Angela White on Change, Self-Improvement and Her 'Why'

This is the cover story of the May issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES—Angela White no longer takes the bus. She recalls riding on many of them “at stupid times in the morning” to catch the 90-minute flight from Melbourne to her native Sydney so she could be on the Australian comedy series, Fat Pizza. “It was a different time,” White says. “I remember even then I worked so hard to be on that show.” The future AVN Hall of Fame performer attended the University of Melbourne, living on about 150 Australian dollars a week when she landed the role of Ruby, a “retired porn star” who was the love interest of pizza shop owner, Bobo Gigliotti. She appeared on Season 5 of the series that debuted in the early 2000s on SBS—a public broadcasting network in Australia. It was 2007. “I was trying to study and I was flying back and forth from Melbourne to Sydney because the show was shot in Sydney,” White explains. “And then I’d fly back to Melbourne in the afternoon and be writing an essay to deliver the next day to my professors, so… The thing I remember most about that time is how hard I was working. “And I think that work ethic remains the same. Another thing that remains the same is when I want something I’m really willing to put my all into it and to sacrifice my own social life, sleep…” It’s a few minutes after 11 on a rainy Monday morning in mid-March—and White is making the most of what has turned into an extended break from shooting due to the production halt caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In response to the recent statewide “safer-at-home,” 30-day lockdown mandated by the California governor, she stockpiled some supplies and is in the process of gearing up for regular clip creation and webcamming—which she did extensively in Australia before going all in with porn. Looking casual yet classy in a tight-fitting, long-sleeved black top that reveals more than a hint of her cleavage, with minimal makeup and her long brown hair down, she sits on the gray sofa in her luxury high-rise apartment that features views of Los Angeles extending more than 10 miles on a clear day. White considers her move to the City of Angels in August 2016 a dream realized—but what happened after that went way beyond what she had imagined. She traveled to the adult entertainment capital of the world on the premise that working with all the top talent in the industry would help her harness her career potential. Three-and-a-half years and more than three dozen AVN trophies later, the three-time and reigning AVN Female Performer of the Year says her focus remains as clear as when she started. “I got into the industry to express and explore my sexuality and I’m passionate about that journey despite all of the things that may have changed around me during the past four years,” White says. “That remains the same and I’m still just excited to be here and excited to get on set. I’m excited to work with these performers and directors that I’ve dreamed of working with when I was living back in Australia.” White went where no woman has gone before in January, creating porn history en route to adding 11 awards to her record tally of 41 at the 37th annual AVN Awards ceremony at The Joint inside Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Now seven weeks removed from that moment, as she considers what her motivation is going forward, White says, “The why is still the same.” “I still feel that there’s so much to explore,” she tells AVN. “I don’t feel like I’ve reached a point where there’s nothing left. “I still just love connecting with people when I get on set, whether it’s performers I’ve shot with numerous times—where I can connect with them on a deeper level—or perhaps a different level depending on what the director’s vision is. “Or whether it’s performing with new performers and creating a brand new and exciting connection with them.” ***  It’s not hard to find evidence of White’s impact on the retail marketplace. Just ask Colin Allerton, vice president of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based online retail destination, Adult Empire. Allerton’s firm—which won its 13th AVN Award for Best Web Retail Store in January—in 2019 named White their “Empire Porn Star of the Year” for the second straight time. Anchored by their comprehensive library of 93,000-plus DVD and Blu-ray titles and more than 82,000 porn videos on demand, not to mention thousands of sex toys, Adult Empire is able to track the market value of the top performers at any given time based on metrics such as sales, rentals, clip downloads and searches. White at press time in March had been ranked the No. 1 Most Popular Porn Star on the Adult Empire platform for 89 consecutive weeks—dating back to June 2018. “It’s definitely unprecedented for us that someone would stay No. 1 for multiple years,” Allerton tells AVN. “She’s still in the No. 1 position today. “It’s like everything she does people are definitely interested in. She’s got a huge, dedicated fan base. From our perspective she’s kind of the full package as a performer in that she is beautiful, she’s really passionate