Page 88 - AVN July 2025

“Cherry is a force of nature. … She’s just built
differently, let’s put it that way.”
—Mike Quasar, director
“Cherry was always a favorite of mine as a performer,” Stagliano tells AVN. “And her filmmaking
was special. She understands the unexpected.”
Kiss walks and talks with the confidence of someone who knows her worth. The former club
manager and makeup artist—who’s been working since she was 14 years old to help her family
survive—did more than pay her dues for more than a decade on the European circuit. She
also stepped up to defend her career choice—and the adult industry as a whole—in numerous
national TV appearances in her home country during her early years in the business.
On this 80-degree Monday evening in May, Cherry is turning heads at a busy sushi restaurant
in Northridge, Calif., sipping green tea in her beige tank top, khaki shorts and brown Nike high-
top boots.
When the topic turns to her world-class work ethic, the busiest woman in Porn Valley tells me
one of her core principles—that her grandmother helped instill—is “to never give up.”
“Mindset is everything,” Kiss says. “To have that strong mind. Because this is the entertainment
business, a very, very tough business to keep going.
“That’s why there’s so many short careers and you need to be a true lover as well. What I
always say is true lover means that you need to enjoy what you’re doing.
“It’s not like doing something for money, but to have a touch that you are like, I love this, I’m
happy.”
Cherry continues, “As soon as you are there just for money, you start to stress, you start to
have tension, you are not doing it good. … You need to really like it and you need to appreciate
the place you are.”
That attitude of gratitude serves her well on the set, where she continues to do it all with
passion, earning the respect of her colleagues and collaborators.
“Cherry is a force of nature,” says AVN Hall of Fame director Mike Quasar. “She operates
under some form of propulsion that’s heretofore unknown to man. She’s just built differently,
let’s put it that way. It could be her Serbian upbringing, but there are very few performers that
operate at that level all the time.
“Plus, just in general as a human being I love her to pieces. We’re very good friends. She’s
intense with everything she does.”
The 30-plus-year veteran Quasar not only has hired Kiss for dozens of scenes for various Mile
High Media brands, he now sometimes runs lead camera for her when she directs.
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