Bell of the Ball: Lilly Bell Enjoys Breakout Year in Adult

LOS ANGELES—When Lilly Bell discovered her longtime boyfriend was cheating on her back in the summer of 2019, the Portland native didn’t mope or throw herself a pity party. If anything, she considered it a blessing. “I took it as a sign,” Bell says. “I felt like God was handing me a new career on a silver platter.” Bell had already dabbled in camming and had done a few girl-girl content shoots before the split. Now freed from the restraints of her monogamous relationship, she phoned her agent at OC Modeling and said she was ready to delve into studio porn. Boy-girl, threesomes, gonzo, features … the works. “I’d been trying to live a normal life, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t for me,” Bell says. “I love being in front of an audience. I love entertaining and igniting a crowd. I get this feeling, this rush of adrenaline. I love knowing that everyone around me is watching.” Clearly, Bell is a master at holding people’s attention. In just three short years, the petite blue-eyed blonde has established herself as one of the top talents in all of porn. Bell turned heads by appearing in an eye-popping 92 scenes in 2021. But the buzz about her crescendoed in 2022, when Bell proved to be as gifted as an actress as she was a sexual performer, winning prominent roles in features by Lust Cinema, Wicked, Dorcel, Digital Playground and Adult Time. Bell’s hard work paid off on Nov. 4. As she was preparing for a date night with her boyfriend, director Ricky Greenwood, Bell received word that she’s been nominated in seven categories for the 40th annual AVN Awards. And these aren’t just any nominations. Bell is a finalist in some of the event’s most prestigious fields, including Best Boy-Girl scene, Best Oral Sex scene, Best Three-way scene and—the most rewarding of all—Female Performer of the Year. The AVN nominations were the first of Bell’s career. “I started to cry when I got the news,” Bell tells AVN, “Seeing my name next to those other incredible performers … it almost doesn’t seem real.” While Bell was taken aback by the recognition, her industry colleagues were hardly surprised. Director Jacky St. James says Bell is “a Godsend to the industry.” Co-star Laney Grey is awed by Bell’s determination and work ethic, calling her “mature beyond her years.” Male talent Nathan Bronson says he does a little fist pump whenever he sees Bell’s name on a call sheet. “With Lilly, I know it’s going to be a great day, a great scene,” Bronson says. “Lilly makes you feel like you’re the only one in the room. The eye contact, the touching, the whispering and kissing. She brings (the scene) to the point where we forget the camera is there, and we can hyper-focus on what’s gong on between us sexually.  Very few girls have that ability.” There was a time—not too long ago—when Bell questioned whether she’d ever have the chance to display it. *** They leaned against the iron fence on the Las Vegas strip, marveling at the Bellagio’s infamous fountain show as they pondered their futures. Lilly Bell and Laney Grey felt invigorated that night in 2019. They could sense they were on the cusp of something special—even if they weren’t sure what it was. Hours earlier the duo had completed the first shoot of their careers, a girl-girl scene for CamSoda, and everything just felt … right. Bell and Gray had already experienced adult industry success as solo cam stars but, now more than ever, an opportunity to thrive in studio porn was what they truly desired. As the fountains erupted before them, they talked about the thrill of potentially working for Vixen or Blacked, and about that the fun and camaraderie that would ensue if they were on the same set. They fantasized about becoming famous and seeing their likeness on box covers and in memes. But then Gray brought up a sobering reality: both of them had civilian boyfriends. Their dreams, Grey moped, would probably never come to fruition. Bell didn’t want to hear it. “Don’t think that way!” said Bell, who was 23 at the time. “We have no idea where life is going to take us.” Maybe not specifically, but from a young age, Bell’s sights had been set on a career in the spotlight. When she was in the sixth grade, Bell enrolled in a magnet school in Portland that specialized in arts and communication. It was there that she took an interest in musical theater and dance. Tap, jazz, lyrical, ballet, hip-hop … for three years, Bell practiced and flourished in all disciplines and styles. “It was intense,” Bell says, “but I developed a passion for dance.” And perhaps even more so, a passion for performing. The only problem with the magnet school was that it prevented Bell from enjoying the perks of being a teenager. Her social life was limited, and extracurricular activities on her campus were scarce. After the ninth grade, she gave up dance and transferred to a “normal” school. “I wanted to have a football team to cheer for,” Bell says. “I wanted to go to dances and have more friends to do things with on weekends. I wanted to be a typical high school student.”She laughs. “I kind of spoiled my mom’s dream for me,” Bell says “She envisioned me moving to New York and living in a ratchet apartment with seven girls and fighting for a role on Broadway. I was like, ‘I think that’s what you wanted for your life, Mom. I’m not doing that.’” That’s not to say Bell wanted to avoid the limelight. Although several years had passed, the “bug” for performing that she’d caught in her early teens still loomed large as she navigated through life after high school. By her early 20s, Bell was succeeding as a cam performer—a gig she initially started to help pay off debts from a series of auto accidents. But it wasn’t long before she realized it was something she truly enjoyed. To enhance her craft, Bell often lurked in rooms of other successful cam artists to study what made them successful. That’s how she met Gray. “She only came in for five minutes and left me a tip,” Grey says. “I was like, ‘Wow, no cam girl has ever done that for me.’ If you go into another cam girl’s room for too long and don’t say anything, they’ll block you. It’s a weird headspace. It was like a community to Lilly. It wasn’t competition. I loved that.” Bell had also developed an infatuation with strippers. Accompanied by her boyfriend, she began frequenting Portland gentlemen’s clubs such as the Golden Dragon when she was 18. The outings were as educational as they were entertaining, as Bell began studying the dancer’s moves, their choice of music, their stage presence and the way they’d seduce customers. “There was something beautiful and powerful and feminine about it that I thought was really cool,” Bell says. "Watching a woman dance is divine femininity. I wanted to be looked at in that way. “I was in a relationship, but I remember thinking, ‘For one night, I just want to be a stripper. I want to know what it feels like.’” Bell finally got that opportunity after she broke up with her unfaithful boyfriend in the summer of 2019. She signed with OC Modeling and began started taking sporadic trips to LA for porn shoots—but the majority of her time was spent dancing at Club Rouge in Portland, where she started on the dayshift before eventually being promoted. “I loved the feeling of walking out on the stage at the very beginning, when everyone looks up and stares,” Bell says. “It’s so powerful. You get so excited that you want to move fast. You have to remember that you look dorky on stage if you move fast. You have to go slow and be sexy with your movement. If you think you’re moving slow, move slower. You have to connect with and seduce your audience. It’s not always about twerking and poll tricks.” It didn’t take long for Bell to find her comfort level on stage as she danced throughout the remainder of 2019 and into the next year. But when COVID struck in March of 2020, Bell’s club was shut down. But when one door closed, another opened. Two months later—during the peak of COVID—Bell packed her bags and moved to Los Angeles. She only had about 10 studio scenes on her resume, but she was determined that pursuing porn full-time would not only be the change she needed in her career, but also her life. “Everything that’s happened in my life … it just happens,” Bell says. “I never had to search for it. It falls right into my lap, and I just get this feeling that it’s meant to be.” *** Midway through her interview at Pascal Patisserie & Cafe, trendy breakfast and lunch spot in Woodland Hills, Lilly Bell leans forward and reveals a secret. “I changed my outfit seven times this morning,” she says. “I never can decide what to wear.” Bell’s designer black sunglasses match her collared shirt, which cuts off just above the waist. Pink earrings dangle past her jaw and a gold pendant hangs from a chain around her neck. Sexy, cute, classy … today, Bell is all three. “I have this sick obsession with fashion,” she laughs. “I’m like Cher from ‘Clueless.’” Bell is certainly comparable to Alicia Silverstone’s iconic 90s movie character in terms of beauty. But unlike ‘Cher,’ Bell is far from a floozy. During a 90-minute conversation, she often sounds more like an astute businesswoman than an adult film star. Her vocabulary is vast as she articulates her thoughts seamlessly, without a single stutter. There’s a notable confidence and alpha tone in Bell’s voice, whether she’s speaking about testing procedures, agents, restaurants jobs, music, cunnilingus or quiche. “She has this aura about her,” Grey says. “She doesn’t let anybody step on her or take advantage of her. I wish I could be like her, in that sense. She’s so well-spoken and determined. She’s mature beyond her years.” Bell says her demeanor stands out because she’d already endured life experiences before entering the adult industry at the “old” age of 23. “A lot of girls you meet, they didn’t have a normal life before porn,” Bell says. “They didn’t stick it to the man and work normally, or they got in right when they were 18. They didn’t have any real life experience to harden them. I had restaurants jobs. I was a stripper. I worked for a promotion company. That’s a factor helps me, I think.” While the stoic, professional side of Bell commands respect, she displays an every-day-girl vibe on social media that’s equally relatable and endearing. The person that sips on fine wine at upscale Hollywood sushi restaurants also loves ice-cold bottles of Coors Lite. A getaway to an exotic resort in Mexico one month could be followed by a honky-bar crawl in Nashville the next. One of Bell’s biggest passions is her golden retriever, Mac, who sleeps by her side and gets spoiled daily with treats and walks to the park. Bell’s well-roundedness has served her well in the adult industry. “Even if she’s having a bad day, she brings her A-game to set, and that’s because she’s a professional,” Bronson says. “She’s very sharp, very knowledgable. One might even says she’s too smart for the job—but she loves having sex. “People treat her with respect. She’ll punch someone in the face if she has to. There are some girls that you have to worry about getting taken advantage of on set. She isn’t one of them.” Just as she has off camera, Bell has proven to be versatile once the lights are on, excelling in multiple genres of porn. Heck, the second scene of her career was for Kink and involved fucking machines. “We were in a warehouse with no air-conditioning,” Bell says. “It was awful. And I loved it.” Almost every top female performer has a style or