about what she does and it seems like she throws her all into every project she’s involved in. And that combination of an extremely high sex drive, professionalism and creativity seems to come together to create the perfect package.” White’s best-selling movie of all time came out in 2015—the showcase Angela Volume 2, which she produced and directed herself for her own studio, AGW Entertainment. In the movie—which White referred to as her “magnum opus”—she delivered her first all-girl three-way; her first blowbang; her first interracial double-penetration scene; and her first gangbang that included her first double-vaginal, double-anal and triple-penetration sequences. “That’s also her No. 1 selling movie on demand—so both DVD and VOD,” Allerton notes. In 2019 White starred in two movies that climbed to No. 1 on Adult Empire’s sales chart—Angela White Dark Side (Jules Jordan Video) and Drive (Deeper/Pulse); Dark Side won Best Star Showcase in January, while Drive captured Best Drama. One seasoned brick-and-mortar retailer in the Deep South says her appeal goes beyond collecting gold hardware. “She is one of the best-selling and well-recognized porn stars on my shelves, but I think more of her popularity is from the internet instead of how many awards,” Ken Koch, co-owner of Treasures for Lovers in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, tells AVN. “She’s absolutely gorgeous, too, with a real-girl beauty… I also sell a lot of her Fleshlights.” Without question, White has achieved a degree of internet fame that places her somewhere in the top 1 percent of anyone doing porn for a living. In March, she had 5.6 million followers on her verified Instagram account, @theangelawhite, and 1.6 million on her backup account, @officialangelawhite; another 1.1 million on Twitter at @ANGELAWHITE; 1,400 on the still burgeoning AVN Stars platform at @angelawhite; and untold thousands more on her public and private Snapchat and OnlyFans accounts. Moose, the owner and president of Girlfriends Films, has been distributing White’s AGW-produced DVDs since her debut title, Angela Volume 1, in October 2014. That movie featured her first anal, first double penetration, first interracial and first all-anal threesome scenes. Moose tells AVN he hasn’t seen anyone navigate this territory quite like White. “Angela changed the game in terms of being able to identify what her fans wanted and needed and then delivering it," Moose says. “It really has been quite an honor to work with Angela. As a distributor, our general focus is to offer studios our expertise and provide them with the best service in the industry. "In working with AGW, it’s been amazing to see the growth and dynamic that Angela has brought to her films and to see the incredible response to each and every new release she puts forth.” Despite the consumer shift toward online sales, AGW continues to move DVDs in volume, Moose adds. “And I think that’s a testament to the quality of work that Angela strives to produce,” says Moose, a former firefighter and EMT who got into adult in 2007, taking the reins of Girlfriends Films in 2014. “It shows in all aspects of sales—from direct-to-consumer to retailers—and seeing the reviews and awards she receives, it’s just consistent across the board. “To a distributor, there isn’t anything we like to see more. We absolutely love working with Angela in all regards—and sales are just a bonus. She has a lot to be proud of for what she has accomplished in the industry in such a short period of time." ***   Mark Spiegler thinks so, too. The porn super agent, who has represented six of the past seven AVN Female Performer of the Year winners and welcomed White to his Spiegler Girls agency as soon as she touched down in LA, tells AVN she possesses all the traits that make someone a success in this—or any other profession. “It’s a combination,” Spiegler says. “She’s good looking and she’s a great performer, but also she’s a really nice person and I’ve always said being nice and polite goes a long way in success in any kind of business. “She’s like a phenomenon—basically like a thoroughbred. She got here and somebody offered her some mainstream job and she’s like, ‘No, I’m here to fuck.’ She reminds me to an extent of a Sasha Grey.” Grey won the 2008 AVN Female Performer of the Year award before attaining success as an actress, DJ, author and musician. “Sasha said, ‘I’m like an athlete. Even when I’m not on the field I’m in training.’ That’s what Angela is like. She’s always working out, getting ready for this or that. But also she’s always planning like a chess master. Always planning three, four, five steps ahead like how this would look, doing a specific scene, what the politics of it are,” Spiegler continues. “She thinks well ahead with what she does.” Spiegler says White’s extraordinary streak—no one has ever won three straight Female Performer of the Year awards—is both “surprising and not.” “The fact she was able to achieve this is not surprising,” Spiegler reasons. “It’s that perseverance once they win. It’s, 'OK onto the next thing. Let’s see if I can do it again.’ It takes a lot—a lot of effort—and it takes not only physical perseverance, but also mental. “In this day of social media and getting criticized left and right—by everybody and nobody—some girls take that to heart. So you have to be not only physically on point but also mentally tough.” White embraces the mental aspect of her job. “This may sound counter-intuitive but that toughness actually comes from vulnerability,” White says. “Because I’m a very empathetic person and I try and be empathetic to everyone. And when people write negative comments online I honestly do feel that that comes from a place of sadness or something that’s happening that’s negative in their life because I don’t understand why anybody would want to bring somebody else down unless they were hurting inside. “So literally every time I read something that’s rude or negative, or purposefully mean, most of the time I don’t even really think about it, I just keep scrolling. But if for some reason it makes me pause, I think about, ‘Well where did that come from? Why are they attacking me? What is it about what I’ve done or this image that offends them or is upsetting them?’ “And I realize it’s never about me. It’s always about them. “I’m sure everybody has their own tactics for staying mentally strong, but I think my toughness comes from a vulnerability and a willingness to be empathetic even with the people who perhaps deserve it the least.” ***  Chris Gentile, the chief creative officer for Evil Angel who won his first AVN Award in 2019 for Best Director-Non Feature for helming I Am Angela, the docu-porn showcase produced by John Stagliano’s Evil Angel Films that explored White’s life off the set like no other movie had before it, tells AVN that he saw first-hand what makes her a superstar. “With Angela it’s really interesting because you’re looking at a person that can lead in the adult space in a variety of different ways,” Gentile says. “She could be an incredible studio head. She could operate a large-scale company. She’s an incredible performer and marketer. “I think of her as a storyteller. Every year she finds a way to create a particular story about what she’s doing with her career. To me Angela embodies someone that’s really versatile. She shows leadership abilities beyond being a strong voice as a performer. "The other thing about Angela is no matter how high the stakes are or how stressful a situation is to get something done on deadline, she always has an amazing attitude and treats people with respect. There is no sense of any type of diva behavior with her, even though she is a diva. In my mind she is the top performer in the world. “There are a few other performers in that class with her—it’s not just her—but anything she wants to conquer in this business she’ll find a path, a platform. She’ll find a way to do it.” Gentile continues, “Whether it’s being a webmaster or being in the biggest movie of the year, she has the ideas and the energy to pull it off if she wants to.” *** Speaking of big movies, there were three in 2019, in particular, that keyed White’s road to three-peat glory—her lead roles in Bree Mills’ Perspective (Adult Time) and Kayden Kross’s Drive (Deeper); and her star showcase for Jules Jordan, Angela White Dark Side. White won her first AVN Award for Best Leading Actress for Perspective, which was written and directed by Mills, who cast White in the role of Jennifer, the anguished wife of psychopathic husband of Seth Gamble’s Daniel. Gamble received his second straight Best Leading Actor award for his performance. “Angela and I have worked together quite frequently over the last three years,” Mills, who is also the chief creative officer for Adult Time, tells AVN. “Every time we come together it’s always a collaboration from both sides. “It’s not just tapping her for a role for a day, it’s always a collaboration. That’s what I love about it. If I was on a deserted island or in the middle of a pandemic, she would definitely be at the very top of the list of who I’d want to work with because she’s always going to bring it. When you start a collaboration with her you know she’s going to bring 200 percent, make it her own and make it better than what you had imagined.” Mills says White practiced method acting for Jennifer, staying in character for the entire 10-day production. “She wrote an entire journal in the mentality of her character that she brought every single day on set,” Mills continues. “When she wasn’t performing she was nose deep in that journal in her character. I’ve never seen any pair of performers be more committed than this to the point that even I was intimidated. I’m always hyper-organized and over-prepared for everything and have the vision for the story. “I’m the storyteller and I was in awe of these two to the point that I definitely wanted to be sure to step up my game here because they were taking it to the next level.” In the sadistic drama Drive—a movie that collected five other awards in addition to Best Drama, including Best Supporting Actress for White’s co-star, the sensational Maitland Ward—White plays a workaholic political consultant with repressed sexuality who is tormented by her daring alter-ego (Ward).  