'Portrait of a Call Girl,' Jessie Andrews Win Big at 2012 XBIZ Awards
LOS ANGELES — Director Graham Travis told XBIZ he came up with the idea for “Portrait of a Call Girl” several years before it got made.
“The original concept was actually in 2004, but it really wasn’t until Jessie came along that I really felt like I found someone who could make the movie everything that I wanted it to be,” Travis said Tuesday night, moments after the movie captured the 2012 XBIZ Award for Feature Movie of the Year to cap off a record six trophies for the gritty drama.
Travis was referring to the 19-year-old star of the film, Jessie Andrews, who made some history of her own, becoming the first girl in XBIZ Awards history to win both New Starlet of the Year and Acting Performance of the Year on the same evening in front of a sold-out crowd at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.
Andrews landed by far the most challenging role of her young career with “Portrait,” an original story about a troubled young woman who searches for meaning through a series of remarkable sexual experiences. The former American Apparel sales associate from Miami, Fla., appeared in every scene in the movie and she delivered.
