This feature is the cover story of the October 2019 issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the full digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—Alina Lopez knows her acrobatics are no longer a secret in adult industry circles.
Now that the word is out it’s not uncommon for directors to make special requests.
“Sometimes I’ll show up to scenes and they’re like, ‘Oh, we want you to do some of that stuff,” Lopez says. “And I’m like, ‘Ahh, not today… I just want to have sex.’”
But when the mood strikes her, Lopez can go where few have gone before her with sexual positions. Like when she turned a naked handstand into an upside-down missionary maneuver for Damon Dice in a scene called “One Hot Box” for RealityKings.
“That was one of those days when I show up and I was like, ‘Hey, let’s have some fun. Let’s see what weird stuff we can do,’” Lopez recalls. “I was inspired that day and it turned out great. People are retweeting that like crazy.”
The 5-foot-6, hazel-eyed native of St. George, Utah, who won the 2019 AVN Hottest Newcomer award via online fan voting in January, keeps proving she’s capable of lifting a production every time she steps on the set. Whether it’s an old-fashioned, gonzo throw-down or a dramatic feature role, the former competitive gymnast tends to stick her landings.
It’s why the veteran stud Damon Dice, who grew up in Maryland and started porn in 2014, calls Lopez a “triple threat.”
“She’s beautiful; she’s a great actress; and she has amazing, high-energy sex scenes,” Dice tells AVN, adding that Lopez showed him something new with her erotic tumbling.
“That was a first time move for me... I was honestly blown away because when scripts call for complex positions girls are generally apprehensive to do positions that are out of their comfort zone. But Alina—with zero hesitation—dove in!
“I’ve shot three scenes with her up to date and every time I leave set I find myself saying, ‘Wow, what just happened?’”
Dice is not alone. If 2018 was the year when Lopez established herself as a promising newcomer to watch, this year the 24-year-old Spiegler Girl became a bonafide star who is authoring one of the best bodies of work of 2019.
“I think I’ve definitely done a lot of new and exciting things this year, especially versus my first year. My first year I really just did scenes,” Lopez tells AVN. “And I heard everyone talking about all these features they were a part of and I was like, ‘I want to do that.’ But I didn’t get to do that my first year, understandably. I was kind of proving myself.”
Lopez at press time in August had already appeared in four story-driven movies with more to come.
“And it was really cool to experience that because it’s totally different than just doing a regular scene,” she says. “It’s the real deal. … So it’s been cool to feel like I’ve been able to expand my resume and to kind of show people that I’m multi-talented and I can do different things. It’s been fun.”
Lopez landed supporting roles in two of this year’s most high-profile features—Perspective and Teenage Lesbian. Bree Mills produced and directed both features for Adult Time.
Perspective follows a married couple (Angela White & Seth Gamble) in the final dysfunctional days of their union, while Teenage Lesbian is Mills’ autobiographical film set in the 1990s about an 18-year-old high school student (Kristen Scott) coming to terms with her sexual orientation.
In Perspective, Lopez plays a girl that Gamble’s character David meets at a bar.
“There’s this part in the movie where David feels like he’s been cheated on and he’s kind of at his breaking point,” Lopez says. “And he decides to just go out to this bar and while he’s there this young, dumb, oblivious girl—who’s me—approaches him.
“And I’m completely oblivious in the sense that I’m just there for a good time. I see this guy; he looks lonely and I’m like, cool I’m going to go talk to him. And I start talking to him and at first he’s annoyed. Then it kind of clicked in his head that, ‘I can just fuck this girl and get back at my wife.’
“So we go home together; we go to my apartment. And to me I’m just going home with a guy. I don’t understand what psychological issues he has. And as he’s fucking me he starts to sort of hallucinate that it’s his wife there and he opens his eyes again and it’s me.”
Lopez says she and Angela White tag-teamed Gamble during the scene, switching places.
“When she was there she was like talking shit and being mean and when I was there I was just like, ‘This is great!’ Not knowing that in his head he’s having a manic episode,” Lopez adds. “And he ends up slapping her in the face because she won’t shut up—like saying mean things to him. But when he goes to slap her—it’s me.”
Lopez had no qualms about being slapped given the context of the scene.
