Page 59 - AVN MAY 2024

“I will always continue working with them and striving to do bigger and better things in the future.”
“It’s crazy looking back at those photos from my first couple years just because it feels like such a lifetime ago,” she says. “I came in and I had a very different look, first of all.
“I don’t think anything changed internally about what my goals were and what I wanted but definitely I went through a lot of stages.”
Vanna tells AVN one of the most critical decisions of her career came when she decided to change agencies and join ATMLA, which was acquired by industry veteran Mark Schechter in 2012.
“I wasn’t getting the work I wanted but things really changed when I moved to ATMLA,” Bardot says. “I was completely booked for like two months. It changed everything. I don’t know where I’d be honestly if I didn’t go with them at that moment.
“I think even if I waited a few months then COVID would’ve happened and it would’ve been much more difficult to get out of my contract.
“Mark really listened to what I wanted and helped me get there.”
Schechter, a former casino executive who used to be part owner of the Blazing Bucks affiliate program, tells AVN seeing Bardot receive the level of recognition she did on January 27 was a moment he will never forget.
“I still get choked up with tears of joy every time I get the opportunity to share the clip of Vanna’s acceptance speech for winning AVN Female Performer of the Year!” Schechter says. “Watching her receive the highest award for a performer with such grace, honor and pride
was the pinnacle moment for my career so far as an agent in this industry.”
Schechter continues, “Vanna has been with ATMLA for four-plus years, executing a textbook example of what it takes to be a successful performer, and to achieve industry-wide, peer recognition of excellence. Driven from the very beginning, with her own vision and roadmap,
Vanna made it very easy for my staff and I to guide her along the way.
“All of us at ATMLA are very happy for Vanna and excited to see what she has planned for
this next leg of a star-studded career ahead of her.”
Bardot did so many things she’s never done to prepare for Influence, which began principal
photography in June 2023. She worked out with a personal trainer, lifting weights three times a week at 7 a.m., taking 15,000 steps a day and following a strict diet to get her body and mind ready for the role.
Her boyfriend of four-plus years, A-list stud Codey Steele, saw her dedication up close.
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