LOS ANGELES — One of porn’s top newcomers speaks fluent Mandarin and just got her driver’s license. She also looks up to Asa Akira, the 2012 XBIZ Female Performer of the Year, who helped her land on agent Mark Spiegler’s high-profile roster of talent in November.
In her first two months as a Spiegler Girl, the 19-year-old Alina Li already has Porn Valley talking with her exotic look, energetic scenes and go-for-it attitude. Spiegler says she’s booked through February and producers are already inquiring about March.
Li considers Akira her porn role model.
“I knew about her like two years ago when I first started watching porn,” said Li, a native of Shanghai, China, who moved to Vermont when she was 15. “That’s how my ex started telling me to do porn. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so hot. She fucks so good. I want to be like her in bed.’ And then when I used to watch porn, I wouldn’t watch anyone else’s but hers.”
Fast forward to late October in Miami, when Li performed in a sex scene for Bang Bros with veteran stud Derrick Pierce, who re-tweeted a photo they took that day. The picture caught Akira’s attention, and Li said the superstar performer reached out to her shortly after and encouraged her to contact Spiegler, who also reps Akira.
Spiegler said, “She sent me an email and I sent it to Asa and said, ‘What do you think?’ And Asa said, ‘Oh yeah I know about that girl. Derrick Pierce took some picture with her and I talked to her. You should meet her.’ So I wrote her back but there was something weird with [Alina’s] email.”
Li never replied to Spiegler’s email.
“And then Asa asked me what happened, and I said, ‘I don’t know, I never heard back from the girl.’ So Asa told her to call me,” Spiegler said.
The two met in LA on Saturday, Nov. 2, and two days later Li moved her bags into Spiegler’s apartment as the newest member of the agency.
“Everybody keeps saying she’s ‘the Asian Riley Reid,’” Spiegler said, referring to the 2013 XBIZ Best New Starlet, who is also a Spiegler Girl.
Li said the comparison is slightly awkward for her.
“I don’t like to be compared because I’m really independent and really self sufficient,” Li said. “I like to be like the only one, I don’t like to be the same as everyone. I feel like Riley Reid is feeling the same way, too. And then when people say ‘Asian Riley Reid,’ I feel like both of us get a little uncomfortable.”
Spiegler added, “Well before that people were saying she’s ‘the new Asa Akira’ and she was like, ‘No, there’s only one Asa Akira.’”
But Li realizes that any comparison to such established stars is intended as a compliment. “It is,” she allowed. “I kind of feel a little good about it.”
While Li only moved to Los Angeles in November, she started doing porn in August, when she began making one- and two-week trips to Miami to shoot for Bang Bros, Mofos and SCORE Group, gaining experience in about 30 internet scenes during a two-month span.
“Over the summer [in 2013] I lived in New York City and I was really bored one day and an ad popped up on my screen and it says if you work for a couple days you can make like $3000 or whatever. And I click on it and something else popped up and it asked for my information,” Li recalled.
She decided to try it and at first was being booked through an unlicensed agent that she said was taking “40 percent” of her rate. “So I really wanted to change agents,” Li said.
Li said doing porn at first was “really weird.”
“I was like, I don’t think this is going to last too long. Is this really what I want to do? If I want to change my mind, I can,” Li told XBIZ. “But I met so many amazing people. And they’re just really nice to me. They treat me like...
“We just feel like a big family. Like the male talent, I feel like they’re looking after me. Like brothers and sisters. It’s kind of weird to say it that way, but that’s what I feel like. So yeah, I’m going to stay for a while. I really like the industry.”
Li said now she’s “not camera shy.”
“I love taking pictures,” she said. “The sex part, it’s a little different because you have to do it and then you stop, and then you do it, and then you stop. I think it’d be easier if we went all the way and then take the pictures, instead of pictures first, because I kind of feel bad for the guy because he has to do all the work.”
The starlet said she likes to be manhandled. “I go with the flow. And I like dirty stuff,” Li said. “I like it rough. I like getting picked up and thrown around, and I’m really flexible so it works out. I don’t like to be vanilla, like just laying in one position and not move. I like to be moving a lot and I’m really energetic. My sex style is the same thing.”
And at 5-foot-7, Li joked, “I feel like I might be the tallest Asian girl in the industry.”
An only child whose mother is a college professor, Li said she worked at a Hollister clothing store at a mall in Burlington, Vermont, and took some college courses before porn.
She didn’t have a car in Shanghai, relying solely on public transportation and walking.
One of the big differences between Shanghai and LA is the population, she said.
“In Shanghai there are always people everywhere. You look out in the parking lot, there would be like 50 people just like walking around,” Li said. “That’s why they have a lot of tall buildings. Like the taller the building the more people can fit in there. A lot of buildings, a lot of people and a lot of noise.”
These days when she is not performing, she’s usually working out.
“I go do boxing, I like working out. I like to be fit. I like to be skinny. So I go to the gym a lot,” Li said. “Whenever I’m not shooting, I’m just at the gym—gym, gym, gym or pole dancing. I’m learning dancing right now. I think it’ll be good use for the future, so I can do feature dancing.”
And Li still rides the bus everywhere.
“I didn’t even know how to drive before and I just got my license, so I’m so happy,” she said.
Li said she plans to get her first car after the industry show season.
Spiegler joked, “I always suggest to new drivers to get just a junky $3,000 car because you’re going to hit stuff with it in the beginning.”
Several of Li’s movies have yet to hit the streets, however a few early titles featuring her include “Asian Fuck Faces” (Jonni Darkko/Evil Angel), “Big Mouthfuls 24” (Bang) and “Innocence of Youth 7” (Digital Sin). She can also be seen in upcoming titles such as “Exchange Students” (Smash Pictures) and “Brand New Girls” (Kevin Moore/Evil Angel).
Photo by Jeff Koga.