“I asked [Bree], ‘OK, about this slap. Is this going to be staged or are we doing it?’ And she’s like, ‘It depends on your comfort level.’ And I said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Lopez says. “That was exciting and thrilling. And we had to do it like 10 times. … It was fun. If there’s anyone I trust to do that it’s Seth.”
Gamble, the reigning AVN Best Actor, tells AVN Lopez was ideal for this explosive scene.
“When I first was told Alina was playing this role I was very happy,” Gamble says. “Alina is by far one of my favorite performers to work with. She is a great actress as well as just an all-around great person. That’s why when I knew how intense this scene was I knew she would want to go all out with it.
“Mind you, when I knew the smack was going to happen I was planning on making it fake for obvious reasons. Alina wanted it to be as real as possible. She was actually very excited about it. It just shows you how dedicated she is to her craft and the role she was given in this epic of a movie and all the opportunities she gets put in front of her.”
Lopez says she has always clicked with Gamble, the Florida native who won AVN Best Male Newcomer in 2011.
“That’s why I trusted him,” she adds. “Every time we cut during that scene he’d be like, ‘Are you OK? Is it too much?’”
In Teenage Lesbian, Lopez encounters the young Mills (Kristen Scott) at a party.
“And she was dressed kind of androgynous and was still becoming comfortable with her sexuality and not really knowing how to approach girls because she knew she liked girls. But she didn’t really know how to approach that kind of situation,” Lopez explains.
“So we’re at this party and I see her and I think she’s a boy. So I approach her as I would approach a boy. And she realizes that I think she’s a boy but she doesn’t really know how to react so she just kind of goes with it.
“And then we go in a back room and she goes down on me and I go to reciprocate and I realize she’s a girl and not a guy and I start freaking out and she’s apologizing and I just run out.”
Lopez adds, “I didn’t like having to be angry at her. Because I would totally fuck a girl at a party—no problem! But it was cool to still play a role. First of all in a big project like that, but also one that’s so dear to Bree.
“This is her life. So getting to be a part of something that’s so personal and important for her was a really awesome experience.”
Lopez, who is the reigning Girlsway Girl of the Year, also appeared in an episode of Mills’ new Shape of Beauty imprint, performing with Bunny De La Cruz under the direction of Eli Cross and Casey Calvert.
“When I got into porn the whole reason I did this was because I wanted to experience everything in a safe and controlled environment. And I mean I want to try everything,” Lopez says. “I’m here to do it all. So that was obviously something that I really wanted to experience.
“I love women; I love all shapes and sizes of women. But in a typical scene I wouldn’t be paired with a plus-size woman. Because our industry kind of separates them for whatever reason. So I took it upon myself to reach out to Bree and Shape of Beauty and say, ‘Hey, I want to be on there.’
“But it was cool, too, because I didn’t realize this at the time we were shooting but it was the first scene they had shot where it was a plus-size and non plus-size girl. So it felt cool—that was the first scene of that kind and I’m the one who initiated that.”
Lopez says her chemistry with De La Cruz was “amazing.”
“She was so nice and so sweet. I think we were both nervous—like neither of us had done a scene like that yet,” Lopez continues. “It was funny, too, because she was supposed to play the more dominant role.
“I’m very dominant so it’s hard for me to play more submissive and reluctant roles. When we were working up to the sex she’s talking and trying to seduce me. But pretty much as soon as we kissed I could not stay in character. I was just all over her.”
Bree Mills, who is also the chief creative officer for Adult Time’s family of studios, tells AVN that Lopez distinguished herself as an industry go-to girl this year.
“When I think of the actresses who made the biggest impression on me this year, Alina Lopez is right there at the top of the list,” Mills says. “She had worked for various Gamma studios in her first year performing and obviously made an impression at both Pure Taboo and Girlsway, becoming one of our most requested models and Girl of the Year.
“But we had never worked together personally. I was so impressed by her energy and enthusiasm when I directed a story she had written for Pure Taboo, ‘The Bishop's Interview,’ about her experiences growing up in the Mormon church.
“Her attention to detail and dedication towards telling the story she envisioned was very inspiring. I am cut from the same cloth, so we really worked well together and I immediately decided to cast her in my feature films, Teenage Lesbian and Perspective.