According to Kayden Kross, the two-time AVN Director of the Year who also won Best Director - Dramatic Production for Drive, White exceeded everyone’s expectations. “She took the project with the utmost seriousness and went well above and beyond the call of a performer to make sure that the project got off the ground,” Kross tells AVN. “With regards to her sexual performances, especially in the warehouse sequence at the end of the movie, we treated that as a story platform I created where she could take it as far as she wished. “Obviously, I personally was very interested in seeing the widest range of performance possible to support the scenario we'd set up, but to ask that of anyone is a lot. Angela was single-mindedly invested in pushing herself to the limit. “Physically, she did it. Even in imagination, she did it. The experiment (I would argue it was an experiment) worked so well because Angela and Maitland are of the same ilk. They do not stop, they do not draw clean lines and demand that the work fit inside of that, and they collect paychecks not because they're doing it for the money but because they understand that if we are all working so hard on something that creates income then it's only fair that some of that income should flow back to them as well. “What they are really working on when they work on projects like Drive is not an update that will be at the top of the site for five days, but a part of a whole that is the brand they are controlling completely.” ***  In addition to her high-profile feature work in 2019, White found time to collaborate with AVN Hall of Fame producer/director Jules Jordan, leading to her third straight AVN Award for Best Star Showcase for Dark Side; she also won Best Blowbang Scene, Best Gangbang Scene and Best Solo/Tease Performance for Dark Side; Best Group Sex Scene for Drive (Deeper/Pulse); Best All-Girl Group Scene for I Am Riley; and three fan-voted awards—Favorite Female Porn Star, Most Spectacular Boobs and Social Media Star, giving her 35 AVN trophies since 2018 and increasing her total to 41 overall. Jordan, a native of Hershey, Pennsylvania, who has been directing porn for more than 20 years, tells AVN, “Angela is the porn star of the decade in my opinion.” “She has it all—the looks, the class, the ferocity and she delivers volcanic hot sex. I think any fan of adult films can find a quality about her that they love. “Angela really pushed her boundaries and mine as well while we were filming Dark Side. She pushed for more and more takes and photos, which really inspired me to do my absolute best. It’s really great when a performer wants as perfect of a project as the director.” Each of White’s Female Performer of the Year campaigns took on thematic narratives. During her breakthrough season in 2017 that preceded her first FPOY win on January 27, 2018, White performed in 183 scenes—including 40 anal, seven d.p.s, two gangbangs and five showcase movies, four of which were for AGW Entertainment (Angela Loves Women Vol. Three, Angela Loves Threesomes Vol. Two, Angela Loves Anal and Angela Vol. Three) and Titwoman for Elegant Angel. White also shot with Evil Angel founder John “Buttman” Stagliano for the first time—Psychotic Behavior and Anal & Oral Antics. But if 2017 in retrospect was “The Year of the Showcase” for White, then 2018 was the “Year of the Collaboration,” as she aligned with Jonni Darkko and Evil Angel Films for Angela By Darkko on the heels of writing and starring in an emotional episode for Gamma’s Pure Taboo imprint about body shaming, The Weight of Infidelity, that was co-directed by Bree Mills and Craven Moorehead. Mills and Moorehead is the same producing team behind the 2020 Movie of the Year Teenage Lesbian. In 2018, White also wrote the script and starred in a romantic vignette for Vixen—in a joint venture with three-time AVN Director of the Year and the former chief creative officer for Vixen, Greg Lansky—opposite the six-time AVN Male Performer of the Year Manuel Ferrara.  She performed in 155 sex scenes and appeared in 74 DVD releases—not including compilations, snagging an industry-high 40 box covers. She headlined more than 15 releases in September 2018 alone. White says if her three banner seasons have taken on certain themes that “it’s never really been a strategy, but it just sort of works out that it kind of becomes one.” “Every day I’m always trying to improve myself,” she says. “But every year I try and set a goal and say how do I want to grow, what do I want to do? Where could I improve? “With the showcase year, obviously I really wanted to showcase my skill as a performer and a director and really get down and dirty. And with the collaborations I wanted to see how I could grow through the help of others and through learning through other people and seeing what they could bring out of me. “And then this last year I really wanted to grow as an actor and show my skill there. And so this year again I’m going to be seeing in what ways I can grow again.” *** Even though as White speaks today the industry is on hiatus, she says the way she is approaching the rest of 2020 already has come into focus. “The word that comes to mind is ‘creativity,’” White says, adding there are a few surprises taking