directors?
Willis: I’ve shot another DP with Darkko for Evil Angel that is coming out in March, with Rob Piper and Jax Slayher, and a lot of anal scenes: I shoot it all the time. I started working on some things for Vixen that I can’t talk about yet and also Playboy. I’ve been collaborating a lot with them, shot really cool content with them where I got to do ballet.
And I have so many favorite directors. I would say Jules Jordan is one of them... all of the Vixen directors … Jonni Darkko and Chris Streams and Pat Myne too are some of my favorites. I love gonzo porn overall, so I love to work a lot.
XBIZ: And amidst such a busy shooting schedule, you’ve become quite popular on independent content platforms. How do you balance it all?
Willis: Well, while I’ve always had an OnlyFans, I didn’t really use it too much for my first year-and-a-half in the industry, because I was shooting so much. In 2019 is when I really started to take it seriously, because FanCentro was taking off and I wanted to shoot my own content. And then when quarantine happened, I really had the time to sit there and work on it, talking to my fans, getting to know them. And now I post updates every single day, all day, sending out messages, videos and teases as much as I possibly can.
I do have a schedule for myself, with days for shooting customs and my general content, then I send that all out according to what I feel is best. I try to drop a solo once a week, and then I try to do boy/girl content once or twice a month. I shot a DP for OnlyFans with Ramon Nomar and Seth Gamble, for example. I also perform live shows at least once a month through OnlyFans.
XBIZ: With all that hard work, how do you make sure to set aside money and time to stay healthy, financially and physically?
Willis: I have an accountant and I’ve been wanting to dive into the investing world, so I have a guy that helps me with that too. I’ve also started up my own 401k.
Physically, I have a personal trainer and I work out at least two to three times a week. I like to do yoga and anything where I can be outdoors. I also do a lot of self-care and upkeep on myself. There’s my facial day, there’s my wind down days, etc. — I’m very busy, so it’s very important to take care of myself. I also like to paint acrylic and watercolors, read, go out, hike up Runyon and go to the beach a lot.
I make sure to spend time with the people closest to me too. I have a lot of friends outside the industry; I like to keep my personal life outside of it for the most part. Inside, though, I’m pretty close with Jane Wilde, Riley Reid and the Motley Models crew.
XBIZ: Let’s discuss Motley Models. They really swept a lot of the top Performer of the Year categories in 2021. What’s it like being a part of the agency?
Willis: Motley Models has been amazing to me; they’ve been literally my family since I signed on with them. Ryan Kona and I have a really good relationship in the sense that he respects everything I do, things I want to shoot or not shoot — he knows my goals. Same with Dave Rock, he has been really good to me and yeah, they’re awesome!
XBIZ: Any exciting plans for this year, personally or professionally?
Willis: I’m working on getting my own website this year, I’d love to launch that; I’ve finally figured out what kind of style I want to shoot. I like gonzo to be natural, like anal, and I like to play around with lighting and create visuals that make myself look pretty while having sex. I definitely have a thing for decor; I’ve been doing interior designing lately. I love neutral colors, but I love black and gold, rose colors, oranges, yellows and warmer colors, for sure. In my personal life, I’m pretty boho: I wear a lot of Urban Outfitters, with clothes that are comfortable but still stylish. And I love a good dress-up outfit.