“I knew that kind of energy was exactly what we would need for those roles and it would give an opportunity to keep challenging Alina in different directions. Since those films have wrapped, I have also cast her in several other big Adult Time projects that will be released before the end of the year. I anticipate big things for her in the coming years, as her profile and experience grow!”
Mills continues, “What stands out to me, besides the obvious good looks and sex appeal, is Alina's energy. She is open and enthusiastic, someone who really genuinely cares about the sets she is on and the project she is part of.
“She wants to get inside the head of her characters and is very interested in understanding my creative process, in terms of my inspiration and what we can do together to bring the ideas in my head to life. She also has a lot of great ideas to share and is definitely one of my favorite actresses to work with right now!”
Lopez not only came into her own this year with acting, she also continued to deliver all-sex performances with many of the top male stars in adult.
She danced with French superstar Manuel Ferrara—the six-time AVN Male Performer of the Year—most recently under the direction of Chris Streams for Jules Jordan Video.
“We’ve worked together a few times—but that was our first non-POV scene,” Lopez says. “Because they’ve all been POV, which is fun, but come on, it’s Manuel. You’ve gotta have the whole—if he can’t put his hands on you it’s not the same. So that was our first scene where someone else was filming so we could just go at each other and it was just beautiful.”
Ferrara calls Lopez "genuine and beautiful."
"Like everything you want in a woman in porn," Ferrara tells AVN. "And she really enjoys sex. That’s what makes her special."
Lopez also squared off for the first time with AVN Hall of Fame performer Ramon Nomar in a scene for Mason that landed the box cover of Hard X’s Latin Asses 5.
“That was amazing. And I love working with Mason, too, because I love how much she pushes the performers,” Lopez says. “Some performers maybe don’t like that so much but I enjoy being pushed.
“And Ramon is just beautiful and sexy and dominant. I think we were the perfect match for that type of scene. And I think that’s why we got the cover because that scene was so amazing.”
Nomar, the Spanish heart-throb who is in his 24th year in adult, tells AVN, “I have to confess that I am still (secretly) in love with Alina Lopez after the scene we shoot together under Mason’s lenses for Hard X.”
“Who will not be?” Nomar says. “Just having the chance of admiring her spectacular eyes—one of my favorite fetishes—her lips, her hair, her whole face, her whole being; and her dreamy complexion and unrealistic sensuality driven with the body of a muse that she possesses. … And this was just by looking at her. Every step I moved forward on her direction previously to begin our work made us forget we were working.
“I could sense the energy from feet away and then, by her side, it became a roller coaster of passion that neither of us wanted to end.”
Nomar says he got so caught up in Lopez’s aura that he doesn’t remember what positions they did.
“Her eyes didn’t allow me to care as I was focused on her raw expressions of pleasure that she had in any of them while we fucked each other,” Nomar continues. “Multiple quantity of orgasms, the fountain of my sexual eternal youth… I just loved to see her cumming continuously as I kept fucking her wildly and how her body reacted to it by contracting her muscles, making her eyes roll and her voice get lost in space to a state of nirvana or what others vulgarly call, being fuck drunk.”
Nomar adds, “Alina Lopez is one of the most outrageous performers in the industry right now. Having the chance of working by her side is an extraordinary, unique experience and seeing her enjoying the scenes as she does—extremely pleasurable. I will not be surprised to see her becoming one of the top performers of the adult industry soon… From my point of view, she is already one!”
Meanwhile British beefcake Danny Mountain, who did the horizontal mamba with Lopez for Mason’s Super Cute line, says she left a mark.
“I love working with Alina Lopez, and yes was lucky to work with her again recently for Hard X and Mason, which is always a pleasure,” Mountain tells AVN. “The scene went really well and I think you can tell in our faces how much we both loved it. Alina is one of the sexiest and nicest young girls on the circuit right now and I wish her all the best for the future.”
Lopez agrees.
“I’ve worked with Danny a lot, but we hadn’t worked together in a long time. So it was kind of like us being reunited after like a year of not working together,” she says. “And Danny’s such a gentleman. I really enjoy working with him. That was such a last-minute scene I think that we had booked. I was supposed to be on my way back home to Utah at that point and we ended up just shooting another scene.
