How This College Student Became a Successful Porn Star Overnight
“I had always wondered if I had a weird vagina.”
By Cheryl Wischhover
Last year 23-year-old Carter Cruise was taking college courses and partying with her sorority sisters. This year she’s been nominated for nine AVN awards, the porn industry’s equivalent of the Oscars. Cruise told Cosmopolitan.com how she made the jump to porn, how she handles being a pubic hair trendsetter, and how her relationship with Belle Knox, that other college porn star who hit the scene about the same time she did, has evolved.
I’ve always known since I was really young that I wanted to be in the entertainment industry. I would have never gone to college in the first place if it weren’t for the guy I was dating at the time. I didn’t want to go to college. I wanted to move to New York or LA and figure out my life, but I didn’t want to leave him. I’m not sad I made the decision because I think it worked out for the better. You can’t help how you feel.
I had this kind of realization that I’d been living my life for everyone else and it was making me so incredibly unhappy. So I took a semester off school to focus on myself. I sat down and I made a list of the experiences I wanted to have in life. I want to experience everything, even bad things. Then I made a list of what I am good at.
Natalia Starr With Carter Cruise on We Live Together
My whole life I’ve been fascinated with branding and I came up with this idea to create this brand of “Carter Cruise” where I could do everything I wanted to do. I wanted to write, I wanted to act, I wanted to make music, I wanted to do fashion. I was like, “How can I do all of these things in one lifetime?” Porn was the first step because it gave me the capital and the connections to not only build my brand but also to lay the foundations for other creative things that I wanted to get involved in.
I had an experience with a photographer who was in the adult industry, which was a big thing for me.I really felt connected with what he was saying. When he was telling me about the type of people who were in the industry, those people sounded like me. That was a big breakthrough to have that conversation. I took topless photos with him for the first time ever in my life. I’ve always been very modest and very insecure about my body. I took those photos and I was so scared and nervous and felt insecure, like I looked fat. But then I saw the photos and I felt amazing. Being sexy on camera, I felt very connected. Once I didn’t have that fear anymore I just decided to dive in the whole way.
My parents are awesome [about what I do]. They’re two of the most incredible people I’ve ever known. Growing up they were very conservative, Christian typical Southern parents. But they’re both intelligent people and as times have changed they’ve really adapted. They haven’t kept their old-school beliefs. My dad’s the biggest feminist and he raised me to know that you don’t need a man. Since I was little, he’d have me meeting with women CEOs or writers or architects or entrepreneurs. I talked to him the other day and I was like, “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t what you imagined for me but I appreciate how supportive you’re being.” He was said, “The problem with raising an independent, empowered woman is that she might actually become independent and empowered!”
When I shot my first scene, I was so nervous.The girl that I was paired with had been in the industry for about five years and it was actually her last week. She was about to retire. She was so sweet to me and she would just hold my hand and say, “I’m going to take care of you and I’ll help you through.” She was very supportive. We went in and I felt like, “I know how to have sex, I’m good in bed!” but then I saw this girl having sex and I thought, “Holy shit, I cannot fuck like that.”
Fifteen minutes in I thought, “This is a huge mistake,” and I was almost about to cry. I was just thinking about how I made this epic mistake and it was so embarrassing. But I thought, “Well they’re paying me to be here and all these people are depending on me, you have to go in and finish the scene and you can fly home tomorrow.” So I just dove in like I do with everything and let go and stopped caring, and the rest of the night was a whirlwind of amazingness and I had such a great time. It was my first scene, but they definitely appreciated my energy and enthusiasm, and that’s kind of the first step.
Also, I had always wondered if I had a weird vagina. And the director in the middle of the scene came and pulled me out and said, “We have to take pictures of your pussy, it’s beautiful.” [laughs] That was a really cool thing because I think that’s a thing a lot of girls are insecure about. [Ed. note: Carter is known in porn as one of the girls who doesn’t wax all her pubic hair off.] I don’t think that I started the trend, although I would love to say that I did! I did see a couple girls that have hair, and I do think that I did help bring it back a little bit. I know a lot of new girls started having it because of me. I did have a director make me trim it one day on set, and the makeup artist cut it so short. She took a big chunk out of it, and I almost started crying on set because I was so proud of how big it was.
Guys don’t understand it. I don’t want to lie about my job. I went on Tinder a little while ago because everyone would always talk about it and I wanted to go look. I met this one really cute, nice guy. He’s the only person I’ve ever actually met up with from Tinder. I ended up hooking him up with my friend. He was so cute and so nice and just a really good kid and I was like, “Obviously we’re not going to work out but you’re awesome so let me introduce you to my hot friend.”
Speaking of friends, Belle Knox [the”Duke porn star”] and I are actually friends. When she was first outed, a lot of girls were jealous of the overnight fame she got. I have to admit, I wasn’t that stoked either. I came in being the “college girl” and suddenly found that title given to someone else. But my dad actually encouraged me to reach out to her because I was one of the few people who could really understand what she was going through. I realized I was being selfish and immature, and needed to put aside my own competitive spirit. I respect Belle for the way she has dealt with the negative media attention. I can’t even imagine going through some of the things she’s experienced, especially the way people went after her family. I was disgusted and appalled by the way civilized society tormented an 18-year-old woman for being sexual. The whole affair really demonstrated how important it is that we improve sexual education and tackle stigmas, as well as foster compassion and empathy between people.