shape behind the scenes, but they’re too soon to be revealed. Plus, the lockdown has hindered everyone’s production schedule. “My plan in the next couple weeks while I’m cooped up inside will be to still focus on that creativity. So I’d like to maybe do some writing. Maybe think about what kind of creative things I would like to do if the situation arises that I can begin shooting again. And also reconnecting with my fans. I’ve already started webcamming again. “And reaching out to people. A lot of fans that I built through webcamming while I was living in Australia have followed me throughout my entire career and have joined all the porn sites that I’ve appeared on just to keep following me as a performer. And now that I’m back webcamming they’re so excited to see me. Many of my big fans I’ve stayed in contact with throughout my journey in L.A. “But now we can really hang out online and chat again. So this year will still be about creativity whether it’s locked in here for however long more or if I can venture out in the world.” White will be doing most of her camming on MyFreeCams, where she hasn’t been a regular in about four years but still has “friends” waiting for her return. “It’s funny with camming, you have plans to get on and be sexy and sexual and often it just turns into a social event,” White jokes. “Which… it’s really nice. So during this creative time I’ll also be getting feedback from my biggest fans on what other things they’d like to see me do.” White also had been scheduled to speak on a panel at Harvard University on April 10 in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and return to the University of California at Santa Barbara on April 24 to speak to Professor Constance Penley’s “Hollywood: Anatomy of an Industry” class. In 2019, White spoke at Penley’s “Topics in Popular Culture: Pornography” class. Both spring events were postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic. *** White, who was still in high school when she entered the adult industry in 2003, has not only enjoyed notoriety in America. She also is a prominent figure back home, too. In addition to appearing on Australian TV and on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, she received national attention during her bid for the Australian Sex Party Senate seat during the Victorian state election in 2010. White has graced several covers of both now-defunct mainstream magazines, People and Picture, in Australia. Those magazines were sold in gas stations. “They had a huge circulation and yeah, I had a number of covers with both People and Picture magazine, and it was quintessentially Aussie both in its articles and the way it wrote about its models. Quite quirky in that sense,” White says. “It’s very sad that they’re no longer sold at all. I got the last cover of Picture magazine, which was really cool. “… I bought them at gas stations, news agencies… I was always a little bit embarrassed as well, hoping they don’t notice.” Paul Maginn, an associate professor and program coordinator in Urban/Regional Planning at the University of Western Australia based in Perth, who is a prolific researcher of the geography of sex work, tells AVN, “Angela White arguably has both cult and mainstream fame within Australia.” “Within the adult industry here in Australia, Angela is unquestionably the most famous, recognized and respected Aussie performer,” Maginn says, adding that her role in Fat Pizza arguably was her first taste of national exposure. Maginn continues, “She’s renowned for her business acumen as well as her intellect, having obtained first-class Honors in her undergraduate degree at University of Melbourne and published Op-Eds and academic outputs. “She came into the national spotlight here in Australia again about two years ago when she appeared on Andrew Denton’s show, ‘The Interview,’ on Channel 7. Denton is a renowned television writer/producer/interviewer here in Australia and his decision to include Angela as one of his guests on a mainstream show during commercial primetime evening viewing was in some senses a provocative move but it provided viewers with an opportunity to hear about porn from a real porn performer.” *** Bob Krotts, aka “Dirty Bob,” who has been a contributing editor for AVN since 1989 and is the chairman of the X-Rated Critics Organization, better known as the XRCO Awards, says White is the consummate pro. “There’s a lot of different facets to it but the general consensus—besides the fact that it couldn’t happen to a nicer person—is that she is doing everything the right way,” Krotts says. “I can’t think of anything she’s really done that would be detrimental to her career…She’s got a great fan following—that’s a given. Then she’s got the look. From acting to participating to representing the business—everything is superb.” A photographer by trade based in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, whose first published nude photos ran in 1979-80 in Velvet and Cheri, Krotts reasoned that because White has not been bound to perform exclusively for one company it has helped her. “She’s her own entity and that’s given her freedom to try different things and experiment,” Krotts