A version of this feature appears in the August issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—Cecilia Lion appreciates the numerous encouraging messages she receives from fans, even if she can’t respond to most of them.
She’ll see notes such as, “Oh my gosh, you’re one of my favorite porn stars, you’re such a famous celebrity!”
But the 25-year-old Lion, who born in Chicago and raised in Phoenix, stays grounded.
“I don’t even view myself as a celebrity who’s followed around by cameras and always gets stopped, and ‘porn star’—I don’t even necessarily like to take that title,” Lion tells AVN. “I feel like a porn star is once you get awards for your scenes. That’s when you can claim the title.
“And even then, I feel like that’s a life that you live. I don’t live that porn star lifestyle. I’m pretty chill and really laid back. I’m not high maintenance or anything like that. I’m really relaxed and I’m a really chill little internet girl.”
The personable performer, who started her career as a cam girl in August 2015 and took an extended break during the following year, enjoys building connections with her fans.
“I guess you could say my kink is talking to strangers online,” Lion jokes.
“It’s always been a weird thing with me. Even when I was younger I used to play this Little Big Planet game on my Playstation and I would be online playing and talking to other players. I was always really intrigued and thought it was really cool because I could make friends that are all over the world. … I want to travel the world.”
Lion, who started shooting porn in 2017, says all of her experiences on set have been positive so far. She has performed in about 100 scenes since 2017 for several name studios such as Reality Kings, Vixen Media Group, Deeper.com, Bang Bros, Jules Jordan Video, Brazzers and Girlfriends Films. She is Cherry Pimps' Cherry of the Month for August.
“So I’m super fortunate,” she says. “It’s only made me like the industry more. I know there are those bad stories in the industry but I feel like it’s more so how you deal with the situation. My situation has been really cool and awesome and super fun. Hopefully we get back to shooting soon because I kind of miss it.”
She continues, “I love my fans. I love my career. I’m fortunate to have such a good experience. I like this job and I’m going to do it until I don’t like it anymore. As soon as I don’t like it and the vibe is off, I won’t do it anymore. But this is the chapter that I’m in and I’m digging it.”
Cecilia reveals her first job was as a hostess at Cheesecake Factory.
“I never got free cheesecake, so don’t let them fool you,” she jokes. “That was pretty fun. I don’t really like cheesecake anyways, so whatever… I never really held a job for more than six months.”
She also worked as a customer retention representative for CenturyLink.
“It was the worst job in the world,” Lion says. “You’re like the last people that they get transferred to when people have stuff wrong with their phones. They call customer service and get transferred down to you. They’re just calling us every name. I was like, ’I have three things available to fix your bill, why are you mad at me? Pay your bills, it’s not my fault.’”
After leaving that job she enrolled in some college courses and then later started a job at Hooters on her birthday, Dec. 2, but that only lasted about two months.
“I quit during Super Bowl because I was like fuck this shit, all these girls are mega-bitches.”
Cecilia’s last job before she went into adult was as a hostess at Mellow Mushroom, a funky pizzeria that serves craft beer and creative stone-baked pizzas near the Arizona State campus.
“They have the best pizza,” Cecilia says. “That was my favorite job next to this one. It fit my personality so well. It’s a place made for stoners. Our work shirts said, ‘Baked on a stone since 1984.’”
While she was at Mellow Mushroom she met two friends that “got me into this whole world.” She remembers overhearing her gay co-worker talk about how he had his boyfriend give him a BJ on Chaturbate the night before—and they made $200.
“I heard him say that and I was like, ‘What, $200, what are you doing? What is this called?’ He was like, ‘Chaturbate. You can just Google it.’ And my other friend that was standing there had done some lingerie modeling and the way she was saying it—it was just funny how she told me,” Lion recalls.
“So I went home that night and Googled it and found this Craigslist ad that popped up on Google for a studio in Tempe. And I was like, ‘Wait, that’s perfect. Because I worked on Mill Avenue and I looked at where it was and it was a mile down the street. I thought how perfect is this fate, I can cam here.”
She emailed the contact and met him later that week for a tour of the cam studio, asking her “ride-or-die friend at the time” to come with her.
“We went there and took a tour and I just said, ‘fuck it,’” Lion says.
The cam studio owner told her she needed a stage name but she couldn’t think of one.
It was late in the summer of 2015, about a month after the international controversy sparked by the Minnesota dentist who hunted and killed Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.
“I remember he said your hair looks like a lion. My hair was really big so that sparked it in my head,” she says. “That’s how I got my name. It was almost a tribute.”
Lion, who has also lived in Florida and Mississippi, says when she isn’t working she is “really laid back and chill.”
“I like watching movies, hanging out with my dad,” she says. “I’m actually going to be spending a lot more time with him. He’s helping me get a house. We put down on a house and we’re gonna flip it together. It’s a really cool daughter and father project. He’s been in construction his whole life. We’ve always talked about flipping a house and building a house for us.
“Also we’re fixing up my ’71 Charger we got a while back. That’s going to be another father-daughter project. I enjoy spending time with any of my family.”
She adds, “Taking a bath is fun. I wish I was a mermaid. I love bathes. For a fire sign, I love water.”
Photography by Deeper.com (1, 9, 10 & 11), @theedgeimage2 (2) & @legendone (3-8)