niche. Bell’s slow-and-seductive approach to sex resembles that of A-list talent such as Avery Cristy and Anna-Claire Clouds. Heavy foreplay, dirty talk, teasing, eye contact. Bronson listed Bell as one of the top-three female talents in the industry. “There’s a reason she’s getting so much work,” Bronson says. “She can totally take you out of your own brain and puts you into a place where it’s, ‘We are just fucking, and I’m going to enjoy the sensation, instead of worrying about the director’s telling me to get my head out of the shot.” Bell’s style works well in boy-girl scenes and threesomes. But it’s especially effective in girl-girl scenes, a genre where Bell truly excels. Some of her best work in 2022 can be found in scenes for Slayed with Charlotte Stokely and SlimThick Vic. And one of her AVN nominations was for a sizzling all-girl group scene involving herself, April Olsen, Mina Luxxx and Vicki Chase. The praise she’s received for her content with women is gratifying to Bell, who was inexperienced with females before porn and has yet to have off-camera sex with someone of the same sex. “It’s sad and pathetic in my eyes, because I would love that,” Bell laughs. “I was always really into girls. I’d get jealous when my girlfriends in junior high and high school would go hang out with their boyfriends after we’d been hanging out all night. I was like, ‘Why are they leaving me to go hang out with their boyfriends?’ I didn’t realize at the time, but I had a crush on therm. “I’m still learning how to pleasure a woman. It’s one of the best parts of my job.” More than anything, though, Bell’s acting prowess is what generated the most buzz in 2022, when she became one of the most in-demand performers in the business for dialogue-driven roles. A psycho killer, a skater chick, and adulteress, an entitled heiress. Bell morphed into all sorts of different characters in the past year. Her most notable role was in Lust Cinema’s “Sorrow Bay,” when she played the lone straight girl in a group of lesbians. One of the more memorable scenes of the movie involved the death of Bell’s best friend, played by Kira Noir. “I cried on command!” Bell says. Director Jacky St. James, who has worked with Bell countless times, says Bell has a natural ability that few industry talents possess. “She’s a very wise, old soul,” St. James says. “We’ve had some very deep conversations. She’s someone who definitely thinks a lot about the world, and life. People with a great deal of intelligence … it’s always a lot easier for them to understand the complexities of the characters and the subtext of a script, and that’s a huge reason why she excels.” St. James pauses. "The most successful people,” she says, “are always the business-minded ones, the people who recognize that it’s a business of many moving parts, and not just the actors, but the crew and even the people doing set decoration of post production. You see that with her. Some people are always on their phones or in their own world on set. But she’s always making connections with everyone, including the crew. She’s in the moment. She’s there. She’s not a million miles away. “I think she loves the industry. And she’s good for it. She has the right personality-type to thrive.” As much as Bell loves the acting side of the business, she says she does’t want to get pigeon-holed to a point where she’s only doing features. Bell says she loves gonzo and kink just as much. A blowbang, she says, is in her future. And maybe anal, too. “I love intense scenes,” she says. “I love pushing my body to see what it’s capable of.” Whatever happens, Bell is going to take her time. She’s in this for the long haul, joking that she’ll eventually transition into the stage where she gets breast augmentations and becomes a MILF. After that, maybe she’ll become a director like Casey Calvert, a makeup artist like former star Brett Rossi, or a set designer like Kylie Ireland. Bell has developed a great appreciation for the business and she gets defensive whenever she hears criticism of her chosen profession. Bell recalled watching former star Sasha Grey on the Tyra Banks show years ago. “Tyra was talking about how innocent and young (Grey) looked,” Bell says, “and she was making it seems like porn was messing up her life. Sasha was like, ‘What might make one woman feel empowered might make another woman not feel empowered. Just because I feel empowered by porn doesn’t give you the right to judge me.’ Being young and hearing that really resonated with me. I liked her outlook on sex work.” Bell says she will carry that mind set with her moving forward. When she entered the industry, Bell said she was “thinking huge. I had big visions of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to become.” As much progress as she’s made—even after all of her AVN nominations, leading roles and growing fan base—Bell says she’s not content. Not even close. “I’m really greedy,” she says. “I want more. It’s not enough. I feel that I can do more. I know that I can do more. I look at my accolades and say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah … I have this, but I’m not satisfied.’ I guess that’s good, because it’s a drive. But I think, ‘OK, if I get all of those other things I want, will I be satisfied? Or will I still be wanting more?’ I guess we’ll see.” Bell’s biggest goal of all, though, doesn’t involve awards or money or fame. It’s more about how she’ll be remembered, about the legacy she will leave. “I want women to be able to look back on the imprint I made and think, ‘She helped me with my career and made it better,’” Bell says. “I want to help people. I want to set a good example. I want to look back on my career and think, ‘I was someone people could look up to.’” Photography by @junofiles