says, suggesting that White now has most likely leaped over the likes of Jenna Jameson in stature. “It depends on who you talk to. Jenna Jameson’s publicity machine promoted her so much that I think the general public is more aware of who she is, but I think Angela by far has a much stronger following in terms of the core fan elements. I’m not putting Jenna down or anything like that, but I think Angela by far has surpassed her with the fans. “Back in the early ’90s, Wicked [Pictures] had me go to Columbus to photograph an up-and-coming new star they were pushing, who turned out to be Jenna Jameson. If I compare her at that time to who she evolved into, they were two different animals. Angela has always been super nice, super friendly. I don’t think it’s really gone to her head. I still think she’s amazed at her success.” Jared Rutter, the former chairman of the X-Rated Critics Organization, who has been in the adult industry since the early ’70s and remains a go-to contributor for AVN, weighed in on the force of nature that is Miss White. “How do you analyze star power? You know it—or feel it—when you see it, but you can’t define where it comes from,” Rutter says. “Some people got it and make it pay.  Angela’s power was confirmed by her fans. Not just beauty and talent but joy in performance. “She told me once (as I’m sure she’s told many others) that she deliberately planned her career arc—Australia to L.A.—in stages. She started with girl/girl, then added boy/girl, then multiple-partners, then the kind of extreme stuff she displayed in Angela Dark Side. Along the way she added acting as well. Last year she had two major acting challenges—Drive and Perspective—and she aced them both. And she has moved behind the camera as well.” Rutter continues, “She’s also a great business person. She knows her worth and how to make the most of it. She must be setting an example to younger stars, the ones with long career ambitions who see her as a role model. “She’s also great with her fans, very aware of her position at the top of the porn heap, and she conducts herself accordingly. Queen. “For her to maintain such superiority in so many areas for so long must be unique in porn history. I can’t really think of anyone who tops her.” ***  White considers the mantle of three-time AVN Performer of the Year, “Not a burden, but definitely a responsibility.” “That title does come with big responsibility,” she says. “I am in some ways a representative of the industry, so there is responsibility there. I will say that even on set I know that there are expectations. I try not to let those expectations ever hinder my performance because I realize that I’ve been booked for a reason and that reason is that I’m true to myself and I make a real connection with my partner, so I focus on that.” White continues, “There are certainly sometimes comments on set where it’ll be an anal day and before we’ve even begun everyone’s like, ‘Oh it’ll be easy, it’s you.’ Or I’ll have 40 pages of dialogue and they’ll be like, ‘Don’t worry, Angela’s got her lines down.’ It’s wonderful. Those comments I appreciate because it shows they have a confidence in me and they know that I’m professional and they know that I’ll come prepared. “But there’s also that moment where I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t screw anything up. Because everybody expects me to be perfect; they expect me to be the one line and done. To never have any issues on set.” White knocks on the coffee table in front of her, joking “[I’m] touching wood.” “Nothing’s ever gone wrong but I do have to sometimes give myself a little pep talk and be like, ‘OK. I’m booked for a reason. I’m here to express myself. I’m here to help create their vision. I’ve done this many times before and I’m just going to do what I’ve always done and not think that I have to do anything differently because there’s that expectation.’” When Evil Angel’s Chris Gentile met White in 2016, he remembers being “immediately struck by her general demeanor.” “She really seemed to understand what was going in the business,” Gentile says. “She had a really strong awareness of the process. Then she started to really become popular in such a quick way and sometimes when that happens you don’t really fully know why. Whether it’s a look, a particularly strong strategy or connecting with audiences in a special way—how she got so much traction and moved so quickly to the top like that. “And making the movie [I Am Angela] is when I realized why people want to be around her. She is a really warm, radiant person who works really hard to give her fans what they want. What I learned about her was how determined she was, how hard she was willing to work. “She never gets into that A-list comfort zone… She always keeps moving. She’s always climbing. So making the movie with her I saw the determination, the work ethic she had. She checks every box and making the movie made me a fan and I understood why she was still able to have such a historic run in just a matter of a few years, after being in the industry for 15 years before that.” Photography by Keith Ryan For a video interview with Angela from her cover photoshoot, click here.