Chloe Cherry doesn’t do regret. In fact, the Euphoria actress and OnlyFans darling rejects the idea of spending any time thinking about alternate ways things could have played out. “It’s a genuinely pointless emotion for a human to feel,” she tells Rolling Stone.
It is a self-assured statement, but it is this same confident energy that helped Cherry explode into Hollywood in 2022, following her career-making portrayal of the spacey, down-on-her-luck drug addict Faye in Sam Levinson’s gritty teen drama Euphoria. While audiences know Cherry’s character, she is certain they don’t truly know her. Now, for the first time, the former adult-film star, actress, and model is inviting the public into the behind-the-scenes history of her actual life with a new memoir.
A Journey of Self-Discovery
“Going about my life that first year in Los Angeles, I just kept thinking, ‘This has been such a crazy experience,’” Cherry says. “I need so badly to live to tell this tale.”
Out Feb. 23, 2027, from Simon & Schuster, Cherry’s memoir Somewhere Dark and Hot does not just break down her rapid ascent in Hollywood. Instead, Cherry says the book will chart her journey from an 18-year-old runway to a newcomer in the adult film industry, eventually becoming a fan-favorite Euphoria cast member. The book includes candid memories from her time living in model homes, the porn sets where she worked, and her struggles with mental health, eating disorders, and drug abuse.
“Where I grew up in Pennsylvania, it’s a very small town. People are very religious and have very traditional ways of living and they see a place like L.A. as evil,” she explains. “My whole childhood, I spent my time wishing I was somewhere warmer and with more excitement, more action.”
Reframing the Narrative
The actress notes that she has been inspired throughout the years by authors like David Sedaris, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Hunter S. Thompson. She was particularly drawn to the memoir format because it provided a chance to revisit the difficult aspects of her life from a new, healing perspective. “It’s been extremely therapeutic for me to use my own experiences, even if they were negative, to entertain people. I get to take these bad experiences and turn them into something that I can gain,” she says. “What I’ve always wanted to be able to do is show my own personal life perspective, instead of just having the world project things on to me based on what I do for a living.”
Even in a cultural era where sex work has become more legitimized, Cherry remains frustrated that sex workers are often boxed into hurtful, reductive, or misogynistic stereotypes. “I don’t understand why, whenever any character or real-life human is a sex worker, that suddenly becomes just all they are to people,” Cherry says. “Nobody can see anything past that.”
The book takes its title from the assumptions Cherry had about Los Angeles growing up—somewhere that is “hot and dark” spiritually as well as physically. Ultimately, she hopes the book serves as a testament to resilience. “The book is asking how far are you willing to go to get what you want,” she says. “How far are you willing to go to start over?”