Friends, Colleagues Mourn Angelina Please

CHATSWORTH, Calif.—When a close friend was grappling with drug addiction and needed to enter rehab, Angelina Please insisted on paying the bill. The trans performer was passionate about political issues, often engaging in cordial debates with friends and strangers on Twitter. She loved Lady Gaga and '90s alternative rock—Alanis Morissette, Bjork and The Cranberries—and was developing an interest in home decor and interior design. And Please was infatuated with her pet ball python, Pazuzu. On what was likely the final day of her life, the Las Vegas resident made arrangements for a friend to feed the reptile while she was away in Los Angeles for the weekend. “Those are the type of things people need to know about Angelina,” Aspen Brooks, one of Please’s best friends, told AVN. “She was a great performer, yes. But she was an even better person. Angelina had a life outside of porn. And it was a good life. She was in a good place.” That’s why the adult industry is still struggling to make sense of Please’s death last week at age 24. The Clark County Medical Examiner has yet to release an autopsy report, but Please’s mother specualted to the Daily Mail that her daughter died of a drug overdose. Those closest to Please are convinced it was accidental. “From knowing Angelina all these years, and talking to her almost every day, I just can’t imagine she would do something like this on purpose,” Brooks said. “No one would’ve ever suspected her of that. Angelina was happy. Everyone she came in contact with could feel it.” Whatever the case, it was a cruel, lonely ending that came without warning. It came, friends and colleagues say, when Please seemed to have everything in front of her. *** No one in the adult industry had known Please longer than Gracie Jane. The two met online about six years ago, shortly after each of them decided to transition. Day after day throughout the process, they were there for each other, initially through texts and DMs and, later, in person. “We helped each other through a lot of different surgeries,” Jane said. Please joined the adult industry a few years later in 2019 and eventually convinced Jane to come with her. Please relished her role as Jane’s mentor. She introduced her to directors and performers, offered feedback on her scenes and provided guidance as she launched her social media platforms. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for her,” Jane said. “She helped me make a lot of money.” More than anything, though, Please led by example. While some performers simply view porn as a job, Jane said Please truly loved the business and was committed to becoming an elite performer. “She watched every scene she filmed as soon as it came out and critiqued herself,” Jane said. “And she studied other performers. She was just so passionate about it. She monitored the industry like a hawk. She knew who everyone was shooting with, and anytime there was someone new on the scene, she was texting me, saying, ‘Check this new girl out.’ “She genuinely loved it. She was an exhibitionist and she was very raunchy. She was unafraid to show that side of herself. It was hot.” Jane said Please had been “working like crazy” in 2022, estimating that she’d shot about 10 scenes in the two or three weeks before her death. That’s hardly a surprise to AVN Hall of Fame director Aiden Starr, who worked on numerous projects with Please. She described her as a “meticulous planner” and “very detail-oriented,” adding that Please often emailed her about wardrobe, set design, scripts and sequencing. “It was a pleasure to watch her mind work,” Starr said. “She was so creative. She reminded me of a younger me. “She was ambitious and driven, and she was so proud of her accomplishments. It hurts me more than I can express to think of the scenes we will never shoot together.” Some of those scenes, Starr said, would’ve been for a showcase that was being planned for Evil Angel—a coveted honor that would’ve marked the first showcase of Please’s career. The thought of a such a project certainly made sense considering the trajectory of Please’s career. Less than two months earlier, Please was one of the 15 nominees for the prestigious Trans Performer of the Year trophy at the AVN Awards and was also in the running for Best Trans Group scene for a tryst with Ariel Demure and Jenna Creed. Her star was ascending. Fast. “I’m telling you,” Brooks said, “the girl was about to blow up. Her brand was getting bigger and her career was about to take off. She would’ve had a strong chance to win AVN Performer of the Year (in 2023). With the way things were heading, she could've taken it home. “That’s what makes this even more sad. Everything she’d worked for, everything she’d wanted, was about to happen for her.” Still, as impressed as they were with her as a performer, those closest to Please will remember her more for the type of person she was off-camera. Starr said Please was a “loving friend.” “Her passion wasn’t just for the business side of the industry,” Starr said. “It