The next thing I plan on getting into is the music industry. I have a couple different songs I’ve been working on all summer. Those should be coming out in early 2015. I can’t really say too much yet because my manager will kill me! I will still have a lot of stuff going on with porn so I definitely want to stay focused on that. Writing is also a big thing for me. I’ve written for a couple of different things, some sex blogs. There are a lot of things I want to do.
Perfect Girl Jenna Ross Carter Cruise In Erotica
I’m not worried about porn affecting my future, because I was 100 percent aware of the stigma of porn when I made the decision to do it. What I’m doing is risky and I totally understand that and I understood the risk when I came up with this concept in my head. But then I thought, everything to me is risk and reward. The risk is that people would look at me differently because I do porn. It’s always going to be that way. But the reward is that I will be able to get places so much more quickly. I accept the social stigma for the money, connections, time, everything. A year ago I was sitting in class wondering what the hell I was going to do with my life and last night I got nine AVN nominations. You’re in this whirlwind of experiences. I could write a book on the past year alone. I plan to do that actually.
Jenna Ross Belle Knox Have Lesbian Sex Lick Lips
When I shot my first scene, I was so nervous.The girl that I was paired with had been in the industry for about five years and it was actually her last week. She was about to retire. She was so sweet to me and she would just hold my hand and say, “I’m going to take care of you and I’ll help you through.” She was very supportive. We went in and I felt like, “I know how to have sex, I’m good in bed!” but then I saw this girl having sex and I thought, “Holy shit, I cannot fuck like that.”
Fifteen minutes in I thought, “This is a huge mistake,” and I was almost about to cry. I was just thinking about how I made this epic mistake and it was so embarrassing. But I thought, “Well they’re paying me to be here and all these people are depending on me, you have to go in and finish the scene and you can fly home tomorrow.” So I just dove in like I do with everything and let go and stopped caring, and the rest of the night was a whirlwind of amazingness and I had such a great time. It was my first scene, but they definitely appreciated my energy and enthusiasm, and that’s kind of the first step.
Also, I had always wondered if I had a weird vagina. And the director in the middle of the scene came and pulled me out and said, “We have to take pictures of your pussy, it’s beautiful.” [laughs] That was a really cool thing because I think that’s a thing a lot of girls are insecure about. [Ed. note: Carter is known in porn as one of the girls who doesn’t wax all her pubic hair off.] I don’t think that I started the trend, although I would love to say that I did! I did see a couple girls that have hair, and I do think that I did help bring it back a little bit. I know a lot of new girls started having it because of me. I did have a director make me trim it one day on set, and the makeup artist cut it so short. She took a big chunk out of it, and I almost started crying on set because I was so proud of how big it was.
Guys don’t understand it. I don’t want to lie about my job. I went on Tinder a little while ago because everyone would always talk about it and I wanted to go look. I met this one really cute, nice guy. He’s the only person I’ve ever actually met up with from Tinder. I ended up hooking him up with my friend. He was so cute and so nice and just a really good kid and I was like, “Obviously we’re not going to work out but you’re awesome so let me introduce you to my hot friend.”
Speaking of friends, Belle Knox [the”Duke porn star”] and I are actually friends. When she was first outed, a lot of girls were jealous of the overnight fame she got. I have to admit, I wasn’t that stoked either. I came in being the “college girl” and suddenly found that title given to someone else. But my dad actually encouraged me to reach out to her because I was one of the few people who could really understand what she was going through. I realized I was being selfish and immature, and needed to put aside my own competitive spirit. I respect Belle for the way she has dealt with the negative media attention. I can’t even imagine going through some of the things she’s experienced, especially the way people went after her family. I was disgusted and appalled by the way civilized society tormented an 18-year-old woman for being sexual. The whole affair really demonstrated how important it is that we improve sexual education and tackle stigmas, as well as foster compassion and empathy between people.
The next thing I plan on getting into is the music industry. I have a couple different songs I’ve been working on all summer. Those should be coming out in early 2015. I can’t really say too much yet because my manager will kill me! I will still have a lot of stuff going on with porn so I definitely want to stay focused on that. Writing is also a big thing for me. I’ve written for a couple of different things, some sex blogs. There are a lot of things I want to do.
Perfect Girl Jenna Ross Carter Cruise In Erotica
I’m not worried about porn affecting my future, because I was 100 percent aware of the stigma of porn when I made the decision to do it. What I’m doing is risky and I totally understand that and I understood the risk when I came up with this concept in my head. But then I thought, everything to me is risk and reward. The risk is that people would look at me differently because I do porn. It’s always going to be that way. But the reward is that I will be able to get places so much more quickly. I accept the social stigma for the money, connections, time, everything. A year ago I was sitting in class wondering what the hell I was going to do with my life and last night I got nine AVN nominations. You’re in this whirlwind of experiences. I could write a book on the past year alone. I plan to do that actually.
Jenna Ross Belle Knox Have Lesbian Sex Lick Lips
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