This feature appears in the January issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—Vicki Chase played a porn star with unresolved family issues in her indie short film debut, Everything In Its Right Place.
The five-time AVN Award-winner from LA says the role of Sunrise—a retiring adult performer with a complicated personal background—tested her acting chops.
Alexander Clavijo directed the 19-minute short from Concord Pike Production that began making the rounds on the festival circuit during the second half of 2023.
“It was a project I was a little nervous and concerned about,” Chase admits. “Because this is a porn star and she’s got a fucked-up family life situation, a little similar to mine—not exactly, but eerily similar. So it was like what the hell is this?
“I thought about it and said you know what, I like to act. And this is a character. It’s not me, so I just gave it a shot.”
Chase received a 2024 AVN Award nomination for Mainstream Venture of the Year for her dramatic turn in the film that was shot over a few hot days in July 2022 in LA.
But it wasn’t just the heat that made the assignment challenging. It was bringing the character of Sunrise to life in scenes such as her emotional session with a therapist following the passing of her mother, whom she hadn’t spoken with in 10 years. Not to mention the deep resentment she harbored for her absent father.
“There were a lot of dramatic scenarios that were eerily familiar to me,” Vicki says. “And I think the character also reminded me of my mother.
“The character was a porn star who was retiring and this was my last scene in the industry. And I’m going to a therapist because I don’t know how to deal with my mom’s passing and my father who was abusive to her.
“It was pretty heavy and I thought wow, this also reminds me of my mother because my mother had a bad relationship growing up with her mother. Even though she didn’t really have her real father, her stepfather was a real problem in her life. So I was able to channel her anger and what she was feeling when I had to go talk to my dad and yell at him for not being there.”
As the narrative advances, Sunrise also discovers she has a half-sister, Paloma (Cindy Martin Del Campo), through her father (Daniel Scott). They cross paths at her mother’s funeral and later connect at the bar where Paloma is performing with her band.
“We have a heart-to-heart and she helps me see that things are OK, that things are going to be OK,” Vicki adds. “It’s a cute little short.
“Of course I have aspirations of being a legitimate Hollywood actress—why the fuck not? So this has been me kind of testing the waters, stepping out of my comfort zone into the unknown a little bit.
“It was fun. I don’t regret doing it. It’s short and sweet and definitely dramatic.”
Chase met the director Clavijo through a mutual friend—veteran adult director Jim Camp.
“Alex was telling him about this story and Jim recommended that he speak to me about it,” Vicki explains. “So he reached out to me through Jim.”
The 13-year veteran Chase tells AVN it was important to her to not have the adult industry depicted in a negative light in the film, so she communicated with Clavijo about her boundaries.
“I don’t ever want to degrade the industry that gave me so much love and acceptance,” Vicki says. “So he was careful with me and he was flexible with me being selective with what I would and would not do.”
Chase accompanied Clavijo to a red-carpet screening at the L.A. Shorts International Film Festival at L.A. Live in July.
“It was good mingling among industry actors,” she says of the event.
If anything, Chase says the experience of starring in Everything In Its Right Place only reinforced what she already thought about acting.
“There were emotional and physical challenges but it just validated to me how much I enjoy the art of acting and I want to do more—more mainstream,” Vicki says.