was for the people in it. She was very sweet.” Brooks agreed. She said she met Please about two years ago after Please moved to Las Vegas from her native Chicago. The two lived a few blocks from one another in the same Sin City suburb and became instant friends and confidants. People often referred to Brooks and Please as "The Dynamic Duo" because they were always together. "She had a spirit about her, an energy that made people open up," Brooks said. "I could tell her anything and she wouldn’t judge me. “She also didn’t give a fuck what other people thought about her. That’s what I admired about her. She was truly her genuine self. It’s very hard to find that in people these days." Jane echoed that sentiment, adding that Please was incredibly self-assured for someone so young. “She wasn’t a follower,” Jane said. “She was a leader. She had a really sharp wit and she stood her ground on her opinions. She was very bold and very intelligent—and also really generous.” One of the best illustrations of Please’s kind heart occurred over the winter, when a close friend was battling a life-threatening drug addiction. Jane and Brooks both told AVN that Please researched various rehabilitation centers before finding one in Portland that she deemed to be a good fit. Please then launched a GoFundMe campaign that covered most of the costs, and she used money out of her own pocket to pay the remaining balance. The friend is scheduled to be released from the facility on Friday after successfully completing the program. “She even flew to Portland to check her in and to make sure everything went OK,” Jane said. “She saw the whole thing through. She saved our best friend’s life.” Please certainly enjoyed her down time, too. Jane loved her “gossip sessions” with Please and joked that said had a “refined taste” in music and movies. “She wasn’t going to waste her time with something dumb,” Jane said. Brooks said Please loved to clean and decorate rooms, whether it was at her own apartment, on a set or at the residence of a friend. Please also took pride in caring for Pazuzu, the ball python she purchased from a local breeder last year. When Please made plans to travel to L.A. on March 10 for the Trans Erotica Awards show, she initially asked Brooks—who also has a snake—to stop by and check on her pet. But that morning she called Brooks and told her it wouldn’t be necessary. “That was the last conversation I ever had with her,” Brooks said. “She was about to leave for the airport.” Please never showed up for the TEA show that weekend. On March 14—after not hearing from her daughter in four days—Please’s mother filed a missing person’s report in Las Vegas. Authorities discovered Please's body the following afternoon in her living room. Brooks arrived on the scene after being alerted by Please’s mother that police were at the apartment. She said the parking lot was filled with ambulances, a firetruck and numerous cop cars. “When you know your friend is missing and you go to their place and see that, you have a bad feeling,” Brooks said. “I went up to the apartment and saw a gurney with a sheet over it being taken down the hallway. “I was like, ‘Is that my friend? What’s going on? Please tell me! Is she alive?’" Brooks said she could see the hurt in the police officer’s eyes as he shook his head and said “No.” The assumption is that Please had overdosed five days earlier, on March 10, shortly before she was supposed to leave to catch her flight to Los Angeles. “I just broke down crying,” Brooks said. “I had her mom in Chicago on the phone with me. Her family was waiting on me to tell them what was going on. They were hoping I had good news. Instead I told them the worst thing imaginable. Hearing her mom scream was the worst feeling ever. One week later, and it’s still just … haunting.” Jane feels the same way each time she looks at the box that sits near her front door. Inside is the satin, espresso-colored outfit—pants with a corset top—that Please planned to wear to the TEA show on March 13. Please had it mailed to Jane’s apartment in Los Angeles so she could get ready there before the show. “It’s very classy and elegant,” Jane said of the outfit. “She would’ve looked beautiful in it. She was so excited about that night. She was excited about a lot of things. She wanted to become a legend in the industry—but I think she already was.” Jane paused. “Angelina was a one-of-a-kind person,” she said. “She walked around every day and made people’s lives better. That’s very rare. I loved her and I always will.” A vigil celebrating Please’s life will be held Tuesday, March 22 in Las Vegas from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at 824 Lacy Lane. The event—which will take place in a '70s-style mansion—was organized by Brooks and fellow performers Adira Allure, Lydia Black and Sophia Presley. Anyone who knew Please or had a connection to her is welcome to attend. For more information email [email protected]. A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help cover funeral costs for Please’s family in Chicago.