“With last-minute scenes I’m like OK, this can be kind of questionable who you’re going to be matched with. So when I saw Danny’s name on the call sheet I was excited. Because you can never go wrong with Mason; and you can never go wrong with a performer like Danny.”
Porn mogul Jules Jordan summoned Lopez to help usher in his newly launched all-girl, story-driven site, GirlGirl.com, booking her for several scenes ahead of the launch in July. Among her scene partners were Aidra Fox; and Sarah Vandella and Cherie Deville.
“I love shooting girl/girl scenes. I love girls,” Lopez says. “They have all the best girls on their site so far. Not only that but they have the perfect pairings. I think the people in charge have been around long enough to know that this girl and this girl would be good together.
“The best one I did for them it was with Sarah Vandella and Cherie Deville. That scene was fucking wild.”
Jules Jordan, the native of Pennsylvania, who directed his first full-length porn video in 1998, tells AVN, “Alina is so versatile she can play a teen or a glammed-up sex beast.
“She's very expressive and has a lust for sex—all qualities that make for a legendary performer. She's become a ‘go to’ for any self-respecting production company.”
Owen Gray, a native of San Francisco who broke into the industry seven years ago at Kink.com, has been creating his own content for years, launching DeepLush.com in May.
“I’ve only shot with Alina once but I think she’s one of the most promising new performers in the last year that has really stood out,” Gray tells AVN. “Her professionalism on set as well as her uninhibited and genuine approach to performing on camera will guarantee her a really successful career in the long run.”
The Seattle-born Lopez grew up in a conservative Mormon household—the fifth of seven siblings. She moved to Mesa, Arizona, when she was 5 to be closer to her mother’s native Mexico, staying in the Valley of the Sun until 2009 when her parents divorced. Then she accompanied her mom to Utah, where she still resides.
The former solar panel technician and gymnastics coach travels to LA—where she has an apartment—to shoot every two weeks and then returns to her home in St. George.
Porn super agent Mark Spiegler, who has represented six of the past seven AVN Female Performer of the Year winners, tells AVN, “Not only did she have an incredible year, even more incredible is she is limited by the fact that two weeks out of the month she lives in Utah and two weeks out of the month she is here.”
“She works literally—of the days she’s here—about 95-98 percent of those,” Spiegler says. “The only time she gets a day off is when there is a cancellation. With those projections and living in LA full time she would’ve probably done about 350 scenes this year. As it is she’s done about 160 or 170 scenes.”
Spiegler continues, “She can act; she’s super flexible with her Yoga poses. And besides being reliable she’s a really good performer and everybody likes her. She could get a lot more big features, however those run over several days a lot of times. This week she’s coming into town twice just for one day to finish a feature for [2019 AVN Director of the Year] Kayden Kross. She’s not getting as many features as she would if she lived here.”
Lopez says that two years later, “I’m just happy.”
“I had a few jobs before porn and I felt unmotivated. I felt kind of stagnant. I just didn’t really feel like I found my purpose; I didn’t love what I was doing and I didn’t feel the passion; I didn’t feel driven. I was just kind of going through the motions,” she admits. “And when I got into porn I was excited but I tried to be a realist and I tried to be smart and not try to put all my eggs in one basket; and I definitely was giving it time to see how it played out.
“I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping for the best of course. And the longer I was in, the more I realized that this is where I’m supposed to be. And it just kept getting better and better in the sense that I got more confident as a performer and as a person; and more driven, more passionate. And I finally started feeling those things that I had been looking for in my previous work that I never had found until now. So now looking back, I’m just happy.”
In January, Lopez graced the AVN Awards stage for the first time at the 36th annual ceremony at The Joint inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where she led off the show with Emily Willis and Little Caprice to present the first award of the night.
“It was very surreal. Because just the year before that I was sitting there in the audience at my first AVN, sitting next to Spiegler. I didn’t really have any friends. I had only maybe shot like a few scenes. I joined in October. So January was only a few months in,” she recalls. “But AVN is a whole fucking…that was my first experience being like, ‘This is the industry.’
“So I was really blown away by it and I was sitting there in the audience looking up on stage thinking to myself, ‘I just want to be up there.’ And I did not think it would be the next year. I had hoped eventually I would be up there. But when I got the call from [Executive Producer Gary Miller] that I would be presenting an award I was just ecstatic.
“So now this year when I was standing there up on stage presenting, I glanced out to where I was sitting just the year before and I was just like, ‘Fuck yes, I made it.”
Eight months later, that’s proven to be an understatement. A fan favorite who had amassed 789K followers on Instagram and another 236K on Twitter at press time, she says she has her gold AVN statuette for 2019 Hottest Newcomer “on display in my living room.”
“I was really happy to get that award. I was up for Best New Starlet and I didn’t get it. And I didn’t realize that I had won that award because I didn’t really look at the screen when they were announcing the rest. I was just talking to my sister and kind of walking out,” Lopez says. “And then Spiegler was the one that called me and was like, ‘You know you won an award right?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And he’s like, ‘Hottest Newcomer.’ So even though I didn’t get Starlet, I’m happy for Ivy [Wolfe] and she deserves it but I was definitely happy to still get Hottest Newcomer. That to me—I walked away from AVN that year feeling accomplished and feeling like I got what I came for.”
Lopez in July made her feature dancing debut at Gossip in Long Island, N.Y., where the fans “made it rain” on her all night long.
“By the end of my show—the stage was like a runway—and I was walking back and when I turned around to walk back I looked at the stage and I couldn’t even see it. Because the whole stage was covered with money and I was like ‘holy shit.’
“Before I went on I watched the other girls and they were getting tips and stuff and I was kind of expecting to get what they would be getting. But I came out in my KISS clothes. My whole set was like KISS-themed. So I think that really got people riled up.
“They loved it and I loved it. And when I got back down to the dressing room my roadie said that that’s the most he’s ever seen someone get from their first show feature dancing. So I was very excited about that.”
Lopez continues, “And the club was great. They were happy; I was happy. And I had been pushing Spiegler to let me feature dance since I first got in. He was like, ‘No, you’ve gotta wait. You’ve gotta wait.’ Like I really had been wanting to do it.
“I love being on stage. I was a gymnast and a dancer and I was even in band growing up. I’m used to performing. I love to perform. So that was just a whole new adventure.”
Lopez’s dance agent is Dave Michaels, who owns the nationally known A-List Features.
“I am absolutely stoked about having Alina Lopez join our roster of stars,” Michaels tells AVN. “When Gossip in Long Island asked me to find her at AVN and get her for their club, I didn't know I was booking you're such an awesome new star.
“When I put the word out that I had her available the phones started ringing off the hook. Her first booking was great. She did an awesome job, and the club was so happy they want to rebook her back as soon as possible. As a KISS fan I love booking her because of her tongue and her likeness to Gene Simmons. She put a KISS show together for me, so I'm a fan!”
When Lopez isn’t working, she might be strumming her guitar—she owns five of them and is musically inclined.
“I play guitar and I play flute. I’m better at flute than guitar, actually,” she confesses. “But people like to hear me play guitar more than the flute.”
Lopez posted a video on Twitter of her playing “More Than Words” by Extreme and the fans went wild.
“I was totally thinking people wouldn’t give a shit because they can’t see my boobs. But everyone loved it and all the time I get people asking me to post more guitar videos,” she says, adding that she taught herself how to play guitar at 14 by watching tutorials on YouTube.
She has been playing flute since she was 9. “I love playing Christmas songs the most,” Lopez adds, noting that she sold her flute before she got into adult.
“I posted of a video me playing ‘Silent Night.’ I’m not even religious but I love Christmas songs. They’re just beautiful. I love Christmas because I’m with my family. My sister plays the piano and my other sister sings. We all just get together and play music together.
“My family is very talented—all of them. My sister did my hair and makeup for AVN. It was a crazy bubble pony with chains in it and stuff. She owns her own salon.”
Lopez says she is considering a blowbang for Mason before the end of 2019, but she has to be in the right mindset.
“So that might happen. I don’t want to do it unless I’m really ready for that career wise,” she says. “If anything that would be my last big thing of the year.”
The performer, who turned 24 on September 6, says, “I feel like honestly I’m living the dream. I’m getting paid to be a slut and travel and do what I would probably be doing anyway.”
Photography courtesy of Adult Time & Keith Ryan
